Penn forms committee to spearhead search for next University president

Penn has assembled a committee to lead the selection of the University’s next president.

The search committee, announced Monday by University Board of Trustees Chair Ramanan Raghavendran, is the second formal step in the presidential search, following a consultative committee that determined key priorities and qualifications. Two professors, six trustees, and a trustee emerita will identify candidates and eventually make a recommendation to the Board of Trustees.

All nine members, including Raghavendran, also served on the consultative committee, which was established in August.

“I want to thank the members of the Consultative Committee for their time and the thoughtfulness they brought to every conversation,” Raghavendran wrote in the announcement. “Together, they represented the many different perspectives of our community while sharing a deep commitment to the institution.”

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor Eric Feldman and professor Duncan Watts — appointed at the Annenberg School for Communication, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Wharton School — are serving on the search committee.

Trustees Ryan Limaye, Catherine O’Hern Lyons, Marc McMorris, Dhananjay Pai, and Ted Schlein, as well as Trustee Emerita Julie Beren Platt, are also members of the committee.

The committee will head the selection process for Penn’s 11th president, who will succeed current Penn President Larry Jameson after he steps down in June 2027.

According to Raghavendran, the committee’s work has already begun and will continue in “very stringent confidentiality.”

“There will be little to share in the coming months until we are able to publicly announce a decision,” he wrote.

The search committee will produce a report once its work is complete. The Board of Trustees Executive Committee will review this report in a closed meeting before nominating one finalist to be voted on by the trustees, according to the official process laid out in Penn’s Statutes of the Trustees.

College senior and Undergraduate Assembly President Musab Chummun wrote in a statement that he felt that his “contributions were appreciated and influential in shaping the outputs” of the consultative committee, which he served on.

“I felt as though the process was very smooth and the group put in significant effort,” Chummun wrote. “I have a lot of confidence that the output of the committee will help define the search and bring a strong set of candidates.”

He added that he “was glad to represent student voices and made sure to voice high-level student concerns and priorities.”

The Board of Trustees has not yet set a date for its vote. Members of the Penn community can nominate candidates through an online survey.

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