Chairman

By Alan Gottlieb When the British newspaper the Telegraph asked readers which of six suggested measures they would like to see introduced in the House of Commons, the response was surprisingly tilted toward one significant proposal. Of the six suggestions, which included setting a flat tax and placing a term limit on the office of prime minister, what drew more than 86 percent of reader support was a proposal to repeal the handgun ban of 1997. This is an unscientific poll, but the results should signal to U.S. gun prohibitionists that their habitual use of the United Kingdom as an example of domestic tranquility where guns are concerned just took a direct hit in the credibility department.

Generic pharmaceutical maker Lannett Co. Inc. said Wednesday that Ronald A. West will replace William Farber as chairman of the board on July 1. West, 77, has been a member of the Lannett board since 2002. He previously was chairman and chief executive officer of automotive equipment manufacturer Dura Corp. He is a director of Beecher Associates, an industrial real estate investment company. Farber, 79, Lannett's chairman since 1991, will remain as chairman emeritus, the company said.

Edward M. Corse has been elected chairman of the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors. Corse, who has been on the board for eight years, has served as chairman three times before. E. Coe Williams was elected vice chairman during the board's reorganization meeting Tuesday. Williams served as chairman for the last two years. Corse said he was "pretty happy" with the state of affairs in the township. However, he said, two projects - one new, one old - were among those that would require the board's attention in 1990.

Arthur Andresen was elected chairman of the Middletown Zoning Hearing Board at its meeting Wednesday night. Andresen replaces Richard Wagner, who was the hearing board's chairman last year. Willard Greiner was elected by the three-member board as its secretary, replacing Andresen. The board heard a request for a variance from John McMahon, owner of the Sunoco station at West Baltimore Pike and Royal Avenue. McMahon wants to build a 32-foot by 40-foot canopy over the gasoline service islands within the 200- foot setback required for a B-2 shopping district.

Barry E. Tague, president of Tague Securities Corp., was elected chairman of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange in a hotly contested race with incumbent John J. Wallace, president of Park Avenue Securities Inc., stock exchange officials announced yesterday. Tague, who served two previous one-year terms from 1974 to 1976, captured 54 percent of the 417 votes cast on Monday. His new term will be for two years. Tague could not be reached for comment yesterday. The election was important to the exchange because the chairman nominates members to serve on several powerful committees.

The chairman of the City of Coatesville Authority's board of directors resigned last month, and two more directors are expected to resign by January. William Batteiger, who has run the water and sewer agency since its creation 10 years ago, said yesterday that he resigned for personal reasons. "Ten years is long enough," said Batteiger, whose official term was up last December. He also spent 22 years as a board member of the Coatesville Area School District. Batteiger's departure leaves the authority with two vacancies on its board.

The multibillion-dollar trust that controls the Hershey Co. has consolidated its hold on the company by appointing one of its own representatives, Philadelphia money manager James Nevels, as nonexecutive board chairman. Appointing a chairman is normal for companies with controlling shareholders, the Hershey Trust said in a statement on Monday's appointment that cited Ford, Wal-Mart and the Washington Post as models. The Hershey Trust, which finances a school for disadvantaged children in central Pennsylvania, holds 80 percent of the voting control of the chocolate company.

After 15 years on the board, Earl A. Cooke Jr. has resigned as chairman of the Wallace Township supervisors. At a meeting Monday, the supervisors accepted Cooke's resignation, and appointed former Planning Commission member Paul Higgins to the board. They also named William Moore chairman and M. Robert Clarke vice chairman. The supervisors chose Higgins to replace Cooke based on his six years of experience on the township's Planning Commission. He will run for office in primary elections in November.

DNA Plant Technology Corp. yesterday said its chairman, Henry Roberts, would retire in a board reorganization following the company's merger with Advanced Genetic Sciences. Two of the 13 other DNAP board members also will step down, DNAP said. Seven of Advanced Genetic's eight board members will join the 18-member board of the combined firm. Richard Laster, president and chief executive of the Cinnaminson company, will assume the title of chairman of the board. DNAP and AGS agreed to merge a year ago in an exchange of stock valued at more than $36 million.

The less things change, the more things stay the same in Lower Gwynedd. The Lower Gwynedd Board of Supervisors made quick work this week of deciding who will bang the gavel as its chairman in 1989. That supervisor is Ed Brandt. Brandt, first elected as chairman of the board in 1988, was the unanimous choice of the five supervisors at their reorganization meeting Tuesday night. Or was he? "Nobody saw me vote," said Supervisor Dick Landis. To be sure, Landis did not raise his voice when the vote was taken.

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday four members of Army special forces in Tripoli were never told to stand down after last year's deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, disputing a former top diplomat's claim that the unit might have helped Americans under siege. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey said timing and the need for the unit to help with casualties from Benghazi resulted in orders for the special forces to remain in Tripoli.

Vito Canuso, the chairman of the city's Republican Party for close to 20 years, is giving up the post, one of several signs that the party is healing a rift between its old-line leadership and a faction of younger, more aggressive members. Canuso, 66, a lawyer first elected in 1995, announced his intention to resign Tuesday at the party's spring fund-raiser. His replacement - subject to approval from ward leaders - will be State Rep. John J. Taylor, 58, the sole Republican still representing a Philadelphia district in the state House.

Fred Blume, 72, chairman emeritus of the prestigious Blank Rome law firm in Philadelphia, died Monday, April 8, at his Penn Valley home after a long illness. For several decades, Mr. Blume battled a rare pancreatic tumor, said his wife, Sylvia "Sivy" Blume. Despite his illness, he served as Blank Rome's managing partner and chief executive officer from 2003 to 2006. "He was totally and completely dedicated to Blank Rome," his wife said. Morey Rosenbloom, a longtime friend and partner at the firm, said: "He was a lawyer's lawyer.

Julius Genachowski, head of the federal agency that approved Comcast Corp.'s purchase of NBCUniversal, said Friday that he would step down from a "revitalized" Federal Communications Commission over the next several weeks. The resignation allows President Obama to appoint a new chairman at the FCC for his second term. Genachowski, announcing his resignation at the agency Friday morning, said his tenure was marked by the expansion of the nation's broadband and wireless economies.

Julius Genachowski, head of the federal agency that approved Comcast Corp.'s purchase of NBCUniversal, said Friday that he is stepping down from a "revitalized" Federal Communications Commission over the next several weeks. The resignation allows President Obama to appoint a new chairman at the FCC for his second term. Genachowski, announcing his resignation at the agency Friday morning, said his tenure at the FCC was marked by the expansion of the nation's broadband and wireless economies.

Amtrak's board of directors has selected Anthony R. Coscia as its new chairman. Coscia, 53, of North Caldwell, N.J., is a real estate finance attorney who previously served as chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Coscia, appointed to the nine-member Amtrak board by President Obama in 2010, replaces fellow Democrat Thomas C. Carper, of Illinois, whose term expired Saturday.  

Paul T. Murray has been appointed to the board of A Woman's Place , a Chalfont organization committed to the empowerment of women and to ending intimate and domestic violence for all. He is president of PTM Wealth Management. Eric Pritchard, a partner in the business and finance department at Kleinbard Bell & Brecker L.L.P., has been appointed to the board of the Montgomery County Industrial Development Authority, which helps companies finance projects with money secured from private-sector financial institutions.

One thing about the resumés of the three Big Five schools in contention for an NCAA bid is that they seem to have quality wins and dreadful losses in almost equal numbers. The prospects for Temple, La Salle, and Villanova in what is likely to be a very crowded group under consideration for the last of the 37 at-large berths in the NCAAs depend on how each of the 10 members of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Committee evaluates good victories and bad defeats. Mike Bobinski, the chair of the committee that convened Wednesday in Indianapolis to begin selecting, seeding, and pairing teams for Sunday's announcement of the field, said quantifying the effects of win-loss results is difficult to do. "Everybody gets to make their determination on their own," Bobinski said Wednesday during a conference call.

John J. Byrne Jr., 80, the chairman and chief executive of Geico who was credited with leading the insurance giant from near-bankruptcy to profitability in the late 1970s - an achievement that remains one of the celebrated turnarounds in modern business history - died Thursday at his home in Etna, N.H. His death, from cancer, was confirmed by his colleague Bob Snyder. For years, Mr. Byrne was one of the most prominent businessmen in Washington, and for decades, he was one of the most noted executives in his industry.