Former Penn President Liz Magill earned $2.35 million in 2023, the year leading up to her Dec. 9, 2023 resignation as the University’s ninth president.
According to Penn’s most recent tax filings reviewed by The Daily Pennsylvanian, Magill earned a base salary of $1,480,657 and received a $725,000 bonus. Her total reportable compensation was $2,234,131, and she received an estimated $112,314 in other compensation.
A request for comment was left with a University spokesperson and a spokesperson for Magill.
The DP previously reported that Magill earned $1.02 million in 2022. That year, Magill’s reportable compensation was $869,750, and she received an estimated amount of other compensation of $146,227. Without adjusting for inflation, Magill’s salary was the highest ever paid to a Penn President within their first year of employment.
Penn President Larry Jameson, who was appointed interim president after Magill’s resignation, assumed the presidency in a permanent capacity in March 2025. According to Penn’s tax filing, he was paid $6,436,020 in 2023, when he served as executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and dean of the Perelman School of Medicine.
Chief Investment Officer Peter Ammon — who began his post at Penn in July 2013 as the University’s third chief investment officer — was paid $7,769,709 in total compensation in 2023.
Magill’s career in higher education spans multiple institutions. In addition to her Penn presidency, she has served as dean of Stanford Law School and provost of the University of Virginia. Nine months after resigning from Penn, she joined Harvard University and the London School of Economics for research. In April, Magill was appointed as a volunteer fellow at Branford College — one of Yale University’s 14 residential colleges — where she will hold a renewable four-year term. Magill also remains a tenured professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, a position she has held since 2022.
Magill’s tenure as president — which lasted less than two years — was the shortest of any permanent Penn president. Her December 2023 resignation came amid national backlash over allegations of antisemitism at the University.
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Magill’s resignation announcement followed mounting criticism over her remarks during a December 2023 congressional hearing on antisemitism on college campuses — almost two months after several alumni and donors called for her to step down following the Palestine Writes Literature Festival and the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
During the congressional hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) asked Magill whether individuals calling for the genocide of Jewish people violate Penn’s code of conduct. Magill responded that it was “a context-dependent decision.”
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Magill’s $2.3 million compensation was for fiscal year 2024. The story has been updated to reflect that this amount is for the 2023 calendar year, not the fiscal year. The DP regrets the error.
