Manor College President Dr. Jonathan Peri was named a 2023 Most Admired CEOs by the Philadelphia Business Journal.
“It’s just a real honor to be presented in this way to our community and to have a spotlight on Manor College,” Peri said. “My leadership style is one of inclusivity and consensus seeking. It’s very important that on a college campus that we have the shared governance of all the groups on our campus. We try to make sure we have everybody’s opinion before we come to our conclusions and that’s how we operate.”
Peri received his award during a ceremony on Dec. 6 at The Switch House in Fishtown. Out of more than 100 CEO nominations from across the Philadelphia region, Peri was among 27 who were deemed “Most Admired” by a panel at the Philadelphia Business Journal. He is one of only two members of the group who serve in higher education.
Peri came to Manor in 2015 after serving as the vice president of Neumann University. Under his leadership, Manor became a four-year institution offering more than 30 associate and bachelor degrees.
During his tenure, the institution was named by The New York Times as among the top 6 percent of institutions nationally for promoting socioeconomic mobility for its students.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Manor played an instrumental role in supporting Ukraine. The institution created a Ukrainian Refugee scholarship to give students an opportunity to continue their studies, and received $1.27 million in federal funding to help refugees, immigrants and first-generation college students.
“A distinguished moment in my time as president are the ‘too often’ moments that come along when students need serious help and we find the resources to keep them in class,” Peri told the Business Journal. “Our bird feed is a great example. You can’t learn if you are hungry because you are food insecure. The bird feed changed the course for a number of our students for the better. We’re very proud of what we do and we were among the first in the Philadelphia area to do it.” ••
