The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business announced Thursday that it has received a $4 million gift from Utah industrialist Jon M. Huntsman to finance a new Center on Global Competition and Leadership.
The new facility, to be known as the Huntsman Center, will become part of the university's overall effort to integrate global concerns throughout the Wharton environment, Dean Russell E. Palmer said.The university's president, Sheldon Hackney, made the announcement at a reception at the Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia. Sens. Jake Garn and Orrin Hatch, both R-Utah, spoke briefly at the ceremony.
The center will invite leaders of business, government, labor and academia to help develop research and educational programs highlighting global competition and leadership, Hackney said.
Huntsman is chairman and chief executive officer of the Huntsman Chemical Corp. He will be chairman of the center's advisory board. Other members include J. Willard Marriott Jr., chairman and president of the Marriott Corp.; Armand Hammer, chairman and CEO of Occidental Petroleum; Hatch and Garn, and more than a dozen other leaders of international businesses.
Huntsman is a graduate of the Wharton School and a U. of P. trustee.