Jon M. Huntsman Hall Opening Celebration To Take Place October 25-26
If you haven’t already, be sure to mark October 25 and 26 on your calendars for the two-day celebration of the School’s new home, Jon M. Huntsman Hall. The School’s move into the building began in mid-July, and students have already begun to experience the $139.9-million, 324,000- square-foot academic center, which is one of the world’s most advanced facilities for management education in the world.
Alumni from around the world are planning to return to Philadelphia for the opening celebration, which will include a dedication ceremony, industry-and affinity-based networking programs, forums with leading faculty and prominent alumni, as well as social events.
Peter Degnan Named Director of Wharton MBA Career Services
Following an extensive search, Peter Degnan was appointed director of MBA Career Management Services at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in August.
Degnan has more than 19 years of financial services experience, including 12 years working in Asia. As managing director and chief operating officer for UBS Warburg Japan from 1998- 2000, he was responsible for the complete integration of the merger between the UBS and SBC Warburg organizations in Japan and for managing the primary financial and administrative areas, including finance, operations, IT, and general administration.
“Peter brings with him extensive international experience in the private sector and a strong record of leadership. We are very pleased to have a professional with his record of success take the helm of such a critical position, working with students and the companies who recruit our students from around the world,” said Anjani Jain, vice dean of the Graduate Division.
Prior to UBS Warburg, Degnan spent more than14 years at Lehman Brothers, Inc., in a variety of senior executive positions, including chief credit officer and chief financial officer in New York, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. He holds an M.B.A. from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business and a B.S. degree from Georgetown University.
Schools Join Forces To Offer Director’s Consortium
For the first time, Wharton, the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and Stanford Law School have joined together to offer an executive education program called the Directors’ Consortium for corporate directors and senior executives, which takes a close look at corporate governance and board service. Taught by faculty from accounting, finance, law, public policy, and strategic management, the program helps participants build a “best practices” framework for thinking about and making informed board decisions. The first session took place in Chicago in August, and a Wharton session is scheduled to take place February 19-21, 2003. For information, visit www.directorsconsortium.net/directorsconsortium.nsf.
Regional Alumni Meetings: Connecting Across the Globe
Hundreds of alumni from around the world participated in this year’s regional alumni meetings, held in Paris, Panama City, and Tokyo. Each of the events highlighted current findings on issues of regional economic importance and allowed alumni the opportunity to network with each other and School faculty and administration.
Breaking previous attendance records for a European regional alumni meeting, 450 alumni and guests attended the Wharton/INSEAD Economic Forum in Paris. Held on May 16-17, the meeting featured a gala banquet at Versailles, faculty presentations, and keynote speakers Jean-Marie Messier, then-CEO of Vivendi Universal, and Gerard Kleisterlee, AMP’91, chairman and CEO of Philips Electronics.
The Latin American regional meeting took place in Panama City from June 20-21, with more than 200 attendees. Among the presentations was a keynote address by Ernesto Perez Balladares, WG’70, former President of Panama.
From July 12-13, 475 alumni and guests convened in Tokyo for the ninth Asian regional alumni meeting. Speakers included Liu Chuan Zhi, chairman of Legend Holdings in Beijing, and Takeshi Natsuno, WG’95, managing director, i-mode Strategy, NTT DoCoMo, Japan. The meeting also included a raffle that raised $5,500 for Krousar Thmey, a private foundation that helps orphaned children in Cambodia.
News Briefs
Wharton was well represented at the Presidential Economic Forum in Waco, Texas, on August 13. The Forum included President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and many top CEOs and government officials. Attending from Wharton were Professors Mike Useem, Jeremy Siegel, Olivia Mitchell, and Mark Pauly.
Professor Franklin Allen was appointed an inaugural fellow at the recently constituted European Corporate Governance Institute, which provides intellectual leadership for the Brussels-based organization. The ECGI, an international scientific nonprofit association, provides a forum for debate and dialogue among academics, legislators, policymakers, and practitioners on corporate governance and the promotion of best practice.
Cesar Conde, WG’99, was recently named a White House Fellow for 2002-2003. Each fellow works full time as a special assistant to a Cabinet member or senior presidential advisor and also participates in an education program designed to nurture his or her development as a leader. Conde is a former president of the Wharton Graduate Association.
WEMBA student Michael Hansen, WG’03, head of the Advanced Video Processing Group at Sarnoff Corp., has been chosen as one of the world’s 100 Top Young Innovators by Technology Review, MIT’s magazine of innovation. The Technology Review 100 recognizes young individuals whose innovative work in business and technology has a profound impact on today’s world.
Lauder alumna Radhika Shroff, W’95, C’95, WG’00, G’00, is one of 18 from around the U.S. who have been named Luce Scholars this year. Established in 1974 by the Henry Luce Foundation, the Luce Scholars program provides stipends and internships for young Americans to live and work in Asia for a 10-month period. Its purpose is to increase awareness of issues in Asia among future leaders in American society.
Alumni in the News
Helen Peters, G’74, PhD’79, dean of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, was profiled for an article in which she discussed gender issues in business schools (BizEd, 7/02-8/02).
James G. Binch, WG’72, chairman and chief executive officer of Memry Corporation, has been named in the external advisory board of the University of Connecticut’s Institute of Material Sciences (PR Newswire, 7/30/02).
Jeffrey Kuhr, WG’86, has been appointed to Forward Industries, Inc.’s board of directors. Kuhr currently serves as a managing partner of West End Capital Partners LLC (Business Wire, 7/30/02).
Eli Rosenbaum, W’76, WG’77, director of the Justice Department of Special Investigations, was featured in an article for his work denaturalizing former soldiers of the Holocaust. Rosenbaum’s investigations exposed illegal Nazi immigrants in America and lead to their subsequent deportations (The Plain Dealer, 7/28/02).
Aaron Karo, W’01, was featured in an article about his book, Ruminations on College Life. The book is a compilation of anecdotes he wrote while studying as an undergraduate at Wharton (Associated Press Newswires, 7/28/02).
Riso Lavizzo-Mourey, WG’86, was named president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She joined the foundation last year as senior vice president and health care group director (American Health Line, 7/26/02).
Rodger Krouse, W’83, and Marc Leder, W’83, co-founders of Sun Capital Partners, Inc., were featured in an article about their private equity firm (The Daily Deal, 7/25/02).
Marc Belton, WG’83, was profiled in an article about the most powerful black executives in the U.S. Currently working in the new-business development division of Yoplait, Belton was recognized for his previous work as a senior vice president at General Mills (Fortune, 7/22/02).
James L. Vincent, WG’63, has retired as chairman of the biotech firm Biogen (The Boston Globe, 7/17/02).
Jean-Francois Orsini, WG’72, PhD’84, president of the Saint Antoninus Institute for Catholic Education in Business, was quoted in an article about corporate business ethics (The Dallas Morning News, 7/15/02).
Bruce Crawford, W’52, recently appointed chairman of Lincoln Center, was interviewed in an article about the Center’s redevelopment project (The New York Times, 7/09/02).
Angela A. Brown, WG’91, chief executive of Atlanta’s Victory Global Solutions, Inc., was profiled in an article about her firm (The Atlanta Journal, 6/19/02).
Connie Duckworth, WG’79, was quoted in an article about powerful female business owners. Duckworth is the chair of the Committee of 200, a group of influential female entrepreneurs and executives (USA Today, 6/18/02).
Curtis Bashaw, WG’90, was featured in an article for his renovation of Congress Hall, a hotel claiming the occupancy of at least three presidents (The Congressional Record, 6/13/02).
Calvin Sun, WG’82,was featured in an article about teaching IT charm school classes (Computerworld, 6/1/02).
Alfred West, WG’66, was profiled in an article about SEI Investments Company. His $10-million gift to Wharton for the creation of the Alfred West Jr. Learning Lab was mentioned (American Banker, 5/31/02).
Iqbal Z Quadir, WG’87, was mentioned in an article about his company GrameenPhone, a mobile phone network in Bangladesh, which now has 575,000 subscribers in 12,000 villages (The New York Times, 5/26/02).
Marshall I. Goldman, W’52, wrote an article about Ivy-League alumni reunions where he mentioned his 50th reunion from Wharton’s Undergraduate Division (The New York Times, 5/25/02).
Gustave K. Lipman, W’94, was interviewed in an article about his father Ira A. Lipman, regarding the family’s business, Guardsmark (The Washington Post, 5/14/02).
