MARVIN RUNYON
CEO and PMG of the U.S. Postal Service

After two distinguished private sector careers and in the midst of a highly successful tenure as Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Marvin Runyon accepted an offer to become the 70th Postmaster General of the United States on May 5, 1992. Runyon took on the challenge offered him by the nine Presidentially appointed Governors of the Postal Service on July 6, 1992, and promptly went to work implementing many of the techniques that had marked his career first at Ford Motor Company, then at Nissan America and TVA.

Within six months of being on the job, Runyon built a new, leaner management structure better focused on meeting postal customer needs, supervised a financial revitalization and instituted service improvements. To reduce staffing without layoffs, he introduced incentives that led to more than 47,000 voluntary employee retirements by the end of 1992.

The changes all but eliminated a $2 billion deficit the Postal Service faced in 1993, set records for on-time service performance and customer satisfaction, and ended the need to raise postage rates early in 1994. It marked the first time since legislation created the Postal Service in 1970 that the organization had succeeded in keeping rates stable a record fourth year.

As Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer, Runyon leads the Postal Service which, with its more than $50 billion budget and 730,000 employees, would be ranked as the eighth largest company if it were included in the Fortune 500.

He has built a strong pattern of success throughout his working life. Commenting on Runyon's 37-year career at Ford, a senior Ford executive told the Economic Club of Detroit in late 1992: "Runyon's strength was that he understood processes and people. He developed a reputation as a straight-shooting, results-oriented manager who never took his eye off his quality objectives or the needs of his employees."

After leaving Ford in 1980 with the rank of Vice President, Body and Assembly Operations, Runyon became President and Chief Executive Officer of Nissan Motor Manufacturing Corporation U.S.A., where he built from the ground up Nissan's first American operations in Smyrna, Tennessee. In 1988, he left Nissan to head the then-troubled TVA in Knoxville, Tennessee. As Chairman of the Board at TVA, Runyon reduced management layers, cut overhead costs by more than 30 percent, and achieved cumulative savings and efficiency improvements of $1.8 billion. TVA's utility rates had increased on average more than 10 percent per year for 20 years.

Runyon stabilized rates, and changed TVA to the point that the Wall Street Journal said, "The utility is regarded as one of the most effective of federal agencies."

A U.S. Army Air Corps veteran and Texas A&M Graduate, the Dallas, Texas, native is a member of the Society of International Business Fellows and is active in many civic and professional organizations. He is a member of the Economic Club of Washington. He has served on the board of the Electric Power Research Institute and as an at-large member of the electric utilities' Nuclear Power Oversight Committee.

Runyon was selected to Leadership Nashville, Leadership Knoxville, and Leadership Memphis and has served on the Chamber of Commerce board in each of those Tennessee cities. In addition, he has served on United Way boards in Nashville and Knoxville and as a board member of the Memphis in May International Festival, Inc. He has also chaired the Mid-South Minority Purchasing Council's Minority Market Place trade fair and the Tennessee Economic Partnership's Senior Partner Board. In the three years that Runyon chaired Tennessee's Minority Business Opportunity Fair in Nashville, the fair grew into the largest minority business event of its kind in the nation.

A board member of the Metropolitan Nashville Public Education Foundation, Runyon also serves on the Nucleus Fund Committee and International Programs Resource Development Committee of Texas A&M University.

He has been a board member of the Tennessee Technology Foundation, the Southeast U.S./Japan Association, Knoxville's Downtown Organization, the National Conference of Christians and Jews (NCCJ), United Way of Middle Tennessee, and the Rotary Club of Nashville.

For his career of progressive and successful management, the National Management Association in 1992 honored him with its Gold Knight of Management Award. In 1990, he received the Human Relations Award from the NCCJ Nashville Chapter and the Minority Business Development Agency's Special Recognition Award.

Tennessee-Japan Friends in Commerce presented him with their 1989 Crystal Award, and The Knoxville Journal named Runyon "Newsmaker of the Year" in 1988. He also has received the Automotive Hall of Fame's distinguished Service Citation and been named "CEO of the Year" by Nashville's Advantage magazine and "Manager of the Year" by a Nashville chapter of the National Management Association.

He resides in Nashville with his wife, Sue Atkinson, who is president of Atkinson Public Relations, Nashville.