Anderson EMBA Commencement an Event to Remember in Historic Royce Hall, with Address by Alumnus Charles Harrington

Enjoy the full gallery of EMBA Class of 2015 commencement photos

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By Sylvia Haas

Charles L. (Chuck) Harrington (’87), began the 2015 Executive MBA commencement speech by reminiscing about his days as a Fully Employed MBA student at UCLA Anderson and how much he learned from his classmates. He said his MBA classes prepared him to “always be present” and to “live in the now.” There were also life lessons that business school did not prepare him for, but he found that “the greatest challenges enjoyed the greatest rewards” and that he had clearly learned more from his failures than his successes throughout his career. He mentioned a time that he turned in his resignation at work after a big mistake he made and the CEO refused to take it, telling him, “It’s not that easy to get out of fixing the problem.”

Other courses business school did not teach: classes on being sued, having an employee kidnapped, or on work/life balance; but he said the MBA curriculum did guide him through the tough tasks, the tough decisions.

Harrington, founder and CEO of Parsons Environment & Infrastructure Group Inc., said that because new technology is spreading faster than ever, the graduates would deal with digital innovation beyond their imagination. He pointed out that knowledge is currently doubling every 12 months; but the build-out of the Internet of Things will lead to the doubling of knowledge such that by 2020, knowledge will be doubling every 12 hours.

“Most grade school children will someday find themselves in jobs using technology not yet created,” Harrington said. He noted that just during his 15-minute speech, “Forty-five hundred videos would be posted to YouTube, 15,000 new websites created, and almost 9 million Tweets…some of which would be coming from you.”

Having witnessed so many fast-moving changes during his 30-year career, he encouraged the graduates to lead their organizations to be agile. And twice during his speech, he advised them to remain loyal to their moral compass.

His closing remarks included well wishes to the graduates and he finished by quoting Buzz Lightyear’s famous catchphrase in the 1995 animated film Toy Story: “To infinity and beyond!”

Sylvia Haas is director of admissions in UCLA Anderson’s Executive MBA program.