Willes to take helm of LDS firms

Mark H. Willes will take over the helm of seven companies in March when he becomes president and chief executive officer of Deseret Management Corp., which oversees for-profit commercial enterprises affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including the Deseret News.

He said Thursday that he is unsure if changes will happen at the Deseret News any faster than at the other six companies.

The newspaper is part of an industry that Willes has experienced at the top level. In the 1990s, he was chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of Times Mirror Co., the parent of the Los Angeles Times, and he later became the Times' publisher.

When asked whether the News will get more of his focus when he becomes president and chief executive officer of Deseret Management, he replied: "I don't know. It's tempting, but I really have to spend my time on both the issues and the opportunities" at all the companies.

Those other companies are Beneficial Financial Group, Bonneville International Corp., Deseret Book Co., Hawaii Reserves Inc., Temple Square Hospitality Corp. and Zions Securities Corp.

"There clearly are lots of issues and opportunities with the Deseret News," Willes said. "I suspect there are lots of issues and opportunities with the others, too."

Willes, 67, said he is unsure what changes, if any, will occur in Deseret Management's companies. He takes over next month from Rodney H. Brady , 76, who is retiring after 13 years as Deseret Management's president and CEO.

"I have, at this point, the information of an outsider, which isn't much," Willes said with a laugh. "I'll know a whole lot more a couple of months from now, but then I probably wouldn't tell you, even if I knew it."

Ditto for any changes at the Deseret News. "I haven't talked to the Deseret News people yet, but we're going to have those conversations," he said. "The Deseret News, as I understand it, is growing circulation — fantastic. Are there ways to make the paper more exciting, more relevant, more useful? I hope so."

Things certainly were exciting at Times Mirror and the Los Angeles Times, where Willes landed after stints at the Federal Reserve banks in Philadelphia and Minneapolis and 15 years in management at General Mills Inc. He caught criticism at Times Mirror for coping with economic troubles by cutting 2,000 jobs and shuttering New York's Newsday.

But he contends that he made the newspapers more relevant in several ways, including some changes that initially riled longtime journalists.

One change was adding weekly localized sections to the Los Angeles Times. Another was bundling the Times with La Opinion, a Spanish-language newspaper that was half-owned by Times Mirror and half-owned by family members of La Opinion's founder.