New Postmaster General John E. “Jack” Potter is viewed as a solid operations executive who’s no stranger to the workings of the USPS.
“Jack’s hands-on experience in postal management makes him the ideal candidate to focus on improving productivity and trimming costs, ” said Ed Gleiman, the former chairman of the Postal Rate Commission and consultant to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) on postal reform.
Potter, U.S. Postal Service chief operating officer, was named yesterday as the 72nd U.S. Postmaster General, succeeding William J. Henderson, who is leaving office at the end of this month after three years at the position.
“Jack Potter is a great technician and a great manager on the operations side and would be the right person the postal service would need in the days ahead,” said Dan Minnick, vice president of postal affairs at information services company Experian, Orange, CA.
While Potter, like Henderson is a postal service career man, some argued that the USPS needs an outsider to get its financial house in order, like former PMG Marvin Runyon. Runyon had brought the USPS from multi-billion dollar deficits to several years of multi-billion dollar profitability.
“Also, Runyon took the meat-ax approach toward getting rid of employees through early retirements but the USPS had to hire a lot of them back when it got too many complaints that mail service had deteriorated,” Gleiman explained.
But Gleiman noted that Potter, as a USPS insider won’t have the same learning curve that Runyon had and stressed that Runyon benefited from a strong overall economy during the mid-1990s.
“I am looking forward to the challenge of making the Postal Service an even better place tomorrow than it is today,” said Potter at the press conference announcing his appointment. “I consider my selection by the Governors to be a vote of confidence in the Postal Service team – both in the field and here at headquarters.
Potter began his postal career in 1978 as a distribution clerk in Westchester County, NY, just north of New York City. He moved on to hold several staff positions in the Northeast Area Office. In 1986 he advanced to the Postal Career Executive Service as regional manager. He moved to USPS headquarters in 1989 and later served as the manager, capital metro operations.
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