The Campaign for Sustained Leadership

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.

Without startup funds from the Dean's Initiative Fund and its remarkable benefactors, innovative programs such as Knowledge@Wharton, the Wharton eBusiness Initiative (WeBI) and Wharton West might not have been possible.

According to Jean-Pierre Rosso, WG'67, Chairman and CEO of CNH Global, "one should recognize to what and whom you owe your success." In his continuing efforts to give back to the School, Rosso made a contribution to the Dean's Initiative Fund. Rosso's contribution, from the Jean-Pierre Rosso Charitable Trust, affords Wharton the flexibility to create the programs and facilities necessary to push the School and its students, faculty, and alumni to the frontier of business education and industry worldwide.

Rosso stresses that "the Dean and the administration are in the best position to know what's right for the School and what the top priorities are. Discretionary gifts provide the Dean with the flexibility he needs."

Rosso is also dedicated to the School in other important ways; he gives his time as a member of the Wharton Board of Overseers and is a recent appointee to the Board of Governors of the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies.

Rosso is not alone in his dedication to the School. Grateful for the many opportunities he received at Wharton, Joseph Zimmel, WG'79, is "eager to see the School continue its high standards and sustain its place of excellence among business schools. Making a financial contribution, therefore, is a way for me to give something back." Wharton's strengths are evident to Zimmel on the recruiting trail, as well. As Managing Director for Goldman Sachs, he states that "having recruited at every major business school, I find that Wharton students are the best prepared in terms of having the skill set, judgment and enthusiasm to succeed."

Giving to the Dean's Initiative Fund ensures that Zimmel's contribution goes where it's most needed: "I have enormous respect for the Dean and feel that his judgment – being closest to the situation – is the most relevant in terms of utilizing the funds."

Zimmel also maintains his relationship with the School in other ways, such as contributing to the development of Wharton Professor N. Bulent Gultekin's course in advanced corporate finance. His other philanthropic endeavors include serving on the board of the Student/Sponsor Partnership, an organization providing at-risk youth in New York an opportunity to attend non-public high schools.

Ruthann Quindlen, WG'83, is another graduate committed to supporting the School's forward momentum. She and her husband and business partner David Liddle also gave to the School via the Dean's Initiative Fund. A member of the Western Region Gifts Committee, Quindlen is committed to the School's innovative programs, and is especially excited about strengthening Wharton's presence on the West Coast. As an alumna who commuted to Wharton's Philadelphia campus from Washington, DC, Quindlen knows first-hand that the Wharton brand has the power to draw top students from around the country and around the world.

In a recent IT Radio Network interview about investing, Quindlen stated that "the objective becomes putting the venture money – the smart money – right in the path of the oncoming, speeding locomotive." She believes that giving to the Dean's Initiative Fund, which provided start-up funds for Wharton West, is doing just that. Quindlen, venture capitalist and author of the highly regarded book, Confessions of a Venture Capitalist, is glad that she and Liddle can help fuel the Wharton train.