Patrick T. Harker Named 12th Dean of the Wharton School At the University of Pennsylvania.

Business Editors

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 8, 2000

Patrick T. Harker, UPS Transportation Professor for the Private Sector and professor of operations and information management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, has been named dean of the school, according to an announcement today by University President Judith Rodin.

With the appointment, Dr. Harker, 41, becomes the twelfth dean of the nation's first collegiate school of management. The appointment will become effective upon confirmation by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania on February 18, 2000.

&uot;Pat Harker is recognized as one of the brightest young minds in America,&uot; Dr. Rodin said. &uot;His is an extraordinary record of accomplishment and leadership, as a teacher, researcher, consultant to government and industry and as a university citizen.

&uot;We are pleased that our search, which has been one of the most exhaustive and thorough ever conducted at Penn, has led us back to yet another distinguished member of the Penn family, and we believe America's premier business school will have the benefit of his superb leadership for many years to come.&uot;

Harker succeeds Thomas P. Gerrity, who stepped down June 30, 1999, after nearly a decade of leading the school.

Harker has held numerous leadership positions at Penn over the past 15 years including serving as Wharton's interim dean since August 9, 1999, and deputy dean since July 1, 1999. He joined the Wharton faculty as the Stephen M. Peck Term Assistant Professor of Decision Sciences in 1984, was appointed associate professor of decision sciences in 1987, and UPS Transportation Professor for the Private Sector in 1991. He served as chairperson of the Operations and Information Management Department from 1997 to 1999, and currently holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Systems Engineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science, where he chaired the Systems Department from 1994 to 1996. A resident of Haddon Heights, N.J., Harker received both bachelor's and master's degrees in civil and urban engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1981. He received a master's degree in economics and a PhD degree in civil engineering from Penn in 1983.

The University of Pennsylvania, a charter member of the Ivy Group, is ranked among the finest comprehensive universities in the world. The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is recognized around the world for its innovative leadership and broad academic strengths across every major discipline and at every level of management education. Founded in 1881 as the nation's first collegiate business school, Wharton has nearly 5,000 students from 60 nations enrolled in degree programs, approximately 8,000 participants in its executive education programs and a network of more than 73,000 alumni/ae in 131 countries.