Inventing What’s Next: Wharton Leaders Explore Innovation in a Changing World
At the 2025 Forum, innovation wasn’t a buzzword — it was a call to action.
Innovation is not an add-on, it’s an imperative. At the 2025 Wharton Global Forum in San Francisco, three dynamic sessions showcased how Wharton alumni and faculty are leading transformation across sectors, from biotech to consumer brands to venture capital.
On Thursday night, Forum attendees listened in on a bold conversation between Dean Erika James and Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures. The session, titled, “Leadership at the Edge of Disruption,” explored the mindset leaders need to operate in uncertainty and the value of vision when reinvention is constant. Khosla and Dean James reflected on taking risks and leading with clarity in sectors where the only constant is change.
That theme carried into Friday’s programming. Marissa King, Alice Y. Hung President’s Distinguished Professor, led a talk on the future of healthcare, where alumni and faculty examined how cutting-edge treatments like CAR T-cell therapy are reshaping lives — and business models. As science surges forward, panelists called for new frameworks to bring breakthrough therapies to scale.
Innovation also took center stage in a conversation between Vice Dean Lori Rosenkopf and entrepreneur Amy Errett, WG’88, founder of Madison Reed. Recently, Vice Dean Rosenkopf published a book titled, “Unstoppable Entrepreneurs, 7 Paths for Unleashing Successful Startups and Creating Value through Innovation,” which shines a spotlight on the paths of successful entrepreneurs including Errett.
During the discussion, Errett traced her journey from VC to CEO, sharing how curiosity and culture fueled her company’s growth — even during moments of massive disruption.
Though these sessions each focused on different industries, their messages converged: innovation is not just about technology. It’s about courage, timing, and building what doesn’t yet exist. That spirit echoed throughout other Forum sessions and continues to define the Wharton community worldwide.