Versatile Browns

Familiar is the figure of the executive who has worked up from office boy or shipping clerk, whose leadership of a company has resulted from long familiarity with all its twists and turns. Less familiar, but recently much in vogue, is what might be termed the Professional Executive. His distinguishing characteristic is the fact that he becomes president of a company not because of what he knows about the company but because of what he knows about being a president. He is in the business of running things, and what he runs is a subordinate factor in the situation. Thus last December (TIME, Dec. 10) Hiram Staunton Brown was made president of Radio-Keith-Orpheum with .10 previous experience in the amusement business, and resigned from presidency of U. S. Leathe which he had assumed at a time when he knew little about leather.

Last week another Brown became president of a company with which he has had less than two years' experience. He is Lewis H. Brown, who, at 35, heads Johns-Manville Corp. (roofing). Mr. Brown succeeds the late Theodore Merseles. Both Mr. Brown and Mr. Merseles came to Johns-Manville in August, 1927, Mr. Merseles as President and Mr. Brown as Assistant to the President. Both Mr. Merseles and Mr. Brown came to Johns-Manville from Montgomery Ward, and both made the change after the House of Morgan had become interested in Johns-Manville. Thus Mr. Brown was, in effect, transferred from mail-orders to roofing, said good-bye to catalogues and greeted shingles. It is conceivable enough that should the Morgan group acquire a soap factory and need a good executive for it, Mr. Brown might cease to concern himself with roofing and begin to concern himself with soap.

There is, of course, no good reason why the professional executive should not be successful in many and varied lines. The emphasis in U. S. industry has shifted from production to distribution, and a distribution expert should be able to function with equal facility whether he is distributing Montgomery Ward merchandise or Johns-Manville roofings. Furthermore, he is always working with other executives who have grown up with the company. Thus President Brown has as his Board Chairman William R. Seigle, who has been with Johns-Manville for 29 years.*

*Mr. Seigle succeeds H. E. Manville, who resigned from Board Chairmanship. Mr. Manville's daughter, Estelle Romaine Manville, recently (TIME, Dec. 10) married Count Folke Bernadotte, nephew of King Gustaf of Sweden.