The Campaign for Sustained Leadership

Advancing the Frontiers of Business Education
Distinguished faculty, great students and good infrastructure are the three things that make Wharton tick," says Dean Patrick Harker. "Students come here to learn the latest ideas as they're being created, not five years later after they get into a textbook," he observes.

Staying ahead of the curve to remain a top-ranked business school, therefore, means complementing traditional classroom teaching with new educational and technological initiatives. Inspired programming, however, takes substantial financial support. For this reason, gifts to the Dean's Initiative Fund – which can be used to fund new challenges and initiatives – are essential for the creativity and competitiveness of the School and for the success of the Campaign for Sustained Leadership.

Turning on a Dime
Individual alumni are not alone in recognizing Wharton's quality of education. Corporate executives who know the necessity of keeping track of dynamic business trends acknowledge the School's value to the business world. According to Tom Piazze, director of Wharton's Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations, Wharton can provide knowledge to keep corporations on the cutting edge. He stresses, however, that the School's ability to provide this key component is dependent upon having sufficient resources and funding "to stop on a dime and shift – to adjust priorities to meet industry needs." Piazze is also quick to point out that this is an exchange of ideas; these same companies who support the School financially also contribute to and stimulate the knowledge that Wharton produces. In fact, Wharton-corporate partnerships frequently serve as catalysts for many new initiatives.

Wharton West
The School has launched a satellite campus on the West Coast with dollars initially provided by the Dean's Initiative Fund. Wharton West will provide executive MBA programs, executive education programs, faculty research and student internships from its San Francisco location, and is a direct response to market changes in the United States. "The growth in the West Coast business base has continued unabated for a number of decades. It is much deeper than the dot-com industry," explains Bob Mittelstaedt, vice dean and director of Wharton's Aresty Institute of Executive Education.

Wharton eBusiness Initiatives
(WeBI)/eFellows
Like Wharton West and its traditional MBA counterparts, the Wharton eBusiness Initiative (WeBI) is taking risks and creating new models for the future of e-business research and management education. WeBI is a partnership among business leaders, Wharton faculty and students to generate and disseminate new knowledge about e-business through research, academic programs, and strategic corporate partnerships. As part of this integrated response to challenges brought about by e-business, Wharton has created the Wharton Fellows in eBusiness (or eFellows) program.

Knowledge@Wharton
The online information resource Knowledge@Wharton(knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu) dovetails with Wharton's cutting-edge curriculum. Updated every two weeks to offer the timeliest business-related content, "Knowledge@Wharton is the School's primary resource for knowledge capture and dissemination," states director and editor Mukul Pandya. It provides industry leaders and students alike with access to articles, industry analyses and book reviews; a searchable database helps users customize their Knowledge@Wharton experience.

Strength in Numbers:
the Wharton Fund Journey Continues
The Wharton Fund continues to march toward its $6-million goal one donor at a time. Each unrestricted gift helps support student aid, faculty research and technological advances.

For more information about the campaign, contact Steve Oliveira, Associate Dean for External Affairs, at 215.898.5047, or visit the website at http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/development.