Wharton Announces the Newly Named Anne and John McNulty Leadership Program
The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School honored alumna Anne McNulty (MBA ’79) with a renaming ceremony of its renowned leadership program on September 12th.
The program will now be called the Anne and John McNulty Leadership Program. Anne and John were high school sweethearts at Philadelphia’s Cardinal O’Hara High School, but it was their time at Wharton that turned them into leaders. Before his sudden death of a heart attack in 2005, John rose through the ranks at Goldman Sachs to become partner, then co-head of the asset management division and ultimately to lead the creation of its investment management division. Anne, previously a managing director at Goldman and a senior executive of its hedge fund strategies group, today is the co-founder and managing partner of JBK Partners, an investment management firm and private philanthropic foundation.
Anne McNulty’s $10 million commitment will enable the continuation of the Wharton leadership program’s rich curriculum, which includes such unique experiences as hiking trips to the Andes, military simulations at Quantico and authenticity training workshops.
University President Amy Gutmann remarked, “Leadership needs to be taught and learned… It needs to be honed and constantly improved.”
The event featured a panel discussion including former CNN CEO and prolific biographer Walter Isaacson, who has written bestselling profiles of such influential leaders as Steve Jobs and Benjamin Franklin. During his talk, Isaacson discussed the history of Philadelphia as an epic of great leadership. He also spoke about the development of the computer at Penn with the advent of ENIAC in the post WWII era.
“Very [few] people … know who invented the computer or the Internet—with all respect to Al Gore … And that’s because no one person invented it … the important thing if you’re building a computer isn’t to be the person who gets the engineering exactly right, it’s to be the person who gets the team exactly right,” Isaacson said.
In a January 2016 press release announcing the gift, Wharton Dean Geoff Garrett said, “Anne and John have shaped the history of Wharton and made a lasting impact on students by preparing them to lead and change the world. Wharton is deeply grateful for this gift, which embodies the McNulty family’s steadfast commitment to leadership.”
About the Author
Maggie Boccella
Maggie Boccella, a lifelong resident of Philadelphia, is a freelance writer, artist and photographer. She has consulted on various film and multimedia projects, and she also serves as a juror for the city's annual LGBTQIA Film Festival.
