Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Philadelphia Managing Director Adam K. Thiel, a top mayoral appointee who supervises many of the government\u2019s day-to-day operations, is resigning from his job in Mayor Cherelle L. Parker<\/a>\u2019s administration, the mayor announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n Parker said Thiel is leaving his city role to \u201creenter the private sector\u201d after serving as managing director for about 2\u00bd years.<\/p>\n Thiel will be replaced by Carlton Williams, a longtime city official who currently leads Parker\u2019s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives. Williams, 57, will assume oversight of a 550-person staff and a vast portfolio of city operations, including health agencies, homeless services, the streets department, parks and libraries, prisons, and the fire department.<\/p>\n Parker praised Williams\u2019 work implementing new initiatives such as twice-weekly trash collection, and she called him \u201cthe individual with all of the attributes the position requires.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever we\u2019ve had a crisis of any kind in this city, he has been on my speed dial,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The transition, Parker said, will take place over the next \u201cfour to six weeks.\u201d It was not immediately clear who will lead the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives.<\/p>\n Thiel, 54, has been the city\u2019s managing director since Parker took office in January 2024.<\/a> Prior to being appointed to the role, Thiel spent eight years as the city\u2019s fire commissioner under former Mayor Jim Kenney<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the early days of Parker\u2019s tenure, Thiel emerged as a key crisis manager, often flanking the mayor when she responded to emergencies. He was the face of the administration\u2019s strategy in Kensington<\/a>, where Parker campaigned on ending the sprawling open-air drug market that has persisted in the neighborhood for decades.<\/p>\n His office also played a critical role in preparing for an array of major events that the city hosted this summer, including FIFA World Cup games <\/a>and events related to the 250th anniversary of the nation\u2019s founding<\/a>.<\/p>\n Details of Thiel\u2019s new job were not immediately clear. He is a major in the Army Reserve, and he has worked as a consultant and an adjunct professor<\/a>, in addition to his role as managing director. His city salary is $310,000, and last year, he made more than half a million dollars in additional income through his other jobs, according to his financial disclosure.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Philadelphia\u2019s Managing Director Adam Thiel was once everywhere. Now, he\u2019s largely faded from public view.<\/a><\/p>\n Since Thiel joined the Reserve in August 2024,<\/a> he has been one of the administration\u2019s least visible senior officials and was frequently on leave. He did not oversee the response to a January snowstorm that was the city\u2019s worst in five years<\/a> \u2014 despite emergency services falling under his purview \u2014 and parts of the Kensington strategy are now led by other offices.<\/p>\n The Inquirer reported in February<\/a> that Thiel was absent for a total of about five months last year. Of that, six weeks were for military leave \u2014 the maximum the city covers for employees \u2014 and an additional 13 weeks were for general paid leave, according to city records obtained by The Inquirer. A spokesperson for Thiel said he used most of that time off for military service.<\/p>\n Thiel refused to discuss his role in the Army Reserve with The Inquirer. A spokesperson for the Army said Thiel is a major assigned to a civil affairs unit based in Staten Island, N.Y. Last year, the Army Reserve paid Thiel about $32,600, according to his financial disclosure paperwork.<\/p>\n In addition to his jobs with the city and Army, Thiel has worked on the side as a consultant. Last year, he earned $390,000 as president of Pantheon Global Strategies, an opaque company with little in the way of an online footprint. Thiel has in the past refused to discuss the business in detail.<\/p>\n He also earned $120,000 last year from FACETS Consulting LLP, an Arizona-based firm that is publicly advertised as a fire safety consultancy. Thiel is a founding partner.<\/p>\n Thiel has said his consulting work takes fewer than 10 hours per week and did not interfere with his responsibilities as Philadelphia\u2019s managing director. When The Inquirer first reported on Thiel\u2019s consulting work in 2024,<\/a> he would not disclose his clients but said he followed the city\u2019s ethics guidelines related to conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: How Adam Thiel became Mayor Parker\u2019s right-hand man \u2014 and held a six-figure side job<\/a><\/p>\n Before coming to Philadelphia in 2016, Thiel worked in a variety of firefighting, disaster response, and emergency preparedness roles around the country, including as Virginia\u2019s deputy secretary of public safety and homeland security.<\/p>\n He is the third top official to leave Parker\u2019s administration since she first took office in January 2024. Former chief deputy mayors Aren Platt and Sincer\u00e9 Harris, the architects of Parker\u2019s mayoral campaign, each left their posts<\/a> for jobs in politics<\/a> outside government.<\/p>\n In some administrations, the managing director has been the mayor\u2019s clear No. 2, while other former mayors have preferred for power to be concentrated among deputy mayors or other staffers in their office.<\/p>\n Under Parker, Chief of Staff Tiffany W. Thurman is seen as the mayor\u2019s top adviser and the central figure in her administration. Parker has called Thurman<\/a> her \u201cchief air traffic controller.\u201d<\/p>\n She has also placed the execution of much of her agenda on Williams\u2019 shoulders. Earlier this year, he oversaw the city\u2019s response to a major snowstorm, despite that work in the past falling squarely in the managing director\u2019s scope. <\/p>\n Still, Thiel oversaw a large team, and the leaders of more than 30 city agencies and offices reported to him.<\/p>\n One of his major initiatives was coordinating the administration\u2019s efforts to improve quality of life in Kensington. Thiel\u2019s office worked to expand homeless shelter and recovery bed space throughout the city, and he led the development of the Riverview Wellness Village,<\/a> a city-run recovery house in Northeast Philadelphia<\/a> that dramatically grew the city\u2019s capacity to house people with substance use disorder.<\/a><\/p>\n Initially, Thiel absorbed scrutiny from community groups<\/a> and, at times, members of City Council. Lawmakers grilled Thiel on the efforts in Kensington, and they occasionally criticized what they saw as<\/a> a lack of details coming from the Parker administration about the plan.<\/p>\n Despite those early hiccups, more than 200 people live at Riverview, which has been open to residents in recovery for more than a year.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m grateful for what you did,\u201d Parker told Thiel Tuesday. \u201cAnd I\u2019m grateful that you had thick skin.\u201d<\/p>\n