UCLA Anderson Celebrates Commencement 2017, Remembers Marion Anderson

On Friday, June 16, 2017, UCLA honored the graduating Class of 2017 in the full-time, Fully Employed and Executive MBA programs. The ceremony also recognized the accomplishments of and conferred doctoral degrees upon nine Ph.D. students. A highlight of the ceremony was a keynote address from Amgen Chairman and CEO Bob Bradway.

The celebratory event was bittersweet, as the school paid tribute to the late Marion Anderson, who passed away last spring. Anderson and her late husband John were generous benefactors of the institution that bears their name. In 1987, the school officially became the John E. Anderson School of Management at UCLA, when their gift propelled the school toward building its current complex at the north end of the UCLA campus. In 2015, Mrs. Anderson once again made a transformative gift to the institution now known as UCLA Anderson; the school will break ground on the new Marion Anderson Hall later this year.

“Marion shared John’s passion for education. She saw it as an essential rung on the ladder of opportunity — not only for our students and alumni, but for their families, their businesses and the communities they build and support,” said Dean Judy Olian. “(She) loved this school and its students and faculty … She and John truly made UCLA Anderson what it is today, through their philanthropy and, importantly, through the lasting gift of their values. We are grateful for their remarkable legacy, and we give special honor to Marion today.

“You were also blessed with many gifts. But remember to be humble about those gifts,” Olian told the graduates, “Yes, you have wonderful talents and skills, and you have worked hard, but let us not forget: you — all of us — are very lucky. Never forget that, never take that luck for granted. Let’s remember to be eternally grateful for it and, ultimately, to share our good fortune.”

Amgen’s Bradway, whose company employs more than 100 Anderson alumni and is annually among the companies that hires the most Anderson graduates, said, “What strikes me today as I look across the business landscape is that exciting revolutions are happening everywhere. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning — think of the enormous opportunities that will arise from these in the coming years. Autonomous vehicles. Gains in renewable energy. These incredible technological advances and so many others mean that the opportunities for you to make an impact on the world are greater than they’ve ever been.”

He added: “But you have to seize those opportunities.”

Bradway’s remarks to the graduates included these three lessons:

“Find a company — or create one — that is looking to do big thing, things that excite you and give you a chance to do work that matters.”

“Develop yourself so that you can reach your full career potential as quickly as possible.”

“Bring others along, help them experience the same kind of commitment you feel to the mission of your company. Give people the chance to achieve their full potential through their own contributions.”

After Bradway’s remarks, Professor Francis Longstaff presented the 2017 doctoral candidates, who were hooded by their dissertation chairman or committee members. Said Longstaff, “To earn their Ph.D., these candidates have not only learned the theory and tools required to do original research, but they have demonstrated their mastery of these by contributing to the body of knowledge through their dissertation. Thus, they are trained to become leaders in academia and in business, producing research and providing thought leadership to policy makers, business leaders and their students.”

For the first time, the graduates of the Executive MBA class joined their peers from the full-time and FEMBA classes at commencement. (In prior years, the EMBA’s staged their own ceremonies.) Shalini Singh (’17) was chosen on behalf of her classmates to address the gathering.

“These last few months at UCLA Anderson I have seen this incredible batch of people truly embody Anderson’s philosophy of ‘Thinking in the Next,’” said Singh. “This class oozes entrepreneurship, innovation and motivation.”

Lauren Yang (’17) was chosen to speak on behalf of the full-time program. “We treat each other as family, from first year, to second, and onward. I urge you not to forget this,” said Yang. “Not to forget how for two years we cherished, encouraged and selflessly gave to one another. Not to forget how in two years we have become part of the Anderson family that includes everyone before us and everyone after.”

The FEMBA student speaker was Kasey Morrison (’17). She said, “Make us care about your story. As you begin pursuit of your next passion tomorrow, with characters old and new, find some way to give back to those around you. You have been given the gift of an incredible education and, as one of my professors told me, you have an obligation to share that with the world … Pair up with a classmate, or a few, and take some of your well-deserved leisure time to help make somebody’s day a little bit better.”