The office of President did not exist at the University of Pennsylvania before 1930. From Penn's earliest decades until the late nineteenth century, the Provost had oversight over the College faculty, but not the faculties of law and medicine. As the University expanded to include more schools during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the administration was gradually reorganized. Part of this reorganization was the institution of the office of the President in 1930.

• Thomas Sovereign Gates (October 1930 - February 1944)

• George William McClelland (February 1944 - September 1948)

• Harold Edward Stassen (September 1948 - January 1953)

• William Hagan DuBarry (January 1953 - June 1953), Acting President

• Gaylord Probasco Harnwell (July 1953 - August 1970)

• Martin Meyerson (September 1970 - January 1981)

• Francis Sheldon Hackney (February 1981 - June 1993)

• Claire Fagin (July 1993 - June 1994), Interim President

• Judith Seitz Rodin (July 1994 - June 2004)

• Amy Gutmann (July 2004 - present)

This history was inspired by the Chronology found in Martin Meyerson's and Dilys Pegler Winegrad's Gladly Learn and Gladly Teach, 1978, but has now been substantially enlarged and interpreted by Mark Frazier Lloyd and Mary D. McConaghy, with the assistance of Michael T. Woods