MBA Program Office

The Wharton Leadership Lectures provide an excellent forum for the most senior executives from the public and private sectors to address pertinent leadership issues and share their insights with Wharton students, both undergraduate and graduate. (Those with a Wharton username and password are able to view videos of past lectures.) The Lectures have featured appearances by many of the world’s most influential leaders and policy-makers. Recent speakers include:

Anne Mulcahy, Chairman and CEO, Xerox
Admiral Michael Mullen, USN 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Jim Donald, President, CEO and Director, Starbucks
Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft
Indra Nooyi, CEO & President, PepsiCo
Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company
Ian Davis, Managing Director, McKinsey and Company
Anne Sweeney, President, Disney-ABC Television Group

Wharton Leadership Lectures also feature prominently in our first-year MBA leadership curriculum. Students are asked to consider the thoughts expressed by our speakers and apply them to the leadership theories that they discuss in the classroom. The Lectures provide an excellent opportunity for students to see theory and practice interacting and to assess the results.

The program is often a 20-25 minute talk by the speaker followed by a question-and-answer session. (Please reference the program's detailed Speaker Guidelines.) We try to schedule the program to run from 4:30-6:00 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon, a time when there are generally no competing corporate presentations. We encourage the speaker's company to host cocktails and dinner immediately following the presentation so that 30 undergraduate and MBA students, selected by lottery, can join the speaker for an informal discussion. This part of the evening is cited by students as being one of the most valuable experiences of their time at Wharton and we have been fortunate that nearly all our speakers' companies have chosen to be sponsors.

Speaker Nominations

If you would like more information, or would like to suggest an appropriate speaker with whom you have an existing relationship, please complete the Speaker Recommendation Form below and submit it to Natalya Levina in the Wharton MBA Program Office. You should also feel free to contact any member of the Wharton Leadership Lectures Committee.

Past Calendars

2008-2009 Wharton Leadership Lectures Calendar

2007-2008 Wharton Leadership Lectures Calendar

2006-2007 Wharton Leadership Lectures Calendar

2005-2006 Wharton Leadership Lectures Calendar

2004-2005 Wharton Leadership Lectures Calendar

2003-2004 Wharton Leadership Lectures Calendar

2002-2003 Wharton Leadership Lectures Calendar