PHILADELPHIA, June 11, 2019 — Penn President Amy Gutmann and Provost Wendell Pritchett today announced that Wharton Dean Geoffrey Garrett will be leaving Penn at the end of the 2019-20 academic year to become dean of the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles effective July 1, 2020.
“Geoff has done an absolutely superb job in leading Wharton for the past five years and in helping firmly establish Wharton as the world’s leading business school,” said Gutmann. “In partnership with Wharton’s incredible community of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends, he has expanded the Wharton standing faculty to more than 240 members and increased its breadth, depth, diversity, and eminence.
“Geoff’s career has been truly international in scope and under his leadership the Wharton footprint continues to grow in Philadelphia and around the world. Wharton’s volunteer leadership and alumni are engaged as never before, and their unprecedented support has fueled the School’s continued ascent. We are committed to sustaining Wharton’s extraordinary momentum of the past five years throughout our Power of Penn campaign and far into the future.”
During Garrett’s tenure as dean, Wharton’s reach has grown, spanning the nation and the world with record enrollments in the MBA Program for Executives in San Francisco and robust and growing offerings, including extensive Executive Education programming, the Wharton Global Forum, and the launch of the Penn Wharton China Center in Beijing.
Online education has grown exponentially, including online preparation classes for incoming MBA first-year students and online specializations for business professionals in fields from leadership and management to business analytics and fintech. Hundreds of thousands of digital learners from around the world have accessed Wharton MOOCs.
Innovative programs such as the Penn Wharton Budget Model, Behavior Change for Good, the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance, the Harris Alternative Investments Program and the Analytics Initiative are helping Wharton do pioneering work in novel ways, reach more communities, and have more global impact than ever before.
On campus, a new Wharton Academic Research Building is under construction, Tangen Hall and its associated Venture Lab is set to transform Penn student opportunities in entrepreneurship, and renovations to Vance Hall, Lauder Hall, and other Wharton facilities are providing faculty and students with the best and most cutting-edge facilities.
“Under Geoff’s leadership, the student body is now more accomplished, diverse, and better supported than at any point in Wharton’s storied history,” Pritchett said. “A revamped undergraduate curriculum has brought a renewed school-wide focus on experiential learning and teaching excellence. Dual-degree programs and cross-school partnerships have expanded in high-priority areas including global business and society, healthcare leadership, management and delivery, integrated product design, business and law, and data science and information technology.”
Garrett previously served on the faculty at the Wharton School prior to becoming dean of the UCLA International Institute. He then returned to his native Australia, where he served as dean at both the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales, returning to Penn as Dean in 2014.
In preparation for Garrett’s departure from Penn, the University will initiate the process of forming a committee of faculty, students, and alumni to advise on the selection of the next dean of the Wharton School. Penn Medicine EVP/Dean J. Larry Jameson has agreed to chair the committee.
