Speranza Focuses on Education, Health Care, and Chamber Federation

Wegmans prides itself on its treatment of employees. In 2007, the grocery store chain finished #3 on FORTUNE magazine's list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For."

The U.S. Chamber's board on June 6, 2007, tapped as its chairman Paul S. Speranza Jr., the son of a barber who rose from humble beginnings to become vice chairman, general counsel, and secretary of family-owned Wegmans Food Markets, Inc., in Rochester, New York.

Wegmans, a northeastern supermarket chain with 35,000 employees and more than $4 billion in annual sales, is known for its selection of high-quality food, its superior customer service and treatment of employees, and its industry leadership and innovation.

The Food Network, in its first-ever awards show, gave Wegmans the award for the "grocery chain that changed the way we shop," and BusinessWeek named Wegmans number five on its list of customer service champions. Speranza, in leading Wegmans' legal department for more than 30 years, takes particular pride in the fact that Ethisphere Magazine named Wegmans one of the most ethical companies in the world based on the implementation of its code of ethics, how it handles litigation, its compliance with laws and regulations, and its leadership, among other criteria.

Wegmans also gets high marks from its employees. "Our employees always come first," Speranza says. "When you take care of them, they take care of the customers, and the bottom line takes care of itself." In 2007, Wegmans ranked third on FORTUNE magazine's list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For," the 10th consecutive year it made the list. From 2005 to 2007, it was ranked number one in the over 10,000 employee category.

Many of Wegmans' employees come from disadvantaged backgrounds, and some are the product of the Hillside Work Scholarship Connection Program, started by Wegmans in the late 1980s to boost Rochester's high school graduation rate among economically disadvantaged students. The Hillside Family of Agencies now runs the program, which provides job training, tutoring, and mentoring for at-risk students. Some 1,300 Rochester youths participate. The graduation rate (almost 70%) of Hillside students is twice that of comparable students.

Speranza's commitment to the program is remarkable, says Dennis Richardson, CEO of the Hillside Family of Agencies. "What strikes me most about Paul is his clarity of purpose," Richardson says. "He is very determined and one of the most productive people I've ever met. He's pointed, but always in the most diplomatic manner. When he commits to something, he follows through-and very quickly."

During the 1990s, Speranza served as chairman of the board of Our Lady of Mercy High School (a Catholic high school for girls) and established the Scholarship of Hope, a four-year Our Lady of Mercy scholarship for economically disadvantaged students. "Our Lady of Mercy was in poor financial shape, but Paul was able to raise tuition while increasing enrollment," says Sister Carol Wulforst, the school's president at the time. "He saved the school."

Says Speranza, "We all have a responsibility to give America's children the same opportunities that others have given us." For Speranza, education was the ticket to a better life. As a young boy, Speranza's paternal grandfather worked in the sulphur mines in Sicily in virtual slavery before he and Speranza's grandmother emigrated to the United States. In about 1900, a crusading Italian journalist described witnessing a group of small, seminaked boys carrying huge baskets of sulphur in oppressive heat. He wrote:

Some fell exhausted, others cried out. I have seen men shot, hanged, lynched, and massacred. I have seen horrors of every kind and deaths in every way, but I have seen nothing that affected me like this. Some children lived underground for days at a time. Many died in the mines, others were injured or permanently deformed.

Speranza's father was a barber, and Speranza began working in his father's barbershop at the age of 14, practicing giving haircuts at, of all places, an orphanage run by the Hillside Family of Agencies. "My parents always stressed the importance of an education, hard work, and never giving up," Speranza says.

Speranza was the first in his family to graduate from college, earning a full academic scholarship to Syracuse University and graduating early. He then graduated early from the University of San Francisco School of Law and earned a graduate tax law degree from New York University, which is consistently ranked as the number one tax program in America.

Eleven months out of law school, Speranza became a partner in a Rochester law firm that represented Wegmans. At age 27, he stood alone on a stack of crates in a warehouse before hundreds of Wegmans' union workers and settled a strike. There hasn't been a strike at the company since. At age 28, although he never applied for the job, Speranza was asked by Bob Wegman, Wegmans' then-chairman of the board and patriarch, to start the company's legal department.

As chairman of the U.S. Chamber board, Speranza will emphasize education, access to afford-able health care, and synergy among local and state chambers and the U.S. Chamber. He is a member of the board of his local and state chambers. "One person or organization can't do it alone," Speranza says. "We always need a team effort."

According to Sandy Parker, CEO of the local chamber, "Paul is ethical and always upbeat. To him, there's no such thing as an insurmountable challenge. He's extremely passionate, and he's a true collaborator."

Adds Kenneth Adams, CEO of the state chamber: "Paul has brought to New York State's business community the same creativity, commitment, and energy that has helped make Wegmans one of the world's most admired companies. He exemplifies the virtues of business leadership that we all try to emulate."

Speranza is married to his "high school sweetheart, soul mate, best friend, and confidante," Cheryl. Just as Speranza's parents stressed the importance of an education with him, so, too, did he and Cheryl with their two grown daughters. Sarah, a physician, is a graduate of Vassar College, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of New England. Martha is a small business owner and operator and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University.