Power Moves: Temple’s president announces retirement after 45-year career

Power Moves is a column where we chart the comings and goings of talent across the region. Got a new hire, new gig or promotion? Email us: philly@technical.ly.

Temple University President Richard Englert announced this week that he would be stepping down from the role and retiring after a 45-year career with the North Philadelphia university that now serves around 39,000 students.

Englert became the 11th president of Temple in 2016 — he previously held the role for a short stint in 2012 — after former president Neil Theobald was ousted by the Board of Trustees. He first entered the role as “acting president,” but was made official president later that year.

The 74-year-old has held 17 positions within the university during his tenure, Temple said in a statement, first as an assistant to the dean of the College of Education. He has served in a number of leadership roles, including chancellor, provost and interim SVP for academic affairs and chief of staff to the late president Peter Liacouras.

Englert also oversaw the university during a tumultuous time for its Fox School of Business, which in 2018 ousted its dean, Moshe Porat, following an investigation into the data the school provided to achieve the top position on U.S. News & World Report’s online MBA program list. (Ron Anderson was named the permanent dean in June 2019 after serving as interim dean for a year.)

Englert said that his retirement will likely come next year, as he will remain on until the board finds the university’s next president. Board of Trustees Chair Mitchell Morgan said the university will be conducting a nationwide search for a new leader.

Temple’s Board of Trustees appointed Englert to the role of chancellor at the end of 2012, a position he will hold again after leaving the presidency, the university said.

“Temple is in a terrific place as an outstanding urban research university that focuses on student success and prizes diversity, accessibility, affordability and quality,” Englert said. “[Founder] Russell Conwell’s mission is alive and well, and it will be up to the next president to continue the work of determining how that mission will be applied to the challenges that lie ahead.”

The university is the sixth-largest employer in Philadelphia.

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Econsult Solutions, a Center City economic consulting firm that’s often contracted by the City of Philadelphia, announced this week that it was seeing two major changes to its leadership.

Co-presidents and founding principals Stephen Mullin and Richard Voith will be stepping away from their current roles. The pair will remain principals, and will now be stepping into full-time ESI board co-chair roles, the company announced.

Peter Angelides and Lee Huang, who were named SVPs and principals in 2013, will now hold the roles of co-presidents. Three others within the company, Ethan Conner-Ross, Gina Lavery and Daniel Miles, were promoted to SVP.

“This transition has been in the making for some time now and we are incredibly excited to move the firm in a bold new direction,” Voith said in a company statement. “Both Steve and I are looking forward to continuing to work on substantive engagements with our clients here in Philadelphia and around the world.”

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PhillyCAM, Philadelphia’s public access TV and radio station, is saying goodbye to WPPM’s first station manager, Vanessa Maria Graber. The radio station (which is resuming in-person operations “slowly and with intention” mid-July) has been offering virtual technical trainings throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Graber will become manager of Free Press’ New Jersey News Voices, a project highlighting local news’ telling of stories on racial equality, and promoting community-focused solutions journalism.

“Philadelphia’s community radio scene is all the more powerful as a result of her leadership,” PhillyCAM said in a statement. “We all can attest to the passion Vanessa brings to anything she takes on. We are excited to see how she will lead these efforts to make journalists and news outlets more responsive and reflective of the communities they serve.”

On Wednesday, PhillyCAM also announced the graduation of its inaugural class of the Trudy Haynes Reporting Fellowship. The 15 fellows spent six weeks learning storytelling, interviewing and research skills (virtually) in order to report news stories on COVID-19’s local impact. Those stories aired on “Voices,” the media organization’s community news show.

The fellows are:

• Frances Corpuz
• Saudia Durrant
• Toya Haynes
• Kennieth Heard
• Chinchila Jonesia
• Joe Kane
• Constance Komm
• Jordan Kucharski
• Deborah McCoy
• Joshua Mitchell
• Jezebel Ortiz
• Lauren Settles
• Donald Terry
• Afea Tucker
• Onika Washington-Johnson