Charlotte Beers and Dennis Encarnation to Speak at Graduation Ceremonies
April 21, 2009
The College of Charleston has announced the speakers for the 2009 May Commencement Exercises.
CHARLESTON, SC – April 21, 2009 – The commencement speaker for the College of Charleston’s undergraduate ceremonies will be businesswoman and former Under Secretary of State Charlotte Beers.
Dr. Dennis Encarnation, founder of the Center for Business and Government’s Asia programs at Harvard University will be the commencement speaker at The Graduate School of the College of Charleston’s ceremony.
Beers was the first female vice-president at the J. Walter Thompson advertising firm. She was later named CEO of Tatham-Laird & Kudner, and several years later accepted the post of CEO at Ogilvy & Mather until 1996. In 1997, Fortune magazine named her ”the most powerful woman in America,” based on her achievements in the advertising industry. In 1999, Beers received the “Legend in Leadership Award” from the Chief Executive Leadership Institute of the Yale School of Management. In 2001, she joined Secretary of State Colin Powell as Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, a post she held until March 2003.
Encarnation is currently an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University, following his retirement from the school in 2007. He spent the first half of his 25 years at Harvard on the faculty of the Business School and the second half at the Kennedy School’s Center for Business and Government where he founded one of the country’s first Asia programs. Prior to Harvard, he worked at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, taught at Stanford University, and received graduate degrees from Duke University. He is a 1974 graduate of the College of Charleston.
The Graduate School of the College of Charleston ceremony will be on May 8, 2009 at 5:30 p.m. in the Sottile Theatre. The two undergraduate commencements will be held on May 9, 2009 in Cistern Yard starting at 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
