Turns at the Top

Among recent changes in top-level U.S. management:

> Boston's First National Bank named President Roger Damon, 60, as chairman and chief executive officer, succeeding Lloyd Brace, who, at 63, moved up to the largely honorary job of executive committee chairman. During his seven years as president of the nation's oldest bank (its 1784 charter was signed by, among others, John Hancock), Damon has made a name as an innovator. In 1934 he introduced the idea of a bank issuing a letter of credit for individual auto buyers. (He recently recalled: "I said to myself, Good God, if I can do this for International Har vester or Mack Truck, why can't I do it for the guy who's going to buy a Chevrolet?") Only last June Damon came out with Bankcardchek, an imaginative new system combining revolving credit, traveler's checks and a checking account. The first to applaud Damon's promotion was Predecessor Brace, who said: "He is far from the orthodox, pedestrian type of banker. He is a nonroutine thinker."

> Schenley Industries, Inc. named an able, amiable Canadian, John Mackie, 55, as president, succeeding Lewis S. Rosenstiel, 75, who retains his position as chairman and chief executive officer. Mackie moves to New York with professional background as an accountant who became chairman of Schenley's profitable British subsidiary, Seager-Evans. He considers his appointment as the non-American president of "an extremely American company" to be "amazing and wonderful. I can think of no precedent." But he has few illusions about the amount of control he will take over from Rosenstiel. Says he: "I have a tremendous amount of stuff to learn from him. I would be quite unhappy if he absented himself entirely." Mackie needn't worry.

> Pet Inc., since its birth in 1885, has always been pretty much a family affair. Among other things, three successive presidents have been relatives of Founder Louis Latzer, who died in 1924. Last week Pet broke the familial format, named as its president Gordon Ellis, 51, a onetime grocery clerk who, as vice president in charge of operations, helped raise this year's sales to $423,271,000. Still, Ellis will have three Latzer relatives on his top-level corporate team.

> Poor & Co., maker of rail-maintenance and other heavy-duty equipment, looked rich during the first half of 1966, with a profit rise of 20% on sales of $20 million. Now Poor has lost the man most credited with its gains. President Frederick A. Fielder, 53, announced that he is leaving Poor to take over the presidency of CF&I Steel. He will be replaced by John S. Newton, 57, who was recruited from his position as Goodman Division, Westinghouse Air Brake Co. vice president. Fielder is not saying how he plans to help CF&I recover from its slumping sales position among U.S. steel producers. "I have plenty of ideas," he says, "but they're staying right here in my head until I start on the job."

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