Before I Was CEO

Chapter 4SerendipityThe Stories of Geoffrey Garrett and Peter Henry

Who should be appointed dean of the oldest and one of the most prestigious business schools in the world? A current vice dean? Another highly regarded internal candidate? Or an academic from a competing school like Harvard or Stanford? Those are all sensible choices, but that wasn't what happened at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in 2014, when the dean of the Australian Business School, Geoffrey Garrett, was chosen above all other candidates.

It was as a shock for some, and a surprise for all. The popular MBA news site Poets & Quants called him “Wharton's New Job Hopping Dean,” because he had a variety of teaching and administrative jobs in the last 10 years. “Wharton Plucks New Dean Geoffrey Garrett from Australian Business School” was the headline in a Bloomberg article, while the Philadelphia Inquirer simply stated that “Wharton Picks Australian as New Dean.” Even Garrett didn't expect to be appointed. As Poets & Quants noted: “In a brief interview with The Australian, the national newspaper in Australia, Garrett conceded that it ‘is obviously an incredible surprise that Wharton was interest in interviewing me and even more so that I was offered the position.’”

In the case of Peter Henry, it was much clearer how he could become, at age 40, NYU Stern's youngest dean ever. It was almost like a presidential ...