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Pittsburgh Business 2001: The Leaders, 11 - 20
Sunday, March 25, 2001 By the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
No. 11. -- Jared Cohon
President, Carnegie Mellon University
Last fall, on the occasion of Carnegie Mellon's 100th anniversary, this newspaper editorialized: "It is hard to think of another Pittsburgh institution that has risen so far, particularly in the last 25 years, a period that otherwise saw much local decline."
In choosing Cohon in 1998 as CMU's eighth president, the university board of trustees selected a man who understands the role universities can play in high-tech business development.
As vice provost of Johns Hopkins University, Cohon led that university's efforts in technology transfer and high-tech business development in the Baltimore area. He also helped to initiate the development of a biotechnology center, a public-private partnership that included Johns Hopkins and the city of Baltimore. After Johns Hopkins, Cohon was dean of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale.
Business leaders describe Cohon, 53, as an enthusiastic believer in the region's future and the role CMU can play in creating it.
Perhaps reflecting his own background, Cohon has worked to enhance CMU's role in biotech research, much as the university was a pioneer in robotics and computer technology.
Last year, Cohon and University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg announced plans for a joint biotech venture to be sponsored by the two schools.
CMU doesn't have a medical school and would be hard-pressed to rival the biotechnology efforts of such schools as Johns Hopkins or Harvard. But it would be a different story if CMU and Pitt pooled their efforts, joining CMU's expertise in computers and information technology with the University of Pittsburgh Medical School.
Last year, CMU took another step in embracing the new technology when it became the first university to offer a master's degree program in e-commerce.
In 2000, Cohon also disclosed plans to establish a CMU campus in Silicon Valley, the nation's high-tech capital. The school would be situated on land at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., a city of 75,000 in the rapidly growing San Francisco Bay area. Construction is still in the planning stage, pending the results of an environmental impact study.
Despite the delay, CMU still plans this fall to offer some classes in Silicon Valley. It is hoped that these courses will raise CMU's and Pittsburgh's profile.
On Dec. 31, Cohon and CMU closed a six-year $410 million capital campaign.
No. 12. -- Jeffrey Romoff
President, UPMC Health System
Since 1996, when UPMC Health System struck an agreement to take over St. Margaret Memorial Hospital in Aspinwall, the Oakland-based health care network has swept another dozen institutions into its fold. The controversial merger-and-acquisitions strategy has been orchestrated by Romoff, 55, who was named president in 1992 of what was then called the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The merger binge, along with hundreds of physician practice acquisitions, was designed to assure the academic hub its share of patients -- and power -- at a time when managed care insurers were cracking down on hospital admissions, payments to health care providers and expensive specialty care. Now Romoff is engaged in hand-to-hand combat with insurers, most notably Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. Under his direction, UPMC launched a commercial health insurance subsidiary of its own. If the merger-driven expansion and the foray into insurance succeed, they'd be in stark contrast to similar efforts around the country that have largely run aground.
No. 13. -- Daniel J. Sullivan
President, chief executive officer, FedEx Ground
FedEx Ground, the Pittsburgh-based subsidiary of FedEx Corp., has become a major e-commerce player with a dramatic expansion that allows it to offer in-home delivery service to much of the United States. It also is building a $21 million addition to its headquarters building in Moon. That growth is under the direction of Sullivan, 54, FedEx Ground president and chief executive who in 1983 hatched the business plan for the company once known as RPS in a hotel room with co-founder Steve Handy. The company hasn't stopped since it started operations in 1985. A unit of FedEx since 1998, FedEx Ground now boasts about 35,000 employees and contract drivers including about 2,000 in the Pittsburgh area, with 1,600 at its headquarters. A graduate of Amherst College, Sullivan began his transportation career as a dock supervisor for Roadway Express, a national less-than-truckload carrier. He joined Roadway Services in 1983, charged with developing RPS in two years. He served as president of RPS until 1990, when he became vice president of National Carrier Group of the newly formed Caliber System Inc, where he became chairman in 1995. In 1996, Sullivan led the transformation of Caliber System from a transportation holding company to a provider of transportation, logistics and related information services. He returned to Pittsburgh with the acquisition of Caliber System by FedEx in January 1998. The company was renamed FedEx Ground last year.
No. 14. -- Frank Schifano
President, Local Lodge 1976, International Association of Machinists
Schifano played a key role in extracting a promise from United Airlines to expand and overhaul maintenance facilities at the Pittsburgh International Airport if its proposed merger with US Airways goes through. Schifano, 52, has pushed for years for a new hangar at the airport to preserve the jobs of about 5,000 US Airways mechanics and maintenance workers. He noticed in mid-1994 that Pittsburgh was losing maintenance work to other airports and feared thousands of jobs could be lost if a new facility was not built here to accommodate a new generation of larger airplanes. Warnings from Schifano's local got the attention of the Allegheny County Labor Council, which helped mobilize political support for the project long before United made its bid for US Airways. United promised to spend $100 million toward the $160 million project. Pennsylvania will kick in $35 million and the Airport Authority of Allegheny County will come up with $25 million.
No. 15 -- J. Christopher Donahue
Chief executive officer, Federated Investors Inc.
Donahue, 51, eldest son of Federated co-founder and Chairman John F. Donahue, has amassed three years of record profits since taking over day-to-day operations from his father in April 1998, a month before the mutual fund giant went public. Donahue took steps last year to raise the public profile of the perennial money-machine, launching the company's first television ad campaign and emblazoning the Federated name across the top of its 27-story Downtown headquarters building. Federated's stock also took off last year. After going nowhere for the first two years on the market, shares now trade at roughly double their initial offering price.
No. 16 -- Alain J.P.. Belda
Chief executive officer, Alcoa
While Belda's former boss peddles $1.6 trillion in tax cuts, Alcoa's first non-American chief executive is pushing a second round of $1 billion in cost cuts. The French Morocco native, who can say "You ain't seen nothin' yet" in five languages, wants to fill ex-chairman Paul O'Neill's shoes by boosting Alcoa's revenue to $40 billion by 2004. The cosmopolitan Belda, 57, moved to Pittsburgh in 1994, but some question his commitment to the city, citing his 1999 decision to lease five floors of a Manhattan office building. Since then, Alcoa has announced plans for two new buildings in the region, including a data center scheduled to open in November.
No. 17 -- Mike Parton
Chief executive officer, Marconi Communications
When Marconi purchased local high-tech star Fore Systems in 1999 and combined it with Marconi's telecommunications and networking businesses, the British conglomerate put Parton in charge. In his first statement to the Pittsburgh media, Parton said, "There's nothing happening that would slow down growth in Pittsburgh." Parton, 46, has been true to that statement ever since. Last year, Marconi announced plans to add 1,000 jobs in Pittsburgh over the next two to three years. It also started work on two more buildings at its 110-acre Marshall campus, originally built by Fore. Now, Marconi is talking to state and Allegheny County officials about yet another expansion.
No. 18 -- James W. Liken
President, chief executive officer, Respironics
Liken, 51, took over as president and chief executive officer of Respironics in 1999 as earnings were flagging, the company was undergoing a major restructuring and morale was low. Liken knew the business. He was once a customer of Respironics as owner of the former Liken Home Medical, a regional provider of oxygen, respiratory and medical equipment that he sold to a national concern. He used that experience to develop a new marketing strategy aimed at the company's primary customers -- the distributors who sell and rent equipment used to treat patients at home, in hospitals and other settings. The results: Respironics shares surged 258 percent last year. Revenue in the first half of the fiscal year increased 14 percent to $196.6 million, generating earnings of $14.3 million, compared with a loss of $890,000 in the year-ago period. Liken joined his family's employment and temporary-help firm after graduating in 1971, and later started a service providing nurses, aides and companions. He later expanded into Liken Home Medical.
No.19 .-- Jeff Lipton
Chief executive officer, Nova Chemicals Corp.
Lipton, 58, last year completed bringing the headquarters of the commodity chemicals company from Calgary to Moon, adding 400 local jobs and another 400 in Beaver Valley. As chairman of the board of the American Plastics Council and a director of the American Chemistry Council, Lipton's presence has bolstered the region's status as a center for the chemicals industry. During a difficult year for the industry, he led Nova Chemicals Corp. through a restructuring that's expected to boost profits in coming years. And Lipton's emphasis on community service led Nova to beat many Allegheny County companies onto The United Way's "Top 12" list for contributions during its 2000 employee giving campaign.
No. 20 -- Thomas J. Usher and Paul J. Wilhem
USX chairman and U.S. Steel president
Who says imports have taken the swagger out of the steel industry? While other steelmakers are running with their tails tucked between their legs, Usher, 58, and Wilhelm, 59, are placing a bold bet in Central Europe. U.S. Steel's $69 million purchase of Slovakia's VSZ mill is Usher and Wilhelm's acknowledgment that things will have to be done differently in the company's second century.
More changes could be on the way. USX is studying whether it should maintain separate stocks for its steel and Marathon energy businesses, a corporate structure that's helped the corporation more than it has the stocks. The decision, due shortly, could result in the sale of one or both of the units.
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