At Tesla, Elon Musk casts himself as a superhero. But he sweats the details on the factory floor.; The Washington Post, July 5, 2018

Drew Harwell, The Washington Post; At Tesla, Elon Musk casts himself as a superhero. But he sweats the details on the factory floor.

"Musk’s bursts of energy have helped make Tesla one of the country’s most prominent and valuable automakers, a Silicon Valley challenger to Detroit that even its rivals contend has shoved American cars into the 21st century.

Meeting the Model 3 production goal, Musk told employees in a email Sunday, had pushed Tesla closer to its mission of accelerating clean energy and changing the world — even if they had taken some unconventional steps to get there. “Whatever,” he said. “It worked.”

But that same energy has also made Musk one of the most polarizing corporate leaders in America, a brash and demanding captain of industry who risks overshadowing his own creation. As Tesla neared its production target, Musk posted on Instagram what he labeled a “selfie”: an image of the superhero Doctor Strange, who wields mystical powers to change time and reality. “Engineering is magic,” he tweeted to his 22 million followers.

“He has achieved a lot by sheer willpower and is one of the most gifted people I’ve ever met,” said Bob Lutz, who has been a senior executive at each of America’s Big Three automakers, including vice chairman of General Motors. “He’s also one of the most flawed.”"

Mr. Zuckerberg goes to Washington — so let’s stop acting like he can’t handle it. He can.; Recode, April 9, 2018

Kara Swisher, Recode; Mr. Zuckerberg goes to Washington — so let’s stop acting like he can’t handle it. He can.

"So, my guess — even if he is attacked badly by an attention-seeking politician, as Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang was when he was called a “moral pygmy” in 2007 — is that he can handle it. More to the point, he has to because, and I will try to say this slowly for those who do not get it: It. Is. His. Job. As. CEO. Of. Facebook.

It’s a job he has also clearly fallen down on from a management point of view, allowing the platform he built to be misused and abused by bad actors by his lack of policing the system he put in place. Mark screwed up here, that much is clear, and he now needs to both atone and fix it.

The so-so-sorry part is what he and other Facebook execs have been rolling out over the last week, after an initial bizarre period of silence that made the company look feckless. But those first apologies contained — including in an interview with me and Kurt Wagner last week on Recode — an odd mention that he did not want to sit at his desk in California and make rules for the community of Facebook, even though he made Facebook.

It was akin to Dr. Frankenstein saying “my bad” for making the monster and then insisting that he was really not the one responsible for the mess that resulted."

Carnegie Museums president at center of controversy over Sweet Briar College closure; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6/7/15

Marylynne Pitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Carnegie Museums president at center of controversy over Sweet Briar College closure:

"In August, Jo Ellen Parker arrived in Pittsburgh and became the 10th president of Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and the first woman to lead the nonprofit consortium...

Maggie Saylor Patrick, a former Sweet Briar board member, in a commentary in the Washington Post’s online higher education section, blamed the closing on “poor leadership” during Ms. Parker’s presidency from 2009 through 2014. Key people in power, Ms. Patrick wrote, “froze out the broader board membership and even fired members who disagreed with their policies.”

Sweet Briar professor Daniel Gottlieb asserted in the same Washington Post section that the college’s leaders “have made misleading through numbers an art form.”

In a third Washington Post online essay, Diane Dalton, a current board member, called the attack on Ms. Parker unfair, saying she displayed “notably strong leadership at a time when a perfect storm of external forces beyond her control was brewing.” Two additional board members wrote in a fourth Washington Post column that the school’s financial woes “had been building for decades.”

Bill Hunt, chair of the trustees of Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, said he is pleased with Ms. Parker, calling her “a strong leader and visionary thinker.

“When we were searching for Carnegie Museums’ new president, our search firm, Spencer Stuart, proactively recruited Jo Ellen based on her impressive career as an educator, a college administrator and a thoughtful leader. As she was thoroughly vetted by both the search firm and our search committee — which included detailed discussions with many individuals, including Sweet Briar’s board chair — it became apparent that we had found our next president.”"