He's a lifer in the hospitality business

Should Philadelphia's two tourism agencies - the one that markets to conventions and the other that markets to leisure travelers - be combined?

In a report issued this month, Philadelphia City Controller Alan Butkovitz said yes.

Jack Ferguson, 66, the soon-to-retire chief executive of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau - the group that attracts conventions - won't say yes or no. A lifer in the hospitality business, he's more diplomatic than that.

"When I came here I inherited two agencies and I'm not going to say automatically, yes, we should be one," he said. "That's not where we are coming from.

"Do we have the expertise to do it? Do we have the skill sets to do it? I would never bow down on my skill sets."

And that, he said, also goes for the bureau.

Question: You've worked in many cities. What's usual?

Answer: If you look at most cities, there's one voice. There are not two agencies. The convention bureau is the norm. [The bureau handles] all of it - the advertising, the marketing, the communications, the domestic messaging, the international messaging, the conventions.

Q: The Pennsylvania Convention Center had a rap as a tough place to do business. In May, a new customer satisfaction agreement was signed between the center's new management and the four unions that work there. How's it going now?

A: We have seven conventions (worth $100 million) we've booked since May, since the contract was signed.

Q: The bureau held a recent webinar to describe changes at the Convention Center to meeting planners. Any reaction?

A: One customer, an association management company representing 100 organizations and 12 trade shows, sent an e-mail: "It's a new day in Philadelphia and we've got to get it back on the list."

Q: Your family ran a funeral home in Fairmount. You ended up in hospitality. How did that happen?

A: My grandfather was very involved in the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association and also in the national association. As a young kid, I was exposed to the great hotels of the U.S. because I went to those conventions and I was fascinated. I was the male version of Eloise at the Plaza.

Q: How do you judge hotels?

A: I'm a neat freak about cleanliness. In any business, you are only as good as how clean the toilet is. So you have a great appreciation for the person who is scrubbing that toilet and they are as important as the guy in the navy blue suit.

Q: Who cleans the bathroom at home?

A: I never leave a dirty bathroom, even in the morning.

Q: What's your wife's reaction?

A: She will tell you, "Jack expects our house to look like a hotel every day, and it doesn't."

Q: You are a white male about to retire and you've been carefully grooming a successor, a black female.

A: Julie Coker has already proven herself to be the right person to be in a succession plan. In the bureau, we live in the future [booking meetings years ahead]. The best thing we can do is tell [customers] that I am retiring and the new president is in the room, because they like Julie. All of a sudden they see a sophisticated organization with a strategic plan to take care of the customer.

Q: Ever consider opening a bed-and-breakfast when you retire?

A: Oh God no, I'm not that silly.

Title: Chief executive, president, Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, since 2010.

Home: Upper Gwynedd.

Family: Wife, Josephine "Jo"; Children, Tim, 37, Megan, 35, Gregory, 33.

How they met: In an Ocean City restaurant; she was a waitress, he was the busboy.

Diplomas: Lenape High School; Paul Smith's College and University of Nevada, Las Vegas, hotel management.

Resumé: Rose through ranks in hotel business, joined bureau in 2002.

Saturday mornings: Coffee, a book and solitude from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.EndText

Where: Center City.

Employees: 60.

Members: 900.

Budget: $17 million.

Funding: Hotel tax, membership dues, corporate sponsors.

Latest booking:

For 2019, Association

for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology - 5,000 attendees, 9,200 nights in hotel rooms,

$14.3 million in economic impact. EndText

Jack Ferguson says a spotty tie equals spotty work. www.inquirer.com/jobbingEndText

215-854-2769 @JaneVonBergen

Interview questions and answers have been edited for space.