Biography

Dr. Amy Gutmann, a former jury member for the annual Berggruen Prize, is President and Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Professor of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. As president of the University of Pennsylvania since 2004, she is widely recognized for her transformative leadership. Her vision, Penn Compact 2022, commits the university to increasing inclusion, integrating knowledge and innovation across disciplines, and making a profound impact locally, nationally, and globally through research, teaching, and service.

First in her family to graduate college, Dr. Gutmann has made access to a Penn education a top priority. She has more than doubled the number of students from low-income, middle-income, and first-generation college families at Penn, which is now the largest university in the U.S. offering all-grant financial aid that meets the full need of undergraduate students.

She has overseen the creation of a robust innovation ecosystem on a vibrantly expanded campus. This includes the 23-acre Pennovation Works and its flagship Pennovation Center business incubator and laboratory, which have helped Penn rank No. 4 on Reuters’ World’s Most Innovative Universities for the past three years.

Dr. Gutmann leads a globally preeminent research university and health care system attracting more than $1 billion in sponsored research annually, helping to make Penn Philadelphia’s largest private employer and No. 1 health care provider.

Global engagement has been a centerpiece of Dr. Gutmann’s presidency, highlighted by the creation of the Perry World House on campus, Penn Wharton China Center in Beijing, and the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C.  Each marks major university-wide initiatives designed to bring the world to Penn and Penn to the world.

Named one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” by Fortune magazine in 2018, Dr. Gutmann continues her pathbreaking scholarship as Penn’s president. Her 17th book, Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die: Bioethics and the Transformation of Health Care in America, co-authored with Penn faculty member Jonathan D. Moreno, was published in 2019. A trailblazer who has held prominent national and international leadership positions, Dr. Gutmann served from 2009-17 as chair of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, as chair of the Association of American Universities from 2014-15, and is a member of the Global University Leaders Forum of the World Economic Forum.

Dr. Gutmann graduated from Radcliffe College of Harvard University. She earned her master’s degree from the London School of Economics and her doctorate from Harvard. Before her appointment at Penn, she was the Provost and the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor at Princeton University, where she also served as founding director of the University Center for Human Values, dean of the faculty, and senior adviser to the president.

Dr. Gutmann was previously a member of the Berggruen Institute’s Board of Directors.