PHILADELPHIA - Gregory S. Rost has been named vice president and chief of staff for the Office of the President at the University of Pennsylvania.  

Rost is currently chief of staff for the president's office at Temple University and served eight years in the administration of former Philadelphia Mayor Edward G. Rendell, including three years as Rendell's chief of staff.  

Rost, who will join Penn Dec. 18, will work closely with Penn President Amy Gutmann.  He will be a senior policy advisor on short- and long-term issues, working with the deans and senior administrators, the President's Council, Senior Planning, the Capital Council, the Budget Steering Committee and the Real Estate Steering Committee.  He will also work closely with the Office of Government and Community Affairs on community issues and initiatives and with the Secretary's Office on trustee and overseer issues and initiatives, and he will manage financial and administrative functions for the Office of the President.

"Greg is a proven leader who is especially adept at managing both the traditional and emerging issues confronting higher education today," Gutmann said.  "His experience as chief of staff to the former mayor of Philadelphia, as well as his demonstrated success overseeing a broad range of functions at Temple, make him an ideal candidate for this key position on my senior leadership team.  He is known to be a talented, forthright administrator and will be a tremendous asset to Penn."  

Before entering Philadelphia city government, Rost was deputy director of Penn's Fels Center of Government from 1989 to 1992.

He holds an M.G.A. degree from Penn, and he has been a doctoral candidate in government and politics at the University of Maryland College Park.