The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania will have a new dean beginning this summer, the school announced today. Geoffrey Garrett, a distinguished political economist and former faculty member in Wharton’s management department, will take the reins on July 1st, succeeding outgoing Dean Thomas Robertson, who has led the school since 2007.
Garrett is currently dean and professor of business in the Australian School of Business at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), where he has contributed significantly to business research and education for the Asia Pacific region. In this role, he has overseen more than 350 faculty and researchers, eight academic departments, nine research centers and a student body of more than 12,000.
“Geoff Garrett has a proven track record as an eminent interdisciplinary scholar and strong and collaborative strategic leader,” University of Pennsylvania 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,” she continued, adding that his unique experience in international business and business education make him “absolutely the right person” to take Wharton to even greater heights.
At the Australian School of Business, he is credited with growing both scholarly productivity and external engagement—driven by a belief that the best business schools have a mandate to translate methodical, sophisticated research into practice.
Prior to his tenure at UNSW, Garret served as dean of the Business School at the University of Sydney, where he helped found the United States Studies Centre, a hub bringing together business, economics, politics and humanities scholars to deepen understanding of contemporary American issues across Australia and the Pacific Rim. He also served as president of the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles, faculty member at the University of Southern California; vice provost and dean of the UCLA International Institute; director of the Leitner Program in International and Comparative Political Economy and the Ethics, Politics and Economics program at Yale; and as a faculty member at Wharton, Oxford and Stanford universities.
Garret is an expert on globalization and believes that, together with technological change, it is poised to transform business education. “I have no doubt Wharton will be in the vanguard of this transformation in America and around the world,” he said in a statement.
Wharton selected Garrett as its next dean after a comprehensive global search, Gutman noted, praising outgoing Dean Robertson for his many contributions. “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,” she stated.
