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Penn Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli will leave his position at the University this fall (Photo from Penn Today).

1985 Wharton graduate and Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli will leave Penn to serve as the chief financial officer at Stanford University next fall, according to a Tuesday announcement from Penn President Larry Jameson to the University’s senior leaders.

Carnaroli — who has served the University for 25 years — currently holds the position of Penn’s chief financial and administrative officer, reporting to the president in collaboration with the provost. He will return to Stanford — where he received his MBA — as the senior vice president for finance and administration.

"I am very grateful for the opportunity to have served Penn in a leadership capacity," Carnaroli wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian. "This is a bittersweet moment as I will miss working with my friends and colleagues across the University but am excited for the next chapter of my career at Stanford."

"I will be cheering for Penn from the Bay Area," he added. 

“While we will greatly miss Craig’s strategic insight, collaborative spirit, and deep dedication to Penn, we celebrate this exciting next chapter for him,” Jameson wrote in the June 3 announcement. “We want to acknowledge all he has done to help shape the Penn we know today.”

Jameson emphasized Carnaroli’s legacy of guidance and leadership at Penn, writing that “over the past 25 years, Craig has shaped and contributed to Penn in many ways.” 

“Craig joined Penn in 2000 at a time of fiscal stress for Penn’s health system,” Jameson wrote. “Working closely with Trustees and University and Health System leaders, research expanded, and clinical operations grew, creating a stable foundation for Penn Medicine.”

While describing Carnaroli’s “financial stewardship” since his arrival at Penn, Jameson recognized his colleague’s commitment to the “substantial growth and strong investment performance of Penn's endowment,” along with Carnaroli’s role in “strengthening … Penn’s balance sheet demonstrated by increases in Penn’s net assets from $4.7 billion to $31.0 billion.”

Jameson attributed Carnaroli’s efforts to helping Penn’s economic contribution to Philadelphia grow “from $5 billion to more than $20 billion annually.”

According to Jameson’s message, Carnaroli also helped to transform Penn’s campus, modernize the University’s operations, and promote access and inclusion.

“Craig’s commitment to access is one of his most lasting legacies,” Jameson wrote, noting his contributions to a "dramatic drop in undergraduate student loan debt."

Jameson emphasized the “turbulent times” that characterized Carnaroli’s 25-year tenure. He pointed to Carnaroli’s navigation of “planning and recovery efforts” during the 2008 financial crisis and COVID-19 pandemic as evidence of Carnaroli’s “steady leadership” during periods of change and growth. 

Carnaroli has similarly led the charge of new financial measures in the wake of federal funding cuts from the federal government. On March 10, he announced several proactive changes — including a hiring freeze and a review of capital spending — to cut costs and brace for financial uncertainty. 

“In the coming months, we will have opportunities to celebrate Craig and express our gratitude,” Jameson wrote. “His legacy is visible in our financial health, our physical campus, our innovation capacity, our civic partnerships, and most importantly, the people of Penn.”

Carnaroli described his time serving Penn as “his ‘second Penn education’” in a 2021 interview with Penn News Today, having graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Wharton in 1985.

Carnaroli began overseeing Penn’s financial operations — including investments and student financial services — in 2000 after former Vice President for Finance Kathy Engebretson resigned. He previously served as the director of the Health and Education Finance Department at Merrill Lynch, which had been retained by Engebretson last October as a consultant to Penn and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.