The Most Powerful Man in Philadelphia
When you look at the Philadelphia skyline, both the current version of it and the rendering with the new tower, do you feel a sense of pride and think: Hey, I helped literally to reshape how this city looks? Look, I pinch myself how lucky I am to be in this position. And I try to be careful and thoughtful. But on a human basis, this is beyond our wildest expectations — where Comcast is and hopefully where it will go. And the same is true for the skyline. All of the architects we talked to about the building — and particularly Norman in his presentations — focused a lot on the opportunity to add to the incredible history of Philadelphia. And they wanted to work in Philadelphia. They wanted to take on this assignment. Sure, it’s great business, but when you reach a certain age and a certain world-class stature and say, “This is one of only a couple projects I am going to personally work on” — that’s what Norman committed to do. Even though he’s got a thousand architects in his firm, he is personally going to build this building. The only other U.S. business project I know of right now that he’s personally doing is Apple’s headquarters. That spoke volumes to me.
It’s exciting for Philadelphia. Thank you. I do think your thesis is sort of right — it signals a shift in our company. This is a way to let all our employees across the country know that this is the kind of company we aspire to be. Now we’ve gotta go do it. And at the same time, hopefully, it’s a statement about Philadelphia — that we believe in the leadership and the citizenry of this city and this region, and we want to call this home.
