Mitch Wienick has been a high-powered top executive at several large companies.

The Philadelphia Inquirer — Monday, March 25, 2002

Mitch Wienick has been a high-powered top executive at several large companies. So when he was looking for a new position, it might seem ironic that he ended up joining the very career management firm whose founder he had consulted between jobs.

In early January, Wienick began working for Kelleher Associates as a partner. The Wayne-based company, founded by Ed Kelleher, provides customized career management services for senior-level executives. "I'm in charge of business development, and I'm also responsible for counseling some of our clients," Wienick said.

He said the number of clients each person in the firm had was "pretty small." At any given time, he noted, he might have eight to 10 clients, a number similar to the client load carried by the firm's three other principals.

Wienick, 53, said that Kelleher Associates, founded four years ago, was a one-office firm, handling clients primarily from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Although it has only seven employees, he emphasizes that "we do have a network of specialists whom we work with when we need them." Wienick says his goal is to help the company double its revenue "to several million dollars." Kelleher is a privately held firm and does not release specific revenue figures.

Before resigning in October 2000, Wienick was president and chief executive officer of the Philadelphia-based CDI Corp., a staffing, search and outsourcing services company.

He left CDI because "I wasn't happy working in a large corporate environment anymore, and I didn't feel that I was accomplishing some of the things that I wanted to accomplish."

He was previously president of Small Business Services, a unit of Ameritech Corp., and then of Consumer Services, also a part of the telecommunications company.

Earlier in his career he held senior executive positions at Procter & Gamble Co. and Kraft.

Between leaving CDI in October 2000 and joining Kelleher this year, Wienick was working with a private equity firm, looking for businesses to buy. "We got very close literally four times but didn't consummate a deal".

And when the situation calls for it , he can be quite a card — such as the time he dressed up at Ameritech as Gen. George S. Patton, complete with helmet and a couple of pearl-handled toy guns, "to energize the troops. It was very galvanizing. We dramatically improved the level of service."

—By Thomas J. Brady