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Continued from previous page
A Challenge to Lead
Dean Patrick Harker and Fed Chairman
Alan Greenspan exhort graduates to lead
responsibly
On May 15, 2005, at the University of Pennsylvania's
historic Franklin Field, Wharton graduated
nearly 600 undergraduates and 900 MBAs (from
both the traditional MBA program and the MBA Program
for Executives). A week earlier, 84 graduates
of the Wharton West MBA Program for Executives
were honored at a San Francisco commencement.
Diverse in age, experience and background, and some
separated by a continent, these graduates comprised the
single Wharton School Class of 2005—the latest addition to
the ranks of alumni.
"We expect you—as Joseph Wharton did—to be leaders,"
said Dean Patrick T. Harker, speaking before graduates,
alumni, faculty, family, and friends. "By definition, leaders are
not just in it for themselves. Leaders are in it for others."
Harker continued: "Leaders are not defined by the authority
they have, but by the responsibility they take for those without
authority, for those who have entrusted their well-being—by choice or by circumstance—to others."
After Harker's remarks, Alan Greenspan, chairman of the
Board of Governors of Federal Reserve and recipient of the
Dean's Medal, addressed MBA recipients, elaborating on
the importance of trust and fair-dealing in business. He was
pleasantly surprised that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002,
which gives chief executives greater accountability regarding
their company's financial records, has functioned as well as
it has. "Rules exist to govern behavior, but
rules cannot substitute for character," he
said. "In the years going forward, it will be
your reputation—for integrity, judgment,
and other qualities of character—that will
determine your success in life and in business."
Greenspan added: "Material success is
possible in this world, and far more satisfying,
when it comes without exploiting others.
The true measure of a career is to be able to
be content, even proud, that you succeeded
through your own endeavors without leaving
a trail of casualties in your wake."
Duane Bernt, WG'05, selected as a student
speaker from among the MBA Program for Executives cohort,
echoed this theme, calling upon his classmates to be "champions
of integrity" throughout their lives and careers.
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