The Wharton School will have a new “learning lab,” courtesy of a $10 million gift from Alfred P. West Jr. WG’66. It will, the school says, “create a series of innovative learning tools that challenge students to think strategically across business functions and organizations.”
Wharton Dean Patrick T. Harker CE’81 GCE’81 Gr’83 said that the new Alfred West Jr. Learning Lab will “enable Wharton to take a lead role in rethinking the learning paradigm.” He noted that there is “tremendous potential for us to reach a deeper understanding of how people learn and to push that process to a higher level using advancements in technology and learning science.”
The lab will be co-directed by Dr. Andrew B. Abel, the Robert Morris Professor of Banking, and Dr. Robert W. Holthausen, the Nomura Securities Co. Professor and professor of accounting and finance.
Harker praised West as a “pioneer in creating the innovative corporate culture and new management models” at SEI Investments, the suburban-Philadelphia investment firm of which he is chairman and chief executive officer. West founded Simulated Environments, Inc., the forerunner to SEI Investments, while he was an MBA student at Wharton in 1968.
Saying that one of Wharton’s “greatest strengths is its intellectual leadership,” West added that he was “confident that the Learning Lab will set the standard for ground-breaking research on learning and for technology-enhanced education.”
