1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump has tapped three Penn alumni to fill open federal positions.
1961 Wharton graduate Robert Gleason Jr., 2014 Wharton MBA graduate John Jovanovic, and 2008 Engineering MCIT graduate Sean Plankey were nominated to fill key roles in the Amtrak Board of Directors, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and the Department of Homeland Security, respectively. Their nominations await confirmation from the Senate.
Gleason was nominated by Trump to serve as director of the Amtrak Board of Directors for a term of five years.
Throughout his decades-long career in state and national politics, Gleason served as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of the Commonwealth from 1985 to 1987 under former Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh and before serving as chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party from 2006 to 2017.
Gleason also held positions with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, the Pennsylvania State Transportation Commission, and the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He served as a Pennsylvania delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention, where Trump was nominated as the party's candidate for president.
“I am honored that President Trump, a fellow Wharton graduate, chose to nominate me for this position,” Gleason wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian.
As an undergraduate, Gleason was a member of the Kite and Key Society, the Sigma Chi fraternity, the Newman Catholic Community, and the Penn Ice Hockey Club, according to his biographical page on MyPenn.
Gleason served also as a Penn trustee from 1998 to 2013.
Jovanovic was nominated to serve as chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) for a term ending on January 20, 2029. EXIM is the official export credit agency of the United States government and is responsible for assisting with the financing of exports by American businesses.
"John will utilize his extensive experience in finance, investments, and business building across the energy, commodities, and critical infrastructure sectors to make America energy and manufacturing dominant again,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post announcing the appointment. “He will work tirelessly to protect all of the gains from our strong tariff policies, guarantee that our exports receive fair treatment, and always put American companies, and our energy exports, first.”
As an MBA student, Jovanovic was involved in several Wharton clubs, including the Wharton Graduate Association Club Presidents, the Wharton MBA Finance Club, the Wharton Sales & Trading Club, and the Wharton Basketball and Squash Clubs.
Plankey, who received a Master of Computer and Information Technology degree from the School of Engineering and Applied Science in 2008, was tapped to serve as the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. CISA is an agency under the Department of Homeland Security.
Plankey served in multiple cybersecurity roles during the first Trump administration. He was Trump’s Director for Cyber Policy — a position under the National Security Council — from 2018 to 2019. He served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response at the U.S. Department of Energy from Nov. 2019 until Nov. 2020.
During his time at Penn, Plankey played for the Wharton Warthogs, Wharton’s men's MBA rugby team, and participated in Wharton Fight Night, according to his LinkedIn profile.
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