The man who occupies the suite of offices on the 20th floor at 225 W. Randolph St. in Chicago is as multifaceted as the 18th Century historical figure whose images grace the room’s paneled walls. President of Ameritech Illinois, Doug Whitley is a self-described history buff who admits to a lifelong fascination with Ben Franklin.
Like Franklin, Whitley is a political activist. And he’s a pragmatist. An outdoorsman. A family man. A change agent. And most recently, the Batavia resident has been front-and-center point man for the telecommunications industry’s area code changes in the Chicago area.
At the helm of Ameritech Illinois, Whitley has spent months attempting to make sure the changes in communications that are affecting suburban customers are smooth and easy transitions. “The changes are really a direct result of progress,” Whitley said. “I’m pragmatic about progress and the price of it. Yes, there was some frustration about the inconveniences of the area code changes, but many individuals who expressed annoyance about the change also admitted to having two cell phones, a pager, a fax and several lines, and they recognize that’s partially the reason for the need for new area codes.”
Since the decision was made to implement new area codes in the Chicago metropolitan region nearly two years ago, Whitley has orchestrated a massive media and educational outreach program to get people thinking ahead to the changes. “One of the things you have to do is to remove some of the fog and help people understand how it all comes together,” he said.
Whitley explained how the decision was made, detailing how representatives from the telecommunications industry met in February 1994 to decide how to provide number relief in the Chicago area. The initial proposal, a wireless overlay plan, involved giving new cellular and paging customers the new area code.
“The Federal Communications Commission shot that down because they thought it favored land-linked technology over cellular technology,” explained Ameritech media relations manager Lisa Kim.
The second proposal was for new customers moving into the area to receive the new area code, but communities were adamant about keeping a single area code. The final plan was the split of 708 into three areas: 847 in the north and northwest suburbs and, later this year, 630 in the far west suburbs with the near west and south suburbs retaining 708. The reprogramming changes, Whitley admitted, will run upward of $60 million before the entire metropolitan area is serviced. “It’s the cost of doing business,” he said. “We don’t make money off an area code change.”
Even so, Whitley said, change is something he does not fear. “I look at change as a measure of progress, and although there’s some pain that may go along with progress, progress is what makes us a successful nation.”
The changing climate in the telecommunications industry was initially what attracted Whitley to Ameritech Illinois. He joined the company three years ago as vice president of government relations and has since become the corporation’s youngest president. The can-do spirit he brings to his work can be traced to his past.
Whitley, 46, grew up in Atwood, Ill., a town of approximately 1,200 southwest of Champaign. It was there he developed a strong sense of his roots, of community and a love of history.
“A hundred years ago,” he said, “the train stopped there, and the conductor yelled out `at the woods,’ because the town lay away from the track beyond a grove of trees–at the woods.”
After high school, Whitley majored in government and history at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. His college years coincided with the volatile climate of the late ’60s and eventually propelled him into student activism. “I wasn’t leading marches or burning flags, but I was involved, and the time frame in which I was in college had a lot to do with me pursuing the political arena,” Whitley said.
Following college graduation in 1973, Whitley was drawn into the world of the lobbyist, working in Springfield for the Association of Illinois Student Governments. “I think a way to describe my political activism would be as a realist as opposed to an idealist,” he said. “We didn’t care about grape boycotts, but we did care about financial aid and getting students into real political powerbase positions.” From Springfield, Whitley went to Washington, D.C., to head the national student lobby.
After 2 1/2 years, the decision to return to the Midwest was made in southern Illinois while riding in a combine. “I was with my grandfather, picking corn at the end of the day,” Whitley recalled. “Right then I knew I would be coming back to stay. The sense of peace I felt on the farm helped me make that decision.”
Whitley returned to Springfield and worked as a legislative staffer until being hired as president of the Illinois Taxpayers’ Federation, a position he held for 13 years.
Bob Barr, an attorney for Sidley and Austin in Chicago and now chairman of the board of trustees for the Taxpayers’ Federation, was a member of the board when Whitley was hired.
“None of us had even heard of Whitley, but he was being recommended by the retiring president, (the late) Maurice Scott, who had worked with him at the Taxpayers’ Federation for only a few months, but Maury had such a high regard for the man that we took his word and hired Whitley based on that. We knew Maury wouldn’t recommend anyone unless they were good. And Whitley proved to do a terrific job.”
The privately funded watchdog organization’s focus is on reasonable and responsible taxation and trying to influence laws as they are written. “We were considered to be one of the most reliable sources of information about tax policies and spending in the state,” Whitley said.
Whitley’s reputation as a trustworthy hard worker did not go unnoticed. In 1991, Gov. Jim Edgar appointed him as the director of the Illinois Department of Revenue.
“Edgar clearly wanted to be a progressive governor,” Whitley said. “He had a lot of women in his cabinet, and I was a Democrat. . . . I had a great experience with Gov. Edgar.”
Managing 3,500 people at the Department of Revenue eased the transition to the corporate arena. Two years later, a headhunter contacted Whitley with the offer from Ameritech, and Whitley, wife Joanne, and children Dana, 15, Benjamin, 13, and Mark, 8, moved from Springfield to Batavia.
“Initially, I wanted to be closer to the city, but Batavia felt both urban and rural, a nice size town and a community that has given priority to education and the schools,” Whitley said.
Joanne, Whitley’s wife of 20 years, said she is delighted they chose to make Batavia their home. “It’s been a transition moving from Springfield because things definitely move a lot faster here. But I just love the Fox Valley area,” she said.
Whitley is partisan to the Midwest and to Illinois, and he is visionary in projecting both Chicago and Ameritech as stellar performers in the telecommunications industry and the economy in general.
“If we at Ameritech do a good job, we become a strong infrastructure on which other businesses can grow. And if businesses grow, you address two other major issues dominant in Chicago: One is jobs, the other is social needs.”
Never one to lose sight of the need for change and progress, Whitley said he will go so far as to speculate that part of the reason Ameritech recruited him was because of the years he spent with close ties to the government in Springfield.
“The biggest dilemma we’ve got right now is the regulatory environment that we’re in. I think the marketplace and the customer and technology are all farther ahead of the regulators’ tendency to want to drive the car looking through the rear view mirror, looking at what’s already happened as opposed to what’s actually going on. We’ve got to get government officials to be more forward thinking.”
In his downtown office, Whitley elaborates on the print of Benjamin Franklin displayed on his wall. “I find him so fascinating. Maybe because he was the first American lobbyist. Maybe because he was a real Renaissance man, or because he was a man of creativity and initiative.”
And maybe because that’s how Whitley himself is perceived by those who have worked with him. Also occupying a place of prominence on the wall is an engraved plaque from Whitley’s employees at the Department of Revenue, on which the inscription reads: “Every so often a leader comes along who leaves his mark upon us all. You taught us to keep a vision of where we want to go. You taught us not to fear change. You taught us to encourage initiative.”
Whitley smiled. “I always said that: `Never fear change, always encourage initiative.’ It’s nice to know that what I had been saying did sink in. I think I was saying that stuff at the Department of Revenue for the entire time I was there.”
Judging from the headlong plunges Whitley is taking toward progress, it would be safe to surmise he’s still saying that stuff.
