High-Impact Recruits: 23 New Faculty Hires

Every fall, Wharton welcomes new hires to its nearly 200-member faculty. This year’s crop of 23 professors includes new senior faculty members who will add to Wharton’s already-strong Marketing, Management, and Health Care Systems Departments. Dawn Iacobucci, a methodologist from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and the editor of the Journal of Consumer Research, has joined Wharton’s marketing department as Professor of Marketing. Iacobucci edited the books, Kellogg on Marketing, Kellogg on Integrated Marketing, Networks in Marketing, Handbook of Services Marketing and Management, and is co-author, with Gilbert Churchill, of the best-selling text Marketing Research. Her research focuses on models for dyadic and network data, statistical and methodological tools, services marketing and conceptual models of customer satisfaction, rounding out the Marketing Department’s traditional strengths in consumer behavior, decision-making theory, modeling and measurement, and marketing strategy.

“Dawn Iacobucci is at the very top of the profession with respect to her impact on both practitioners and scholars,” said Wharton Deputy Dean David Schmittlein. “Her expertise and leadership will be a great addition to Wharton’s outstanding Marketing department, and will solidify its preeminence in both consumer research and methods for under­standing important marketing phenomena.”

In addition to serving as Professor of Marketing at Kellogg from 1987 to 2004, Iacobucci was also the Coca-Cola Distinguished Professor of Marketing, Professor of Psychology and Head of the Marketing Department of the University of Arizona during 2001-2002, and she was a recent editor of the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

Organizational psychologist Katherine Klein, whose recent investigation of leadership systems for emergency medical teams garnered a major Army Research Institute grant, also joins the School as a Professor of Management, buoying the department’s already strong Human Resource and Organizational Management area. Klein comes from the University of Maryland at College Park and has published widely in leading journals on leadership and team models and performance.

In the School’s Health Care Systems Department, Scott Harrington returns to Wharton as Professor of Health Care Systems from the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business. Harrington focuses on applied economics and finance in the context of insurance markets, with particular interest in medical malpractice liability insurance, the market regulation for individual health insurance and other health insurance and related legislative issues. He has published widely in leading academic journals on subjects including risk management and insurance, insurance deregulation and the public interest, and he is co-author or editor of numerous scholarly books including Cycles and Crises in Property/Casualty Insurance and Risk Management and Insurance. A 1990 Insurance Educator of the Year, Harrington spent a decade at Wharton prior to his appointment at Moore.

Other new faculty members include established professors from Duke, Yale, and New York University as well as new PhDs from universities including MIT, Harvard University, New York University, Carnegie-Mellon, Princeton, University of Chicago, and Berkeley. The group brings strengths in technology strategy, labor economics, financial theory and asset pricing, mergers and acquisitions, community redevelopment, and decision making and risk assessment, among other areas.

For information on Wharton faculty, visit www.wharton.upenn.edu/faculty.

New Co-Director for Retailing Initiative

Louis W. Stern, John D. Gray Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management of Northwestern University, has been appointed co-director of Wharton’s Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative.

Stern, who is also the Dorinda and Mark Winkelman Distinguished Scholar and a Senior Fellow of the Wharton School, will lead the initiative along with Co-Director Stephen Hoch, the John J. Pomerantz Professor of Marketing and chairperson of the Marketing Department, and Managing Director William Cody, C’91, WG’98, a Marketing Department faculty member.

Stern joined the Northwestern faculty in 1973 from The Ohio State University. His research efforts have focused on issues related to designing and managing marketing channels and on antitrust. His articles have appeared in a wide variety of marketing, legal, and behavioral science journals. Among the books he has co-authored are Marketing Channels, Management in Marketing Channels, and Legal Aspects of Marketing Strategy: Antitrust and Consumer Protection Issues. His article “Distribution Channels as Political Economics: A Framework for Comparative Analysis” (with Torger Reve) was named the best article on marketing theory to appear in the Journal of Marketing during 1980. In 1986, he received the Paul D. Converse Award from the American Marketing Association for “outstanding contribution to theory and science in marketing.” In 1994, he was selected as the recipient of the American Marketing Association/Irwin Distinguished Marketing Educator Award, and he was named as one of the twelve best teachers in U.S. business schools by BusinessWeek magazine.

“Lou Stern is the father of Marketing Channels, and the retail sector is undoubtedly an important part of most supply chains,” said Hoch. “He brings a wealth of both academic and practical experience and insight to our efforts to enhance Wharton’s reputation as a leader in retailing education and in scholarly research on retailing. It is great to have him on board.”

Funded by a $10-million gift from Patty and Jay H. Baker, W’56, the Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative links retail theory with practice through a partnership between world-class researchers, educators, students, and the global leaders of today’s retail industry.

Community Service to the World: The Wharton International Volunteer Program

For MBA student Simone Lee, this summer’s Wharton International Volunteer project in Mumbai, India, was a time of “frustrations and wonders.”

“Imagine living steps away from the poorest slums in the world, taking a shower with nothing more than a bucket and a cup, having mosquito bites swell up to the size of your hand, and seeing rivers that have become open sewers,” Lee said. “Contrast that with the incredible hospitality of strangers opening their homes to you, enjoying an Ayurvedic massage, and walking in caves where 5th-century Buddhist monks carved incredible statues and paintings. It was an amazing time.”

Lee was one of 50 Wharton students who recently returned from volunteer projects in 14 developing countries as part of the Wharton International Volunteer Program (WIVP). In all, 21 projects took place in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in fields ranging from health care to education to microfinance. Volunteers tackled issues including developing an expansion strategy for a children’s charity in Vietnam; creating a budget, website, and brochure for a youth education project in Brazil; and designing a long-term business plan for the largest sexual and reproductive health services organization in Swaziland.

Lee’s group developed a fundraising strategy targeting financial services and information technology companies for the Yuva Parivartan, or youth transformation movement, at Kherwadi Social Welfare Association, a 75-year-old NGO (non-governmental organization) that provides vocational training services to slum dwellers who live between Bandra East and Khar East in Mumbai. “My past experience volunteering for various community projects showed me that I would never be satisfied working solely for money and that I wanted a career where I could help the needy directly,” said Lee, who is also co-president of WIVP. “This volunteer program gives me a tremendous opportunity to fulfill this dream.” Now in its 19th year, the Wharton International Volunteer Program is a non-profit, student-run organization that enlists the varied talents and experiences of Wharton MBAs to improve the social and economic development of emerging economies while providing MBA students with valuable international development experience. Each summer, WIVP sends MBA students as volunteers to work with small to medium NGOs in developing countries; projects typically last two to four weeks and involve two to four students each. WIVP’s work around the world is supported through donations from companies and alumni as well as fundraising activities organized by student members, including a Winter Ball that traditionally draws more than 800 students each year.

New Vice Dean of Executive Education

Dean Patrick Harker has announced the appointment of Jonathan Spector as vice dean of Executive Education. Spector, who holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, was a former director at McKinsey & Company as well as CEO of two venture-backed corporations. “I am confident that Jon’s experience with major corporate clients and business development will be strong assets in leading the Wharton School’s executive education programs,” said Harker. “He brings outstanding leadership skills and enthusiasm to his new role, and I look forward to his contributions to the School.” Spector began his career at McKinsey & Company, where he rose to director (senior partner). In his 20 years with the firm, he consulted to the senior management of large corporations on issues of strategy, organization and operations. His major clients were leading companies in the information technology and communications industries, as well as large clients in the energy, transportation and insurance sectors. He also helped lead the development of McKinsey’s Chinese and Southeast Asian practice, and founded and managed the firm’s Taipei office.

Over the past four years Spector has served as CEO of two venture-backed corporations, Darwin Networks, a wireless ISP, and Seurat Company, a consulting firm engaged in precision marketing services. He raised more than $100 million to support the growth of these companies. He launched Easy411, Inc. in 2003, providing directory assistance services to mobile phone and landline users.

Going the Distance: MBA for Executives Students Visit India

More than 80 second-year Wharton School MBA for Executives students from Wharton West, the School’s San Francisco campus, traveled to India in September to meet with key government and business leaders as part of an ongoing effort to learn more about the country’s growing influence in the international marketplace. The students represented both the Wharton School and the various companies for which they work. The international trip, part of the Wharton curriculum, provides both students and international industry and government leaders the opportunity to learn from one another about forward-looking business trends in the region. It also is an excellent opportunity for relationship-building between the regions. “For years, the Wharton School MBA Program for Executives, which has campuses in both Philadelphia and San Francisco, has made international trips a tradition,” said Anjani Jain, vice dean and director of the Wharton School Graduate Division. “India’s rapid ascent in the global economy and its established market and regulatory institutions make it a logical and important choice for increased exposure to future business leaders.” “This is the first time such a large contingent of students and faculty from any leading business school will visit India in an effort to better understand how regional companies plan and execute business locally and abroad,” said Govind Iyer, a member of the Wharton Alumni Club of India. “Wharton’s already strong presence in the region is growing via ongoing student visits, faculty research, and an active alumni network.”

Leadership That Lasts

Knowledge@Wharton and Nightly Business Report have joined forces to select and profile the 25 most influential businesspeople of the past quarter century in a new book, Lasting Leadership: What You Can Learn from the Top 25 Business People of Our Times, published by Wharton School Publishing. Written by Knowledge@ Wharton’s top editors, the book explores the theme of lasting leadership through a series of profiles showing the challenges each leader faced and how he or she met them. It also identifies eight attributes of leadership, ranging from building a corporate culture and managing risk to seeing the invisible and using price to gain competitive advantage. Readers will meet familiar leaders such as Bill Gates, Jack Welch and Steve Jobs, but also less well-known ones, including Mary Kay Ash, Johnson & Johnson’s James Burke, and Grameen Bank’s Muhammad Yunus, whose microlending revolution helped millions of the world’s poorest citizens transform themselves into entrepreneurs. Most of the subjects profiled agreed to one-on-one interviews for the book.

For more information on Lasting Leadership, visit Wharton School Publishing online at www.whartonsp.com.

First in Wharton INSEAD Alliance Book Series

The first edition in the Wharton INSEAD Alliance book series has been published by Cambridge University Press.

In The Alliance on Globalizing: Strategies for Building Successful Global Businesses, Wharton Professor John Kimberly and INSEAD’s Hubert Gatignon have collaborated to edit a comprehensive book that looks beyond the broad issues and focuses on the manager’s response to the opportunities and challenges of larger, global markets. Written by experts from both INSEAD and Wharton, the book should be of interest to managers wrestling with the many challenges of globalization for their firms, to policy makers concerned with whether and how to slow or to accelerate the process, and to those in non-governmental organizations concerned with understanding more clearly how and why firms are positioning themselves as they do in the global marketplace.

Dean’s Lecture Series Focuses on Leaders

The Wharton School’s inaugural Dean’s Lecture Series premiered with Andy Grove, chair and founder of Intel Corp., at Wharton West in San Francisco on Sept. 17. Grove was interviewed by Mukul Pandya, editor of Knowledge@Wharton, the School’s online business journal, and the event was telecast to the Philadelphia campus. “We are pleased to present the Dean’s Lecture Series, as it will provide a forum for the most senior leaders in business to share their insights with the entire Wharton community,” stated Dean Patrick Harker. The Dean’s Lecture Series was created following Wharton faculty collaboration with Nightly Business Report to produce a special featuring the top 25 business leaders of the past 25 years. A group of Wharton faculty served as judges, considering more than 700 nominees proposed by NBR viewers and revealing the final 25 on a special which aired last January. Knowledge@Wharton’s newest book, Lasting Leadership: Lessons from the Top 25 Business People of Our Times, is based on that special. (See “Leadership That Lasts” above.) The Dean’s Lecture Series will focus on, but is not limited to, NBR’s list. The lecture series follows the academic calendar, and most events are co-branded with and co-sponsored by the Wharton Leadership Lecture Series and the Musser-Schoemaker Leadership Lecture Series.