PHILADELPHIA --President Clinton will deliver an address on "The New Economy" at the inaugural program of the University of Pennsylvania's Granoff Forum on Thursday, February 24, 2000 at 3 p.m. in Irvine Auditorium, 34th & Spruce streets on Penn's campus.

Admission to the event is by invitation only.

"We are very pleased that the President has accepted our invitation to be the first speaker in this exciting new program at Penn," said Penn President Judith Rodin. "President Clinton's participation underscores our commitment to providing a broad perspective on the critical issues of the new century. We are especially pleased that this new forum will enable our students to come in contact with some of the brightest and most influential minds of our day."

The Granoff Forum was recently established in Penn's School of Arts and Sciences by alumnus Michael Granoff. Drawing upon Penn's acknowledged strengths in international relations, economics and business, the forum is designed to offer leading decision makers an opportunity to discuss key issues of the day with faculty and students at Penn through a series of dynamic new programs.

"The Granoff Forum is a wonderful addition to the School of Arts and Sciences' emphasis on interdisciplinary programs that prepare students for leadership on a global scale," said Samuel H. Preston, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences.

"The Granoff Forum," Preston added, "will be a catalyst for new ideas that will help shape economic, social and political development in this new century."

The Forum is a joint offering of the School of Arts and Sciences' International Relations Program, the Christopher H. Browne Center for International Politics and the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies.

Michael Granoff is president, CEO and founder of Pomona Capital, a venture capital group with offices in New York, Tokyo and London. Granoff, who received a degree in biochemistry from Penn in 1980, has said, "Economic development will be the national security issue of the next century. What is needed is a center of thinking about the impact of the new economy and I believe Penn can be that place."

The School of Arts and Sciences provides liberal arts education for Penn undergraduates and supports graduate studies, basic research and continuing education across the full range of the humanities, natural sciences and social sciences. The direct descendent of the College of Philadelphia, where Benjamin Franklin established the world's first modern arts and sciences curriculum, today the School of Arts and Sciences enrolls a total of 10,000 students in its undergraduate, graduate and continuing-education programs.