Features: Who Really Runs This Town?

25. Joe Neubauer
chairman and CEO, Aramark. Rank in 2000: 68
He’s so good, he can’t even retire. Neubauer, 64, who led the food-and-facilities service management company as it merged, changed profile, and went public, stepped down as CEO two years ago — then was reinstated last year after William Leonard left the post. Based in Center City, Aramark, which handles big-time events like the Super Bowl, is one of the region’s five largest companies, netting more than $260 million in 2004, and has some 240,000 employees globally; it was named one of America’s Most Admired Companies by Fortune magazine this year. Neubauer is involved in the local arts scene as a trustee for the Barnes Foundation; he personally donated $1 million to the Philadelphia Art Museum two years ago.
Strength: Affability.
Weakness: Not using his power to help with more than the arts.

26. Mary Mason
talk-radio host. Rank in 2000: Not on list
Mornings With Mary is not a walk in the park. The WHAT host and self-proclaimed “voice of the African-American community,” Mason, 69, has been using the AM waves to spread her let-it-rip gospel — often on matters of race. Samples: Under a white mayor, state control of the school district and Parking Authority never would have happened. The media used unflattering pictures of Street when he was running for reelection “to scare white people.” Mason’s show, which has been broadcast from City Council chambers, is often the voice of choice for Street and other African-American leaders to get an initiative rolling. 
Strength: Nothing is too controversial for Mason to weigh in on.
Weakness: Outrageous claims often mean she’s preaching to the choir.

27. Sidney Kimmel
Chairman, Jones Apparel. Rank in 2000: 22
The next time a $1,200 handbag gives you a come-hither look in Barneys New York, go ahead and splurge — some of that money will find its way back to town via the pockets of Sidney Kimmel. Even as Jones Apparel, which bought Barneys in a $400 million deal last year, steadily expands, taking in more than $4.5 billion in sales last year, Kimmel, 77, has been downsizing his personal fortune, a reinvention from rag-trade magnate to heavyweight philanthropist he’s been pushing since the company’s 1991 IPO. The Sidney Kimmel Foundation has given some $420 million since 1993, much of it locally.
Strength: His munificence, which made him #21 on Business Week’s Most Generous Philanthropists list — ahead of Oprah, Ted Turner and David Geffen.
Weakness: Shyness, though his wife Caroline has helped bring him out of his shell.

28. Jim Nevels
chairman, the School Reform Commission. Rank in 2000: Not on list
The 53-year-old Nevels is co-founder and chairman of West Chester’s Swarthmore Group, an independent investment advisory firm and one of the largest minority-owned companies in the state, with nearly $2 billion in assets. But that’s not why he’s on the list — since ’01, the gung-ho Nevels has made real progress in improving one of our most urgent and intractable problems, the city’s schools. District test scores have risen steadily in the past three years, and Nevels has implemented major building renovations, extended-day and summer-school programs, zero-tolerance discipline attitudes, multicultural classes, and trade apprentice programs.
 Strength: Constantly reminding us that the children, not politicians, have the most at stake.
Weakness: His shoot-from-the-hip style is sometimes alienating: In discussions with union leader Pat Gillespie to bring vocational training programs into city schools, he said it’s easier to get kids into Ivy League colleges than into the construction trade.

29. H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest
philanthropist. Rank in 2000: Not on list
He may not be our biggest local private donor, but he’s probably the loudest. In the past several years, former cable magnate Lenfest, 75, and his wife, Marguerite, have publicly promised to give away $1 billion, most of it during their lifetimes. Already, they’ve given to more than 200 local nonprofits — including the Kimmel Center, the Barnes Foundation, the Art Museum and the United Way. With Lenfest practically begging to drop cash, that list — and the influence that goes with it — is only going to multiply.
Strength: As a hands-on philanthropist, Lenfest can control exactly how his money is spent — by, for example, requiring the Kimmel Center to meet various financial goals in order to receive his donation.
Weakness: Lenfest gave more than $33 million to his high school alma mater, Mercersburg Academy in central Pennsylvania. Otherwise, his giving — so far — has been widespread and in relatively small amounts; giving to fewer would increase the gifts’ impact.