Wharton | San Francisco Breaks Ground on New, Expanded Facility

SAN FRANCISCO– The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania announced today that its Wharton | San Francisco campus will relocate to the historic Hills Plaza building on the San Francisco Embarcadero in January 2012, with construction on the new space commencing this month.

With the rise in Wharton MBA for Executives and executive education program participation over the past decade, School faculty and administrators this past year devised a plan for the relocation of Wharton | San Francisco to a new campus. Wharton | San Francisco at Hills Plaza will offer enhanced space versus Wharton | San Francisco’s current facility at the Folger Building. The new space will allow state of the art amphitheater classrooms and space for alumni events.

The move to Hills Plaza coincides with a School-wide celebration of the 10-year anniversary of Wharton | San Francisco. Since its establishment in 2001, more than 700 alumni have successfully earned their MBA degree at Wharton | San Francisco. Key to the program’s success, students at Wharton | San Francisco are taught the same curriculum and by the same faculty as those in Philadelphia. In addition, Wharton | San Francisco serves as the School’s center for the 12,000 Wharton alumni who live on the West Coast.

With 17 group study rooms, amphitheater classroom and sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay, Wharton | San Francisco at Hills Plaza will allow a wider-than-ever array of School activities, including:

•  Increased activity by Wharton Executive Education, one of the largest providers in the world of open enrollment and custom business programs

•  New offerings from Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs, known for the Wharton Venture Initiation Program, Wharton Business Plan Competition and Wharton Venture Award

•  Expansion of speakers, panels, programs and events designed to showcase Wharton’s 25 faculty research centers, students and alumni as well as business leaders from the Bay Area and beyond

“We are extremely enthusiastic about this move. Wharton | San Francisco has been a tremendous success since it was established in 2001 and is vital in further developing Wharton’s presence both in the United States and internationally,” said Dean of the Wharton School, Thomas S. Robertson. “The relocation of our campus to Hills Plaza is aligned with our vision to establish Wharton as a vibrant presence on both coasts and, moving forward, to position it as a portal to countries in Asia and the Pacific Rim.”

“Our move to Hills Plaza represents a tremendous opportunity to build on all of the programs and activities that were started during Wharton | San Francisco’s first decade of existence,” commented Doug Collom, Vice Dean of Wharton | San Francisco. “We have a world-class MBA program and are tremendously excited about this development.”

The new campus will feature all unique digital high definition (HD) classrooms and group study rooms designed to support Wharton’s commitment to connected and lifelong learning. The classrooms will be production-ready for streaming or broadcasting classes, speaker series and networking events in HD to students, alumni and the world. Students will be able to make use of their Wharton provided iPads in a variety of spaces designed to foster teamwork and collaboration. Group study rooms will enable teams to work with each other down the hall, back in Philadelphia, or around the globe using HD video conferencing and innovative controls to create shared digital workspaces.

In collaboration with Wharton, Shen Milsom & Wilke and Creston future-proofed these rooms to allow for seamless and rapid adoption of new technologies when they become available. Many of the innovations applied to the classrooms of Wharton | San Francisco will also be finding a home in classrooms on campus in Philadelphia.

For renderings or other images of the Hills Plaza campus for media purposes, please contact LEWIS PR at whartonsf@lewispr.com. Please also see images in our Flickr account here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thewhartonschool/sets/72157626870018642/

About the Wharton School

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania— founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school — is recognized globally for intellectual leadership and ongoing innovation across every major discipline of business education. The most comprehensive source of business knowledge in the world, Wharton bridges research and practice through its broad engagement with the global business community. The School has more than 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students; more than 9,000 annual participants in executive education programs; and an alumni network of 88,000 graduates.

For more information: www.wharton.upenn.edu