Global Media Executive Bob Wright to Deliver Commencement Address at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – Bob Wright, an alumnus of the College of the Holy Cross class of 1965, will receive an honorary degree and address this year’s graduates during the College’s Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 26 at 10:30 a.m. on the campus.

Wright is chairman and CEO of NBC Universal, and vice chairman and executive officer of the General Electric Company. He has had one of the longest and most successful tenures of any media company chief executive. Under his leadership, NBC was transformed from a broadcast network into a global media powerhouse with leadership in broadcast network television, cable programming, station ownership, and television production. With the formation of NBC Universal (he became chairman and CEO in 2004, in conjunction with the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment), Wright heads one of the world’s fastest-growing and most-profitable media and entertainment companies.

A former Holy Cross trustee, Wright has been inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame, and serves on the boards of the American Film Institute, Museum of Television and Radio, and the Motion Picture and Television Fund Corporation. He has worked closely with the Archdiocese of New York on raising support for inner-city Catholic schools and other projects. He is also co-founder (with his wife Suzanne) of Autism Speaks, an organization dedicated to raising awareness and funding to find answers to the causes of autism.

The College will also bestow four other honorary degrees to the following individuals at Commencement:

Anne M. Burke, Appellate Court of Illinois, First District in Chicago. Judge Burke served for more than two years as interim chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops National Review Board, initiating and investigating studies into the root causes of clergy sexual abuse establishing guidelines and policies for effectively responding to this issue. Before her appointment to the Appellate Court, she was special counsel to the Governor for Child Welfare Services. This summer, Judge Burke will be appointed to a seat on the Illinois State Supreme Court, only the second woman to serve on the state's high court.

Rev. Angelo D’Agostino, S.J. Founder and medical director of the Nyumbani home in Africa. Before joining the Jesuits in 1955, Fr. D’Agostino was a U.S. Air Force surgeon. During his novitiate, he became interested in psychiatry and, upon completing his training, practiced and taught psychiatry in Washington, D.C. He suspended his practice when the Society of Jesus asked for volunteers to work in Thailand with Indochinese refugees, and he directed a medical facility at a refugee camp there. For many years, he continued his refugee work as Coordinator of the Jesuit Refugee Service, establishing programs in Sudan, Ethiopia, Zaire and Tanzania. In Africa, while he was directing a retreat house, he saw first-hand the growing AIDS crisis and the number of HIV-infected children who were orphaned and suffering without even minimal services or care. In 1992, he founded Nyumbani ("home," in Swahili) in Nairobi for abandoned children. Today, his work has grown to include a community-based outreach program providing services to thousands of HIV-infected children and their families; and the self-sustaining Nyumbani Village, a community serving orphans and elders who have been left behind by the "lost generation" of the AIDS pandemic.

Sister Carol Keehan. President and CEO of Catholic Health Association, the largest not-for-profit provider of health care services in the nation. Sr. Carol has worked in administrative and governance positions at hospitals sponsored by the Daughters of Charity for more than 35 years, and has held influential leadership roles in a variety of health care, insurance, and education organizations. She has served on many boards of directors, including the District of Columbia Hospital Association, Care First/Blue Cross of Maryland and the National Capital Area, and St. John's University. She is past chair of the Florida State Human Rights Advocacy Commission, and served for 15 years as president and CEO of Providence Hospital, which includes Carroll Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, in Washington, DC.  She earned a B.A. degree in nursing from St. Joseph’s College and an MBA from University of South Carolina.

David McCullough, author. Widely published biographer and historian, McCullough is the author of, among other books, 1776, John Adams, The Great Bridge, The Path between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, Brave Companions, and Truman. None of his books has ever been out of print. He has twice received the most prestigious prizes in book publishing: the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and has been called a "master of the art of narrative history." In his crowded, productive career, McCullough has been an editor, essayist, teacher, lecturer, and familiar presence on public television — as host of Smithsonian World, The American Experience, and narrator of numerous documentaries including The Civil War and Napoleon.