Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker selects Adam Thiel as Philadelphia's newest managing director
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Cherelle Parker added another prominent Philadelphia figure to her administration Tuesday morning. In just one week, Parker will be sworn in as Philadelphia's 100th mayor, and on Tuesday, the mayor-elect made a big announcement.
During a press conference Tuesday at City Hall, Parker announced Adam Thiel as the city's managing director.
Thiel currently serves as Philadelphia's fire commissioner and in his new role as managing director, he will oversee city operations.
Thiel has served as the city's fire commissioner since May 2016. He additionally served as director of the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management from 2019 to 2022.
"I'm here today with a promise, to work every day with you," Thiel said. "Your administration and the thousands of men and women who serve our city to deliver a safer, cleaner and greener city with economic opportunity for all."
Parker said Thiel brings a wealth of knowledge about emergency management, government operations and crisis leadership.
According to the mayor's office, over Thiel's 31 years of experience, he has helped plan response and recovery initiatives for executive and national disasters, including 9/11, extreme weather events and the pandemic.
Over the last three decades, Thiel has held top fire and emergency management roles in four other states. Now he'll act as the chief operating officer for Philadelphia.
"I have a pretty good sense of how the city works, how city government works and I think how it can work," he said.
Thiel said this wasn't a job he initially sought out and that he was looking forward to his next chapter. But he was drawn to Parker's vision for the city – this buy-in also sold Parker on Thiel.
"I can tell you that's what got me. I'm all in. Absolutely safer, cleaner, greener, we can do that under the mayor-elect's vision, her leadership," Thiel said.
"To meet this moment in the Parker administration, you have to believe in that big vision, no matter how impossible it may seem," Parker said.
Parker had help in choosing a managing director from a few people who know the job best. Her team brought in three former city managing directors, including Phil Goldsmith, to handle the first round of interviews.
"He walked in and he knocked my socks off. Because he knows how to manage and he certainly knows how to put out fires," Goldsmith said.
He described the job as an orchestra conductor – overseeing a dozen city agencies. He said it's a tough task, but thinks Thiel is up for the job.
"Our city feels like it's in crisis sometimes. And so that's what I do, that's what we do," Thiel said.
Who will be stepping in as the city's fire commissioner though? Parker said she is saving that announcement for another time.
