Bold Thinking in the Bay: Wharton Spotlights San Francisco’s New Leadership and Unique Culture
Dean Erika James sat down with Jackie Reses and Mayor Daniel Lurie for candid conversations on leadership, disruption, and the future of cities.
At the 2025 Wharton Global Forum in San Francisco, two cornerstone conversations spotlighted the city’s dual identity as a hub of innovation and a case study in civic transformation.
In a defining exchange with Dean Erika James, Lead Bank CEO and Forum Chair Jackie Reses, W’92, celebrated San Francisco’s unique “pivot culture,” a mindset that reframes failure as learning and encourages bold reinvention.
“This is the best place for pivot culture,” Reses said. “Everybody can fail, and it’s a point of pride.”
Reses, a fintech entrepreneur and longtime resident, described how the city’s layered talent ecosystem fosters innovation across AI, finance, and beyond. She said everyone should be redefining work in all functions of their job, emphasizing first-principles thinking and the power of questioning long-held assumptions.
The conversation also touched on Reses’ Wharton roots, her journey through finance and tech, and the discipline required to build and challenge new systems from the ground up.
Later, Dean James welcomed San Francisco’s Mayor Daniel Lurie, for a timely discussion about civic resilience. They explored the pandemic’s long-term impacts and the rebuilding of trust and community.
“That sense of trust in institutions broadly, government, business, media, is something that has taken a hit in recent years,” Mayor Lurie said. “And that is a collective challenge for all of us.”
Lurie and James exchanged reflections on how to lead through turbulence by expanding influence, rather than narrowing it.
“The tendency when you are feeling threatened or under pressure is to narrow your circle of influence,” Dean James said. “We need to fight that tendency and do exactly the opposite.”
These sessions captured the spirit of the host city: ambitious, complex, and still writing its next chapter. And through it all, Wharton’s network of leaders continues to shape — and be shaped by — the cities and economies they help build.