The appointment is effective on August 1. Robertson, currently the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Marketing at Emory, is an expert in marketing strategy and innovation with extensive international experience in higher education. He’s had close ties with Wharton. From 1971 to 1994, Robertson was a faculty member at Wharton, as the Pomerantz Professor of Marketing and chair of the Marketing Department. In his stint as the dean of Goizueta Business School from 1998 to 2004 he was credited with building it into one of the strongest schools at Emory, positioning it as a leading international business school.
"Tom is an accomplished academic leader, a seasoned administrator and a highly successful fundraiser who brings a timely vision of international business education and an enthusiastic commitment to academic excellence and diversity," University of Penn’s President Gutmann said.
"It is such a great privilege to be returning to Wharton," Robertson said. "I relish the challenge to help build Penn's global footprint and to champion Wharton as a force for good in the world. We have outstanding faculty and students and a dedicated staff and are well positioned to create global economic and social value."
As chair of international strategy for Emory's president, Robertson developed and implemented a university-wide plan for internationalization. While dean of Goizueta, he increased the size of the faculty 73 percent, doubled revenues, nearly doubled the school's endowment, developed new international alliances, spurred major growth in executive-education programs, added a major new building and launched a new Ph.D. program.
From 1994 to 1998, Robertson was Sainsbury Professor and chair of marketing and from 1995 to 1998 deputy dean of the London Business School. Earlier in his career, he was an assistant professor at the Anderson School at the University of California, Los Angeles, and at Harvard Business School.
An expert on marketing strategy and competitive behavior, the diffusion of innovation and consumer behavior -- particularly the impact of advertising on children, Robertson is author, co-author or editor of a dozen books and almost 100 scholarly articles and book chapters. Robertson earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in marketing from Northwestern University in 1966 after completing his B.A. at Wayne State University in 1963.
