David Pottruck wore many hats as an undergraduate student at Penn. He studied psychology, starred on the football team, and also shined as a wrestler. His senior year, Pottruck was captain of the wrestling team, giving him his first real taste of leadership—a tipping point for his storied career in business.

“As a two-sport student athlete, and also a captain, I learned many incredible, valuable lessons of hard work, perseverance, and resilience, which are all important as a leader,” Pottruck says, while chatting from his Red Eagle Ventures office in San Francisco. “But, although I learned something about leadership, looking back I could have really benefited from some kind of leadership training, with an educational framework, to add to my experience.”

To fill that void, Pottruck is spearheading the University’s first Penn Athletics Wharton Leadership Academy. A partnership with Penn Athletics and the Wharton School’s Anne and John McNulty Leadership Program, the new Academy, supported by a $1 million gift from Pottruck and $500,000 from former baseball student-athlete Benjamin Breier, will offer a co-curricular leadership-training program for all undergraduate student athletes.

“Leadership is an act, something we can reflect on, refine, do better, do the same, do differently,” says Anne Greenhalgh, deputy director of the McNulty Leadership Program. “It’s such a wonderful opportunity to be able to work with students as they are engaged in a live team and leadership experience.”

Workshops and seminars will be created and delivered by Penn Athletics staff and coaches, as well as McNulty Leadership Program faculty and staff. All freshmen athletes will be enrolled in the Academy, and as the years proceed, students will stay involved per their interest.

“People come to Wharton to learn how to be great leaders,” says Karin Brower Corbett, the head women’s lacrosse coach. “What makes this Academy exceptional is being able to utilize Wharton’s expertise.”

By senior year, team captains will likely be selected from a pool of those who persisted through the three years of the Academy. After graduating, students with exceptional leadership skills will be asked to serve as Pottruck Fellows, mentoring younger participants in the Academy.

“Leadership development isn’t just about listening to a speaker and then going out to lead,” Corbett says. “It needs to be continual, and that’s what this program helps to provide.”

Part of the Academy’s mission is to work closely with coaches, says Jeff Klein, executive director of the McNulty Leadership Program.

“We want to take concepts like emotional intelligence or communication styles and train the coaches so they can really be at the forefront reinforcing the kinds of leadership they expect within their team,” he says. “Our Athletics Director Grace [Calhoun] always says we should be making the same kind of investment in our coaches because we know how critical they are to students’ athletic and educational success.”

Pottruck, a founding member of the Wharton Leadership Advisory Board and a senior fellow of the school’s Center for Leadership and Change Management, says the formation of the Academy has been a collaborative effort between the Athletics Department and the McNulty Leadership program “from day one.” After a year of planning, the Academy is set to launch a pilot program for a group of freshman student athletes this upcoming fall semester.

“Penn is producing future leaders, whether it’s in the field of architecture, education, business, or medicine. These are the people who will change the world,” says Pottruck. “And particularly with athletics, students are given this great opportunity to begin developing their style of leadership that they will take with them through life.”