Word: bronner
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Ideally, that should leave more time for Simon to do what he does best--rally the troops and plot strategy. "Irwin has an uncanny ability to get people to charge the mountain for him," says Beth Bronner, senior vice president of marketing at Jim Beam Brands and a longtime Hain Celestial board member. After an earnings disappointment last fall, Simon gathered about 150 employees at his Long Island, N.Y., headquarters for an inspirational screening of Miracle, the feel-good film about the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team's improbable gold-medal victory. Now he has to hope that Hain...
Waving a Cohiba cigar in his expansive office overlooking downtown Montgomery, Ala., David Bronner talks enthusiastically about his investments: in an airline just reorganized after bankruptcy, a chain of luxury golf resorts and a group of television stations. Is he a gunslinging Sunbelt entrepreneur in the mold of Ted Turner? A hedge-fund manager? A contrarian private-equity investor? Not even close. Bronner, 58, is, in his own words, "a government bureaucrat"--the chief executive of Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA), the pension fund for 290,000 state workers and retirees. An unabashed cheerleader for Alabama who is comfortable...
...Bronner turned heads last fall when RSA spent $240 million for a 37% stake in the nation's seventh largest passenger carrier, US Airways, which this month emerged from Chapter 11 protection and named Bronner as its new chairman. Some of his ideas for reviving the airline involve RSA's other unorthodox ventures, including its $5 billion in media holdings and its string of acclaimed Alabama golf courses, the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. "I'll give US Airways free advertising," Bronner says. The pitch: "Fly US Airways to the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail...
...synergy aren't the typical way to provide for the golden years of assistant principals and highway patrol officers. Most state pension funds are staid, blue-chip investors that focus on earning steady returns. But since taking over RSA in the early 1970s, when it was worth $500 million, Bronner, a finance Ph.D., has overseen its growth into a $22.4 billion concern. Under Bronner, RSA has ventured boldly into direct investments intended not only to fund state workers' pensions but also to boost Alabama's lagging economy and image. "I don't want to be a pension-fund manager...
...Airways acquisition, which included a $500 million loan to help the airline through bankruptcy reorganization, has pension-fund experts wondering about the risks of Bronner's approach. The deal makes RSA the carrier's largest equity investor (RSA already held $340 million in US Airways debt and owned nine of the airline's jets.) RSA's stake should create jobs in Alabama, where the carrier is expected to build new regional facilities. But whether that sort of spending will benefit the airline and its shareholders--including RSA--is another question...