Associate Director, Founder Resources, Venture Lab, Wharton School

Associate Director, Founder Resources, Venture Lab, Wharton School

Founded in 1881 as the world's first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is shaping the future of business by incubating ideas, driving insights, and creating leaders who change the world. With campuses in Philadelphia and San Francisco, Wharton has over 850 staff, a faculty population of more than 235 renowned professors, and 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students. Each year, 13,000 professionals worldwide advance their careers through Wharton Executive Education's individual, company-customized, and online programs. More than 104,000 Wharton alumni form a powerful global network of leaders who transform business every day. Wharton is home to a dynamic staff population representing a rich array of backgrounds, expertise, and cultures. To learn more, visit www.wharton.upenn.edu .

The Associate Director provides leadership and management for Venture Lab's resources for student founders at the University of Pennsylvania, including the mentoring initiative, the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) program, Venture Initiation Program (VIP) instructors, and VIP's communities of practice. This work will connect Penn student founders to our alumni leaders and experts to receive practical instruction, advice, mentoring, and networking support.

Reporting to the Senior Director of Venture Lab, the Associate Director will :

• Lead the mentoring initiative, providing select VIP student founders with additional support from alumni mentors based on industry and / or functional expertise. This includes developing the initiative strategy, developing the scale-up plan, and managing all aspects of implementation including selecting student mentees, cultivating a pool of alumni mentors, making mentor-mentee matches, ensuring that mentor-mentees develop and complete an effective mentoring plan.
• Lead Venture Lab's EIR program, which engages experienced alumni entrepreneurs to mentor and assist VIP students. This involves building out the program strategy, gathering lessons learned from pilot year, incorporating student and alumni feedback, and scaling up. Manage all aspects of implementation including alumni engagement letters, travel and honorarium budget, EIR workshop schedule and office hours, and collaboration with the Venture Lab marketing team to promote these opportunities.
• Lead the VIP communities of practice, including but not limited to those for undergraduates, social entrepreneurship, med-health, and analytics. Partner with the Venture Lab student board and other Penn groups to plan and run thematic, networking, and community building activities. Manage founder group coaching and other instructor-led workshops, including planning with the Senior Director, scheduling, student enrollment and tracking, and coordination with other VL teams. Plan and manage budget.
• Prepare management reports and presentations for Venture Lab leadership to deliver. Develop performance measurement plan. Collect and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs). Support Salesforce data entry and management. Collaborate with Wharton External Affairs to create donor stewardship reports. Create impact reports and use feedback from Venture Lab and Wharton senior leadership to identify and execute approved improvements. Support other time-sensitive reporting as needed.

The position requires frequent interaction with seasoned, accomplished alumni entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and other professionals engaged in entrepreneurship and innovation careers, including significant donors. The position is also responsible for cultivating an open rapport and a professional, supportive educational approach with undergraduate and graduate student entrepreneurs and innovators from all disciplines across the University of Pennsylvania. The position requires excellent interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills; strong collaboration and team building skills; a forward-thinking mindset; and demonstrated creativity, problem solving, critical analysis, initiative, judgment, and decision-making skills.

This position is based in Philadelphia. After successful completion of the introductory period, this position is hybrid eligible with some weeks requiring more in-person work as needed. While the schedule is generally business hours, the Associate Director must be able to work early mornings / evenings / weekends and to travel as needed. Position is contingent on funding.

Qualifications :

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Wharton School

$66,000.00 - $75,000.00 Annual Rate

Salary offers are made based on the candidate's qualifications, experience, skills, and education as they directly relate to the requirements of the position, and in alignment with salary ranges based on external market data for the job's level. Internal organization and peer data at Penn are also considered.

The University of Pennsylvania is an equal opportunity employer. Candidates are considered for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin (including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics), citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any class protected under applicable federal, state or local law.

Background checks may be required after a conditional job offer is made. Consideration of the background check will be tailored to the requirements of the job.

University Benefits :