Wharton School

Commerce Bancorp Chairman Vernon Hill Receives Pioneer Award From Wharton School Marketing Faculty and Students

Dec. 2, 2004 — Faculty and students in the Marketing Department at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania awarded the first annual Marketing Pioneer Award to alumnus Vernon W. Hill, founder and chairman of Commerce Bancorp. The award is given to an individual who has inspired breakthrough thinking and innovation in marketing. Hill received the award at an event held Dec. 1 at the Wharton School.

“We are extremely pleased to give this award to Vernon Hill who has raised the standard for innovation and excellence through his leadership,” said Stephen Hoch, chairman of the Marketing Department at the Wharton School and director of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative.

Members of the Wharton School’s Marketing Department served as judges to select Hill as a recipient of the award. Hill was chosen for instituting major changes in the retail banking industry, for breaking down barriers, and for raising the standard for excellence in marketing. As the founder and leader of Commerce, he has brought innovation to the retail banking industry through a strategy that focuses on Commerce as a retail business. Rather than following the business models of competitors, Commerce finds inspiration in the strategy of Home Depot and Wal-Mart. Hill received his undergraduate degree from Wharton in 1967.

Commerce is one of the nation's fastest growing financial services retailers. Since Hill founded the bank in 1973, Commerce has developed a unique and very successful retail model, which fuels the bank's continuing growth. Commerce has expanded substantially since opening its first store more than 30 years ago in Marlton, N.J. Today, the Commerce network comprises more than 300 stores throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware.

Founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school in the United States, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania was the first business school to offer a marketing curriculum in 1904. Today, Wharton is recognized around the world for its academic strengths across every major discipline and at every level of business education. Wharton has approximately 4,600 undergraduate, MBA, Executive MBA, and doctoral students, more than 8,000 participants in its executive education programs annually, and an alumni network of more than 80,000 worldwide.