After 10 years as faculty director of the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology at Penn, Gad Allon is stepping into a new chapter – one that brings him back to his roots as a builder and entrepreneur. During his tenure, he reshaped the Program’s curriculum, expanded its global footprint, strengthened its entrepreneurial ecosystem, and deepened its sense of community. In this conversation, he reflects on the moments that defined his leadership, the evolution of the program, and what comes next.
Q: As you reflect on your time as faculty director of the M&T Program, what moments or experiences stand out most to you?
GA: When I stepped into the role, my goal was to make the Program more integrative, more diverse, and more global. I wanted to students to experience M&T as a true fusion of engineering, management, and technology – not as two separate degrees. Some of the most meaningful moments came from all the “firsts.”
- Our first-ever freshman seminar, which felt very special.
- The first M&T Summit, now an annual event where we bring students, alumni, and faculty together. The first time standing there in a packed room was a huge treat.
- Our first Immersive Week in San Francisco with students, exposing them to the Bay Area ecosystem for the first time.
- Our first Global Exploration trip to India, where students experienced a new country and culture.
What stays with me are the ripple effects. Students would come back from these experiences and tell me they wanted to start a company because of something they saw or someone they met. Those moments are what I’ll remember most from these 10 years.
Q: Looking back, what achievement or initiative are you most proud of during your tenure?
GA: My biggest achievement is creating a cohesive curriculum that truly reflects the “and” in M&T. When I arrived, students earned two degrees with one connecting course. Now, the curriculum has multiple layers – required and optional – that help students go much deeper into the intersection of management and technology.
We showcase this integration everywhere. At the Summit’s Integration Lab, for example, students build a product to demonstrate their engineering skills and then develop a marketing strategy to highlight the Wharton side. It’s a tangible expression of what an M&T is.
I’m also proud of how entrepreneurial the program has become. A decade ago, most students went into investment banking or hedge funds. That’s still a strong path, but now we see many students launching companies right after graduation – or even during school. Venture capital firms now come to us, and the community overall increasingly understands what M&T students bring to the table.
Finally, we’ve invested deeply in admissions. Identifying future builders and innovators is hard, but we’ve become much more intentional about finding students with a bias toward action and a track record of making things happen.
Q: How do you think the program has evolved during your time as faculty director?
GA: I think it has evolved in many ways. First, we expanded our admissions significantly, focusing on identifying students who already distinguished themselves – people who were likely to be the makers and shakers of the future. We looked for evidence of action, not just aspiration. Second, we expanded opportunities beyond campus. Immersive Week, Global Exploration, and other off-campus programs expose students to different entrepreneurial ecosystems. I believe if we want students to be active in these places, we need to take them there to set a standard about what entrepreneurship looks like in different places.
Third, we strengthened our pipeline. Prior to COVID, we launched biweekly webinars for high school students so they could learn about M&T directly from the people who run it. Thousands of students participated – and it transformed awareness of the program.
Finally, we invested heavily in supporting student entrepreneurship – funding summer work, supporting clubs, and reorienting our high school program around entrepreneurship. We also fundraised so that all these experiences could be offered at no cost to students. That financial independence is a major shift from where we started.
Q: What has working with M&T students taught you or inspired in you?
GA: The importance of admissions. Everything becomes easier when you bring excellent people together. Talent density is everything – when you gather curious, humble, driven students, they push each other to do remarkable things.
Visiting firms with students was always inspiring. They ask thoughtful questions, they’re deeply curious, and they’re incredibly grounded. Conversations with them often pushed me to think about why I do the things the way I do. Being surrounded by that level of curiosity and humility is a gift.
Q: What are your hopes for the Program’s future?
GA: I feel confident about the Program’s future because we’ve built an incredibly strong team. They support every aspect of the student experience, and the Program is in the best shape it has ever been. The next director is inheriting a strong foundation and a community that cares deeply.
My hope is that M&T continues to attract extraordinary students – and that we remain vigilant about distinguishing genuine talent from those who simply present well. I also hope that we maintain the balance at the heart of M&T: attracting strong builders who also care about communication, collaboration, and society. M&T is small, and historically, students were dispersed. Today, there is a real sense of belonging, and I also hope that continues.
Most of all, I hope the Program keeps evolving. I would be more disappointed if nothing changed than if one of our current initiatives were discontinued. AI is reshaping everything. The next director will need to rethink what we teach, how we teach it, and who we attract.
Q: What are your plans for the future?
GA: After 10 years of attracting and supporting builders, I’m going back to building myself. I launched a new company at the end of December focused on developing AI tools for physical AI. It’s a software-differentiated growth buyout holding company for electronic components used in robots and autonomous vehicles. Our goal is to build the next generation of components for the next generation of robots. We’re a team of 12, based in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. I’ll also still be at Penn – and will continue teaching at Wharton and doing research.