“I am inspired by the number of classmates who launched new businesses. These individuals include, but are not limited, to Asheesh Birla, WG’10, founder of Fancite; Anirban Datta, WG’10, founder of Shopilly; Roberta Brewster, WG’10, managing partner of Energia Capital; and Mukesh Agarwal, WG’10, founder of IntentHub. All worked in the technology sector prior to Wharton. They were able to build on knowledge gained at Wharton, take risks and embark on major career changes.”
—Suki Toguchi, WG’10
“Robert Wolf, W’84, has the amazing ability to bring K Street, Wall Street and Main Street together. He’s an adviser to President Barack Obama, former president of UBS Investment Bank, CEO of 32 Advisors LLC (named after his Penn football jersey number), and the host of Impact Players on Reuters TV. … Robert focuses on emerging issues and trends from thought leaders and is looking to build a world-class archive. I’m also heartened by Robert’s leadership example not only at ‘work’ but also for Wharton and Penn Athletics, as well as the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights and Social Justice (he is named after Robert F. Kennedy).”
—Michal Clements, W’84, WG’89
“By far, the accomplishment of Anne Punzak Marcus, WG’84, stands out. As a provider of funds for pediatric brain research, she and her husband were surprised by the lack of collaboration between the researchers working to develop therapeutics and the clinicians diagnosing and treating children. This drove them in 2006 to join with a group of like-minded individuals to found The Autism Consortium with a mission to catalyze rapid advances in the understanding of autism. In seven years, this consortium has grown into a network of researchers and clinicians from 15 institutions in the Boston area, along with a committed community of families.”
—Lawrence Bartimer, WG’84
“Benedict Okoh, WG’96, has surpassed my wildest dreams in terms of accomplishments. The man is the king of patents! He is principal inventor and co-inventor with American Express in 22 issued and 36+ pending U.S. patents. Benedict has developed new financial products for and/or advised American Express, M&T, PwC, and several law firms and foreign banks. The AfriFinance Indexes that he created have been featured in Financial Times, The Economist (EIU) and the Journal of Indexes. He was also part of the Central Bank of Nigeria team that created the blueprint to overhaul Nigeria’s financial system and transform it into one of the world’s 20 largest economies by 2020.”
—Jeanne McPhillips Dolan, WG’95
