a trustee for 17 years. In 1987 he became CEO of TIAA-CREF, the giant pension and financial services company, making him first Black chairman and CEO of a major U.S. corporation. A cartoon on the cover of the March 27, 1988 New York Times, showed Wharton walking a tightrope across the chasm of Wall Street while carrying a safe whose contents of currency were spilling out. The unspoken question was whether he would successfully reach the other side safely without losing all the pension assets. Wharton's performance in turning around this corporation was highlighted by Professor Michael Useem, director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (unrelated), as an exemplary example of corporate leadership. "Wharton had lived up to his reputation as a crisis manager. In the course of only nine months, he had initiated dramatic changes in the structure and methods of the venerable pension fund." Robert Atwell, president of the American Council on Education, characterized Wharton's impact, "In no time at all, with dizzying speed turned all that around...I have probably never seen a more spectacular performance." Among Wharton's former corporate directorships are Ford Motor Company, Time-Warner, Equitable Life, Tenneco Inc., Federated Department Stores, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), New York Stock Exchange, Harcourt General, TIAA-CREF, and vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Wharton has served six presidents in foreign policy advisory posts. Wharton served as Deputy Secretary of State (the number-two position in the department) from January 27 to November 8, 1993, under President Bill Clinton. Wharton's portfolio included the reorganization of the State Department, the foreign aid budget and the restructuring of the Agency for International Development, but he was not directly involved in the formulation of the policies that ran into trouble at State. Nevertheless, he was forced to resign after Secretary Warren Christopher leaked rumors of his disappointment with Wharton's performance on the job. Editorials and op-eds commented that Wharton was unfairly cast as a scapegoat for the failures of Clinton's foreign policies since Wharton had not been involved in foreign policy. Wharton is, as of 2016, a member and former co-chairman of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, and is a trustee of the Clark Foundation, Bassett Hospital, and the American Assembly. He served as chairman of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, 1981–82, and received the President's