Alumni Reunion - The Wharton School of the University of ...

Alumni Association UpdateAnother Year!DAVID N. FELDMAN,ESQ., W ’82, L’85DEAR FELLOW ALUMNI:Time certainly zooms by.Your Alumni AssociationBoard of Directors has hada busy year, and I wouldlike to take a moment tobriefly outline a few of ourkey achievements. There isstill much to be done, butwe have made much progressin our mission – onbehalf of Wharton’s 77,000alumni, to build and growsimply the greatest businessschool alumni network.U.S. Alumni Conference.We have made significantprogress in planning a majorGlobal Alumni Forum in theUnited States, to complementthe extremely successful internationalforums.New Clubs. This yearwe have added the WhartonClub of Quebec, WhartonOut For Business, and nowboast a club network of dedicatedWharton alums. Inaddition to the traditionalgeographically based Clubs,we also are establishing newways for alumni to connectthrough “affinity”-basedclubs such as the WhartonPrivate Equity Networkand Wharton Health CareNetwork. See below formore information on thePrivate Equity Network,known as “WPEN.”Alumni LeadershipConference. In May, weheld a tremendously successfulAlumni LeadershipConference on campusduring reunion weekend.At this meeting, a group ofClub Presidents and alumnileaders from around theworld participated in workshopsand brainstormingsessions and heard from keyadministration figures. Allwent away with a renewedsense of purpose and newideas about how to buildour Wharton alumni networkat the Club level.Stronger Connectionswith Students. More thanever before, alumni arecoming back to campusthrough various programswhich encourage them toattend conferences andgive talks. Our WhartonColloquia, each a onehoursession with newWharton undergrads duringorientation on topics suchas “Stock Market 101,”“Dressing for Success,”“What is Leadership,”“How to be a CEO by age40” and “Effective BusinessNetworking,” will be expandedgreatly this year. Wehave also made great progressin assisting MBA studentclubs’ efforts to organizealumni advisory boards.Annual FundParticipation. Continuedgrowth of the WhartonAnnual Fund is tremendouslyimportant to maintainingthe School’s world-classreputation for business education.Building the Fund istherefore an important partof the work of the AlumniAssociation Board. Duringthe past year, we continued towork closely with the Schoolto focus on ways to increaseour participation rate. Wewill soon be delivering a seriesof recommendations designedto foster a greater sense ofconnection among those whohave not previously donatedto the School.Alumni StakeholderSurvey. We have been workingclosely with the Dean’sOffice to develop a comprehensivesurvey of our alumni.We believe the resultsof this survey will be veryhelpful in improving ourresponsiveness to the needsand interests of our alums.My thanks go out toour dedicated AlumniAssociation Board members,and especially our President,Vige Barrie, CW’74,WG’76, for all their hardwork this past year. I alsooffer special thanks toAssociate Dean for ExternalAffairs Steve Oliveira,Director of AlumniRelations and AnnualGiving Leslie Arbuthnot,and their fantastic staff (especiallyDawn Downing!)for providing us with a trulyunprecedented level of supportand commitment.As always, if you are currentlyan active member ofWharton’s alumni network,thank you for your dedication.If you are interested ingetting involved and wouldlike to find out more informationabout volunteer opportunities,please contactthe Alumni Affairs office atalumni.affairs@wharton.upenn.edu. There are manyways in which you can makea difference. Start by goingto to find a Whartonalumni club in your region oryour area of interest.I look forward to continuingour dialogue withyou in this column duringthe next year. Please feelfree to call or e-mail medirectly with any questions.Thank you for your supportof the Wharton AlumniAssociation.Sincerely,David N. Feldman, Esq.,W’82, L’85Chairman, WhartonAlumni Associationdfeldman@feldmanweinstein.com34. S U M M E R 2 0 0 4 . A L U M N I A S S O C I A T I O N U P D A T E