HARRISBURG – In his continuing effort to ensure jobs are created and federal stimulus funds are spent wisely, Gov. Edward G. Rendell appointed Ronald J. Naples of Montgomery County to serve as Chairman of the Governor’s Working Group for Stimulus Accountability and Chief Accountability Officer for Pennsylvania ’s share of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
“It won’t be long until you will see more and more people packing their lunch pails and heading back to work,” Rendell said. “Federal stimulus money is starting to flow into Pennsylvania to help put people back to work and stabilize our economy. There’s a surge going on in our economy. It’s not a tsunami yet, but it is building.
“In addition to creating jobs for hard working Pennsylvanians, the stimulus money will help us to achieve energy independence, reduce the cost of health care and improve public schools while stabilizing property taxes, and keep the costs of state government down and manageable in the long term.
“In choosing Ron Naples, we are fortunate to have a leader with solid business experience to oversee the stimulus funding. Ron knows what it takes to put people to work and he knows how critically important it is for the stimulus funding to revive our economy. He will work closely with my administration and the Stimulus Oversight Commission that begins its work today.”
Naples will be a member of the Pennsylvania Stimulus Oversight Commission, which will review Recovery Act guidelines and reporting responsibilities to ensure the state’s compliance with federal requirements for tracking and publicly reporting how the funding is spent.
The commission will include members of the four state legislative caucuses, the Pennsylvania congressional delegation, representatives of the AFL -CIO, United Way, and the PA Chamber of Business and Industry. The commission’s first meeting followed the announcement of Naples ’ appointment.
He will also work closely with Department of General Services Secretary James Creedon, who is serving as the state’s stimulus implementation director and other administration officials on the Governor’s Working Group for Stimulus Accountability to help ensure effective use of resources provided in the Recovery Act.
Naples has more than three decades of business and civic leadership experience, most recently at Quaker Chemical Corp. in Conshohocken where he served as chief executive officer for 13 years. Before joining Quaker, he was chief executive officer at Hunt Manufacturing Co. for 14 years. Previously, he was the executive director of a Presidential Task Force on energy problems. He is a former White House Fellow, appointed for 1974-75, and served in the Ford Administration as assistant to the counselor to the president for economic affairs, Kenneth Rush, and as a special assistant to the counselor to the head of the Federal Energy Administration, Frank Zarb.
A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Naples is a decorated U.S. Army veteran whose service included tours in Vietnam and Germany. He earned a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Master of Arts in International Economic Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
In addition to serving as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia , Naples has made a commitment to public service through leadership positions with numerous community organizations that include Greater Philadelphia First, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Franklin Institute, and the American Red Cross.
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