12.26.

99 07:14:08

New leaders for a new century

Compiled by Business Writers Lynn Arditi, Timothy C. Barmann, William J. Donovan,

Neil Downing, Russell Garland, Brian C. Jones, Nora Lockwood Tooher and Bob Wyss.
Edited By John Kostrzewa, business editor.

The national economy boomed in 1999.

Rhode Island's jobless rate fell to historic lows. New wealth was created from business
and stock market gains. A downtown mall breathed new life into Providence.

Still, as 1999 closes, business leaders know that all is not well with the local economy.

The rate of new jobs being created is the lowest in the region. There's a mismatch
between the skills of workers that companies need and what schools are teaching.

The failure to advance a plan to develop a cargo port at Quonset Point stalled a long-term
economic strategy to connect Rhode Island to the global economy.

And the collapse of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care of New England caused a crisis for
businesses, patients and the health care industry, Rhode Island's biggest employer.

As a new century breaks, leaders will be needed to fix what still ails Rhode Island's
economy. Some old faces may reappear. New ones may step forward.

Here are the Rhode Islanders expected to meet the new challenges.

Gov. Almond , 63, has less than three years left in his administration. What he can get
done is a question mark.

Almond has had a golden opportunity, especially with the stellar national economy, to
restructure the state's economy. He's had some success, most notably in attracting
financial services jobs to Rhode Island.

But the state still has serious problems, and there is evidence that if the national economy
stumbles, Rhode Island will fall the farthest first. To many, Almond has been a low-
energy governor who has struggled to marshall powerful resources to get things changed.

The messy resignation of John Swen, the governor's economic development director, and
the credit-card fiasco that snared some of Swen's top lieutenants will not help Almond's
legacy.
Alan Hassenfeld, 51, head of the Hasbro toy empire, would be invited to the table for
any discussion of major change in Rhode Island.

The Pawtucket-based company he runs has cut back on its manufacturing, but still
employs about 1,200 here. The number-two toy company in the world, Hasbro continues
to grow and has acquired a string of companies in the past several years -- most recently
Wizards of the Coast, the maker of the wildly popular Pokemon trading cards.

Hassenfeld lately has been less outspoken on public issues than in the past. But he still
occasionally speaks out in areas such as campaign finance reform. He and his top aide,
Alfred Verrecchia, still have a strong voice in directing the state's economy.

Thomas Ryan , 47, is chairman and chief executive of CVS Corp., Rhode Island's largest
company in sales. CVS employs 1,600 at its Woonsocket headquarters and is building an
annex that will house another 750 employees.

Ryan has emerged as a prominent, new leader in Rhode Island's business and political
communities, and was out front in pushing plans for a new basketball stadium for his
alma mater, the University of Rhode Island.

Co-chair of the state's Economic Policy Council, he also lobbied unsuccessfully on his
own with a group of business executives in 1999 for an income tax cut for the rich.

Terrence Murray , 60, was also a leader of the business group that lobbied for the
income tax cut. New England's top banker, Murray is at the helm of a financial institution
that is unrivaled in the region.

As chairman and chief executive officer of the new FleetBoston Financial Corp. --
created out of the merger of Fleet Financial Group and BankBoston Corp. -- Murray's
decisions will reverberate throughout New England -- and beyond.

Murray is scheduled to turn over the reins to Chad Gifford, BankBoston's former CEO, in
2001, and stay on as bank chairman until 2002, when he is to retire. The question is: Who
will be the next Terry Murray? Will it be Gifford? Or Murray's long-time lieutenant and
native Rhode Islander, Robert J. Higgins ? Or will someone else step into the spot?

Barnet ``Bunny'' Fain , 67, is one of the key figures in determining the future of
Lifespan, the financially strained hospital network that dominates the Rhode Island's
health care system.

As the network's unpaid chairman, Fain faces two major challenges: completing the
proposed merger of Lifespan and Care New England, a one-time rival system; and
putting a tourniquet on Lifespan's mammoth losses.

Paul J. Choquette, Jr. , runs Gilbane Building Co., the largest privately-held company
in Rhode Island. He seldom steps into the spotlight on public policy issues, but his
opinion and clout are important in any talk about the state's future.
Choquette, 61, has long been active in civic and business circles, serving on such high-
profile boards of directors as FleetBoston. As chairman and chief executive officer of
Gilbane, he heads one of Rhode Island's oldest and largest companies, founded in 1873.

Choquette, who first made his name as a football and track star at Brown University, is a
lawyer who served as legal counsel to former governor John H. Chafee. He joined
Gilbane as its general counsel in 1969. He was elected vice president in 1971 and
executive vice president in 1975. He has held his current title since 1997.

Howard G. Sutton succeeded Stephen Hamblett in April as publisher of The Providence

Journal, the state's largest newspaper, and as president and chief executive officer of The
Providence Journal Co. The company employs 1,400.

Owned since 1997 by Belo, the national media company based in Dallas, The Providence
Journal continues to be the leading source of state and local news in Rhode Island. The
newspaper's editorial page shapes opinions throughout the region.

Sutton, 49, began at the Journal Company in 1973 as a circulation statistician and worked
his way up, managing most of the company's operations. He is active in community
affairs and played a key role in making WaterFire a downtown fixture. The event has
helped make Providence a destination city.

Beverly Scott, 48, general manager of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, has
made the statewide bus company a player in a range of economic issues, from the state's
welfare-to-work program to the continuing redevelopment of Providence's downtown.

Under her leadership, RIPTA has modernized its operations and bought new buses,
including the trolleys serving central Providence. Her efforts to reduce operating losses
by dropping routes and service with few riders have been controversial. Unhappy with
the way her top deputy handled the disappearance of a RIPTA generator, a situation in
which his son was implicated, Scott swiftly forced him out and fired his son.

Scott's influence extends beyond RIPTA. She is treasurer of Grow Smart Rhode Island, a
group formed in 1998 to combat urban sprawl.

His company has gobbled up one company and been devoured by another but Richard P.
Sergel so far is coming out a winner.

Sergel, 50, is president and chief executive of New England Electric System, the parent
of Narragansett Electric and soon the parent of Blackstone Valley Electric and Newport
Electric. Even though a British company, National Grid PLC, plans to buy the Westboro,
Mass.-based NEES, it appears so far to be delegating local control to Sergel, who has
only been at the helm since February 1998. Whether Sergel continues to control Rhode
Island's electricity grid mostly depends on what happens if energy companies resume
gobbling up their neighbors.
Atty. Gen. Sheldon Whitehouse is playing a key role in some major business matters.
He has been out front on the national tobacco case settlement and has taken part in other
high-profile business-related matters involving lead paint as well as children's toys.

Whitehouse, 44, who was elected in 1998, has also been an outspoken advocate of
changing the way the health care system works, especially since the collapse of Rhode
Island's Harvard Pilgrim and the crisis it created. He is no stranger to crisis: Whitehouse
served in numerous key roles for former Governor Bruce G. Sundlun during Rhode
Island's bank and credit union crisis in the early 1990s. He also coordinated the
implementation of worker's compensation insurance reform.

As director of the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation, Tom Schumpert ,

58, is also the state's insurance commissioner.

The collapse of Harvard Pilgrim, and problems with other health insurers, have created a
climate of crisis. Schumpert has tried to calm the waters while working to resolve the
problems.

Born in Tupelo, Miss., the oldest of nine children, he is an Air Force veteran whose
service includes a tour of duty in Vietnam. He later graduated from Rutgers University
and has had more than 25 years of banking experience, including work at Fleet National
Bank and the former Bank of New England.

J. Daniel Lugosch III , 48, developer of the Providence Place mall, has earned his place
among the most well-known names in Rhode Island.

And even though he's not an official resident -- he and his family live in Dover, Mass. --
he might as well be. His shopping mall has helped transform the landscape (not to
mention the traffic patterns) of the capital city's downtown.

Now the question is: How long will Lugosch stay? No one expects this hard-driving
developer to leave until construction of his shopping mall is, finally, completed. But
Lugosch has his fingers in a project in an upscale suburb of Pittsburgh. And if he's like
most developers, once enough money pours into Providence, Lugosch will cash in -- and
move on.

Christopher ``Kip'' Bergstrom, 47, is executive director of the Rhode Island Economic
Policy Council.

Even in good times Rhode Island doesn't create jobs as quickly as other states. Bergstrom
heads the organization doing the long-term planning for the state's economy. He says
Rhode Island can grow if positioned as part of a new Boston-metro market. But will
business leaders agree and put their companies in the Ocean State?

Lawrence K. Fish, 55, has built Citizens Financial Group into the second-biggest bank
in New England.
As chairman and chief executive, Fish has made a series of strategic acquisitions to
position the bank to be a powerful player in people's lives in Rhode Island and the region.

Fish was co-chairman of the Economic Policy Council in 1997 and 1998. But he seemed
to have lowered his public profile until last week's hearing into the failure of Harvard
Pilgrim. As the highest-ranking CEO at the hearing, he blasted the health insurer and
questioned whether it had misled employers and people in Rhode Island.

Jay S. Sidhu , 48, the chief executive officer of Sovereign Bancorp, of Pennsylvania,
was a complete unknown in Rhode Island -- and New England, for that matter -- until he
made one of the boldest moves of any bank executive.

Sidhu and his bank bought 278 branches Fleet Financial Group sold to win regulatory
approval of its takeover of BankBoston Corp. Now, Sidhu is at the top of New England's
third-largest bank.

And the man he has chosen to run the New England operation is Hartford, Conn. native
Joseph P. Campanelli. Together, Sidhu and Campanelli, 43, president and chief operating
officer of Sovereign Bank New England, will be trying to stake their claim against such
banking giants as FleetBoston and Citizens.

Curt Spalding, 40, is executive director of Save the Bay.

In the bitter debate last year over a proposed container cargo port on Narragansett Bay,
Spalding often took a position somewhere between environmentalists opposed to any
new port and pro-development parties who saw the environmental community as
obstructionist. Though he fought against a large-scale port, he also supported a Bay-wide
growth plan. The Bay remains central to the state's economy and Spalding and Save the
Bay will continue to push their vision of how it should be developed.

Tourism is one of the state's largest industries. The job of James Wood, 45, president
and CEO, Providence/Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau is to keep it growing.

He has some products to pitch. Providence Place is open. Another hotel is going up in
Providence to help fill the need for more hotel rooms. Last February, Wood left his job
with the Tampa, Fla. convention and visitors bureau to take over the PWCVB, the largest
tourism bureau in Rhode Island. He led his staff in landing the National Governor's
Association annual conference for 2001.

She's back. Trudy Coxe, an environmental gadfly at Save the Bay before taking
government posts in Washington and later in Boston, has returned to Rhode Island.

Never shy, Coxe, 51, drew heads again when she unexpectedly agreed to become
executive director of The Preservation Society of Newport County, the $13-million-a-
year nonprofit organization that runs the Newport mansions. The summer cottages of
America's 19th Century nouveau riche have become the biggest tourist draw in a state
economy increasingly dependent on the tourism dollar.
In a matter of weeks Southern Union Co. has become a major energy player in Rhode
Island with the purchase of Fall River Gas., Providence Energy and Valley Resources.

The company is controlled by a wealthy New Yorker, George Lindemann but the
executive who runs it under the title of president and chief operating officer is Peter
Kelley. It has been Kelley, 51, who has converted a sorry debt-ridden Austin, Texas
utility into what is fast becoming a national energy company with 1.5 million customers
with aims of reaching 3 million. It's unclear how much authority Kelley will delegate to
local managers but it is clear that at this point he is in command and will help determine
how much Rhode Islanders pay for natural gas.

Christine C. Ferguson, 41, director of the state Department of Human Services, is

overseeing the state's study into whether Rhode Island can guarantee health benefits to all
residents.

As a top aide to the late U.S. Sen. John H. Chafee, she played a key role in trying to forge
national health insurance in the early 1990s. Ferguson's welfare agency spends $666
million annually through the state-federal Medicaid program, which includes the
RIteCare plan, begun to make sure children and mothers have health benefits and which
has 90,000 enrollees.

Ronald A. Battista , 51, took over as president of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode
Island last year, when the state's largest health insurance company was in a nose dive --
losing money and up for sale.

A year later, Blue Cross's fortunes have turned around: it's making money, it's off the
auction-block for now and it's gaining customers. Battista says a merger with a larger
company in the future is a probability. Meanwhile, Blue Cross continues to attract
controversy through moves to shore up its long-term survival.

Patrick J. Kennedy, 32, the three-term congressman from the First District, is deeply
involved in health care issues, not only at the federal level, where he is allied with top
Democratic leaders, but back home in Rhode Island.

He has used his close ties developed as a state representative to help push the General
Assembly to enact some of the nation's strongest laws regulating the sales of hospitals
and insurance companies.

Lisa Churchville, 46 , has become one of the most visible businesswomen in Rhode
Island.

She was named president and general manager of NBC 10 (WJAR-TV) in 1997 and has
beefed up the station's Web site, changed audience measuring to a meter-based system,
and is overseeing the transition to digital technology. Coming to Rhode Island from stints
in Philadelphia, New York and Chicago, Churchville has plunged into the local business
and civic scene. She is co-vice chairman of the Greater Providence Chamber of
Commerce with an eye toward a bigger role for the state's biggest business lobbying
group.

David R. Paolo, 31, is the chief executive and founder of Log On America.

The company specializes in Internet services and has recently begun offering telephone
service. A year ago, the Providence-based company was broke; today it is flush with
cash, thanks to a successful initial public offering that raised $25.3 million, and a recent
investment by a major telecommunications equipment maker of $5 million. And the
company has commitments for up to $50 million in financing. Through several
acquisitions, Log On America now has operations in several New England states.

Paolo plans to compete against telecommunications giants such as Bell Atlantic and Cox
Communications. He says customers are anxious to leave Bell and sign up for a package
of services that include telephone and high-speed Internet access.

Dan Harple, 40, has lived the lifestyle of a high-tech Silicon Valley executive, and
decided he liked life better here in Rhode Island.

A graduate of the University of Rhode Island, Harple is a former vice president with
Netscape Communications Corp. He came back to form a new Internet media company in
Providence that is working with big-name clients such as the Discovery Channel.
Harple's company, Context Media, helps big media companies produce material suitable
for several different methods of distribution, including television, the Internet and hand-
held computers.

The company has raised about $10 million in venture capital, and it plans to make a
splash with its first products and services next year. Harple has managed to recruit some
top tech talent, including several from Netscape. The company employs about 25, and
that could balloon to 100 by the end of 2000. One of his main selling points: The quality
of life in Rhode Island beats Silicon Valley hands down.

Eugene Y.W. Lee , 48, was the prime mover in the successful effort to establish a new
mutual fund in the hot field of Internet stocks. The fund, managed by Lee's firm, Integrity
Global Asset Management of South Kingstown, was launched in November.

Lee, who is on leave as an associate professor of finance at the University of Rhode

Island, has long-range plans to expand his firm and launch more mutual funds. He is also
active in the community, as president of the Korean American Association of Rhode
Island, a nonprofit group that promotes Korean culture and works to increase the political
influence of the Korean community. He is a native of South Korea.

Cheryl Watkins Snead, 41, president of Banneker Industries, a Lincoln company that
specializes in supply chain management, is one of Rhode Island's most active black
business leaders.

Snead is involved in the Ocean State Business Forum, a networking group of black
business owners and professionals, and is a Bank Rhode Island director. She is on the
Rhode Island Small Business Administration Advisory Council and is the state's delegate
to the SBA's National Advisory Council. She is president of the Greater Providence
chapter of The Links, a nonprofit organization of 10,000 women worldwide.

Steven Fielding, 39, president of Fielding Manufacturing, a Cranston molding, casting

and tooling company, is an effective advocate for the manufacturing sector, which he
says will play a critical role in Rhode Island's economic future.

He was a founder and the first president of the Rhode Island Plastics Partnership Council,
and is acting president of the Manufacturing Partnership, which provides training and
education. Fielding was an original board member of the Rhode Island Manufacturing
Extension Services, which offers technical help to manufacturers, and has worked on the
state's School-to-Career initiative.

Copyright © 1999 The Providence Journal Company

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