Wharton School

Wharton School Announces $500,000 Gift from Alumnus Todd Thomson of Citigroup
Gift to Support Center for Leadership and Change Management

February 23, 2004 — The Wharton School announced the creation of the Todd and Melissa Thomson Fund to support the Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management. The $500,000 gift from alumnus Todd Thomson, CFO of Citigroup, and his wife Melissa Thomson, will support the continued evolution and expansion of Wharton’s leadership initiatives and create a new Wharton Leadership Advisory Board.

The Wharton Leadership Advisory Board — chaired by Todd Thomson — will provide advice and support from executives, business owners, and thought leaders who are committed to helping the School take its leadership agenda to the next level. Possible projects include the creation of an endowment for leadership with new faculty chairs, executive-in-residence opportunities, and visiting professorships in leadership.

“We are grateful for Todd’s support. This is a very important gift for Wharton, as it provides significant support for our students and faculty to be involved with research and ventures through the Center for Leadership and Change Management,” said Dean Patrick Harker. “This is a wonderful example of an alumnus providing not only his time, but also a financial commitment to the School.”

Center director Michael Useem added, “Todd’s generous gift could not have come at a better moment for accelerating the School’s leadership initiatives. His backing will help us expand the faculty research, leadership ventures, and learning experiences to the scale required if we are to meet the expanding leadership needs of our students and the School.”

Thomson is executive vice president of Finance, Operations & Strategy, and chief financial officer of Citigroup, Inc. He oversees financial reporting, treasury, tax, investor relations, O&T, M&A and strategic planning. He is a member of the Citigroup Business Heads and Management Committees and a director of Citicorp and Citibank, N.A. Prior to this appointment, Thomson was CEO of Citibank’s Global Private Bank. Thomson joined Citigroup from GE Capital, where he was senior vice president of Strategic Planning and Business Development, and led acquisitions and new market expansion. Previously, Thomson led the Merchant Banking Services practice for Barents Group LLC, where he led transactions in more than two dozen countries, including the first privatizations in Vietnam, the Baltics, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Bulgaria. Thomson began his career at Bain & Company, where he led more than 25 strategy consulting engagements for 15 major U.S. and multinational corporations.

Thomson received his MBA in 1987, with Distinction, from the Wharton School, and his BA in Economics from Davidson College, N.C. Thomson is a member of the Board of the World Resources Institute and of the Board of Trustees of Davidson College.

Melissa McKeithen Thomson received a BA in Philosophy from Davidson College in 1983 and a JD from Marshall-Wythe School of Law, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, in 1988. Melissa currently serves on the Board of Directors of Kids in Crisis and Graham Windham, children’s services agencies based in Greenwich, CT, and New York, NY, respectively.

The Center for Leadership and Change Management seeks to stimulate basic research and practical applications in the area of strategic leadership and change management. Through these applications, it enhances understanding of how to build and develop leadership in and for organizations as well as assist leadership and change agendas of the School, its faculty and affiliates. The center provides: support for individual and cross-disciplinary, team-based research projects on organizational leadership, strategy, and change; sponsorship of conferences on leadership and change management; dissemination of practical summaries of current research on leadership and change to the academic and management communities through the monthly electronic Wharton Leadership Digest; and assistance of initiatives in the area of leadership development, including its Leadership Ventures.

The Wharton Leadership Ventures are learning experiences for students and graduates, and for participants in Wharton Executive Education programs. They are designed to bring participants into settings where they can learn from the experience of others whose leadership was on the line, and also from their own experience in confronting challenges and solving problems. Examples of Leadership Ventures include treks to Mount Everest, mountaineering in Ecuador, winter ice climbing, Antarctica expeditions, and a U.S. Marine Corps program. To learn more, go to: Wharton Leadership Ventures.

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is recognized around the world for its academic strengths across every major discipline and at every level of business education. Founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school in the nation, Wharton has approximately 4,600 undergraduate, MBA and doctoral students, more than 8,000 participants in its executive education programs annually, and an alumni network of more than 77,000 worldwide.