Corporate Executives

Forty-four percent of corporate executives surveyed by Atlas Van Lines believe the economy will improve in 2012, the moving company said Wednesday. Of 360 executives completing the first-quarter survey, 26 percent said their firms plan to relocate more workers this year than last, while 86 percent of companies will spend as much or more on relocation in 2012 than in 2011. After progressively declining over the past two years, 65 percent of firms are offering relocated employees full reimbursement, far more often than lump sum or partial reimbursement, the Atlas survey showed.

General Motors has an image problem that it is trying to overcome by spending $20 million on a high-powered promotion campaign. According to the Wall Street Journal, corporate executives have complained that there is a "feeding frenzy" of "GM bashing. " Negative publicity over the years - resulting from such news as reports of executive bonuses while profits dropped and plants closed - has stung the corporate giant, and the giant is fighting back. How? Well to start with GM beat the drums by inviting 14,000 people to a three-day party this week in which it virtually took over the swank Waldorf- Astoria in New York City.

Before too long, City Hall may look as if it's been occupied by the chamber of commerce: Upward of three-dozen corporate executives have begun to catalog the city's computer and information-processing needs. Lesser legions are scrutinizing employee benefits. Other review teams will dig into such areas as public safety and fiscal management. And somewhere out in one of the city's maintenance garages, a pair of retired corporate managers is sizing up the handling of the city's vehicle fleet - even to the point of climbing down into the mechanics' pits.

Anybody who sweats knows that Philadelphia's climate has been bad this year - almost as bad as the city's business climate, in the opinion of some corporate executives across the country. A survey of chief executive officers at top U.S. companies ranks Philadelphia and other cities in the Northeast as among the worst in fostering business conditions that are attractive to big corporations. CEOs ranked Philadelphia, Washington, New York and Boston as the lowest among the nation's 31 largest cities in terms of government regulations and tax policies.

Several Philadelphia corporate executives, long familiar with the benefits of management reviews, have pledged their support to Police Commissioner Kevin M. Tucker as he seeks to implement the recommendations of an independent task force. The Police Study Task Force report, which was released Wednesday, characterized the Philadelphia Police Department as "unfocused, unmanaged, undertrained, under-equipped and unaccountable," and faulted almost every aspect of the department from its information systems to officer deployment.

Robert K. Greenleaf, 86, a management consultant who preached that the human spirit is more important than the bottom line, died Saturday at his home in Kennett Square. In his essays, Mr. Greenleaf, a Quaker and a former American Telephone & Telegraph Co. executive, called on corporate executives, university presidents and other institutional leaders to adopt a more humanistic approach to management. He argued that business leaders should view themselves as servants of the corporations they work for who allow others to share in the decision-making process, and to promote a more caring society.

Start with these sites for a look at the issues and trends in corporate governance - a vast field touching on how to organize companies, make them profitable, and keep them honest. Harvard blog. The Harvard Law School's blog on corporate governance is a heady forum about related legal matters, such as proposed and pending legislation, and court rulings on insider trading and shareholder empowerment. Contributors include Lucian Bebchuk, director of Harvard's program for corporate governance and a vocal critic of stratospheric pay for corporate executives.

Corporate executives give a litany of excuses when asked why they don't give their workers a day off on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday or, at the very least, acknowledge the day with a ceremony or commemoration. They claim they need to stay open to be competitive. They say that people need to shop on that day. Or they insist that no one has ever complained to them about not celebrating the day. Whatever their excuse, 15 years after a deeply reluctant President Ronald Reagan inked the law that made the day a national holiday, corporate America still turns a blind eye to the King holiday.

When Ronald Reagan turned to President Jimmy Carter during the 1980 presidential debates and said, "There you go again," it was enough to cause even a seasoned debate coach to cringe. The off-the-cuff line was pure Reagan and not one that his debate coach, Myles Martel, had planned. But the remark proved fortuitous for both Reagan and Martel. Reagan went on to win that war of words and became a president as famous for his one-liners as for his foreign policy. Martel, then a professor at West Chester University and part-time speech consultant, used his role as Reagan's debate coach to launch a career as a speech and media consultant to corporate executives and to drum up business for his Villanova firm, Martel & Associates.

High school senior Fiona Lowenstein is not known for a lack of self-confidence - after all, she once approached federal lawmakers for a sixth-grade paper on women and politics. But running for student body president of Calhoun School in Manhattan last spring was a different matter. "It was very, very nerve-racking to put myself out there," said the 18-year-old, who won the office. "I had these fears - will I be laughed at? Made fun of?" According to a study released last week of how girls view the concept of leadership - commissioned by the Girl Scouts of the USA and conducted by GFK Roper - Lowenstein is far from the only girl to want to be a leader and yet feel uncomfortable putting herself forward.

Iraq vice president sentenced to death BAGHDAD - Iraq's Sunni vice president, who has been accused of commanding sectarian death squads that are responsible for hundreds of killings, was sentenced to death in absentia on Sunday, hours after a wave of attacks killed more than 50 people across the country. The sentencing of Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi could deepen an already intractable political crisis in Iraq among Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds, even as a spate of recent attacks has raised questions about the government's ability to provide security nine months after the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Forty-four percent of corporate executives surveyed by Atlas Van Lines believe the economy will improve in 2012, the moving company said Wednesday. Of 360 executives completing the first-quarter survey, 26 percent said their firms plan to relocate more workers this year than last, while 86 percent of companies will spend as much or more on relocation in 2012 than in 2011. After progressively declining over the past two years, 65 percent of firms are offering relocated employees full reimbursement, far more often than lump sum or partial reimbursement, the Atlas survey showed.

High school senior Fiona Lowenstein is not known for a lack of self-confidence - after all, she once approached federal lawmakers for a sixth-grade paper on women and politics. But running for student body president of Calhoun School in Manhattan last spring was a different matter. "It was very, very nerve-racking to put myself out there," said the 18-year-old, who won the office. "I had these fears - will I be laughed at? Made fun of?" According to a study released last week of how girls view the concept of leadership - commissioned by the Girl Scouts of the USA and conducted by GFK Roper - Lowenstein is far from the only girl to want to be a leader and yet feel uncomfortable putting herself forward.

The 10th grader curiously eyed the well-coiffed Campbell Soup Co. executive standing in her classroom. "I'm an unhealthy person, and I want to lose weight," blurted India Harris, a 15-year-old at MetEast High School in Camden. Not expecting the heartfelt declaration, Kim Fortunato nevertheless had an answer: "What can we do for you? We don't want to lose another generation of kids to obesity. " Harris smiled and nodded. Fortunato had won another heart and mind. Poised and affable, Fortunato, 54, may be the only corporate executive in America with the title "director of childhood obesity and hunger.

Brian E. Kilty, 52, of Downingtown, a corporate executive, died of a heart attack Tuesday, June 7, while biking with business colleagues in Croatia. Mr. Kilty was chief financial officer and treasurer of Whitford Corp. The international firm, headquartered in Elverson, manufactures high-performance coatings in plants in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Europe, India, China, and Singapore. Its corrosive-resistant and nonstick coatings are used on cookware and in industry. Since joining the firm in 1996, Mr. Kilty had been involved in acquisitions of other coating manufacturers for Whitford and often traveled abroad on business.

Start with these sites for a look at the issues and trends in corporate governance - a vast field touching on how to organize companies, make them profitable, and keep them honest. Harvard blog. The Harvard Law School's blog on corporate governance is a heady forum about related legal matters, such as proposed and pending legislation, and court rulings on insider trading and shareholder empowerment. Contributors include Lucian Bebchuk, director of Harvard's program for corporate governance and a vocal critic of stratospheric pay for corporate executives.

The key to getting more women on corporate boards is getting more women on board nominating committees, according to a study released yesterday on diversity in corporate governance. Success depends on "who makes the lists," said Vicki Kramer, a Philadelphia management consultant who is chairwoman of a national network of female executives. Although more boards are adding female directors, boards are still dominated by men, according to the report by the InterOrganization Network.

Authorities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey arrested three people yesterday who they suspect committed more than 200 residential burglaries in four states in the last 21 months. The ring's success had forced police to form a "high-end burglary task force" to respond to the crimes. The suspects hit homes of corporate executives and celebrities, among others, police said. The reputed ringleader, Patrick Burns, 46, of Camden, told police he stole $5 million to $10 million in cash and jewelry, Bruce L. Castor Jr., Montgomery County district attorney, said during a news conference in Norristown.

The New Jersey candidates for U.S. Senate - incumbent Democrat Robert Torricelli and Republican Douglas Forrester - agreed to participate in a print debate in which each has written essays that answer questions submitted by our readers on important issues facing the state and nation. Their essays are being published this week on the South Jersey Commentary Page. Today there are more than 80 million Americans who own stock. New Jerseyans trade stocks to effectively build wealth for long-term growth and to improve the financial future of their families.

First there was a year of accounting scandals, plummeting stocks, and disgraced corporate executives. Next came what many hope, and some fear, will turn out to be a day of reckoning. By Aug. 14, the chief executive officers and chief financial officers of almost a thousand of America's largest corporations were required to swear to the accuracy of their company's books to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). If all goes as planned, those declarations should reveal the true state of corporate finances and, at the very least, remove some of the uncertainty that has spooked the stock markets.