Managing Director Adam Thiel is a mystery to some, but has won over his doubters

Adam K. Thiel has more than 30 years of emergency management experience. He worked in four other states before becoming Philly’s fire commissioner in 2016, and he also served as the director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management from 2019 to 2022.

But for many community advocates, the man Mayor Cherelle Parker has tapped to be her managing director and implement her vision of a “cleaner, greener, safer” city is a mystery.

“He is definitely an unknown,” said the Rev. Michelle Simmons, founder and CEO of Why Not Prosper, a reentry program for women that takes a housing-first approach in providing services.

“That choice came way out of left field.”

Simmons isn’t alone in her assessment.

“I don’t understand how a fire chief becomes the managing director.”

“I didn’t really know him,” said J. Jondhi Harrell, founder and executive director of TCRC Community Healing Center, which sponsors some of the city’s largest weekly food giveaways in West and North Philadelphia.

“I don’t understand how a fire chief becomes the managing director.”

“I don’t know him personally, I’ve just seen him out and about. But I know people who worked under him and they speak highly of him,” said Tonie Willis, founder of Ardella’s House, a residential program for women returning from incarceration.

At her inauguration, Parker promised to install an executive team that would include the best talent “in city government, across the Philadelphia region, and the country.”

During her announcement, she called Thiel “a big thinker” and said “he sees the big picture and how all of the collaboration at the federal state and local level, and how all of that collaboration is essential.”

It isn’t the first time Thiel has faced questions regarding his bona fides.

Thiel was deputy secretary of Virginia’s Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs department when then-Mayor Jim Kenney picked him to lead Philadelphia’s fire department, the first non-Philadelphian to ever do so.

The announcement was greeted by a chorus of discontent from firefighters who opposed the hiring of an outsider.

Kenney said at the time that he wanted a fresh perspective on the problems that were plaguing the fire department — including reports of sexual harassment, high racial tensions, and poor emergency response times. But Thiel was replacing a Black fire commissioner, Derrick Sawyer, who had a good record and the backing of the union.

Club Valiants, which represents Black professional firefighters, responded by releasing a statement, saying, “While we respect the mayor exercising his prerogative to choose his own administration, we do not believe that there is justification for removing an effective leader with a stellar record.”

» READ MORE: Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker names Philly Fire Commissioner Adam K. Thiel as her managing director

Thiel gradually won over his doubters.

Ruth Birchett is a longtime community volunteer. For more than 10 years, she was also a volunteer with the American Red Cross, often dispatched to neighborhoods to help after fires and other disasters.

“For over 10 years I was a disaster response leader and Red Cross volunteer and whenever there was a fire we would get a call from the fire department to be dispatched to assist at the scene because of the citizen impact,” Birchett explained.

“He’s very personable and cares about community.”

That’s how she met Thiel.

“Commissioner Thiel shows up. Not as a performance. He shows up as a real fire professional. He’s very personable and cares about community,” she said, adding that “it’s exciting to hear” that Thiel is now the city’s managing director.

Others who have worked with Thiel also give him a thumbs up.

“[The] Fire department, under his leadership, has been intentional about hiring bilingual and bicultural staff as a way to be inclusive and better serve our diverse Philly community,” said Amy Eusebio, executive director of the Office of Immigrant Affairs (OIA).

“[The] Fire department under his leadership has been intentional about hiring bilingual and bicultural staff.”

Romana Lee-Akiyama, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Public Engagement, said, “[Thiel] had been a steadying force for the city during the onset of the COVID pandemic — some of the most challenging times.”

The managing director is essentially the city’s chief operating officer, but each mayor defines the role and the balance between administrative duties, operational control, and decision-making influence.

The demands are already beginning to pour in, which will test Thiel’s ability to deliver on Parker’s promise of a safer, greener city while addressing the urgent concerns of hundreds of community leaders.

Immediately after Parker’s inauguration ceremony, she signed her first executive order, calling for new Police Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel and Thiel to come up with “comprehensive plans that address public safety across the city” over the next 100 days.

Thiel — along with City Solicitor Renee Garcia — are also responsible for determining whether the city should “invoke additional emergency powers.”

» READ MORE: Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker declares public safety emergency

Share Food Program executive director George Matysik, who applauds Thiel’s handling of the pandemic, wants him to help such organizations as Share eliminate food insecurity.

“The managing director’s role is about properly scaling and equitably administering city resources and services. In the emergency management world, we saw Adam Thiel expertly do this as fire commissioner and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Matysik said.

”In his new role, we’re hopeful that Managing Director Thiel will continue to invest in our city, and to help organizations like ours eliminate food insecurity in the region,” he added.

Harrell is more specific and wants Thiel to appoint a food czar to help organize what he considers a chaotic distribution of free food in the city.

I want him to pay attention to what is happening on State Road and how people are being treated in the jails.”

“I want him to support our organization and see food distribution as a priority. Someone to really look at how food is distributed and pantries are supported,” Harrell said.

Willis said: “I want him to pay attention to what is happening on State Road and how people are being treated in the jails.”

Simmons wants Thiel to avoid breaking things that are working. She is concerned with losing ground on collaborative community efforts launched under Erica Atwood, the senior director of the Office of Policy and Strategic Initiatives for Criminal Justice and Public Safety, which is part of the managing director’s office.

“The last five years, we have worked with them and I am thankful for that,” Simmons said.

“We don’t know much about him but we’re about to find out.”