Search for Wharton dean moving ahead

The search committee is evaluating about 12 candidates for the post. Four months after outgoing Wharton School Dean Thomas Gerrity announced his resignation, officials from the committee searching for a new dean say they are right on schedule in finding his replacement. According to Graduate School of Fine Arts Dean Gary Hack, who chairs the committee, the University hired an international search firm which has narrowed down the list of potential candidates to 12 businesspersons, academics and others. "We are getting to a crucial stage of the search," said Dennis Carey, vice president of the international executive-search firm Spencer Stuart, which has been working with the committee to solicit candidates. "About a dozen or so names have surfaced whom we will begin to focus in on as we go forward in the next weeks." Spencer Stuart, headquartered in San Francisco and London, also aided the search that brought University President Judith Rodin to Penn in 1995. "It's a balanced slate of candidates representing a variety of backgrounds," Carey said of list, which he described as "pretty evenly distributed" among businesspersons, academics and others. Hack said the applicant pool has at one time throughout the four-month process "included people inside Wharton, deans of other business schools, senior government officials and other respected academics." The group hopes to have three or four candidates' names to submit to Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi before the end of May, and to officially announce a replacement before Gerrity leaves the school in July. "Our hope is to have someone in place when Tom Gerrity steps down this summer so that there will not be a gap in leadership," Hack added. The search committee -- which includes senior Wharton faculty, one member from the School of Arts and Sciences, one from the Graduate School of Education, two alumni and two current Wharton students -- has met biweekly since November. However, Hack said that the group will now begin to meet more frequently as members closely examine resumes, references and letters of nomination. "We haven't rejected anyone but some people have been looked at more than others," Hack said. The committee will also continue to solicit new candidates as others are dropped. While many of the current candidates were targeted by Spencer Stuart, a significant number of applicants responded to advertisements placed in internationally-renowned newspapers and journals. Students, faculty and alumni have also written lengthy letters to nominate potential candidates, Hack said. The search committee membership includes: Management and Technology Professor William Hamilton; Operations and Information Management Department Chairperson Patrick Harker; Finance Professor Richard Kihlstrom; Management Professor Stephen Kobrin; Statistics and Marketing Professor Abba Krieger; Wharton alumni and University Board of Trustees members Michael Tarnopol and Jon Huntsman Jr.; Social Sciences Professor Elijah Anderson; Education Professor Rebecca Maynard; and current Wharton junior Joanne Lobo and second-year MBA student Elizabeth Woodcock.