Wharton’s New Job Hopping Dean

“Australia is a leader in international education,” he added, “but in North America the business schools tend to be a little more ‘Atlanticist’. international leverage international advantage. We have very strong engagement with Asia and understanding of Asian students.”

In a brief statement accompanying the announcement, Garrett said, “It will be my honor and privilege to work with such fantastic colleagues, students and alumni at Wharton and all around the University. Like other sectors, globalization and technological change are poised to transform business education. I have no doubt Wharton will be in the vanguard of this transformation in America and around the world.”

‘AN EMINENT INTERDISCIPLINARY SCHOLAR’

Penn obviously felt comfortable to turn over the school to Garrett after its worldwide search for Robertson’s successor. “Geoff Garrett has a proven track record as an eminent interdisciplinary scholar and strong and collaborative strategic leader,” Penn President Amy Gutmann said in a statement. “He has a deep understanding of Wharton’s distinctive mission and a compelling vision for the role of business schools in an era of rapid change and globalization. Geoff has unique experience in international business and business education and is absolutely the right person to partner with Wharton faculty, students, staff and alumni to take the school to even greater heights.”

“Geoff has a deep appreciation for the role of interdisciplinary research and teaching in research universities,”  Provost Vincent Price said. “At UNSW he helped oversee the creation of a university-wide innovation center, bringing together faculty and students from business, design, engineering and science. His approach to scholarship and discovery fits perfectly with Penn’s commitment to integrating knowledge across disciplines.”

A SCHOLAR WHO HAS WRITTEN 45 ACADEMIC ARTICLES

Before joining UNSW, Garrett served as dean of the Business School at the University of Sydney and as founding CEO of the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, an important hub that brought together scholars of business, economics, politics and the humanities to deepen understanding of contemporary American issues across Australia and the Pacific Rim.

He served earlier as president of the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles and as a faculty member at the University of Southern California; as vice provost and dean of the UCLA International Institute; as director of the Leitner Program in International and Comparative Political Economy and director of the Ethics, Politics and Economics program at Yale; and as a faculty member at Wharton and at Oxford and Stanford universities. He has served on the boards of the Asia Foundation, the Centre for Social Impact and the Centre for International Finance and Regulation.

Penn noted that Garrett is a distinguished social scientist and expert on globalization who has authored or co-edited three books, written 45 scholarly articles, produced dozens of chapters and essays and contributed more than 100 opinion articles to newspapers around the world. He is a former Fulbright Scholar, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and has served on the editorial boards of journals including International Organization, World Politics and Global Policy. He is an honors graduate of the Australian National University and completed his master’s and doctoral degrees in political science at Duke University.

“Our selection of Geoff Garrett as the next dean of the Wharton School successfully concludes a global search to find a successor to Tom Robertson, who has served with distinction as dean of since 2007,” Gutmann said in a statement. “Under Tom’s leadership, Wharton has solidified its position as one of the world’s preeminent business schools, deepened its investments in traditional areas of strength and emerged as a leader in major strategic areas, including global engagement, innovation and social impact.”

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