 Thornburgh went on to become the Director of Civic Affairs at the CIGNA Corporation in Philadelphia.In 1988 Thornburgh was appointed as Director of the Wharton Small Business Development Center, the consulting and training arm of the Wharton School's top-ranked Entrepreneurial Center, where he helped 20,000 entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses, raise $40 million in additional capital, and in the process create 4,000 new jobs in the region.In 1994, he left the SBDC to become the Executive Director of the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, one of the nation's oldest and most respected private sector-led regional "think and do" tanks.