Committee of Seventy names new CEO

Philadelphia government watchdog group Committee of Seventy has named its new leader.

David B. Thornburgh, executive director of the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania, will be taking the helm in December, the committee announced Wednesday. Thornburgh is replacing Zack Stalberg who retired in July.

"David checked all of the boxes we were looking for in a CEO," Stephen S. Tang, Seventy's search committee chair, said. "But above and beyond that, the Committee was struck by his interest and passion for civic engagement and better government as well as his experience improving the economic competitiveness and public sector performance of Philadelphia and the region."

Thornburgh, 56, is the son of former governor Dick Thornburgh. He has been director of the Fels Institute since 2008. Prior to that he was president and CEO of the Alliance for Regional Stewardship and executive director of the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia.

Thornburgh, who lives with his wife in Chestnut Hill section of the city, was interested in the Seventy job because of its reputation, he said.

"It's made a difference in improving the quality of elections and the quality of government in Philadelphia," Thornburgh said Wednesday.

Although he reserved laying out precise ideas for Seventy until he is officially working there, Thornburgh said he wants to engage political candidates "in more fundamental ways."

The policy wonk said he has been disappointed with how political candidates can simply answer questions in a few words on Twitter.

"You elect people to office. You don't elect platforms to office," he said. "How good are these people at managing and driving agendas? We should know more about their track record."

The committee was founded in 1904 for the purpose of combatting corruption in City Hall, which at the time was rampant with its Republican one-party rule. (Its name was a reference to the Bible's Book of Exodus, in which Moses appoints 70 elders in leading the Israelites to the Promised Land.)

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