Gerrity to lead e-commerce grp.

When former Wharton Dean Thomas Gerrity announced that he was stepping down from the prestigious business school's top post last fall, he promised he would not remain idle. What Gerrity didn't say was that he would be guiding one of Penn's most innovative initiatives, as Wharton academics take on the World Wide Web's latest "killer app" -- e-commerce. Wharton officials are set to announce today that Gerrity will be the new director of the Wharton Forum on Electronic Commerce, an e-business think tank which serves to develop and implement cutting-edge e-commerce strategies based on Wharton's academic research. Created in 1996, the forum has evolved from a research center to incorporate consulting, executive education and semi-annual conferences for its 10 corporate clients -- including Ford, State Farm Insurance, Johnson and Johnson, Kraft and IBM. For $50,000 each year, the forum's corporate members agree to partner with Wharton faculty members, researchers and MBA students to provide case and market analysis and devise custom strategies and e-commerce solutions as the firms penetrate the online market. "Lots of other business schools are coming out with products that have e-commerce as a focus," Wharton Director of Executive Education Custom Programs Scott Koerwer said, pointing out e-commerce-related programs at numerous peer institutions. Wharton officials expect that Gerrity will be actively involved as director. He will be responsible for working with Wharton faculty to generate a research agenda, communicating with corporate clients and facilitating two conferences for forum members each year. Although Gerrity was unavailable for comment, the position seems to many like a natural fit for the former dean. Gerrity was once the chairperson and chief executive officer of the Index Group, a Minnesota-based technology consulting firm. "Before Gerrity came to Wharton, he was the No. 1 technology consultant in the world," Koerwer explained. "He brings tremendous brand equity to the forum." And Gerrity's experience launching Wharton's curricular initiatives, as well as spearheading the business school's current $350 million capital campaign, should be of help. Officials hope to grow the forum's current corporate sponsorship, which currently totals $600,000, and further increase the number of faculty who are involved in e-commerce projects. According to Koerwer, researchers have tackled a wide range of topics including privacy issues, intellectual property, Internet strategy and the elimination of the middleman as consumers buy directly online. The announcement comes on the heels of a series of new, Internet-related projects the business school is launching. Last June, officials unveiled Knowledge@Wharton, an online newsletter and searchable database to promote the school's latest research. And a new e-commerce major is expected to be ratified at Wharton's next faculty meeting in early November.

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