Personal Information:
Name: Tom Knox
Age: 66
Marital status: Married for 30 years to wife Linda with two grown sons, T.J. and Brandon.
Current Residence: Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, PA
Political Affiliation: Democrat
Background / Experience:
- Knox was raised in Philadelphia’s Abbotsford public housing as the oldest of four sons of Thomas and Margaret Knox. Tom's father was a steel worker at the nearby Midvale-Heppenstall Steel plant and his mother supplemented the family income by selling homemade pizzas to their neighbors. Tom worked to help his mother and father provide for his younger brothers by working in a nearby cotton processing plant.
- Knox served for four years in the U.S. Navy
- Knox is a self-made businessman, with an estimated multimillion-dollar fortune, who, over the past three decades, has owned, managed, and sold his own software, banking, and health care insurance companies, including Disc Systems, Inc., Crusader Bank, Gimco International, and Kasser Industries.
- Served as Deputy Mayor for the Office of Management and Productivity under former Mayor Ed Rendell and is credited with significant influence in balancing the City's budget. Knox re-established a bidding process for many city contracts, consolidated and reorganized the city's Management Information Services, and reorganized the Office of Fleet Management. By renegotiating many of the city's leases and insurance contracts, Tom is credited with saving the city millions of dollars per year.
- Served as Special Deputy Rehabilitator & Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Co., which had been placed in rehabilitation by the Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner.
- Served as Chief Executive Officer of UnitedHealthcare until his resignation in 2006 to run for mayor.
Campaign Information:
Knox for Philly
1717 Arch Street
Suite 3240
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone: 215-636-0660
Website: www.knoxforphilly.com/
Key Policy Issues / Positions:
As outlined on the candidate's campaign Web Site.
- Stop the wave of crime and violence in Philadelphia by providing better law enforcement and tough prosecution of criminals and by targeting the causes for crime by revitalizing education and encouraging new economic opportunities.
- Provide a better quality healthcare for all Philadelphians by making healthcare for every Philadelphian convenient, affordable, and of high quality yet do so efficiently.
- Promote a sustainable Philadelphia for all current and future citizens. Knox stresses the need to identify, design and implement fiscally and environmentally responsible initiatives, working with the Planning Commission and the Zoning Reform Commission to improve livability in Philadelphia, and work with Philadelphia’s various stakeholders to protect and improve Fairmount Park.
- Tom Knox plans to use a well-funded Community College of Philadelphia not only to train unemployed residents for well paying jobs, train existing workers for future job opportunities and offer specialized training to attract new business to the region.
- Fix Philadelphia’s government so that the City can take back control of Philadelphia’s schools, manage them properly, and ensure the safety of all faculty and students.
- Attack head-on the problem of drug use and its negative effects in Philadelphia. Knox proposes to create a citywide strategy for substance abuse at all levels of government and by hiring 1,000 new uniformed officers to enforce existing laws.
