Wharton alumna takes over finances

The University's new vice president for finance is no stranger to Penn business, having once had the honor of being the only Wharton student to ever serve as city treasurer while still in school for her doctorate. And Kathy Engebretson comes from a money-management firm that manages about one-third of the University's $2.5 billion endowment, according to Lucy Momjian, the University's associate treasurer for investments. Engebretson, a former Philadelphia treasurer, assumed her new position August 25. She replaces Steve Golding, who left earlier this summer after six years at the University to join Engebretson's previous employer. "It feels great to be back at Penn," said Engebretson, 40, who was once a teaching assistant for undergraduate Statistics classes. The vice president for finance oversees a wide range of financial activities, including the offices of the comptroller and treasurer as well as Student Financial Services, investments and risk management. The office reports to Executive Vice President John Fry. Engebretson, a Minneapolis native, said she thinks the University will benefit from her experience in the private sector and her time spent at the University. She was most recently a client-relationship manager at Miller Anderson & Sherrerd, an investment-management firm in West Conshohocken, Pa., with close ties to the University. In addition to the fact that Miller Anderson manages about $850 million of Penn's endowment, Richard Worley, a partner in Miller Anderson, is a University trustee. But Engebretson stressed that she didn't handle any University business while at Miller Anderson. In her two-year term as treasurer, Engebretson improved Philadelphia's debt ratings and refinanced much of its debt. She started in that position in January 1992, while she worked on her dissertation at Wharton. She obtained her master's degree in business administration in 1983. Engebretson received her doctorate last December. Golding, 49, notified University officials in April that he was joining Miller Anderson to oversee marketing for higher-education endowments and foundations, said Phyllis Holtzman, a University spokesperson.

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