Babson Announces Commencement Speakers

F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business will host Richard Saul Wurman as the School’s speaker for its commencement ceremony. Wurman is an architect and graphic designer who co-founded the popular TED Conference. The commencement ceremony will be held May 16. Wurman co-founded the TED Conference in 1984 and chaired the conference from 1984 to 2002. Wurman has written, designed and published more than 90 books.

In addition to Richard Saul Wurman, Kevin Colleran will serve as the speaker for the Babson College commencement speaker. Kevin Colleran, who is also a Babson alumnus, is Facebook’s first ad salesperson. Colleran joined Facebook in April 2005 as one of the first 10 employees of the company. He remained with Facebook until 2011 and in 2012, he became a venture partner with General Catalyst Partners in Cambridge. Along with his work at General Catalyst, Colleran is also a managing partner at Slow Ventures.

As Facebook’s Global Partnership Lead, Colleran was responsible for managing the advertising relationships with some of the world’s largest advertisers. At his position at Slow Ventures, a venture capital firm that Colleran co-founded and now manages, he invests the personal capital of dozens of top technology founders, CEOs, and executives into early-stage companies based in the United States. His investments include Evernote, Nest, Pinterest, Tumblr, Dropbox, Slack, Birchbox, Postmates, Plated, Classpass, and more than 150 other growing companies.

Wurman received both his Masters of Architecture and Bachelors of Architecture Degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in 1959 with the highest honors, and is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Fellowship program. Wireman is also  the recipient of four honorary doctorate degrees, a Lifetime Achievement Awardfrom the Smithsonian – Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards and also recently became a Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Design​ in the College of Arts, Media and Design at Northeastern University.

In addition to serving as the commencement speakers, both Colleran and Wurman will be given an Honorary Doctor​ of Humane Letters. The speakers will be honored for their work that has changed the way that people connect to each other, and to the world, by demonstrating the power of entrepreneurship to create economic and social value everywhere.

regions: Boston

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