Earl D. Johnson

Born in Hamilton, Ohio in 1905, Earl Dallam Johnson received his BA from the University of Wisconsin in 1928. After a successful career in the U.S. Army Air Corps before and during World War II, where he reached the rank of Colonel, Mr. Johnson moved on to a number of key positions in the business world and in the U.S. government. Mr. Johnson served as Vice President and Director of Loom-Sayles & Co. in Boston from 1947 to 1950; Assistant Secretary, U.S. Army, from 1950 to 1951; Undersecretary, U.S. Army from 1952 to 1954, and the Chairman of the Panama Canal Company from 1952 to 1954. From 1954 to 1955 Mr. Johnson was President of the Air Transport Association and Air Cargo Inc. in Washington. Mr. Johnson then moved on to General Dynamics from 1955-63, where he served in a number of leading positions including Senior Vice President, Executive Vice President, President and Vice Chairman. Mr. Johnson continued to play key roles in numerous corporations in the following years including Delta Airlines; Damson Oil, and Menasco Manufacturing Co. In addition, Mr. Johnson served as Trustee and Director for a number of medical foundations and hospitals. (Deceased)

Edward R. Murrow

Edward R. Murrow was one of the pioneers in television news and the development of electronic newsgathering. After graduating from Washington State College in 1930, Mr. Murrow began his career in radio and television at CBS in 1935. From 1939 to 1945, Mr. Murrow gained a great deal of notoriety as a war correspondent in the European theater. His CBS career continued until 1961, virtually spanning the infancy of news and public programming on the radio through the ascendancy of television in the 1950s. Mr. Murrow produced the popular radio program Hear It Now, which was later transformed into the television program See It Now, which by 1955 was averaging around three million viewers. He also hosted the show from 1955-58. In addition, Mr. Murrow hosted or produced other ground breaking television programs including Person to Person, Small World, and CBS Reports. For his numerous achievements both in the studio and in the field of battle, Mr. Murrow received many honors, including the Freedom House Award in 1954; the Emmy Award in 1956, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. In 1965, Mr. Murrow was named an Honorable Knight Commander of the British Empire. A true testament to his prominence in the field, Mr. Murrow received fourteen honorary degrees in literature and broadcasting from various colleges and universities, including his Ph.D. in Journalism from Temple University. (Deceased)

Henry R. Luce

Henry R. Luce, co-founder of TIME magazine was described in 1961 by Current Biography as "the giant of twentieth-century American journalism." Born in Tengchow, China in 1898, the son of an American missionary, Mr. Luce first came to the U.S. at the age of fifteen to attend the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut. He quickly took on a leading role with the school's various publications, as well as forging his relationship with Briton Hadden, his future TIME co-founder and friend. Both enrolled as members of the class of 1920 at Yale University, where they quickly took the reigns of the Yale Daily News. Together they entered ROTC where they both rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant. Voted "most brilliant" of his Yale class, Mr. Luce decided to study history at Oxford for a year while his friend became a reporter for The Baltimore News. After a short stint as a cub reporter at the Chicago Daily News, Mr. Luce rejoined Mr. Hadden in Baltimore so they could continue working side by side. Nightly discussions of the concept of a newsmagazine led the two, both age twenty-three, to quit their jobs in 1922. After some remarkable fundraising, the first issue of TIME was issued on March 3, 1923. Mr. Hadden served as Editor and Luce as Business Manager until Mr. Hadden's sudden death in 1929. As President and Editor of TIME, in February 1930, Mr. Luce rolled out his next seminal publication, Fortune. This was followed in 1936 with Life magazine and in 1954 with Sports Illustrated, which boasted an initial print order of 550,000. Mr. Luce served as Editor-in-Chief of all TIME Inc. publications until 1964, when he resigned and became Editorial Chairman of TIME Inc. Mr. Luce supported many organizations, such as the Save the Children Federation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and United Service to China, Inc. He was the recipient of nineteen honorary degrees as well as many awards for his journalistic innovations and business success. (Deceased)

General Douglas MacArthur

Five Star U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur, who was the Supreme Allied Commander of the Southwest Pacific Theater during World War II, found fame as the officer who led America's withdrawal from the Philippines with the quote "I shall return." General MacArthur was born in 1880 in Little Rock, Arkansas. The son of revered Civil War Lt. General Arthur MacArthur, the young MacArthur was educated at West Point, receiving his commission in 1903. In 1905, he was sent to work in Tokyo where his father was America's official observer of Japan's military operations against Russia. In 1917, when America joined World War I, General MacArthur was sent to France where he distinguished himself at the Second Battle of the Marne. By the end of the war, General MacArthur was the youngest divisional commander in the field. From 1930 to 1935, he served as Chief of Staff of the American Army. With the outbreak of hostilities in the Pacific, General MacArthur was put in charge of the Philippines to defend against Japanese invasion. Despite suffering a bitter withdrawal, General MacArthur was in a position to attack the Japanese by 1943, in what became known as his "island-hopping" campaign. Although not entirely successful, the campaign incurred large numbers of U.S. casualties despite dealing incredible destruction to Japanese forces, the General's tenacity did well for the Allied cause. It was after the fighting stopped that General MacArthur's light truly shined through. He oversaw the Japanese surrender proceedings and became the Supreme Leader of the occupation forces in Japan from 1945 to 1951. In this capacity, General MacArthur, largely of his own accord, had rebuilt Japan into a nation friendly to the United States. Japan was given a democratic constitution and numerous internal reforms, most written or designed by the General himself. General MacArthur's most controversial period began when he was ordered to head the United Nations force on the Korean peninsula. Despite his successful amphibious landing at Inchon, the General rejected President Truman's orders not to cross the Yalu River, thus engaging China. After being relieved of all of his commands, General MacArthur returned to the U.S. where he lived out his days, from 1952 to 1964, in Manhattan speaking out on public issues and advising government officials. (Deceased)

Edward T. McCormick, Jr.

Edward Theodore McCormick, Jr. graduated from the University of Arizona in 1931. He became a certified public accountant and continued with his education, obtaining his MS degree from the University of California, and his Ph.D. in Economics from Duke University. From 1934 to 1949, Mr. McCormick served on the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission as a Securities Analyst, Chief Accountant and Assistant Director, and in 1949 was appointed Securities and Exchange Commissioner, a position which he held until 1951. He was then named President of the New York Curb Exchange at the age of forty, the youngest President in Exchange history to that point, presided over its change of name to the American Stock Exchange and left in 1961 in the midst of a furor over administrative lapses. Mr. McCormick then became President of the National Stock Exchange in 1965 until his retirement in 1971. (Deceased)

George W. Romney

George W. Romney was born in 1907 in colonial Dublan, Chihuahua, Mexico. An avid athlete and active member of the Mormon church, Mr. Romney was selected at the age of nineteen by the Mormon church to serve as a missionary in the British Isles. There he was frequently the focus of attention as a vociferous soap-box orator in famous Hyde Park. After attending the University of Utah, Mr. Romney landed a position in Washington in the office of Massachusetts Senator David I. Walsh. Although originally traveling to Washington in pursuit of his future wife, the exposure was crucial to his ascent up the career ladder. For nine years, Mr. Romney worked as a lobbyist for the Aluminum Company of America, where he became troubled by the powers of monopoly in Washington. He then moved on to the Automobile Manufacturers Association where he conducted a research project on automobile use in America. During World War II, Mr. Romney was made Director of the Automotive Council for War Production. After the war, he became the assistant to President George Mason of Nash-Kelvinator, a man who shared with Mr. Romney a belief in the viability of smaller automobiles. In his last hour, Mason oversaw the merger of Nash-Kelvinator and Hudson Motors into a new entity, American Motors. In 1954, after being elected President of American Motors, Mr. Romney immediately set out to make the company more efficient, going to such lengths as cutting out his own $50,000 salary. Despite continued losses from 1955 to 1957, American Motors quickly turned around and became a serious competitor for the 'Big Three.' By 1958, production of the company's Rambler model ran 162 per cent over the same period in 1957 while all other manufacturers were seriously cutting back their own production. By 1959, the rambler was the fifth most popular automobile, holding 6.2 per cent of the market, up from 1.6 a few years earlier. Mr. Romney resigned from American Motors to run for governor of Michigan and defeated incumbent John B. Swainson in 1962, breaking a fourteen year Democratic hold on the state's governorship. During his six years as governor, a new Michigan Constitution took effect, civil rights and tax reform measures were undertaken and the state economy improved. Mr. Romney was also a serious contender for the 1968 Republican Presidential nomination, dropping out only after the race was joined by Nelson Rockefeller and Richard Nixon. From 1969 until 1973, Mr. Romney served as HUD secretary, and in 1974, he became the founding chairman of the Arlington-based National Volunteer Center. (Deceased)

Thomas J. Watson, Jr.

Thomas J. Watson, Jr., son of the founder of IBM, received his BA from Brown University in 1937. Prior to joining his father's company, Mr. Watson served as a bomber pilot in the US Army Air Corps in World War II. When he joined his father's firm after the war, Mr. Watson proved to have the brains, the drive, and the foresight to help IBM create, and then dominate, the computer age. Within a year, he became Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors. Where Thomas Watson Sr. was reluctant to give up punch cards (IBM's stock in trade), Thomas Watson, Jr. saw the potential of electronic circuits, and later of magnetic tape and transistors. But he also knew that IBM's preeminence all along had been based on his father's principle of "systems knowledge," or customer service and technical support. From that foundation he built one of the most phenomenally successful companies in the world and helped launch a technological revolution. In 1956, Mr. Watson became the CEO of IBM and served as Chairman and CEO until stepping down in 1971 after suffering a heart attack. Mr. Watson was chairman and chief executive officer during IBM's most explosive period of growth. He led the company from the age of mechanical tabulators and typewriters into the computer era. During his leadership, IBM grew from a medium-sized business to one of the dozen largest industrial corporations in the world. When Mr. Watson became Chief Executive Officer in 1956, IBM employed 72,500 people and had a gross income of $892 million. When he stepped down in 1971, employees numbered more than 270,000 and gross revenue was $8.3 billion. Fortune magazine once called him "the greatest capitalist who ever lived." After retiring from IBM, Mr. Watson served as Ambassador to Moscow from 1979 to 1981, coming full circle from World War II, when he had ferried Lend-Lease planes to the Red Army in Siberia. He remained on IBM's board until 1985 when he retired at the age of 70, ending more than seventy years of Watson family leadership at IBM. Mr. Watson remained Chairman Emeritus and a member of IBM's advisory board. In 1991, Brown University named its Institute for International Studies in his honor. (Deceased)

Walter Reuther

Born in Wheeling West Virginia in 1907, the son of a German socialist, Mr. Reuther received an early education in socialism and union politics from his father. A visit to the prison where Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs was being held for his resistance to World War I made an indelible impression on the young Reuther, who became a committed Debsian socialist. Bored with his studies, Mr. Reuther dropped out of Wheeling High School at 16 and eventually became an apprentice tool-and-die maker. Fired for trying to organize a union, Mr. Reuther moved to Detroit with his brothers in 1927, drawn by the Ford Motor Company's promise of high wages and a shorter work week. Working nights, Mr. Reuther earned his high school diploma at the age of 22 and took classes at Detroit City College (now Wayne State University). In 1935 Mr. Reuther began organizing for the fledgling UAW Local 86, representing employees at GM's Ternstadt parts plant, even though he was not employed by the company. He was first elected a delegate to the 1936 UAW national convention, and then to the UAW's National Executive Board. Returning to Detroit a paid UAW official, Mr. Reuther set out to organize an amalgamated local on the city's west side. Within eight months, UAW Local 174, of which Mr. Reuther was the President, represented 30,000 workers and 76 shops. Mr. Reuther's organizing at Ford brought him national attention when newspaper photographers captured him being beaten bloody by Ford security men as he passed out leaflets outside Ford's River Rouge plant. In 1939, Mr. Reuther became Director of the UAW's General Motors department, and in 1942 he was elected the union's first Vice President. During World War II, Mr. Reuther also served with the Office of Production Management, the War Manpower Commission and the War Production Board. In 1946, Mr. Reuther was elected President of the UAW. In 1948, GM agreed to a historic contract, tying wage increases to the general cost-of-living and productivity increases. Over the next two decades, the union negotiated model grievance procedures, safety and health provisions, pensions, health benefits and "supplemental unemployment benefits" that enabled UAW members to earn up to 95 percent of their regular paycheck even if they were laid off. In the fifties and sixties, Mr. Reuther fought tirelessly for civil rights protections and an enhanced welfare state that would benefit all Americans. Mr. Reuther stood beside Martin Luther King, Jr. when he delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech at the 1963 March on Washington, and he met weekly with President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 to 1965 to discuss legislative and political initiatives. At the height of his union involvement, Mr. Reuther and his wife were tragically killed in a private plane crash. Mr. Reuther left a legacy of reform-minded unionism, civil rights activism and social justice idealism upon which the labor movement continues to draw. (Deceased)

The Honorable Luther Hodges

Luther Hartwell Hodges was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, on March 9, 1898. After attending public schools in North Carolina, Mr. Hodges went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While at North Carolina, he participated in athletics and a wide array of extracurricular activities. Mr. Hodges was immensely popular and was voted by his classmates as "best all around man." After getting his BA in 1919, Mr. Hodges entered the U.S. Army. He then got a job as the Secretary to the General Manager of Marshal Field and Company Textile Mills. Mr. Hodges quickly worked his way through the company and became General Manager of all the Marshal Field mills in 1939; by 1943, he became the company's Vice President. Mr. Hodges retired from business in 1950, turning his energies toward politics. He began his political career during the Second World War when, in 1944, he was appointed to the Office of Price Administration. In 1952, he was elected Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina. After Governor William B. Umstead died in 1954, Mr. Hodges rose to take over the State's top slot. He would serve as Governor for six years and earn a reputation for attracting industry to North Carolina. President Kennedy appointed Governor Hodges Secretary of Commerce, hoping to calm the fears of many in the business community. As Secretary, Governor Hodges had less influence than other members of the cabinet, serving more as a supporter and defender than as an architect of administration policies. He encouraged domestic industrial expansion and passage of the Area Redevelopment Act, which authorized his department to spend $400 million in loans and grants in regions beset by chronic unemployment. Governor Hodges also reorganized the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads and accelerated the program of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Regarding international matters, Governor Hodges was also an advocate of increasing trade of non-strategic goods with Russia. (Deceased)

The Honorable Estes Kefauver

Born on July 26, 1903, in Madisonville, Tennessee, Carey Estes Kefauver served as Democratic Senator of Tennessee from 1949 to 1963. His political life was characterized by unfailing integrity, commitment to civil liberties, and dedication to public service. Mr. Kefauver received his undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee in 1924 before going on to law school at Yale University. After his graduation from Yale in 1927, Mr. Kefauver returned to Tennessee to set up a law practice in Chattanooga. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1939 after serving a stint in state government. In 1949, he took on the Democratic political machine in Tennessee, ran by E.H. Crump, and was elected to the Senate, ending Crump's hold on state politics. As a Senator, Kefauver made his mark in the fight against organized crime. As Chair of the Special Committee on Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce (usually known as "the Kefauver committee"), Sen. Kefauver conducted hearings leading to the public realization that there was a nationwide organized crime syndicate backed by the Mafia. As a result of the hearings, thousands of bookies were put out of business, Congress passed legislation aimed at curbing organized criminal activities, and the Treasury Department won indictments against hundreds of mobsters. Crime in America was Sen. Kefauver's book about the results of the hearings and investigations. Riding the popularity achieved from the organized crime investigations, Sen. Kefauver ran for President in 1952. He made quite a showing in the New Hampshire primary with his personal campaign style of meeting the voters one-on-one. However, the Democratic Party chose Adlai Stevenson to run against Dwight Eisenhower. In 1956, Sen. Kefauver was chosen as the Vice Presidential Candidate, along with Stevenson, to challenge the incumbent Eisenhower in an unsuccessful bid for the White House. After the defeat of the Stevenson/Kefauver ticket, Kefauver remained in the Senate. The highlights of his remaining years included his opposition to a bill outlawing the Communist Party, his support of small businesses through the Robinson-Putman Act, and the sponsorship of legislation protecting the public from harmful and ineffective pharmaceuticals. (Deceased)

Carl E. Reistle

Carl E. Reistle earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma University in 1922. He began his career in the oil industry with the U.S. Bureau of Mines in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and Laramie, Wyoming. He worked on several problems connected with oil production in the famous Salt Creek Field in Wyoming and co-authored the first technical paper on the solubility of gas in oil. In 1933, he was made Chairman of the East Texas Engineering Association and contributed his efforts to the efficient operation of the East Texas Field. Mr. Reistle began his long association with Humble Oil &Refining Company (now Exxon Co. USA) in 1936 as engineer in charge of the Petroleum Engineering Division; became President of the company in 1961, and served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board from 1963 until his retirement in 1966. After retiring, Mr. Reistle served as Chairman of the Board and Director of Olinkraft, Inc., and was a Director of Eltra Corporation and Baker International. He also served on the Board of Trustees of Texas Technological College from 1966 to 1969. During World War II, Mr. Reistle was appointed Technical Advisor for District III of the Petroleum Administration for War and was also National Vice-Chairman of the Oil Industry Advisory Committee for the Office of Price Administration. He authored or co-authored twenty-five technical papers and held seventeen patents on improvements within the oil industry. A past President of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME), Mr. Reistle was awarded the Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal by the AIME in 1958. He served on the boards of the American Petroleum Institute, the Mid-Continent Oil &Gas Association, the Texas Mid-Continent Oil &Gas Association and the New Mexico Oil &Gas Association. (Deceased)

Charles H. Percy

Educated at the University of Chicago, Mr. Percy served in the Navy during the Second World War and went on to a successful career in business in the post-war years. On his appointment as President of Bell &Howell in 1949 at the age of 30, he was named by the American Junior Chamber of Commerce as one of the ten most successful young men in America. In 1956, Mr. Percy was appointed as President Dwight Eisenhower's personal representative to presidential inaugurations in Peru and Bolivia with the rank of Special Ambassador. In 1964 he was the Republican candidate for Governor of Illinois. Although he ran a successful campaign, Mr. Percy fell victim to the sweep of Democratic triumphs and Republican defeats in the wake of the landslide victory of President Johnson over Barry Goldwater in the presidential election of 1964. In 1966 he was elected Senator from Illinois and served three terms, winning re-election in 1972 and 1978. Sen. Percy was a consistent supporter of moderate Republican policies. He harbored ambitions to succeed to the presidency in 1976 if President Nixon had completed his two terms. With Nixon's resignation in 1974 and the succession of President Ford, Sen. Percy decided to support Ford's re-election campaign in 1976, and by 1980 he felt that his chance to seek the presidency had passed. With the victory of the Republicans in the Senate elections in 1980, he became Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Although he was again nominated as Republican candidate for the Senate in 1984, he lost to his Democratic opponent, Paul Simon, in a year when President Reagan was re-elected in a landslide on the Republican ticket. In recent years, Mr. Percy has served on several boards, and as President of Charles Percy and Associates. (Deceased)

Harrison F. Dunning

Harrison F. Dunning was born in West Hartford, Connecticut, in 1908. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1930 with a degree in economics, Mr. Dunning sold real estate in the West Hartford area, and worked as a salesman and district manager for the Fuller Brush Company. Mr. Dunning first joined Scott Paper as a thirty-five dollar-a-week industrial salesman. From that most humble beginning, he steadily climbed the corporate ladder, first to sales promotion, the personnel division, and then the manufacturing division. In 1947 he was named General Manager of Scott's paper mills; in 1955 he was elected to Scott's Board of Directors; in 1960 he was elected Executive Vice-President, and in 1962 he was elected President. During Mr. Dunning's period at Scott Paper, the company became the first to advertise bathroom tissue on national television with its - at first controversial - commercials for ScotTissue. Scott also became a leading sponsor of some of the most popular television programs of the 1950s and 1960s, such as the "Perry Como Show" and the "Danny Thomas Show." Mr. Dunning led innovations such as floral printed bathroom tissue and the ever popular paper dress. He also restructured the management organization and increased the responsibility of the chief executive. In addition, Mr. Dunning also held a number of leading positions within the Philadelphia area. He was the Co-Chairman of the Greater Philadelphia Movement, a Director of the National Biscuit Company, Vice-Chairman of the Grocery Manufacturers of America and a Director of the Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania. He served as Commissioner for the Delaware River Port Authority; a Trustee of the Committee for Economic Development; a Trustee of Dartmouth College, and a Director for Pierce Junior College. Mr. Dunning was also a Residential Chairman for the National Alliance of Businessmen, and Chairman of Dartmouth's Major Gifts Committee. After Mr. Dunning retired from Scott Paper in 1971, he served as a volunteer with the International Executive Service Corps in Brazil, Singapore and Turkey. (Deceased)

Sir Paul Chambers

Stanley Paul Chambers, later named Sir Paul Chambers, was born in Hampstead, England, in 1904. An accountant by training, Sir Chambers served the Imperial Government in India as the Government's Tax Advisor in the 1930s. During the Second World War, Sir Chambers served as the Secretary and Commissioner of Great Britain's Board of Inland Revenue. During this period, Sir Chambers is credited with having initiated the British Income Tax, known as the "pay as you earn" tax. Sir Chambers joined the Imperial Chemical Industries' (ICI) Board of Directors in 1947; was made Financial Director in 1948; Deputy Chairman in 1952 and Chairman in 1960. During his period as Chairman, from 1960-1971, Sir Chambers led ICI in his self-styled "dash for growth," a blitzkrieg of investment that saw over 100 million £ funneled into Europe. Under his leadership, ICI became the "bell-weather of British Industry" because of its diverse interests. The company grew to enormous size, employing more than 125,000 people in 100 factories across the United Kingdom in the manufacture of more than 12,000 products. With interests in 45 additional countries, Sir Chambers led ICI into a truly global era. Some of the major products produced by ICI during this period were the Procion line of cotton dyes; the inhaled anesthetic Fluothane; the herbicide Paraquat, and the cardiovascular pharmaceutical Inderal. As well as being Chairman of ICI, Sir Chambers was Chairman of the Board of Royal Insurance; Chairman of the Educational Trust of The Empire Club; Secretary of The Comrades Club; President of the Royal Statistical Society; President of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research; a member of the Zoological Society of London; a member of the elite Bilderberg group; a Lecturer at the University of London and a member of the Tory defense group, The National Association For Freedom. In addition to being awarded Drexel University's Business Leader of the Year Award, Sir Chambers was the recipient of the Society of Chemical Industry's Messel Medal and Messel Lecture Chair in 1968, and was bestowed with an honorary degree from the University of Liverpool in 1971. (Deceased)

General (Dr.) David Sarnoff

David Sarnoff was born in Russia on February 27, 1891 and immigrated to New York in 1900. Initially educated in the Brooklyn public school system, Dr. Sarnoff went on to the Pratt Institute where he majored in Electrical Engineering. He joined the American Marconi Company in 1906 and quickly rose through the ranks to become a wireless telegraph operator and later Assistant Chief Engineer and Chief Inspector. In 1912, Dr. Sarnoff was one of a number of wireless operators to receive and send out reports on the sinking of the Titanic. Sarnoff's technical ability propelled him quickly up the ladder at Marconi, and in 1915 he submitted an idea for a "radio music box" at a time when radio was mainly used in shipping and by amateur wireless enthusiasts. When American Marconi was sold to General Electric in 1919, Dr. Sarnoff joined the newly formed Radio Corporation of America (RCA). At RCA, Dr. Sarnoff advocated his plans to make radio "a 'household utility' in the same sense as the piano or phonograph." Dr. Sarnoff had it all figured out: for RCA to sell radios, it had to have programming that consisted of music, news, and sports. On July 2, 1921, he arranged the broadcast of the Jack Dempsey-Georges Carpentier prizefight, which was a watershed event. Within three years the radio music box, now called the Radiola (price: a hefty $75), was a success, with sales of $83.5 million. Dr. Sarnoff's next realized that the fastest path to profits would be to create national broadcasts by stringing together hundreds of stations. That vision came true in 1926, when RCA purchased WEAF/New York and launched the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), the first radio network in America. By 1930, Dr. Sarnoff had become president of RCA and NBC had split into two networks, the Red and the Blue. The Blue Network later became ABC Radio. Dr. Sarnoff was always looking ahead. He next saw the potential of the iconoscope, a proto-television patented by Vladimir Zworykin in 1923. Within five years Sarnoff had set up a special NBC station called B2XBS to experiment with what came to be known as television. In 1941 NBC started commercial telecasting from station WNBT in New York City, but progress was delayed by war. Dr. Sarnoff served as communications consultant for General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who later named him a brigadier general. The title stuck, and in the halls of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Dr. Sarnoff became known as "the General." After the war, NBC, under Dr. Sarnoff's leadership, had the first videotape telecast and the first made-for-television movie. For his many achievements, Dr. Sarnoff was awarded with twenty-seven honorary degrees, and is generally considered one of the twentieth century's most influential and visionary businessmen. (Deceased)

John R. Bunting, Jr.

John R. Bunting served in the U.S. Army as a young man during World War II. He saw action while stationed in the South Pacific from 1943 to 1946. After his tour of duty, Mr. Bunting received his education at Temple University, earning his BS in Business Administration in 1950 and his MA in Economics in 1952. From 1950 to 1964, Mr. Bunting served with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, where he rose to the position of Vice President. In 1964, Mr. Bunting joined the First Pennsylvania Banking and Trust Company as Vice President and Economist. In 1972, Mr. Bunting was appointed the position of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the First Pennsylvania Corporation and the First Pennsylvania Bank of North America. Mr. Bunting was a regular lecturer on economics at Temple University in the 1970s, and has been a guest lecturer at a number of other prestigious universities and colleges. He has served as a Trustee, Advisor, and Director for numerous Philadelphia area institutions and corporations. For his standing in the business and academic communities, Mr. Bunting has been awarded honorary degrees from St. Joseph's College and Temple University. Mr. Bunting has also served as Fellow of the Hebrew University in Israel and as an advisory member for the Council on Foreign Relations.

Meshulam Riklis

Meshulam Riklis served with the British 8th Army during World War II. After the war, Mr. Riklis used his military mustering out pay to bring him and his young wife to America. When they arrived in 1947, Mr. Riklis enrolled at Ohio State University as a mathematics major. During his college education, Mr. Riklis worked full time as a teacher of Hebrew and Jewish history to pay college costs and support his growing family. Upon graduation, he took a job as an analyst for a brokerage firm and quickly became known for his aggressive style. By 1954, at age 29, Mr. Riklis had put together a syndicate of investors and purchased his first company, a small typesetting firm, for $25,000. Utilizing the capital from this first company, which he called Rapid-American, Mr. Riklis quickly began leveraging for larger and larger takeovers. Mr. Riklis is indeed credited with the first leveraged buyout, when he gained control over McCrory Corp., a chain of Midwestern five-and-dime stores, in 1956. In the ensuing years, Mr. Riklis acquired Schenley Industries, the distributor of Dewar's White Label Scotch Whiskey, Samsonite, and the Riviera Hotel &Casino in Las Vegas. His Riklis Family Corporation began doing over a billion dollars in annual sales in the cosmetics field, having become a major force with its Faberge, Elizabeth Arden, Cartier, Brut, and Aqua Net products. Today, Mr. Riklis still serves as Chairman of the Board of McCrory Corporation, and of the Riklis Family Corporation. Currently, Mr. Riklis is serving as the Chairman of Rikamor Ltd., the holder of the Israeli Burger King franchise.

John P. Bracken

John P. Bracken earned his AB in 1934 from the University of Pennsylvania and his JD in 1939 from the University of Pennsylvania. He became a Partner at the law firm of Morgan, Lewis &Bockius in Philadelphia in 1955, where he participated in their personal law practice group. He was later named Senior Partner and Managing Partner at Morgan, Lewis &Bockius and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1978. A prominent member of the local community, Mr. Bracken served as Chairman of the steering committee of the Bicentennial Corporation of Philadelphia. Mr. Bracken had many civic accomplishments, including being elected Chairman of the Board of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce; serving as Senior Vice President and Director of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation; being a member of the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware Regional Committee (CORD), and serving as Director of the Philadelphia World Affairs Council.

J. Willard Marriot, Jr.

J. Willard Marriott, Jr. was born on March 25, 1932, in Washington, D.C., to J. Willard Marriott and Alice Sheets Marriott. In 1946, at age 14, Mr. Marriott took his first company job: stapling invoices together in the accounting department of the Hot Shoppes' restaurant his parents had opened during the Depression. He spent four years working in the Hot Shoppe while attending the University of Utah. After receiving his degree in finance from the University of Utah in 1954, Mr. Marriott spent two years as a ship's service supply officer aboard the U.S.S. Randolph. In 1956, he returned to the company full-time. By then, the Marriott's' food service customers included highway rest stops, hospitals and schools, in addition to the booming Hot Shoppes and In-Flite divisions. But an even more dramatic development had taken place during his absence: ground had been broken for the company's first motor hotel, Twin Bridges, in Arlington, Virginia. In 1964, J. Willard Marriott appointed his son President of Marriott Corporation, and in 1972, passed to him the role of CEO. The younger Marriott began to implement his vision of expanding the lodging division beyond anything his father had ever dreamed. The company quickly mastered sophisticated financing techniques and built an in-house construction operation second to none. By the early 1980s, Marriott Corporation had transformed itself into one of the largest real estate developers in the world, building more than $1 billion in hotel properties annually. As the ranks of the company's full-service hotels swelled, Mr. Marriott launched aggressive plans to develop a series of lodging brands under the corporate umbrella. Beginning in 1983, the company rolled out new products ranging from economy to luxury tier, taking competitors by surprise. By the mid-1980s, an average of two Marriott hotels opened each week. In 1988, Mr. Marriott was named CEO of the Year by Chief Executive Magazine. Fortune included him in its list of "25 most fascinating" business leaders. In the year 2000, the company reached Mr. Marriott's cherished goal of opening the 2000th hotel under the Marriott flag. In spite of a whirlwind travel schedule that now includes more international destinations, Mr. Marriott serves on several boards, including the National Geographic Society, the Naval Academy Endowment Trust and the National Urban League. He also gives an average of 15 to 20 hours each week to The Church of Jesus Christ, Latter-Day Saints and supports a number of community organizations.

Harold A. Shaub

Harold A. Shaub was born in Holtwood, Pennsylvania in 1939. A 1933 graduate of Quarryville High School, Mr. Shaub received his bachelor's degree in commerce from Drexel University in 1939. In his 38-year career with the Campbell Soup Co., Mr. Shaub rose from Assistant to the General Superintendent at the Camden plant in 1942 to President and CEO in 1972. During his tenure, he also served as President of Campbell's Canadian division and President of Pepperidge Farm, and he led the company's marketing, sales and international operations. While Mr. Shaub was President of Campbell Soup, its sales doubled and it added products, including Prego spaghetti sauce and Godiva Chocolates. The year after Mr. Shaub was named CEO, Campbell nationally introduced the "Labels for Education" program, through which schools and community groups could redeem labels from Campbell products for audio-visual equipment, teaching devices and other educational materials. The program has provided 80,000 schools with $80 million worth of educational materials in the past twenty-five years. Mr. Shaub was elected to the Campbell Soup Co. Board of Directors in 1970 and served on the board until 1988. In addition, Mr. Shaub served on the board of directors of Exxon Corp., R.H. Macy &Co., Scott Paper Co., the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia, New Jersey Bell Telephone, Westminster Paper Company Ltd., Food Processors Institute and Grocery Manufacturers of America. He was a past Chairman of Penjerdel Corp., a regional business organization serving 11 counties in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, and he played a key role in the successful effort that brought the USS Saratoga for overhaul to the Philadelphia shipyard. Mr. Shaub served as Director for numerous boards, including United Medical Corp., Haddonfield, N.J.; Queensway General Hospital, Toronto; Citizens Crime Commission, Philadelphia; and Valley Forge Military Academy and Junior College. He also was a member of the Board of Managers of The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, a former Trustee of the Nutrition Foundation and the Foundation of the College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and a member of the Industries Advisory Committee of The Advertising Council. He had worked on behalf of many other organizations, including the Boy Scouts of America, United Way and Cooper Medical Center. Mr. Shaub served as a Trustee for Drexel University and was named an Emeritus Trustee in 1968. He was a Life Trustee and Distinguished Fellow for Coriell Institute for Medical Research. Mr. Shaub received many awards and honors including the William Penn Award in 1980 from the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and Penjerdel Council; U.S. Marine Corps Semper Fidelis Award and honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Lebanon Valley College in 1979; Corporate Leadership Award in 1976; and Businessman of the Year in 1980 from South Jersey Chamber of Commerce. In addition to Drexel University having named him Drexel Business Leader of the Year in 1973, the University also conferred upon him the A.J. Drexel Paul Award in 1975, the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award and "The Drexel 100" Award in 1992. (Deceased)

William T. Beebe

W.T. (Tom) Beebe was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1915. The son of an investment banker, Mr. Beebe graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Business Administration. After graduating from college, Mr. Beebe worked for General Electric and United Aircraft before becoming Head of Personnel for the Chicago and Southern Airlines (C&S). When C&S merged with Delta Airlines in 1953, Mr. Beebe became Personnel Director of the combined airlines. In November 1967, he was promoted to Head of Administration; President in January 1970, and in November 1971, Chairman and CEO. In February 1978, retaining title of Chairman of the Board, Mr. Beebe announced that the position of CEO had been transferred to then President David Garret. Beebe retired as a Delta Corporate Officer in February 1980, but was on the same date reelected Chairman of the Board of Directors. In October 1983, Mr. Beebe stepped down as Chairman of the Board, but remained a Director of Delta. Mr. Beebe was a pioneer in the field of employer-employee relations, so much so that in 1987, the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University renamed its Institute of Industrial Relations to the W.T. Beebe Institute of Personnel and Employment Relations. Mr. Beebe's progressive personnel practices at Delta have since been transformed into a full curriculum at the W.T. Beebe Institute. Mr. Beebe was also honored in 1978 with the 29th National Defense Transportation Award by the National Defense Transportation Association for having developed Delta Airline policies designed to make air travel by military personnel more comfortable, less expensive and more expeditious. In addition, Mr. Beebe was the recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management in 1976. Mr. Beebe was a member of the Delta Sigma Pi professional fraternity, and All Saints Episcopal Church. He served as Director for American Business Products, Inc., and Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company. He was a member of the Atlanta Board of Education, and a member of the University of Minnesota Foundation Board of Trustees. Mr. Beebe was also Chairman of the Georgia Society for the Prevention of Blindness, and a member of the National Advisory Council of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. (Deceased)

John T. Connor

John Thomas Connor was born in 1914 in Syracuse, New York. In 1939, after graduating from Harvard Law School, Mr. Connor moved to New York and joined the law firm of Cravath, de Gersdorff, Swaine, and Wood. After three years in New York, Mr. Connor traveled to Washington D.C., where he took the job of General Counsel for the Office of Scientific Research and Development. His major contribution was the implementation of a program that coordinated the many laboratories involved in the development and production of penicillin. Between 1945 and 1947, Mr. Connor accepted a job as Special Assistant to Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal. In this capacity, Mr. Connor disassembled the military penicillin program and incorporated it into the private sector. In 1947, he accepted a position with Merck &Company, a large drug manufacturer, as General Attorney. By 1955, he had risen through the ranks at Merck to become President. During his ten-year tenure, Merck's investments in foreign plants increased by 450%. Mr. Conner was also active in politics, founding the National Independent Committee for Johnson-Humphrey in 1964 and becoming its co-chair. As an attorney and high-profile corporate leader, Mr. Connor was the first member to be appointed to the Presidential Cabinet of Lyndon Johnson as U.S. Secretary of Commerce in 1965, and in 1967 Mr. Connor was the first member of that administration to leave. Facing escalated U.S. involvement in the war in Asia, a soaring imbalance of payments and climbing inflation, Mr. Connor resigned his office, citing problems with his ability to make U.S. economic policy. During Mr. Connor's two years under President Johnson he had been a member of the Business Council on Foreign Relations, and later joined the Committee of Business Executives Against the Vietnam War. From 1967 to 1979 Mr. Connor headed the Allied Chemical Corp., retiring as Chairman, President and CEO. His later affiliations and board positions included corporate giants DNA Plant Technologies, General Motors, General Foods, ABC, and Chase Manhattan Bank. (Deceased)

Helen Honig Meyer

Helen Honig Meyer was born in Brooklyn in 1908. While attending Brooklyn's public schools as a teenager, Mrs. Meyer worked briefly at McCall's and Popular Science magazines before taking a clerk position at Dell at the age of 16. Mrs. Meyer started working at the fledgling Dell in 1923 and became a guiding spirit behind its growth. From her humble beginnings, she helped the company move from pulp magazines into comic books and paperbacks and, eventually, hardcover books. She was President and Chief Executive from the early 1950's until 1976, when owner George Delacorte sold Dell to Doubleday &Company. Well before women were given responsible positions in publishing, Mrs. Meyer rose to the top of a highly visible and profitable enterprise, becoming a major figure not only at Dell but in American publishing as a whole. She pushed through many of Dell's novel and lucrative publishing ideas. The pulp magazines were joined by a line of enormously lucrative - and wholesome - comic books featuring Woody Woodpecker, Bugs Bunny and the whole Walt Disney menagerie, among them Mickey Mouse, Pluto and Donald Duck. Dell's comics sold as many as 300 million copies a year. When comic books were accused of corrupting America's youth in the 1950's, Mrs. Meyer defended them in Congressional hearings, asserting that "Dell comics are good comics." That became the slogan on all Dell comic books. Dell increasingly made its mark in paperbacks. Largely to secure a continuing source of material for the paperback division, Mrs. Meyer led Dell into hardcover publishing with Delacorte Press. Besides Kurt Vonnegut, James Baldwin and James Clavell, the authors signed up for Delacorte hardcover and their subsequent Dell paperback editions included Irwin Shaw, James Jones, Danielle Steel, Belva Plain and Robert B. Parker. Mrs. Meyer stayed on as Dell's co-publisher and a consultant to Doubleday until 1982, when her contract there ended. She then worked as a consultant to some of her Dell hardcover authors, notably James Clavell, for whom she negotiated an eyebrow-raising $5 million advance in 1986. Mrs. Meyer was a past Director of the Association of American Publishers and of United Cerebral Palsy. She was inducted into the Publishers Hall of Fame in 1986. (Deceased)

Edward R. Kane

Edward R. Kane was born in 1918. After earning his master's degree from MIT in 1943, Mr. Kane began his career as a physical chemist in DuPont's Textile Fibers Department. Quickly moving up the ladder, by the early 1950s Mr. Kane began supervising operations and research at the Fiber V Semiworks at Seaford, Delaware, which specialized in synthetic Dacron fabrics, and at the nylon plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 1955 Mr. Kane headed up a cooperative effort by the Engineering and Textile Fibers Departments to develop better nylon facilities. Through the mid-1960s he worked to develop new textile fibers and ensure the profitability of existing ones in the face of mounting competition. In 1967 Kane took over the newly formed Industrial and Biochemicals Department. Two years later, in an effort to boost DuPont's pharmaceuticals program, Mr. Kane spearheaded the acquisition of Endo Laboratories, a company which had solid experience and expertise in pharmaceutical manufacturing and marketing. In the year after the acquisition, Mr. Kane became a Senior Vice President, Director, and member of the Executive Committee of DuPont. The Chairman of DuPont, Charles B. McCoy, believed that the complex responsibilities of running a vast, multinational company should be divided between two top executives, so upon retiring he split DuPont's managerial responsibilities. In 1973 he made Irving S. Shapiro Chairman and Edward Kane President and Chief Operating Officer. The energy crisis and increasing global competition presented the greatest challenges to the new executives. They responded by refocusing DuPont on non-petroleum related products like electronics, agricultural chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Mr. Kane retired in 1980, but remains a Director of DuPont. In addition to being awarded Drexel University's Business Leader of the Year, Mr. Kane was also the recipient of the Society of Chemical Industry's International Palladium Medal in 1979. Mr. Kane has served as Director for the Crompton Company; Mead Corporation; Texas Instruments, and Inco Ltd. He serves as the head of the Mechanical Engineering Visiting Committee for MIT; Treasurer and Member of Council for the National Academy of Mechanical Engineering and Member of the Corporation Development Committee for MIT. Mr. Kane also serves as Trustee for MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, and is Board Chairman Emeriti for the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering.

William P. Tavoulareas

William P. Tavoulareas was born in Greece in 1919 and immigrated to the United States when he was 15 years old to Queens, New York. He attended St. John's University and received a BA degree in 1941 and a JD degree in 1948. He also served with the U.S. Army in World War II. He joined Mobil Oil in 1947 as an accountant and rose to be Manager of the Middle East Accounting Department in 1957, Manager of the Corporate Analysis and Planning Department in 1959 and Vice President for Plans and Programs of the subsidiary, Mobil International Oil Company in 1961. Two years later, he returned to the parent corporation as a Senior Vice President, Director and member of the Executive Committee. He headed Mobil's North American division from 1967 to 1969 and then was named President and Chief Operating Officer of Mobil, the holding company for Mobil Oil, Montgomery Ward and Company and Container Corporation of America. He served in that capacity until 1984, when he retired, remaining on the Board of Directors until 1988. Under Mr. Tavoulareas, Mobil grew enormously. The company's revenues climbed from $7.6 billion when he took over as President in 1969 to nearly $70 billion when he retired. Mr. Tavoulareas was also active in civic and philanthropic affairs and was a Trustee of St. John's University, Athens University, St. Paul's School, Director of Georgetown University and on the Board of Governors of New York Hospital. He was a Director of Bankers Trust New York Corporation and Bankers Trust Company, Bendix Corporation, General Foods Corporation and the Near East College Association. (Deceased)

James L. Ketelsen

James L. Ketelsen was born on November 14, 1930 in Davenport, Iowa. He attended Northwestern University and received a BS degree in 1952. He was a Director, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and a Vice President of Tenneco Inc., a conglomerate with interests and operations in oil, natural-gas pipelines, construction and farm equipment, automotive components, chemicals, shipbuilding, packaging, agriculture and land management. He had also been the Chief Executive Officer of J.I. Case Co., a tractor manufacturer (purchased by Tenneco in 1964) from 1968 to 1972 and a Vice President of Finance from 1962 to 1968. He began his career in 1955 at Price Waterhouse &Co in Chicago and stayed until 1959. From 1952 to 1955, he served in the United States Naval Reserves. Mr. Ketelsen was also a Director of J. P. Morgan and its principal subsidiary, Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York, GTE Corp., Alliance for FreeEnterprise, Houston Chamber of Commerce, and the Executive Council on Foreign Diplomats. He is currently a Director at Sara Lee Corporation. He has also been a Member of the President's Board of Advisors on Private Sector Initiatives and on the Board of Directors of the American Petroleum Institute. He has been a Trustee to Northwestern University and a Trustee of Houston's Symphony Society and its ballet. He is also a former member of the Texas Commission on Children and Youth and a current member of the Texas Business and Education Coalition, the Texas Head Start Collaboration Task Force, the State Board of Education Task Force of Early Childhood and Elementary Education and Chairman of the Texas 2000 State Coordinating Team. He is the founder of Project GRAD (Graduation Really Achieves Dreams) created in partnership with the Houston Independent School District. He is also the founder of a scholarship program at Davis High School in Houston, Texas. The Ketelsen Elementary School in Houston, Texas was named after him for dedication in academic achievement.

J. Donald Rauth

J. Donald Rauth was born in 1918. He attended Drexel University where he studied mechanical engineering during the day and worked at Philco in the evening. During the Depression, he worked in co-op positions, and when he graduated in 1940, he began working as a structural engineer for the Glen L. Martin Company where projects then centered on sending aircraft orders to war-torn England and France. In this capacity he was able to combine his educational background with a personal interest in aircraft and flying. As he rose in the engineering ranks of the Martin Company, he worked on projects such as the Gorgon ramjet drone systems, air-to-air missile systems and surface-to-surface weapons systems. In 1954, he became General Sales Manager in charge of sales and service for the Martin Company, a position which included selling the Matador, the first Air Force tactical missile and the first to be deployed overseas. He became General Manager of Martin's Nuclear Division, and then was elected Corporate Vice President. Under his supervision, the world's first transportable nuclear power plant was built. In 1961, he took charge of the Martin-Denver facility where he supervised the Titan Intercontinental Ballistic Missile programs. By 1969, Mr. Rauth was sent to California to head Martin's aluminum producing subsidiary. In 1972 he became President and Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation directing Martin Marietta's five major divisions including aerospace, aggregates, aluminum, cement and chemicals. In 1977, he was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr. Rauth's career spanned 43 years with Martin Marietta and its predecessor until he retired in 1983. He had also been Director of the Brunswick Corporation and Black &Decker Corporation. Mr. Rauth is a member of the Drexel University College of Engineering Alumni Circle of Distinction. He has also received Drexel's Distinguished Alumni Award, the AJ Drexel Paul Award and the Drexel 100. He received an Honorary Degree from Drexel in 1964. (Deceased)

Robert F. Dee

Robert F. Dee was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on July 8, 1924. He received a BA from Harvard University in 1946 and an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1978 from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1979. He also served in the U.S. Army. He began his 38 year career with SmithKline in 1948 as a trainee. After holding positions in several business areas, including pharmaceutical research and development, sales and personnel, he was elected Vice President in 1967 and Group Vice President and a Member of the Board of Directors in 1969. He was elected President in 1972 and Chairman in 1976. Mr. Dee served as Chief Executive Officer from 1972 to 1982, a decade in which the Company's sales grew from $402 million to $2.6 billion. He also served as Chairman of the National Association of Manufacturers from 1985 to 1986. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the United Technologies Corp., Air Products and Chemicals Inc., General Foods Corporation and Volvo North America Corp. He was also on the Board of Directors for the U.S. Council for International Business, the Institute for Educational Affairs, and he was a Trustee for the Heritage Foundation. Mr. Dee was a member of the National Association of Manufacturers and served as Chairman of the Executive Committee, as well as being a member of The Business Council, The Conference Board, the Business Roundtable, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Management Executives' Society.

M. Todd Cooke

A native of Philadelphia, M. Todd Cooke graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Princeton University in 1942. He also received a Master of City Planning degree with honors from M.I.T. in 1947. Mr. Cooke joined PSFS in 1966 as Assistant to the President and became Senior Vice President that same year. He was elected President in 1971 and Chairman in 1979. He was a Director of the Provident Mutual Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia and a Trustee of the Mutual Assurance Company for Insuring Houses from Loss by Fire. He was also Chairman of the Mutual Savings Bank Advisory Board of the Third Federal Reserve District and served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Mutual Savings Banks. He was appointed to a 15-member task force of community leaders to make recommendations to Philadelphia courts. He is on the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, a Trustee to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and an Honorary Trustee of the Curtis Institute of Music. He is a former United Way President and an Emeritus Board Member of the Philadelphia Academies Inc. In 1978 he received the Alumni Award of Merit from the William Penn Charter School, his alma mater. (Deceased)

John J. Byrne, Jr.

A native of Wildwood, New Jersey, John J. Byrne joined GEICO as Chairman in 1976 and rescued the Company from a $26 million loss to operating profits of $77.5 million in 1982. Warren Buffet's company, Berkshire Hathaway eventually purchased GEICO. Mr. Byrne is considered by some to be one of America's top corporate makeover artists. In 2001, GEICO was the nation's sixth-largest auto insurer, due to Mr. Byrne's makeover of the Company. He was previously the Chairman and CEO of Fireman's Fund Corporation. He has also been the Chairman of Financial Security Assurance Holdings, Ltd., President and CEO of White Mountains Insurance Group, Chairman of the Board of Managers of OneBeacon Insurance Group and Chairman of Montpelier Re Holdings, Ltd. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of White Mountains.

William W. Hagerty

Dr. William W. Hagerty was born in 1916 in Holyoke, Minnesota. He received a BS degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1939. He also received a MS and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1943 and 1947. He received a Doctor of Science from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry in 1965, a Doctor of Laws from the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science in 1968, and an additional Doctor of Laws from Temple University in 1968. In 1984, Drexel University awarded him an Honorary Degree. He began his career at Great Lakes Pipe Line Co. in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1935. He became a junior engineer for U.S. Gypsum in 1939. In 1940 he taught mechanical engineering at Villanova College, and then continued to teach at the University of Cincinnati in 1941. He became an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan in 1947, Associate Professor in 1949, and a full Professor in 1951. He was the Dean of the University of Delaware's School of Engineering from 1955 to 1958 and a Professor and Dean at the University of Texas, College of Engineering from 1958 to 1963. Dr. Hagerty then became President of Drexel University from 1963 to 1984. During Dr. Hagerty's twenty years at Drexel, the University's College of Engineering grew to become the largest private undergraduate engineering college, the graduate program in library science grew to become one of the largest graduate programs, and the home economics program was one of the largest private non-denominational programs. By the late 1960's the school added a College of Science and a College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Dr. Hagerty was one of America's first educators to recognize how computers were transforming American business, science and government. Beginning with the entering class of 1983, Drexel became the first school in the nation to require access to personal computers for all students. By 1974, when Hagerty retired after more than two decades as President, the University had a campus of 34 buildings drawing on students from 37 states and 55 countries. He was also on the Board of Directors of Communications Satellite Corporation, Pennsylvania National Bank, Drexel Bond Debenture Trading Fund, Philadelphia Electric Co., Selas Corp, Martin-Marietta Corp., Mutual Benefit Life Insurance and AAA. He was Vice Chairman of the West Philadelphia Corp., Board Manager of Germantown Savings Bank, and a consultant to NASA. He was also a member of the National Science Board and the Philadelphia Commission on Higher Education. He was a member of many civic organizations including the Presidential Scholars Commission, the Philadelphia Council Executive Board, National Council of Boy Scouts of America, Advisory Committee to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and the Executive Committee of the University Science Center. Dr. Hagerty was the Chairman of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Development Fund, a Trustee of Jefferson Medical College and on the Board of the U.S. Air Force. He held professional memberships in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Society of Engineering Education, National Society of Professional Engineers, and the Texas Society of Professional Engineers. Dr. Hagerty co-authored the book Engineering Mechanics in 1967 and was a contributor to numerous articles in professional journals. He was named Delaware Engineer of the Year in 1970, the recipient of the Sesquicentennial award from the University of Michigan in 1967 and received the Outstanding Award from the University of Minnesota Alumni Association in 1970. (Deceased)

Philip E. Lippincott

Philip E. Lippincott was born in Camden, New Jersey in 1935. He received a BA from Dartmouth College in 1957 and an MBA with distinction from Michigan State University in 1964. He served in the U.S. Army from 1957 to 1959. Mr. Lippincott was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Scott Paper Company from 1983 to 1994. He joined Scott Paper Company in 1959 as a retail salesman. He rose from Vice President of Corporate Planning, Division Vice President of Consumer Products Marketing, Corporate Vice President of Marketing, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Vice President Group of Executive Packaged Products, Director, President, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Executive Officer, to Chairman. He also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Campbell Soup Company from 1999 to 2001. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Exxon Mobil Corporation and a Trustee of Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company. He was active in civic organizations and was Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Fox Chase Cancer Center. In 1990, President Bush appointed Mr. Lippincott to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. He has also served on the Board of Overseers of the Executive MBA Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Norman Braman

Norman Braman was born in 1932 in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He received a BA from Temple University in 1955. He began his career in 1955 in the marketing and sales department for Seagram's Distributors. In 1957, he founded Keystone Stores, a chain of self-service department stores, in Philadelphia. In 1964, he organized Philadelphia Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics, a manufacturer of pharmaceuticals and was President and Chief Executive Officer. In 1972 he founded Braman Enterprises, an automotive dealership in Miami, Florida. Today, Braman Enterprises operates four dealerships in Florida and one in Colorado. The dealerships sell upscale cars such as Acura, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Cadillac, Mercedes, Porsche and Rolls-Royce. In 1985 Mr. Braman became the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles by purchasing the team from former owner Leonard Tose. Mr. Braman rebuilt the Eagles into an NFL NFC Eastern Division champion in 1988. The team won at least 10 games for five straight years through 1993. Mr. Braman has been involved in numerous civic organizations. He has been a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, the Dade County Planning and Advisory Board and the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. He has also been the Campaign Chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, a member of the Board of Governors of the University of Miami Medical School. He has served on boards of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee of Miami, the Tel Aviv University, and The James Madison Institute. He was the founder and Trustee of the Mount Sinai Medical Center of Miami, Vice President of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and Trustee of the United Israel Appeal. He was also the founder of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee of the University of Miami. Mr. Braman participates in the Partnership to Advance School Success (PASS) program in Miami.

Willard "Bill" G. Rouse III

Willard Rouse was born in 1942 in Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Rouse graduated form the University of Virginia in 1966 and began working with the Great Southwest Corp. in Dallas, Texas. In 1968, he joined the Bernguil Co. in New Jersey, where he remained until forming Rouse and Associates (today known as Liberty Property Trust) in 1972. Rouse and Associates is credited with the development of the Great Valley Corporate Center, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, the Sheraton Society Hill, Liberty Place and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, as well as developments in California, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C. Liberty Place was one of the firm's most prominent projects. It was the first building to rise above the statue of William Penn atop City Hall, then ending a "gentlemen's agreement" made at the time of City Hall's construction that it would be the tallest building in the city. An active civic leader, Mr. Rouse was selected by Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode to head the organizing committee for "We The People 200," the organization charged with overseeing Philadelphia's celebration of the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. Among his numerous civic affiliations were board memberships with the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, the Council for Labor and Industry, the Greater Philadelphia International Network, the Mayor's Economic Roundtable, the Philadelphia Convention and Visitor's Bureau and the Fellowship Commission. Mr. Rouse worked in 11 states and the United Kingdom. Today Liberty Property Trust is one of the nation's largest real estate investment trusts. (Deceased)

The Reverend Leon H. Sullivan

Reverend Leon H. Sullivan was born in 1922 in Charleston, West Virginia and was brought up by his grandmother. At the age of 10 he conducted a private desegregation drive in his hometown after being told he could not sit at a drugstore counter while drinking a soft drink. He won his first victory when the owner of a segregated restaurant offered him a free meal. He won an athletic scholarship to West Virginia University, but a promising career in collegiate baseball and basketball was derailed when he tore a ligament in his knee. After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in 1943, Reverend Sullivan went to New York to study at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary. He was awarded a Master's degree in religion from Columbia in 1947. His views on race and religion became more complex when he became an Associate Pastor at Abyssinian Baptist, the legendary Harlem church led by Adam Clayton Powell. Under the politically active Powell, Reverend Sullivan came to see economic development as a key element in the push for African American civil rights. After leaving Abyssinian, the Reverend became the first African American to head the Council of Churches in South Orange, New Jersey. In 1950, he arrived at Philadelphia's Zion Baptist Church. Zion became one of the city's largest black congregations, growing from 600 to 6,000 members. It was not only the spiritual center for members, it was also the founding site of Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) and of Zion Investments Association, which produced money for building or buying investment properties. The church provided a day-care center, a gymnasium, a home for the elderly, a savings and loan and an employment office. Chief among Sullivan's remarkable achievements is the development of the Sullivan Principles, a guide to ethical standards of operations in South Africa for U.S. companies which was endorsed by 135 companies and influenced standards for other companies. Reverend Sullivan was a member of the Board of Directors of General Motors Corporation, Mellon Bank and the Boy Scouts of America. During his life the Reverend received 50 honorary degrees and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. The Reverend moved to Phoenix in 1981 and founded the Phoenix-based International Foundation for Education and Self-Help. (Deceased)

George M. Ross

George M. Ross was born in Philadelphia in 1933. He attended Drexel and received a Bachelor's degree in 1955 in business administration. He began his career as a management trainee at Sears, Roebuck &Co in 1955. He went to work for Goldman, Sachs &Co., a leader in global investment banking and securities trading, as an associate in 1959 and worked his way up to Vice President in 1968, then to General Partner in 1971, Limited Partner in 1991, and Senior Director in 1999. He has been active in numerous civic organizations including the Regional Performing Arts Center, the National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia Orchestra Association Avenue of the Arts, American Jewish Committee, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, Business Leadership Organized for Catholic Schools, The Sassafras Corporation, One to One Philadelphia, The Greater Philadelphia Mentoring Partnership, the Washington Institute, the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center, the Philadelphia Drama Guild and the Academy of Natural Sciences. He has also been involved with the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, the Episcopal Academy, Academy of Music, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, National Foundation for Jewish Culture, Urban Affairs Partnership, World Affairs Council, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Greater Philadelphia Venture Capital Corporation, Inc. and Greater Philadelphia Partnership. He has also been a member of the Financial Analysts of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Securities Association and the Investment Association of Philadelphia. He has been a member of the Musser 2002 Tribute Committee, the Bond Club of Philadelphia, the Sunday Breakfast Club, the United States Holocaust Museum, the Governor's Sports &Exposition Facilities Task Force, the Mayor's Cultural Advisory Council, Operation Understanding, We the People 2000 Committee, Business Leadership Organized for Catholic Schools, Governor's Private Sector Initiatives Task Force, Governor's Committee of Financing Higher Education, Southeastern United Way, Philadelphia Stock Exchange, Wills Eye Hospital Advisory Council, Good Neighbor Award Committee and West Park Hospital. Mr. Ross and his wife established the Ross Family Fund in 1997 that contributes to the arts, education, health education, human services and Jewish agencies. He also established the George Ross Scholarship Fund in 1997 for a Drexel upperclassman with a great point average of at least 3.2. He has been a Drexel University Trustee since 1981 and is a former Chairman of the Trustees. He received an honorary degree in 1999 from Drexel as well as the A. J. Drexel Award in 1998, the Drexel 100 Award in 1992 and the Distinguished Alumni Achievement award in 1977.

James A. Hagen

James A. Hagen was born in Forest City, Iowa in 1932. He earned a Bachelor's degree in 1956 from St. Ambrose College and a Master's degree in 1958 from Iowa State University. Mr. Hagen's career in the railroad industry spans more than 40 years including service as an Assistant General Freight Agent with Missouri Pacific Railroad, a Director of Market Research and Vice President of Corporate Development with Southern Railway and an Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Distribution of CSX Transportation, in addition to Conrail where he was Chief Executive Officer between 1989 and 1995. He was also an Assistant Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration. He retired as Chairman of the Conrail Board in 1996. He served on the Association of American Railroad (AAR) Board of Directors for six years and was AAR Chairman between October 1991 and December 1992. He also served as associate administrator of economics for the Federal Railroad Administration from 1971 to 1974 and first as Vice President-operations/planning and later as President of the United States Railway Association, the government agency that oversaw the restructuring of five bankrupt eastern U.S. railroads into Conrail. He also served on the Board of Directors of Penn Mutual Insurance Co.

Harold A. Sorgenti

Harold A. Sorgenti was born in Brooklyn in 1934. He received his BS in Chemical Engineering from the City College of New York in 1956 and his MS from Ohio State University in 1959. From 1956 to 1959, Dr. Sorgenti worked as a Research Engineer at the Battelle Memorial Institute. He began working at Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) in 1959, and would remain with the company until 1991. During this long span, Dr. Sorgenti held several positions with ARCO, including, Research Engineer, from 1959to 1975; Vice President of Research and Engineering in the Products Division, from 1975 to 1976; Senior Vice President of Chemical Development at ARCO Chemical, from 1977 to 1979; President of ARCO Chemical, from 1979 to 1987; President and CEO of ARCO Chemical, from 1987 to 1990, and Vice Chairman of the Board for ARCO, in 1991. In 1987, Dr. Sorgenti led the restructuring and reorganization of ARCO, selling a billion dollars of assets and splitting it into two businesses, Lyondell Petrochemical and ARCO Chemical Company. Eventually both companies went public. Dr. Sorgenti worked at ARCO until 1991, when he co-founded Freedom Chemical Company and built it into a broadly based specialty chemical company. In 1998 the company had revenues of approximately $300 million, employed 1,100 people, and operated 11 manufacturing sites worldwide. When Freedom was sold to B. F. Goodrich, Dr. Sorgenti formed Sorgenti Investment Partners to pursue other chemical investment opportunities. Dr. Sorgenti holds 10 U.S. patents which led to the commercialization of four new chemical processes. He is the President of the Academy of Music in Philadelphia and has served on a number of boards, including Provident Mutual Insurance Company, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Regional Performing Arts Center, Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co., the United Way of Southeast Pennsylvania, Greater Philadelphia First, the Urban Affairs Partnership and Crown Cork &Seal. Professionally, he has been a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Society of Chemical Industry. He has served as Chairman to many organizations, including the Chemical Heritage Foundation, the Chemical Manufacturers Association and the Society of Chemical Industry. He has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the Winthrop-Sears Medal, the William Penn Award, the Philip H. Ward, Jr. Medal, the American Jewish Committee Humanitarian Award and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. In 1998, Dr. Sorgenti was an honoree at the 15th Annual Purple Aster Wards Ball of the Pennsylvania Order Sons of Italy in America. Dr. Sorgenti has also received Honorary Degrees from Drexel, Villanova, St. Joseph's and Ohio State Universities.

Robert McClements, Jr.

Robert McClements, Jr., was born in Philadelphia in 1928. After graduating from Drexel University in 1952 with a degree in Civil Engineering, Mr. McClements began working, from 1952 to 1954, as a Project Engineer for Foster-Wheeler Company. After serving with the U.S. Army during the Korean War, Mr. McClements worked as a Project Manager, from 1956 to 1965, for Catalytic Construction Company in Philadelphia, a builder of oil processing plants and a subsidiary of The Sun Company which Mr. McClements would head in the future. After a brief stint as Chief Field Project Engineer at the Atomic Energy Commission's Nevada Test Site, Mr. McClements rejoined the Sun Company in 1965 as Plant Manager of its Great Canadian Oil Sands Project in Alberta. He went on to hold various positions within the Sun organization, including Vice President of the Alberta plant; Director and Materials Manager for Sun Inc., in Philadelphia; Director of Engineering for Sun Inc., from 1972 to 1974; Vice President of Energy Ventures of Sun Company in Dallas from 1974 to 1975; President of Sunoco Energy Development in Dallas from 1975 to 1977; Executive Vice President of Sun Company Inc., in Radnor from 1977 to 1981; President of Sun Company from 1981 to 1986; Chief Executive Officer of Sun from 1985, and Chairman of the Board of Sun Company from 1987. Mr. McClements earned an advanced degree from Harvard University in 1977. Mr. McClements has recently retired from his position as Chairman and CEO of Sun Company (Sunoco). During his career with the company, Mr. McClements saw Sunoco become the third-largest independent oil refiner and marketer. The company currently operates five refineries in the US, which have a combined processing capacity of 730,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Mr. McClements has served as Director for the following corporations and institutions: Unisys Corporation; Bethlehem Steel Corporation; CoreStates Financial Corporation; First Pennsylvania Corporation; Greater Philadelphia First Corporation; Local Initiatives Support Corporation; United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania; National Industrial Advisory Council; Pennsylvania Business Roundtable; Philadelphia Orchestra; Urban Affairs Partnership; Philadelphia Policy Board, Local Initiatives Support Corporation; National Association of Manufactures; Penjerdel Council; Pennsylvanians for Effective Government; Pennsylvania Economy League; Riverfront Development Corporation and United Way of New Jersey. Mr. McClements has also served as Trustee for Grove City College and Thomas Jefferson University. He has been a member of the Dean's Advisory Council for the Graduate School of Management at UC Davis, and a member of the Presidents' Advisory Council at Eastern College. Mr. McClements has also served as Chairman of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. In addition to being the recipient of Drexel University's Business Leader of the Year Award, Mr. McClements was awarded the A. J. Drexel Paul Award from Drexel University in 1985. Numerous other awards include the Citizen of the Year Award, from American Red Cross in 1990; the Brotherhood Award (for service to the community), from the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 1990; the Humanitarian Award (for Sun Company's role in supporting programs to promote the hiring of people with disabilities), from the Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in 1990 and the Gold Key Award (for his work to promote minority participation in industry), from the Opportunities Industrialization Center.

Warren V. Musser

Warren V. "Pete" Musser was born in 1926. He earned his BS in industrial engineering from Lehigh University in 1949. Mr. Musser founded Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. in 1953, and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Safeguard from 1953 until 2001. Under Mr. Musser's leadership, the company grew to having over 30 partnership companies and over $1 billion in market capitalization. In addition, Mr. Musser was responsible for the formation and initial public offering of Novell, Inc. and one of the founding investors in QVC. Other companies he helped take public include CompuCom Systems, Sanchez Computer Associates, Cambridge Technology Partners, USDATA and Diamond Technology Partners. Mr. Musser has served on a number of additional boards, including Nutri/System Inc., Internet Capital Group Inc., DocuCorp International, National Media Corporation and the Pennsylvania Partnership on Economic Education. He has also been a Trustee of Brandywine Realty Trust, the Vice Chairman of the Eastern Technology Council and the Vice President of Development for the Cradle Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Mr. Musser was the first recipient of Temple University's Fox School of Business Musser Award for Excellence and Leadership. He has also been honored with the William Penn Award and as the United Way Citizen Volunteer of the Year and the American Red Cross Citizen of the Year. Mr. Musser currently runs the Musser Group, a financial consulting company, and serves as a Senior Advisor for Health Advocate, Inc. In 1994, he received an Honorary Degree from Drexel.

John Forbes McCaughan

John F. McCaughan was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1935. He earned his Bachelor's degree from Sir George Williams University in Montreal in 1957. Mr. McCaughan served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Betz Laboratories from 1982 to 1994. Beginning in 1995, Mr. McCaughan served as President of the BetzDearborn Foundation until his retirement in 1998. BetzDearborn is a chemical company which specializes in the chemical treatment of water, wastewater and process systems. Betz Laboratories treats water in boilers, cooling towers, heat exchangers, and paper and petroleum process streams for companies in the steel, petroleum refining, paper, automotive, electrical utility and chemical industries. Mr. McCaughan has served as a Director of United Way; Philadelphia Suburban Corporation; Banner Chemicals; Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, and Petroferm, Inc. He is a Founding Benefactor of the Bucks Beautiful Program of the Bucks County Chamber of Commerce; a Trustee of Drexel University and a member of Drexel's Anthony J. Drexel Society.

Dennis J. Alter

Dennis J. Alter was born in Philadelphia in 1943. After receiving his BS in education from Temple University in 1966, Mr. Alter taught English at the Benjamin Franklin High School in Philadelphia. Throughout that period, from 1966 to 1969, he also worked part-time in the family business, Teachers' Service Organization (TSO), and earned his M.S. degree in Education at Temple. He left teaching in 1969 to join TSO full-time and was elected President and Chief Executive Officer in 1972. During his tenure, he has expanded TSO, now Advanta, into a national provider of financial services to consumers and small businesses with innovative products and services including mortgages, equipment leases, business credit cards, insurance and deposit instruments. The company has developed a reputation for its early and effective use of complex analytical modeling and marketing techniques, approaches that help the company efficiently identify and attract lifetime, value-based customers. Under Mr. Alter's leadership, Advanta has also become one of the area's most active, visible and respected corporate citizens, providing over $8.2 million in grants for organizations as diverse as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Police Athletic League, Anti-Defamation League, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, and Arts and Business Council. Mr. Alter led TSO to acquire Colonial National Bank and begin a national credit card marketing initiative. The company went public in 1985, changed its name to Advanta in 1988 and began to focus on mortgages and the needs of the small business market. Advanta grew into one of the nation's largest providers of credit cards targeted to small businesses and has been named one of the "Most Admired Companies in America" by Fortune Magazine. Mr. Alter appeared on the cover of Business Philadelphia for its 1994 "Best Bosses" feature story. Mr. Alter is also a nationally ranked tennis player, and has been instrumental in bringing a series of high-profile tennis events to Philadelphia, including the U.S. Pro Indoor, the Advanta Championships and the 10th Anniversary World TeamTennis Smash Hits Event in 2002. He has served on a number of boards, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Jewish History and the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

The Honorable Edward G. Rendell

Governor Rendell was born in New York City in 1944. After a tour of duty with the U.S. Army, Gov. Rendell graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1965 with a BA in political science, and from Villanova Law School in 1968. In 1977, Rendell ran for District Attorney of Philadelphia, vying to become the city's youngest DA in history. He served the city in that capacity from 1978 to 1985. From 1992 through 1999, Governor Rendell served as the 121st Mayor of the City of Philadelphia. Among his many accomplishments as Mayor, Governor Rendell eliminated a $250 million deficit, balanced the city's budget and generated five consecutive budget surpluses, reduced business and wage taxes for four consecutive years, implemented new revenue-generating initiatives and improved services to the city's neighborhoods. The New York Times described the changes in Philadelphia under Governor Rendell as "the most stunning turnaround in recent urban history," and he earned the nickname "America's Mayor" from then Vice President Al Gore. Rendell was inaugurated as Pennsylvania's 45th Governor on January 21, 2003. As Governor, he has proposed the Plan for a New Pennsylvania, which would provide tax relief to homeowners, close the resource gap between Pennsylvania school districts and promote private investment in economic development projects across the state. In 2000, Gov. Rendell was the Chair of the Democratic National Committee. He has also been active on a number of city and community boards. In addition, he has taught government and politics courses at the University of Pennsylvania. Gov. Rendell received an Honorary Degree from Drexel in 1996.

William J. Avery

William J. Avery was born in Chicago in 1940. He began his career with Crown Cork &Seal in 1959 as a management trainee in the Chicago plant while he completed his studies at the University of Chicago. Mr. Avery advanced to various positions of increasing responsibility throughout the organization, including serving as Corporate Vice President of Sales in 1974 and Senior Vice President in 1976. In 1980, Mr. Avery was appointed as the company's President and Chief Operating Officer, before being appointed as Chief Executive Officer in 1989. In 1990, he was named as Crown's Chairman of the Board. Under Mr. Avery's leadership, Crown's sales increased from $1.5 billion in 1990 to $5 billion in 1995. The company also developed into a leading supplier of plastic containers and specialty closures for food and beverage containers. The 1996 acquisition of CarnaudMetalbox, the largest packaging company in Europe, increased Crown's sales to $10 billion. Mr. Avery has served on the boards of a number of educational, charitable and civic organizations, including Rohm &Haas, the Lincoln Financial Group, Fox Chase Cancer Center, the Franklin Institute, the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts, the Philadelphia Historical Society, the Connelly Foundation, the YMCA, Greater Philadelphia First and the National Constitution Center. He also co-founded and chaired Philadelphia Area Accelerated Manufacturing Education, Inc. Among Mr. Avery's numerous distinguished awards, he has received the 2000 William Penn Award from the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, the Vision for Philadelphia 2000 Award from Philadelphia Hospitality, Inc., the 2000 Excellence in Leadership award from Temple's Fox School of Business, the 1998 Citizen of the Year Award from the American Red Cross and the 1998 Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He has also been knighted by Pope John Paul II and has been an inductee into the Order of St. Gregory.

Nicholas DeBenedictis

Nicholas DeBenedictis was born in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania in 1945. He received his Bachelor's degree in business administration from Drexel University in 1968 and his Master's degree in environmental engineering and science from Drexel in 1969. Following his time at Drexel, Mr. DeBenedictis served in the Army Corps of Engineers, achieving the rank of Captain. He worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as Director of International Relations from 1972 to 1976. From 1976 to 1980, Mr. DeBenedictis served as Assistant Regional Administrator for the EPA. In the 1980s, Mr. DeBenedictis served as both the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Resources and Director of the Office of Economic Development for the state of Pennsylvania, as well as Executive Director of the Governor's Economic Development Committee; President of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce; President of the Policy Committee for the City of Philadelphia, and President of the Convention and Visitor's Bureau for Philadelphia. Mr. DeBenedictis was elected Chairman of Philadelphia Suburban Corporation in 1993, ten months after joining the corporation as its President and Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Philadelphia Suburban Water Company. As President of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, he helped raise the membership to more than 5,500 businesses, putting it among the five largest chambers of commerce in the nation. Currently Chairman of the Pennsylvania Business Roundtable and the Executive Committee of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, Mr. DeBenedictis also serves on a number of boards, including: Drexel, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, Independence Visitor Center, PNC Bank, P.H. Glatfelter Company, Provident Mutual Life Insurance Company, Met-Pro Corporation, Philadelphia Health and Education Corporation and the Pennsylvania Partnership for Economic Education. Mr. DeBenedictis has been honored with numerous awards, including: the 2001 Ambassador Award from The Philadelphia Boys Choir and Chorale Magee Rehabilitation Hospital's 2000 Humanitarian Award, The Chester County Chamber of Commerce and Industry's 1996 CEO of the Year honor, the 1995 Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award from Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the 1979 EPA Silver Medal Award for Superior Service. He has also received Honorary Degrees from Drexel and Widener Universities and has been honored as a member of the Drexel 100 and the Alumni Circle of Distinction for Drexel's College of Engineering.

Lawrence A. Weinbach

Lawrence A. Weinbach was born in New York City in 1940. He joined Andersen in 1961 following his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, and was appointed as Anderson's Chief Operating Officer in 1987, and in early 1989, he was elected Managing Partner-Chief Executive. Under Mr. Weinbach, Andersen Worldwide became the largest, most successful global professional services organization. Mr. Weinbach was elected Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Unisys Corporation in 1997. On his first day as CEO of Unisys, Mr. Weinbach committed to reducing the corporation's debt by $1 billion before 2000. His goal was exceeded more than a year early. In 1997, he began a market repositioning initiative to redefine Unisys in the marketplace. He launched the first part of a new marketing campaign for the company in 1998. The campaign's second phase went underway in 2002 with its new "Imagine It. Done" campaign. Mr. Weinbach also re-established the company's employee benefits' programs and launched Unisys University, its advanced development and culture-building organization. He has been a board member of a number of "not-for-profit" organizations, including Penn's Wharton School, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, Carnegie Hall, the Computer Systems Policy Project, the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee and Catalyst, a non-profit organization founded to help dismantle the "glass ceiling" for women in business and the professions. Mr. Weinbach has also served on the boards of the U.S. Comptroller General's Advisory Board, the New York Stock Exchange Listed Company Advisory Committee and Avon Products, Inc. and UBS AG, both public companies.

Dr. Corbin A. McNeill, Jr.

Dr. Corbin A. McNeill, Jr. was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1939. Dr. McNeill received his Bachelor of Science Degree in 1962 from the U.S. Naval Academy and has completed graduate courses in business at the University of California (Berkeley) and Syracuse University. He is a 1992 graduate of Stanford University's Executive Management Program. Dr. McNeill is the retired Chairman and co-CEO of Exelon Corporation, which was formed in October 2000 by the merger of PECO Energy Company and Unicom Corporation. Before joining the utility industry, Dr. McNeill completed a twenty-year career with the U.S. Navy in 1981 after serving as Commanding Officer of the USS Tautog and Commanding Officer of the Naval Nuclear Power School. He joined the New York Power Authority as Resident Manager of the James A. Fitzpatrick Nuclear Power Plant in 1981 and subsequently was named Senior Vice President, Nuclear Generation. He later joined Public Service Electric and Gas Company as Vice President, Nuclear in March 1985 and was named Senior Vice President, Nuclear in April 1987. Prior to the formation of Exelon, Dr. McNeill was Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of PECO Energy, the Philadelphia electric and gas utility where he began in 1988. During his tenure as Chief Executive Officer, PECO Energy was recognized as "Utility of the Year" by the Edison Electric Institute. Exelon distributes electricity to 5.1 million customers in Northern Illinois and the Philadelphia region. Dr. McNeill has served on a number of boards, including Associated Electric &Gas Insurance Services Limited; post-bankruptcy Enron Corporation and its natural gas pipeline subsidiary, CrossCountry Energy; Gestalt, LLC and Philadelphia's Leadership Inc., where he was Chairman. Dr. McNeill has also served as Vice Chair of the United States Naval Academy Alumni Association and has been a Trustee of the Valley Forge Military Academy and Drexel University, where he served on the College of Engineering's Advisory Board. In addition to numerous military awards, Dr. McNeill has been recognized for his role in the development of civilian nuclear power by the World Nuclear Association, the Nuclear Energy Institute, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 2000, he was named the CEO of the Year by the Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry and received an Honorary Degree from Drexel.

The Honorable Thomas J. Ridge

Thomas J. Ridge was born in Munhall, Pennsylvania in 1945. Mr. Ridge earned his undergraduate degree with Honors from Harvard University in 1967. After his first year at The Dickinson School of Law, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served as an infantry staff sergeant in Vietnam, earning the Bronze Star for Valor. After returning to Pennsylvania, he earned his law degree and was in private practice before becoming assistant district attorney in Erie County. Mr. Ridge was elected to Congress in 1982. He was the first enlisted Vietnam combat veteran elected to the U.S. House, and was overwhelmingly re-elected six times. He was twice elected Governor of Pennsylvania, serving from 1995 to 2001. His technology strategy helped advance the state in the priority areas of economic development, education, health and the environment. He signed into law the Education Empowerment Act, to help more than a quarter-million children in Pennsylvania's lowest-performing schools. Mr. Ridge's education technology initiatives brought anytime, anywhere learning to Pennsylvanians from pre-school to adult education. During his years in the Governor's office, the state increased the number of children receiving free or low-cost health care through Pennsylvania's nationally-recognized Children's Health Insurance Program by 145 percent. He also won passage of "Growing Greener," to make Pennsylvania's largest environmental investment ever, nearly $650 million. In 2001, he was sworn in as the first Office of Homeland Security Advisor in the history of the United States of America. The Office of Homeland Security and the Homeland Security Council were established following the tragic events of September 11. Mr. Ridge is responsible for developing and coordinating a comprehensive national strategy to strengthen protections against terrorist threats or attacks in the United States.

Joseph E. Neubauer

Joseph Neubauer was born in Israel in 1941 and came to the United States when he was 14. According to an essay he wrote for the New York Times, Mr. Neubauer learned some of his English from John Wayne movies. After earning his BS from Tufts University in 1963, and his MBA from the University of Chicago in 1965, Mr. Neubauer began working for Chase Manhattan Bank. From 1965 to 1971 he was with Chase, serving in several capacities from Assistant Treasurer to Vice President of commercial lending. At 27, Mr. Neubauer was named the youngest Vice President in the history of Chase Manhattan Bank. Mr. Neubauer held senior positions with PepsiCo, Inc. from 1971 to 1979, including Senior Vice President of PepsiCo's Wilson Sporting Goods Division and Vice President and Treasurer of the parent company, PepsiCo, Inc. Mr. Neubauer joined ARAMARK in March 1979 as Executive Vice President of Finance and Development, Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Board of Directors. He was elected as ARAMARK's President in April 1981, Chief Executive Officer in February 1983 and Chairman in April 1984. He has served on a number of boards, including CIGNA, Federated Department Stores, Verizon Communications, Wachovia Corporation, Catalyst and the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is a Trustee at Tufts University and the University of Chicago. In 1994, Mr. Neubauer was inducted into the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. He has also been a recipient of the Hospitality Executive of the Year honor from the Penn State Hotel and Restaurant Society.

G. Fred DiBona, Jr.

Mr. DiBona was President and CEO of Independence Blue Cross and led the company for 15 years. He was credited with helping southeastern Pennsylvania’s largest health insurer increase revenues nearly tenfold and with expanding its membership from 2.1 million to nearly 3.5 million. Mr. DiBona expanded the company’s portfolio to include Keystone Health Plan East H.M.O. and Personal Choice P.P.O., two of its most popular managed care plans. Under his leadership, I.B.C. also expanded to New Jersey and Delaware and became a player in the third-party administrator business nationwide. In the mid-1990’s, Mr. DiBona was chairman of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, the country’s largest association of private health insurers. He served on the boards of numerous companies and nonprofit organizations and was active in a number of charities, including United Way. Mr. DiBona, the son of a Common Pleas Court judge, was born in South Philadelphia in 1951. He graduated from Davis & Elkins College in West Virginia and got a law degree from the Delaware School of Law. Mr. DiBona was president of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce in the 1980’s. He received numerous awards including the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Leadership Award from the Urban League of Philadelphia in 2002; the William Penn Award from the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce in 2001; the Dr. Edward Cooper Award from the American Heart Association in 2000; the Richard J. Caron Foundation Award of Excellence from the Caron Foundation in 2000; the Purple Aster Award from the Sons of Italy in 1999; the Community Leadership Award from the Alliance of Italian American Associations in 1998; the Business Leadership Award from LaSalle University in 1997; the Good Scout Award of the Cradle of Liberty Council from the Boy Scouts of America in 1997; the CEO of the Year from the United Way in 1996; the Thomas Cahill Leadership Award from the Roman Catholic High School in 1996; the Tree of Life Award from the Jewish National Fund in 1996; and the National Patriot’s Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in 1995. (Deceased)

Betsy Z. Cohen

Betsy Cohen is the founder, CEO and Chair of RAIT Investment Trust and The Bancorp Bank. Established in 1998, RAIT Investment Trust has been the leading U.S. provider of real-estate mezzanine loans for the middle market, with a portfolio of almost $1 billion. Headquartered in Philadelphia, RAIT is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The Bancorp Bank, which was created in 2000, is a pioneer in electronic banking and has experienced unprecedented growth and success without a single physical branch. Headquartered in Wilmington, Del., Bancorp is traded on the Nasdaq National Market. Ms. Cohen also founded Jefferson Bank in 1974. Under her leadership as CEO and major shareholder, Jefferson was the largest bank headquartered in Philadelphia at the time of its sale in 1999. Ms. Cohen's international business ventures include founding a shipping business in Hong Kong, a leasing company in Brazil and a joint venture with a bank in Spain—all before the age of 30. She is a director of Aetna, Inc. and Maine Merchant Bank, LLC; a trustee of Corporate Office Properties Trust, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Farnsworth Art Museum and Jewish Theological Seminary; vice chair of the Bryn Mawr College Board of Trustees; and chair of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's audit and executive committees.

C.R. "Chuck" Pennoni

Chuck Pennoni is the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Pennoni Associates, one of the nation's leading consulting engineering firms. Established in 1966, Pennoni Associates focuses on civil infrastructure systems. The firm employs more than 700 professionals and has 20 offices in Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and New England. Mr. Pennoni's professional appointments have included serving as President of the American Society of Civil Engineers; Trustee and President of United Engineering Trustees, Inc.; President of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, and a member of the United States Council for International Engineering Practice. He has also served on the engineering advisory boards of Drexel, Widener University and the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Pennoni has also been a member of the boards of Parke Bank, GCA Services, Inc., the Board of Governors of the State System of Higher Education in Pennsylvania, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and the World Trade Center of Greater Philadelphia, and he has also chaired the PENJERDEL Council. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in February 2000. Mr. Pennoni has been honored frequently for his professional accomplishments including the 2004 Fellow Award from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET); 1998 Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers' Delaware County Engineer of the Year; 1986 Engineer of the Year by the Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers; 1985 Engineer of the Year by the Delaware Valley Professional, Scientific and Technical Societies; and, the American Society of Civil Engineers' Edmund Friedman Professional Recognition Award. Dr. Pennoni is a lifetime fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2000, an honor bestowed upon less than one-tenth of one percent of American engineers. At Drexel, along with his Bachelor's degree in civil engineering and has Master's degree in 1966, Dr. Pennoni received an honorary degree in 1992 and is a member of the Drexel 100. He was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1993. From 1997-2003, Dr. Pennoni was Chairman of the Drexel Board of Trustees. In 1994-1995, Dr. Pennoni served as Interim President of Drexel University before current President Constantine Papadakis took the helm. In recognition of major philanthropy by Dr. Pennoni and his wife Annette, Drexel's Honors College was named the Pennoni Honors College in 2003. Goodwin College has recognized Dr. Pennoni with its Specialty Award, Key "D" Award, and the Mary S. Irick Drexel Award.

Raj Gupta

Raj Gupta is Chairman, President and CEO of Rohm and Haas Company, a Philadelphia international developer of technologies and solutions for the specialty materials industry, including building and construction; electronics; household and personal care; water, food and retail; and paper. Mr. Gupta has been with Rohm and Haas since 1971. He was named Rohm and Haas' Chairman and CEO in 1999 and assumed the role of President in 2005. Mr. Gupta, who has a Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and a Master's degree in Operations Research from Cornell University, earned his MBA in finance from LeBow College of Business in 1972. He is a member of the boards of Tyco, The Vanguard Group, the American Chemistry Council, and the Chemical Heritage Foundation. He was inducted into The Drexel 100 in 2000.

Hugh C. Long III

Hugh C. Long II is CEO for Wachovia's Mid-Atlantic Banking Group. He has been associated with Wachovia for more than 30 years, serving as Atlanta regional President and President of First Union Mid-Atlantic, First Union Georgia and First Union Washington, D.C. He also served in a variety of senior executive roles in the company's corporate and commercial banking groups. Mr. Long has served on the board of directors for the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, Innovation Philadelphia, Central Philadelphia Development Corporation, the Committee of Seventy, Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, Boy Scouts of America Cradle of Liberty Council, Girl Scouts of Southeastern Pennsylvania Advisory Council, Philadelphia Orchestra Association and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. Mr. Long has served on Drexel's board of Trustees since 2004.

David L. Cohen

A native of New York, Mr. Cohen rose to prominence as chief of staff to former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, a position he held from 1992 to 1997. His counsel as the mayor's most trusted advisor is credited with helping pull the city from the brink of financial ruin to a resurgent center in a thriving metropolis. After leaving city government, Mr. Cohen became a partner at Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, one of the 100 largest law practices in America.

Since 2002, Mr. Cohen has served as vice president of Comcast Corporation, where he assumes many responsibilities including corporate communications, government affairs, public affairs, corporate administration, and is senior counselor to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts.

Mr. Cohen is one of Greater Philadelphia's most respected leaders, and his counsel is sought-after by many companies and organizations throughout the region. Most recently, he was selected as chairman of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and also serves as a member of the chamber's CEO Council for Growth. Mr. Cohen also serves as chair of the trustee board and the executive committee of Penn Medicine and as a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and sits on its executive committee. He is a national trustee of City Year, chair of the governance committee and a member of the executive committee. Additionally, Mr. Cohen holds the vice chair of the board of directors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. Numerous organizations have awarded and recognized Mr. Cohen for his full-throttled commitment to civic and charitable causes.

Mr. Cohen is 1977 graduate of Swarthmore College and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1981.

Denis O'Brien

Denis P. O'Brien MBA '87, president and CEO of PECO Energy Company, is responsible for leadership over PECO's operations and overall performance associated with service reliability, customer satisfaction, and regulatory and external affairs.

Prior to being appointed to this leadership position, Mr. O'Brien served as vice president for operations with responsibility for engineering, construction, maintenance, and emergency response for the company's natural gas and electric distribution systems. He was also PECO's director of transmission and supply and director of operations for the Bucks-Montgomery Region. Mr. O'Brien started at PECO in 1979 as a summer intern and joined the staff in 1982.

He has served as a director for the Franklin Institute, WHYY, Inc., American Gas Association, Energy Association of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Business Roundtable, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, and Select Greater Philadelphia. In 2005, Mr. O'Brien was inducted into the Drexel 100, and in 2007, he served as Chair of the Drexel 100.