Senior Fellows

Senior Fellows are appointed by the Center for Leadership and Change Management to support the Center with a variety of research initiatives, teachings and global projects. They provide an essential link between the Wharton community and the foremost leaders in business, public service, and government.

Dr. Preston B. Cline
Co-founder and Director of Research and Education at the Mission Critical Team Institute

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Preston spent 30 years in the field of Adventure Education leading expeditions on all seven continents. These journeys became the catalyst for a lifelong academic investigation on how humans learn to interact with uncertainty. This research has resulted in a Masters of Education from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education on risk and uncertainty, and a Doctorate in Education from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education on the training and education of Mission Critical Teams: Small (4-12 agents), integrated groups of indigenously trained and educated experts that leverage tools and technology to resolve complex adaptive problems in an immersive, but constrained (five minutes or less), temporal environments, where the consequence of failure can be catastrophic.

In 2018, after 10 years serving as the Director of the Wharton Leadership Ventures, Preston founded the Mission Critical Team Institute, which is an applied research institute focused on the development of an international collaborative inquiry community made up of Instructor Cadres within Military Special Operations, Emergency Medicine, Tactical Law Enforcement, Aerospace and Urban and Wilderness Fire Fighting Organizations within Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States. When he is working with Cadre, he resides outside Philadelphia with his extraordinary spouse Amy.

Alex Gorsky
CEO and Worldwide Chairman
Johnson & Johnson

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Alex is the CEO and Worldwide Chairman of Johnson & Johnson. Prior to this he was Vice Chairman of Johnson & Johnson’s Medical Devices and Diagnostics Group and a member of the Company’s Executive Committee.

Alex began his Johnson & Johnson career as a sales representative with Janssen Pharmaceutica in 1988. Over the next 15 years, he advanced through positions of increasing responsibility in sales, marketing and management and, in 2001, was appointed President of Janssen. In 2003, he was promoted to Company Group Chairman of Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Alex left Johnson & Johnson in 2004 to serve as the chief operating officer for Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. In 2005, he was named head of Pharma North America and Chief Executive Officer for Novartis.

Alex returned to Johnson & Johnson in 2008 as Company Group Chairman and Worldwide Franchise Chairman for Ethicon. At that time, he also was appointed to the Surgical Care Group Operating Committee. In early 2009, he was appointed Worldwide Chairman of the Surgical Care Group and also was appointed to the Johnson & Johnson Executive Committee.

Alex holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and spent six years in the U.S. Army, finishing his military career with the rank of Captain. Alex earned a Master of Business Administration degree from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1996.

A longtime advocate of diversity and inclusion, Alex was named the 2009 Mentor of the Year by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association, an organization he has been involved with for many years. During his tenure with Novartis, he established the Novartis CEO Award for Diversity and Inclusion. Currently, he is the Executive Sponsor of the Johnson & Johnson Women’s Leadership Initiative.

Alex serves on the board of directors of the Doylestown Hospital in Doylestown, PA. He and his wife, Pat, have a son, Nicholas.

Todd Henshaw
President, Leader Development Associates

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Todd Henshaw teaches Executive Leadership Programs at Wharton. Prior to coming to Wharton, he was a Professor at Columbia University, and Academy Professor and Director of Leadership Programs at the United States Military Academy at West Point. A key architect of West Point’s Leader Development System, he also served as the inaugural Director of the Eisenhower Leader Development Program, a graduate partnership with Columbia University that prepares Army captains to develop future officers.

At Wharton, Todd teaches leadership and leader development to both executives and MBA students, and consults with organizations desiring improvement in leadership at all levels. He has worked to enhance leadership capacity in numerous global organizations, including General Electric, Glaxo Smith Kline, Coca-Cola, Bao Steel, Kuwait Ministry of Finance, Huawei, IBM, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Novartis, Penske, McKinsey, Bain and McKesson and the National Military Academy of Afghanistan. He earned his MBA from The University of Texas at Austin, concentrating in Executive Leadership and Strategy, and a Ph.D. in Business at the University of Kansas, examining leadership development and organizational culture.

Ginny Hutchinson
Principal, Zero Point Partners

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Ginny Hutchinson is a Fortune 100, marketing executive recognized for her strategic and innovative approach. She is a leadership consultant, executive coach and principal at Zero Point Partners. Offering programs on leadership and high-performance teams internationally, her practice focuses on helping world-class leaders a make positive impact in the private, public, and non-profit sectors.

Ginny is a Senior Fellow at the McNulty Center for Leadership at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. At Wharton she instructs in Executive Education Programs, in MBA Leadership Ventures and holds Women in Leadership workshops.

Based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, she enjoys skiing, cycling, trekking and traveling in remote regions of the world with her husband John and their family.

Martin Ihrig
Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education

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Martin Ihrig is an adjunct associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. He is also associate dean and clinical professor at New York University and an adjunct professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. As a faculty member at Penn GSE, Dr. Ihrig teaches in the Penn Chief Learning Officer program and the Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership. Also at Penn GSE, he served as the founding academic director of the nation’s first executive master’s in Education Entrepreneurship program.

As a faculty member at the Wharton School, Dr. Ihrig teaches strategy, entrepreneurship, and innovation in the open enrollment and customized programs at the Aresty Institute of Executive Education. His research and consulting focuses on the strategic and entrepreneurial management of knowledge (SEM-K), and he is the co-founder and former research director of the SEM-K initiative at Wharton’s Snider Entrepreneurial Research Center.

In his position at New York University, Dr. Ihrig runs the Division of Programs in Business at the NYU School of Professional Studies. Dr. Ihrig is also the co-founder and president of I-Space Institute, an applied research and consulting venture that helps organizations create innovation growth opportunities. In addition, he has previously served as a visiting professor at Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland. He received his Master of Business Studies from University College Dublin and his doctorate in Business Administration from Technische Universität Berlin.

Rodrigo Jordan
Founder and Chairman, Vertical S. A. (Santiago, Chile)

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Rodrigo Jordán is founding director of Vertical in Chile, an organization devoted to using the mountains as classrooms for groups ranging from company mangers to school children. He also directs Fundación Vertical, the non-for-profit arm of Vertical to serve the underprivileged students of the poorest schools in Chile.

Rodrigo is an accomplished mountaineer who has climbed throughout the Andes, summited Mt. Everest by the difficult east face in 1992, and led a Chilean team in 1996 in a successful ascent of K2. In 2002, he led a four-person team in an unsupported 250-mile traverse, much of it unexplored, of the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica. In 2006, he led a national team of 15 members to the summit of Lhotse, the world’s fourth highest mountain.

He received his doctorate in organizational administration from Oxford University, and he teaches Leadership and Decision Making in the MBA program of the Universidad Católica de Chile. Rodrigo was chosen to be the present chairman of the Chilean National Foundation for the Overcoming of Poverty, the most important NGO dealing with Poverty and Social Development today in Chile.

John Kanengieter
Principal, Zero Point Partners

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John is an executive coach, strategic leadership consultant and principal at Zero Point Partners. His expertise is leadership development, teamwork and decision-making for executives in the United States, Asia, Europe and Latin America. His practice focuses on building resilient leaders and high-functioning teams in the private, public and non-profit sectors.

He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School, McNulty Center for Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania. In this capacity he develops curriculum, leads Wharton Leadership Venture expeditions and he teaches executive leadership and high-performance teams through Wharton Executive Education.

John and his wife Ginny live in Jackson Hole, Wyoming where they enjoy the benefits of mountain air and life. He is an avid skier, cyclist and interested in all things outdoors.

Chris Maxwell, G’87, LPS’09
Former Adjunct Professor of Management, the Wharton School; author of Lead Like a Guide

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Chris Maxwell taught a course on leadership and teamwork at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School for 15 years, and created and directed an experiential leadership development program that took him and over 200 participants and corporate sponsors to high peaks and challenging environments around the world. 

From the summit of Wyoming’s dramatic Grand Teton to Iceland’s highest snow peak, to the wilds of Patagonia and far beyond, his team-based programs with world-class mountain guides have taught leadership lessons with lasting impact for leaders in both business and non-profit organizations. 

Chris earned a graduate degree in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and holds a PhD in Public Administration from Penn State.  He is a Senior Fellow of the Center for Leadership and Change Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

F. William McNabb III, WG’83
Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Vanguard

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F. William McNabb III is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Vanguard. He joined Vanguard in 1986. In 2008, he became chief executive officer; in 2010, he became chairman of the board of directors and the board of trustees. He stepped down as chief executive officer at the end of 2017 and as chairman at the end of 2018. Earlier in his career, he led each of Vanguard’s client-facing business divisions.

Mr. McNabb is active in the investment management industry and served as the chairman of the Investment Company Institute’s board of governors from 2013 to 2016. A board member of UnitedHealth Group and the chairman of Ernst & Young’s Independent Audit Committee, he is also chairman of the board of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, a board member of CECP: The CEO Force for Good, and a board member of the Philadelphia School Partnership.

In addition, Mr. McNabb is the executive in residence at the Raj & Kamla Gupta Governance Institute at the Le Bow College of Business and a member of the Advisory Board of the Ira M. Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership at Columbia Law School. He is a member of the Wharton Leadership Advisory Board of the Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management and a member of The Wharton School’s Graduate Executive Board. He also serves on the Dartmouth Athletic Advisory Board.

Mr. McNabb earned an A.B. at Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Meredith Myers
Executive Director, Job Crafting LLC.

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Meredith has served as faculty at the University of Pennsylvania since 2009, working within the Wharton School, the School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2), and the Positive Psychology Center. Meredith has won excellence in teaching awards in the Wharton School and SP2’s Nonprofit Leadership Masters Program.

In her research and consulting, she has coached international leaders, executives and board members in non-profits, foundations, and industry on how to forge healthier relationships for more sustainable business results. Key subject areas include: the science of human flourishing, leadership, collaboration, bias in decision-making, emotions at work. She also has helped develop and execute training programs to build problem-solving and collaboration capacity within mission critical teams such as those within the New York Fire Department, Navy Special Warfare and US Army Special Operations Command.

Outside of her university-based roles, Meredith is the Executive Director of Job Crafting LLC, which leverages cutting edge research on the workplace to help people construct their work in ways that promote a greater sense of purpose and engagement while enhancing business results.

Meredith holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Case Western Reserve University. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania / the Wharton School, in the dual-degree Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business.

David Pottruck, C’70, WG’72
Chairman, Red Eagle Ventures and Co-Chairman, HighTower Advisors, LLC

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Dave Pottruck is the Co-Chairman of HighTower, a $14 billion nationwide wealth management firm. Mr. Pottruck was formerly President and Chief Executive Officer of The Charles Schwab Corporation, where he worked from 1984 until 2004.

In addition to HighTower, Mr. Pottruck serves on the Board of Directors of the Intel Corporation, and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team Foundation. Mr. Pottruck also serves Senior Advisor to Diamond Management and Technology Consultants, and serves as a Senior Fellow and adjunct faculty in the Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management. Mr. Pottruck was formerly a Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and Chair of the San Francisco Committee on Jobs.

Mr. Pottruck has received significant recognition by various organizations. He has been named one of the “Top 15 CEOs” by Worth; “CEO of the Year” by Information Week, “Executive of the Year” by The San Francisco Business Times; and “CEO of the Year” by Morningstar. Mr. Pottruck also received the Anti-Defamation League’s 2000 Torch of Liberty Award.

Mr. Pottruck co-authored a “best seller” business book, Clicks and Mortar: Passion Driven Growth in an Internet Driven World. He was appointed by Congress and then President Clinton to serve as a commissioner on The Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce.

Mr. Pottruck graduated with a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, and earned his MBA with honors from Wharton in 1972. A native of New York, Mr. Pottruck and his wife, Emily, reside in San Francisco. He is the father of three adult children.

Gregory Shea
Adjunct Professor of Management; Adjunct Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics; The Wharton School

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Gregory P. Shea, Ph.D., consults, teaches, researches, and writes in the areas of organizational and individual change, leadership, group effectiveness, and conflict resolution. He is a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School’s Center for Leadership and Change, Adjunct Professor of Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and of its Aresty Institute of Executive Education, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the Wharton School, President of Shea & Associates, Inc, Senior Consultant at the Center for Applied Research, and a principal in the Coxe Group, an international consulting firm serving the design professions. He served as Academic Director for the Johnson and Johnson/Wharton Program for Health System CEO’s and for fourteen years as Academic Director for the Johnson and Johnson/Wharton Fellows Program for Nurse Executives.  His awards include an Excellence in Teaching Award from Wharton. He is a member of the Academy of Management and the American Psychological Association.

 

He has co-authored We Can Fix Healthcare: The Future Is Now (2016), Leading Successful Change: 8 Keys to Making Change Work (2013), Your Job Survival Guide: A Manual for Thriving in Change (2009),  American Healthcare & the Consumer Experience (2005), and The Phantom Stethoscope: A Field Manual for Finding an Optimistic Future in Medicine (1999) and has contributed chapters to the following books: Business Management for the Curious: Why Study Business Management (2015),  Strategic Thinking and Entrepreneurial Action in Health Care (2007), Medicine and Business (2000), Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (2nd edition; 1992), Managing Hospitals (1991), and Research in Personnel and Human Resource Management (Volume 5; 1987).  Dr. Shea’s writing has appeared in the Sloan Management Review, Journal of Applied Management, Journal of Applied Behavior Science, Journal of Conflict Resolution, British Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Management Development, Healthcare Transformation, Nursing Administration Quarterly, Annals of Surgery, Health Management Policy and Innovation, and School Administrator. He serves as Associate Editor of Healthcare Transformation and has also served as contributing editor to the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. He is a regular contributor to Wharton’s Sirius Radio channel.

Dr. Shea is a Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College and holds an M.Sc. in Management Studies from the London School of Economics and an M.A., M. Phil., and Ph.D. in Administrative Science from Yale University.  His website is http://gregoryshea.com/

Nadya K. Shmavonian
Director of the Nonprofit Repositioning Fund; Partner at SeaChange Capital Partners

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Nadya K. Shmavonian is Director of the Nonprofit Repositioning Fund and a partner at SeaChange Capital Partners. The Repositioning Fund is a Philadelphia-based pooled fund of philanthropic partners that encourages and supports mergers and other types of formal, long-term strategic alliances and restructuring opportunities among nonprofit organizations in the Greater Philadelphia regionSeaChange is a New York-based nonprofit merchant bank whose mission is to enable transactions that increase the impact of nonprofits while offering leveraged opportunities for funders.

In addition to her ongoing management of the Repositioning Fund, Ms. Shmavonian contributes to SeaChange’s national collaboration field-building and advisory services and explores potential opportunities for SeaChange to engage in projects in the Greater Philadelphia region.

Nadya served as president of Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) from 2010–2012, where she presided over the responsible dissolution of the organization. Nadya has extensive foundation management experience, having served as vice president for strategy at the Rockefeller Foundation, and executive vice president at The Pew Charitable Trusts, where she also worked as director of administration and as a program officer in health and human services. Ms. Shmavonian serves on the boards of many nonprofits and is an instructor at the School of Social Policy and Practice (SP2) at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches graduate seminars on nonprofit governance, and was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2018. Nadya holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.B.A. with a concentration in health care management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She was awarded the Kathleen McDonald Distinguished Alumna Award from Wharton Women in Business in 2011.

Kat Smithhammer
Senior Expedition Leader, NOLS – National Outdoor Leadership School

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Kat divides her time between the custom division of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS Custom Education) as a Senior Expedition Leader, and Leadership at Play, LLC. She has led over 100 wilderness expeditions in N.A., Europe, Argentina, Chile, and Australia, teaching mountaineering, whitewater canoeing and back-country skiing. Highlights include canyoneering with Shuttle Crew STS 122 during 100yr flood conditions and summiting Mt. Burney, in southern Chile for the second time, 30 years after its first ascent.

A few of Kat’s past clients include: NASA, Google, the United Nations Development Programme, the Wharton School, Wharton Exec Ed, the Prevention Management Organization of WY, Teton Science Schools, the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Timbuk2, Four Season’s, National Park Service, and Tata Steel.

With a unique talent for inspiring people to be their best and concluding discussions positively, Kat offers insights, builds common understanding and encourages contributions from all team members. A firm believer in learning from practical experience and cultivating robust self-awareness, Kat practices her own lifelong learning with passion and focus. She has a M.A. in Leadership and Training (Royal Roads University), a B.Ed. (Queen’s University), a B.A. (Trent University) and is a certified Integral Master Coach.

Kat is happily married and lives in the Teton with her two dogs, Hank and Luna. She loves soaking in remote hot springs, exploring the backcountry by bike or skis, sketching, cooking and slowing down.

Felix Stellmaszek
Senior Partner & Managing Director at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

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Felix Stellmaszek is a Senior Partner & Managing Director at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He joined BCG in 2003 and has since then worked in the firm’s Atlanta, Johannesburg, London, Mumbai and Miami offices.

At BCG, Felix focuses on large-scale transformation programs to optimize the strategy, operations, and organizational structures of his clients. In addition, Felix is a core member of the firm’s M&A and Social Impact Practices.

Prior to joining BCG, Felix worked in the private equity division of Kleinwort Wasserstein in the U.K. and for Porsche in Germany. He currently serves on the Boards of the Atlanta International School and the American Friends of Big Change.

Felix holds a Ph.D. degree with a concentration in strategic management from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. As part of his Ph.D. program, he was a visiting scholar at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Additionally, he holds a double-MBA degree from the Universities of Georgia and Erlangen-Nuremberg. Felix currently resides with his wife Martina and their 3 kids in Atlanta.

Mark Turner, WG’01
Former Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer, WSFS Bank

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Mark Turner, WG01, is the former Executive Chairman, President, and CEO of WSFS Bank. In addition to his service on our Advisory Board, Mark currently serves on the Board of ChristianaCare, a network of private, non-profit hospitals providing health care services to Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey.

Mark was appointed president and CEO of WSFS in April 2007 and served as a member of the executive leadership team for more than two decades. During his time at WSFS, customers repeatedly selected it as the “top workplace” and a “top bank” in Delaware and Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Elizabeth Vale
Senior Fellow; Former Executive Director, White House Business Council

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Elizabeth Vale is currently a Senior Managing Director at Promontory Interfinancial Group working with corporate clients. Previously, she served as a Senior Advisor and the Business Liaison for Elizabeth Warren’s Senate campaign. She was responsible for strategizing, designing, and executing the campaign’s engagement with the business community throughout Massachusetts and nationally.

Previously, Elizabeth served as the Director of the Division of External Affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where she had primary responsibility for the Bureau’s engagement with Capitol Hill; the media; consumer groups; local, state, and international governments; and the business community. Prior to being named Director of External Affairs, Elizabeth was a Senior Policy Advisor to Elizabeth Warren on the CFPB’s Implementation Team. In this capacity, she served as the liaison to community banks, credit unions, and small businesses.

Elizabeth served previously as the White House Business Liaison and Executive Director of the White House Business Council. She coordinated a consistent White House message to and from the business community across 12 federal agencies.

Prior to her career in public service, Elizabeth was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley. She has 22 years of investment experience. Before joining Morgan Stanley, she was a Vice President and portfolio manager at Philadelphia National Bank, now part of Wells Fargo. Earlier in her career, Elizabeth was a Legislative Assistant in economic policy for Senator John Heinz, supporting his work on the Senate Banking and Finance Committees.

Elizabeth received an A.B. cum laude in government from Harvard University and studied at the London School of Economics. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

Ilene Wasserman
Wharton Executive Education; President, ICW Consulting Group

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Ilene Wasserman has over 30 years of experience in Organizational Consulting, Strategic Planning, Change Management, Leadership Development, and Executive Coaching. As founder and president of ICW Consulting Group, Ilene helps leaders and teams throughout organizations leverage multiple dimensions of domestic and global diversity by enhancing communication and collaboration. Ilene has served as an executive coach with senior executives and boards of directors of Fortune 100 companies, socially responsible businesses, health care institutions, and institutions of higher education. In addition to consulting and coaching, Ilene has taught courses in leadership, organizational consulting, leading diversity, organizational communication, emotional intelligence and cultural competence, and group dynamics at the graduate level. She is a member of the Board of Governors of the Center for Creative Leadership, and a Fellow of both the Taos Institute and The Lewin Center. She also serves on the Boards of the CMM Institute and the Public Dialogue Consortium, and is a Member of NTL.

Joseph Westphal
Former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia; Former Undersecretary of the Army

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Joseph Westphal is the former U.S. Ambassador to Saudia Arabia and former Under Secretary of the Army. He has had a distinguished career of service in both academia and government. He served as Chancellor of the University of Maine System and Professor of Political Science at the University of Maine. He also served as the Provost, Senior Vice President for Research, and Professor of Environmental Studies at The New School in New York City. Joseph stepped down from this position to serve as a member of President Obama’s Transition Team for Defense matters in December 2008.

He spent his first 12 years in academia as a faculty member of Oklahoma State University, where he was a Professor of Political Science, later becoming head of the Department. During his many years of public service, Joseph has lectured at numerous universities around the world and taught public policy as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University while working in Washington, D.C. In 2001, he served as the Acting Secretary of the Army and earlier he served as the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works from 1998-2001. He has had extensive experience working in the U.S. Congress and other departments within the executive branch. Joseph served as the Senior Policy Advisor for Water Resources at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton Administration. He also worked in the U.S. Congress in various capacities, including directing a bi-partisan congressional caucus in the House and Senate and as a budget analyst and assistant to the Chair of the U.S. House Committee on the Budget. Earlier in his career, he worked as a policy advisor to the Secretary in the Department of the Interior.

Joseph received his Bachelor’s degree from Adelphi University, his Master’s degree from the Oklahoma State University, and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Missouri-Columbia.