Steve Price Takes Helm at JAMS/Endispute

Private arbitration services provider JAMS/Endispute has appointed longtime corporate executive and former Newsweek magazine publisher Steve Price as president and chief executive officer.

He replaces Jack Unroe, who left the company after five years to become president and chief executive of Accountants Inc., a Northern California-based temporary employment service.

Price, 59, has held top posts in the banking, consumer goods and services, publishing, and food and beverage industries over the last 37 years.

He started his career with General Foods Corp. in 1960 and as corporate vice president and general manager conceived and introduced a new brand of diet drink, Crystal Light, that became a $200-million-plus business.

Price, who received an MBA degree from Harvard Business School, was appointed executive vice president and publisher of Newsweek Inc. in 1982. He left that post to join Citibank in 1986 and served in the banking company’s New York Retail Bank, North Asia Division, and U.S. consumer business unit. As a senior vice president of Citibank, he managed assets worth $10 billion.

In 1995, Price was appointed president, chief executive officer and director of Crescent Jewelers Inc., an Oakland-based retail jewelry chain with 82 stores, and since 1996 he has been president and chief executive officer of San Francisco-based Supercuts Inc., the publicly traded hair care chain that recently merged with Regis Corp.

JAMS/Endispute was founded in 1979 by former Orange County Superior Court Judge Warren H. Knight to provide private arbitration and mediation of civil matters including employment and business contract disputes. The company now has more than 30 offices nationwide and handles an average of 20,000 cases a year.