A Note from the President

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Pam Perskie, W'97
President

 
I am thrilled to have the opportunity to serve as the President of the Wharton Club of New York. With ~30,000 members living and working in the business and financial center of the world, the Club is the heart of the Wharton School’s alumni network.

As such, the Club can and should serve as a lifelong link between Wharton graduates and the school that helped produce them. With this goal in mind, the Club will be implementing a program I call “Wharton for Life”.

The program is designed to enhance and deepen the relationship between the school and its alumni.

I’m calling on Wharton to invest more robustly than ever in its remarkable pool of graduates. During this period of considerable change in the world of higher education, our school must find new ways to engage alumni and rally them to support the school.

In return, I’m calling on Wharton graduates to invest more robustly in our school. With a stronger Wharton, we will all continue to benefit from our connection with the school long after we’ve left campus.

Lastly, I’m calling on Wharton graduates to invest in one another. If we do, we can preserve the value of the gift we all share: membership in a very special community. We have a unique ability, by virtue of our stature and status, to lift one another up. As our longtime chairman Ken Beck often says: “Take the call”. Offer your ear, your advice, and your assistance to others in the community, that we and the school may all benefit.

Of course, in the spirit of this moment in our society, I’m also implementing a second program, one I call “Wharton for Good”. I believe that even as we band together to help one another in our Wharton community, we can also use our influence to extend opportunities to others.

I’ve been inspired to think about this lately by my daughter, who attends a high school at which many of her peers don’t have the financial opportunities, parental support, or role models that many of our children do.

She came to me with an idea: that we at the Wharton Club pair students at schools like hers with Wharton alumni in a mentorship program. This, she said, would allow the Wharton community to play a part in spreading opportunity and identifying promising talent wherever it might be found. We will be exploring opportunities like these over the coming months.

As Wharton alumni, we are fortunate to have the ability to make change – for others, for ourselves, and for our school. I hope to encourage and foster that change – and I hope that many of you will join me. Together, we can and will do great things.

Pam Perskie, W'97
President, Wharton Club of New York
Founder and CEO, Seven Mile Advisory
pam@whartonny.net


 
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