Professor Eric Bradlow named the K.P. Chao Professor

October 31, 2005 — The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania announced the appointment of Professor Eric Bradlow as the K.P. Chao Professor. Bradlow is the first professor to fill the endowed chair, funded by K.P. Chao, chairman of the board of Novel Enterprises Limited, based in Hong Kong.

Dean Patrick Harker stated, “We are privileged to have the support of K.P. Chao, one of the world’s foremost industrialists, and are honored to bestow this prestigious chair upon Professor Bradlow, whom we believe will further the School’s lasting commitment to academic excellence.”

Bradlow is a professor of marketing and statistics at the Wharton School and serves as the academic director of the Wharton Small Business Development Center. He is a Wharton graduate, having received his Bachelor of Science in Economics in 1988. His research interests include Bayesian computation problems, probability models for marketing data and missing data problems. Bradlow was the 2004 recipient of both the graduate and undergraduate Excellence in Teaching Awards. Professionally, he serves on the governing boards of several journal publications, including Marketing Science and the Journal of Marketing Research.

The chair was established through a gift from K.P. Chao, who in June of 2004 was awarded the Wharton Dean’s Medal, a distinguished honor reserved only for those who embody the ideals central to the Wharton School’s mission.

“Business education is a critical piece of human education because more wealth creation ultimately leads toward a better world,” stated Chao, who maintains strong connections to the University of Pennsylvania from which his daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren graduated.

On Oct. 21, the School held a dinner in recognition of both Chao’s valuable commitment to Wharton and Bradlow’s appointment as K.P. Chao Professor. Friends and family gathered to honor the indelible role that Chao and Bradlow are playing in furthering the educational initiatives of the Wharton School.

In addition to his position as chairman of the board at Novel Enterprises, Chao serves as honorary chairman and founder of Dragon Air. He also serves as honorary consul of Mauritius to Hong Kong, advisor to Tsinghua University, advisory to Ningbo University, and holds an honorary Doctorate and professorship from Zhejiang University.

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, 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.