Northeastern University - Commencement Speakers

Commencement Speakers

Over the years, several notable individuals have spoken at commencement:

  • Leverett A. Saltonstall- Governor of Massachusetts (1935)
  • Godfrey Lowell Cabot - American industrialist (1941)
  • Channing Pollock- American playwright (1942)
  • Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. - American statesman and noted historian (1943)
  • Igor Sikorsky - Ukrainian-American pioneer of aviation (1944)
  • Charles Sinclair Weeks - United States Secretary of Commerce (1948)
  • John F. Kennedy - U.S. Senator, future President of the United States (1956)
  • Edward M. Kennedy - U.S. Senator (1965,1977)
  • Coretta Scott King - Wife of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1971)
  • Edward J. King - Governor of Massachusetts (1980)
  • Jesse Jackson (1978)
  • Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. - Assistant to President John F. Kennedy (1981)
  • Tip O'Neill - Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (1982)
  • Michael S. Dukakis - Governor of Massachusetts, 1988 presidential Candidate (1984)
  • Bill Clinton - President of the United States (1993)
  • Mikhail S. Gorbachev - former President of the Soviet Union (1998)
  • Madeleine Albright - first woman United States Secretary of State (2000)
  • Bill Richardson - former U.S. Secretary of Energy, Governor of New Mexico (2001)
  • Christine Todd Whitman - Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (2003)
  • Jeffrey Immelt - CEO of General Electric, the second largest global company (2006)
  • Nicholas Negroponte - Founder of the One Laptop Per Child outreach program (2007)
  • Christopher Cox - Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman (2008)
  • Stephen Breyer - United States Supreme Court Justice (2008 - Law)
  • Kenneth Cole - Founder of Kenneth Cole Productions (2009)
  • Kenneth Chenault - CEO and chairman of American Express (2010)
  • Henri A. Termeer - Former CEO and chairman of Genzyme Corporation (2011)
  • Colin Powell - Former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (2012)

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Famous quotes containing the words commencement and/or speakers:

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    —For the State of Massachusetts, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

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