UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Smeal College of Business Dean Charles H. Whiteman recently appointed Greg Reed to the college’s Board of Visitors.
Reed is the group chief executive of Places for People, one of the largest place-making, property investment, development and management companies in the United Kingdom.
Board members offer advice to the dean and other Smeal administrators based on their professional experience and knowledge of the latest issues and trends facing the business community.
Reed, a 22-year resident of the U.K., previously held senior roles at Bank of America, NatWest, and most recently was U.K. CEO at HomeServe PLC. He also was a nonexecutive director with Clarion Housing Group for five years and chaired Clarion Futures, its charitable foundation.
Reed was born and raised in Smyrna, Delaware. He said his time at Penn State helped him realize that any boundaries or limitations on what he could do or where he could go in life were only ever in his mind.
He earned a degree in finance from Smeal in 1991 and a law degree from Delaware Law School in 1996.
Reed called his time at Penn State, and more specifically at Smeal, an important foundation and launchpad.
“I want others to get just as much out of their time at Penn State as I did. I’m proud and excited to join the Board of Visitors and to offer an international perspective to Smeal’s work,” he said.
Whiteman said that he was looking forward to working with Reed.
“As group chief executive of the UK’s largest social enterprise, Greg continually demonstrates his commitment to making the world a better place. His priorities and passions align with our core values at Smeal. Add to that his decades of experience living and working abroad, and I am confident that he will help make Smeal a better place, too,” Whiteman said.
Considering the future of business education, Reed said he hopes that by the time Smeal students graduate, they have ESG (environmental, social and governance) as part of their DNA.
“ESG is something more and more businesses are focusing on, but more often than not it is seen as a nice-to-have that sits alongside other priorities, rather than being fundamental to the organization’s role in society. I bring to the board my belief that a critical responsibility of business education should be seeking to ensure ESG is an integral part of the curriculum and that our graduates enter the workforce ready to make an impact,” Reed said.
The board will next meet on April 21-22.
The Smeal College of Business Board of Visitors is a nearly 40-member advisory board composed of global business and industry leaders who are Smeal alumni and friends. The complete list of Smeal’s Board of Visitors membership can be found online.