The Wharton School is the oldest school of business in the world, established by Joseph Wharton in 1881. This school is known for offering MBA programs, which are ranked at the top in the US according to Forbes and the U.S. News & World Report rankings. Personalities who graduated from the Wharton School have attained success in diverse fields such as Academia, Finance, Journalism, Media, Law, Politics, Business, Sports, Music and many more. Do you want to know about the famous personalities who studied at this prestigious school? Take a look at this blog on Notable Alumni of Wharton School for more information on this topic.
This Blog Includes:
List of Notable Wharton Alumni
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has around 99,000 alumni, along with 77 alumni clubs that are spread across 153 countries worldwide. Here are some of the famous personalities who are part of the Wharton alumni network:
John Sculley | Karthik Reddy | C. Robert Henrikson | Mortimer Zuckerman |
Alex Gorsky | Gerard Kleisterlee | Lewis E. Platt | Sachin Pilot |
Anil Ambani | Jacqui Safra | Wend Finerman | Warren Buffet |
Elon Musk | Jeff Weiner | Donald Trump Jr. | Ruth Porat |
Sunder Pichai | Donald Trump | William Wrigley Jr. | Paul Judge |
Let’s look at the achievements of the notable Alumni of the Wharton School and learn more about their journey.
Sundar Pichai
Sundar Pichai, the current CEO of Alphabet Inc., which is the parent company of Google, was among the notable alumni of Wharton School. Sunder Pichai was born on 10th June 1972, in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. He completed his MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a degree in metallurgical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and an MS in materials science and engineering from Stanford University. He has played a major role in the development of various Google software, including Google Chrome, Google Drive, Gmail and Google Maps.
Elon Musk

One of the notable Wharton alumni is Elon Musk. He was born on 28th June 1971 in South Africa. The seventh richest man in the world, Musk, pursued a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School. He is the founder, CEO and lead designer of SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturing company, along with being the current CEO of the American Electric vehicle manufacturing company, Tesla, Inc. He is also the founder of The Boring Company and Neuralink, and the co-founder of OpenAI. He secured the joint-first position on the list of the Most Innovative Leaders of 2019 by Forbes.
Also Read: How to Become a CEO?
Donald Trump

The current President of the United States, Donald John Trump, is another famous Wharton alumnus. He was born on 14th June 1946 in New York City, and completed his bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School in 1968. He became the 45th President of the United States of America in 2016 after defeating Hillary Clinton, the nominee of the Democratic Party. Although his tenure has sparked various protests in opposition to his policies, he is seeking a second term as the nominee of the Republican Party in the 2020 Presidential elections, which are scheduled to be held in November.
John Sculley

John Sculley, born on 6th April 1939 in New York City, completed his MBA degree from the Wharton School and is considered to be among the most notable of its alumni. He was the CEO of the American multinational technology company Apple Inc. from 1983 till his resignation post 1993. He also held the position of vice president and president of PepsiCo between 1970 and 1983. A renowned expert in marketing, he is currently involved with numerous high-tech start-up companies, including OpenPeak, Inflexion Point, Next Source, WorldMate, and many more.
Alex Gorsky
Alex Gorsky is among the most notable Wharton Alumni. The current chairman and CEO of the American multinational corporation Johnson & Johnson, Gorsky, completed an Executive MBA degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1996. He was named among the 100 Most Inspiring Leaders by Pharma Voice, and he also received the Joseph Wharton Leadership Award in 2014. He is also a member of the board of directors at IBM and the National Academy Foundation, along with being the recipient of the prestigious Congressional Medal of Honour.
Also Read: Top Business Podcasts
Karthik Reddy

The co-founder and managing partner at Blume Ventures, Karthik Reddy, graduated with an MBA from the Wharton School and is an engineering major from IIT, Roorkee, as well. Reddy founded Blume Ventures with Sanjay Nath with an aim to connect angels with larger institutional investors present in the Indian markets. Blume has funded about 50 startups since 2010 and has won many accolades, including Seed VC Investor of 2018 (Venture Intelligence Apex’19), No.1 Active-Investors (CB Insights, 2017) and Best Fundraiser (VCCircle, 2016).
Peter Lynch

Peter Lynch is an investor, mutual fund manager, and philanthropist from the United States. Lynch was the manager of Fidelity Investments’ Magellan Fund from 1977 and 1990, which had an annual return of 29.2% on average, constantly outperforming the 500 stock market index and becoming the best-performing mutual fund in the world. Assets under control climbed from USD 18 million to USD 14 billion over his 13-year tenure. Lynch earned his bachelor’s degree in history, psychology, and philosophy from Boston College (BC) in 1965. In 1968, he received his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
Rakesh Gangwal

Another one of the greatest Wharton Alumni is Rakesh Gangwal, who is a multi-billionaire businessman from the United States. He co-founded IndiGo Airlines and owns 37% of the company. He is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of US Airways Group. Gangwal was the chairman, president, and CEO of Worldspan Technologies, a travel technology and information services supplier to the travel and transportation industry, from June 2003 to August 2007. He attended Don Bosco (Park Circus) and received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1975, as well as an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
Aditya Mittal
Mittal, who was born in India and raised in Indonesia, attended Jakarta International School for high school. He is one of the renowned Wharton alumni who holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He worked in the mergers and acquisitions department of the investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston for a brief time. He joined the family firm in 1997 and was named Head of Mergers and Acquisitions in 1999. Since then, he has been involved in multiple acquisitions as Mittal Steel has played a key part in the global steel sector consolidation. He lives in London and was the driving force behind Mittal Steel’s. He was named fourth on Fortune Magazine’s “40 under 40” list in 2009. He was named CEO of ArcelorMittal in February 2021, following his father.
More Notable Alumni of the Wharton School
Apart from the personalities discussed above, there are any renowned personalities who started their professional journey after graduating from the Wharton School. Here is a list of some more notable alumni of the Wharton School:
- Ivanka Trump: Former Senior Advisor to the President of the United States
- Ronald Perelman: American banker
- Donald Trump Jr.: American activist
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Essayist
- Brian L. Roberts: Chief Executive Officer of Comcast
- Fred Wilson: American venture capitalist
- Phil Murphy: Governor of New Jersey
- Walter Annenberg: Former United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
- Raj Rajaratnam: Sri Lankan-American former hedge fund manager and founder of the Galleon Group
- John D. MacDonald: American writer
- Ashwini Vaishnaw: Minister of Railways of India
- Kunal Bahl: CEO of Snapdeal
- Anand Ahuja: Fashion Entrepreneur
FAQs
As of recent global rankings, Wharton consistently ranks among the top 3 business schools worldwide, especially for finance, MBA, and executive education programs.
Elon Musk, the creator and CEO of PayPal, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX, graduated from Wharton with a Bachelor of Science in Economics.
In 1881, an American entrepreneur and industrialist, Joseph Wharton, founded the world’s first collegiate business school at the University of Pennsylvania, a novel idea that transformed both commercial practice and higher education.
Wharton is top-ranked for finance and business, while Harvard excels overall. Both are elite. Your choice depends on your career goals, specialisation, and personal fit.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet (Google), and Anil Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Group, are among the most well-known Indian alumni of the University of Pennsylvania.
Related Reads:
Hope you found this blog on the notable Wharton alumni informative and interesting. Want to join the Wharton School and be part of the community of its prestigious alumni? Reach out to our experts at Leverage Edu for the best guidance in choosing the perfect course for you. Sign up for a free session with us today!