Former U.S. Senate candidate and Perelman School of Medicine M.D. and 1986 Wharton MBA graduate Mehmet Oz speaking at his election night watch party on Nov. 8, 2022.
Credit: Abhiram Juvvadi1968 Wharton graduate and President-elect Donald Trump tapped fellow Penn graduate Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Tuesday.
Oz received his M.D. from Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine and an MBA from the Wharton School in 1986. If confirmed, he will lead the second Trump administration’s oversight of major health insurance programs.
“Our broken Healthcare System harms everyday Americans, and crushes our Country’s budget,” Trump said in his announcement of the decision. “Dr. Oz will be a leader in incentivizing Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country.”
In the statement, Trump touted Oz’s work for HealthCorps, a nonprofit focused on health education for school-aged and underserved communities, and experience on television. Oz will work with Robert Kennedy Jr. — Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services — “to take on the illness industrial complex,” the president-elect wrote.
Additionally, Trump cited their shared “powerful alma mater” among Oz’s qualifications — even as Oz himself has rarely mentioned his time at Penn.
Oz has never held elected office but was the Republican nominee in a contentious 2022 race for a vacant United States Senate seat in Pennsylvania. During the Republican primary in 2022, he bested hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick, who has declared victory over Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) in the 2024 U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania. Oz ultimately lost to current Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) in a closely watched contest.
“I’m going to be very, very clear if Dr. Oz agrees to protect and preserve Medicaid and Medicare; I’m absolutely going to vote for the dude,” Fetterman said after the news of Oz’s nomination was announced Tuesday. “That’s the most important thing for me. Our politics are obviously different, and we do have a history, but I don’t have any bitterness.”
Oz’s classmates from their time at Penn described him as charismatic but disapproved of some of the controversial medical claims he made on the campaign trail and on TV. An investigation in 2022 found that he was the “principal investigator” in studies that killed more than 300 dogs.
Oz is one of several Penn alumni who have been nominated or floated as key members of Trump’s second administration. 1984 Wharton graduate and Wharton Board of Advisors Chair Marc Rowan, who was a prominent critic of Penn administration’s handling of on-campus antisemitism during the 2023-24 academic year, is a top contender for Treasury secretary. University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and Wharton professor Jay Clayton — a 1988 Engineering and 1993 Penn Carey Law graduate — was named Trump’s pick for U.S. District Attorney for the Southern District of New York on Nov. 14.
Although not yet an official department in the U.S. government, Trump announced that 1997 College and Wharton graduate Elon Musk, along with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, would lead the “Department of Government Efficiency” — a sign of a strengthening bond between two of Penn’s most prominent alumni.
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