Jeffrey Immelt '78, chief executive officer of General Electric, will speak at this year's commencement ceremony on June 13, the College announced Tuesday.
The speech will be the business leader's second at Dartmouth in three months, as Immelt addressed a Tuck Business School audience in April for the annual Greener Ventures entrepreneurship conference.
"Leadership in the future will be about depth before breadth," Immelt said at the conference, where he discussed leadership and the future of business ethics. "Do every job like you're going to have it forever."
Immelt succeeded the legendary Jack Welch as CEO of GE, the world's most profitable industrial company, in 2001. Prior to serving as CEO, Immelt made a name for himself as the head of GE's Medical Systems division, shaping the company into a $12 billion industry leader. Immelt has also held leadership positions in the Plastics and Appliances divisions of GE.
Immelt also serves on the board of the non-profit organization, Catalyst, which seeks to advance the position of women in business, and Robin Hood, which seeks to alleviate poverty in New York. In addition, he was named 2003 "Man of the Year" by the London-based Financial Times, who wrote of him, "Mr. Immelt represents a different style of leadership. His careful remodeling of his own company is leading a wider reassertion of the primacy of shareholders and customers."
College President James Wright described Immelt as "a major international business leader at a time of great economic and ethical challenges, and he is one who has distinguished himself by his thoughtfulness, his strategic vision and his sense of values."
Also appearing at commencement to receive honorary degrees will be Rebecca L. Adamson, founder and president of First Nations Development Institute and founder of First Peoples Worldwide; Margaret Atwood, the celebrated Booker Prize-winning writer; Lo-Yi Chan, an architect specializing in campus planning; Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Dr. Norman C. Francis, president of Xavier University of Louisiana; Richard M. Page, a former Dartmouth trustee and current trustee of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Janet D. Rowley, M.D., a leading cancer researcher.
Some students questioned the choice of Immelt as commencement speaker.
"Margaret Atwood, one of the greatest living writers, will already be attending graduation," Jesse Cross '04 said. "I don't understand why instead of [Atwood] writing a speech, which would be a logical extension of her astounding gift with language, we will be hearing pearls of wisdom from the CEO of GE."
