PHILADELPHIA — Speculation rose Tuesday night that longtime University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann would be named the next U.S. ambassador to Germany, following a report in the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel.
The report could not be immediately confirmed. Nor was there word on who might lead Penn if Gutmann becomes the Biden administration’s representative to one of America’s closest allies.
Her father, Kurt, fled Nazi Germany and eventually settled in the United States.
The White House declined to comment Tuesday night. Penn spokesperson Steve MacCarthy declined to confirm or deny the report.
Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a prominent Penn alumnus, said he had not heard the news but praised Gutmann’s intelligence and political knowledge.
“She would be a fine ambassador,” he said. “She’d be excellent.”
Almost since Joe Biden was elected president, there’s been speculation that Gutmann, 71, could be tapped for a post in the administration. Some Penn administrators said at the time that they were almost expecting Gutmann to go to Washington.
Even before Biden announced he would run for president, he appeared at the university for a conversation with Gutmann. Biden had joined Penn as a presidential practice professor after he left the White House and the university created a Washington-based center in his name, which focused on diplomacy and global engagement.
“Thank you so much for being at Penn and being such a friend of Penn,” Gutmann told Biden.
The Harvard-educated political scientist has led Penn since 2004. The school is the largest private employer in Philadelphia. It includes 12 schools, more than 25,000 undergraduate and graduate students, and a large health system.
Gutmann is one of the highest-paid college presidents in the country, earning about $3 million in 2017. She chaired President Barack Obama’s Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, was named one of the top 50 global leaders by Fortune, and in 2018 was tapped as an Inquirer Business Hall of Fame Icon.
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