David Thornburgh, Former President and CEO

Prior to joining the Alliance Mr. Thornburgh served as Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Economy League, Southeastern (PEL) from 1994 to 2006.  The Economy League is a business-led civic organization that supports private sector leadership in improving state and local government and creating a more competitive Pennsylvania.  Under Mr. Thornburgh’s leadership, PEL became one of the nation’s leading regional “think and do tanks”.  Through its research, communications, and leadership PEL helped develop more competitive tax policy, improve the quality of the regional workforce, support the growth of arts and culture, and improve the quality of public sector decision-making.  In the process, the organization quadrupled its project income, doubled its corporate leadership support and grew the organization’s revenues to over $2.0 million, the highest level ever.   In that time, PEL received nine national awards, and its One Big Campus campaign was recognized by the Public Relations Society of Philadelphia as the best public relations campaign in 2001.

Mr. Thornburgh has extensive experience in the areas of regional economic development and civic leadership.  From 1988 to 1994 he served as Director of the Wharton Small Business Development Center (SBDC), a program of the Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Center of The Wharton School, named consistently as one of the nation's top-rated programs in entrepreneurship.  Under Mr. Thornburgh's leadership the Wharton SBDC helped 20,000 entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses, raise $40 million in additional capital, and in the process create 4,000 new jobs in the region. 

In 1990 Mr. Thornburgh founded the Enterprise Center in West Philadelphia, an award-winning urban business accelerator program focused on high-growth potential African-American owned businesses.  He also created a highly successful initiative called the Philadelphia 100 that recognized the fastest-growing private companies in the reigon.  That annual program is now in its 17th year. 

He also created and managed entrepreneurial development projects in Russia, China, Hungary, and Japan.  Prior to his appointment at Wharton, from 1985 to 1988 he served as Director of Civic Affairs at the CIGNA Corporation in Philadelphia, where he was involved in all aspects of the company’s civic involvement, particularly in the areas of community and economic development.

Mr. Thornburgh has received a number of awards for his professional and civic leadership.  In 2000, he was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship and travelled to Australia and New Zealand to meet with top leaders in those countries involved in entrepreneurial development initiatives.  In 1992 he was named one of 34 national finalists in the prestigious White House Fellows Program.  In 1991 he was selected by the Philadelphia Business Journal as one of "40 Business Leaders Under 40", and in 1991 and 1992 was named by the Philadelphia Jaycees as one of five Outstanding Young Leaders in Philadelphia.

A frequent commentator on public policy and regional economic development issues, Mr. Thornburgh has been quoted often in the Philadelphia newspapers and has also been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Inc. and Fortune magazines.  He also has appeared frequently on radio and television in Philadelphia.  His many presentations to business, civic and policy groups range from entrepreneurship to education, tax policy to transportation.  He holds a BA in Political Science from Haverford College and a Master's Degree in Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.  He lives with his wife, Rebecca McKillip Thornburgh, a Wharton MBA turned children’s book illustrator, and their teenage daughters Blair and Alice in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia.  In what spare time he has, Mr. Thornburgh plays guitar in an alt-country rock band, Reckless Amateurs, and is an avid scuba diver.

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