The MBA Class of 2014 Graduates

In his commencement speech at The Wharton School, Dave Rubenstein provided graduates his five-minute list of all they needed to know to make large sums of money.

“The Rubenstein Bucket List for MBAs”

1. “Do not give up your own beliefs or passion easily or quickly.”

2. What do Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos, Jack Welsh and countless other business leaders have in common? Time commitment. “If you want to get ahead financially, long hours are a pre-requisite.”

3.”Once you are established as the go-to person in one area, other opportunities will inevitably come to you. Your responsibilities and rewards will inevitably increase.”  Don’t be the “Jack of All Trades”, specialize.

4. Cogent, clean, crisp communication. ”Learning how to persuade others to do what you want is the essence of a successful business career.”

5. “Place your energies into providing the best service or best product possible. Money needs to be the happy by-product, not the principal goal.”

6. “Humility rather than arrogance will lead to far greater eventual success.”

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Graduation season is in full swing. Read on to make sure you catch these pearls of wisdom.

Here’s a round up of graduation ceremonies at a few leading MBA programs in America.

1.    Harvard Business School

HBS Class Day 2014
28 May 2014, 2:30 PM
Baker Lawn

Keynote Speaker – Salman (Sal) Khan, MBA ‘03

This former hedge fund analyst created over 4,800 video lessons covering academic subjects such as mathematics and the sciences. What started out as simple tuitions for his cousin over Yahoo!’s Doodle pad, is now a digital empire – The Khan Academy. They run a Youtube channel that has clocked over 401 million views. After completing his undergraduate education from MIT, Khan pursued his MBA from HBS in 2003.

Watch Harvard Business School’s MBA Class Day 2014 Ceremony with Salman Khan of Khan Academy here:

HBS Commencement
29 May 2014, 9:00 AM
Harvard Yard

Keynote Speaker – Michael R Bloomberg, MBA ‘66

This billionaire businessman and three-term Mayor of New York City is the founder and owner of the world’s leading financial and information company – Bloomberg LP. Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Markets, Bloomberg Business Week and bloomberg.com have all been seen as trusted sources of information worldwide. A true pioneer, Bloomberg LP brought out bull-pen style seating for the employees as well as the CEO. This succinctly shows all what this organization stands for- clarity, transparency, empowerment and innovation. The 108^th Mayor is now busy with the “Mayor’s Challenge” for European cities, an attempt to help adopt creative methods to solve the residents’ problems within a city. After finishing his engineering from John Hopkins, he received his MBA from Harvard in 1966.

Watch Harvard’s Commencement Ceremony 2014 with Michael Bloomberg here:

2.    Stanford GSB
Diploma Ceremony and Reception
14 June 2014, 4:30 PM
Frost Amphitheatre

Keynote Speaker – Phil Knight, MBA ‘62- Co-founder and Chairman, Nike

A former track star at the University of Oregon and co-founder of Blue Ribbon Sports along with track coach Bill Bowerman in 1964, Phil started out selling shoes out of his car’s trunk. In 1978, he renamed the company Nike. Nike has since been a leader in engineering sports merchandise and has been seen as a di rigueur accessory. The company logo cost him $35. The ubiquity of that fat checkmark dubbed a “swoosh” made him a stratospheric $12.8 billion. Phil says he owes it all to Stanford for helping him find the entrepreneur in him while he was pursuing his MBA. It was Frank Shallenberger’s business class that changed everything for Phil as he had a sudden epiphany. This affable, albeit slightly shy man created one of America’s greatest commerce success stories and his message is loud and clear, “Just do it”.

3.    University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
MBA Graduation Ceremony
18 May 2014, 1:00 PM
The Palestra

Keynote Speaker – David Rubenstein, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Carlyle Group

Founded in 1987, the Carlyle Group has grown to be one of the world’s leading equity firms, managing $185 billion from 34 offices across the world. A native of Baltimore, David is a 1970 magna cum laude graduate of Duke. Following this he graduated from the University of Chicago Law School. He is also the Chairman of the Boards of Trustees of the JFK Centre for the Performing Arts and Duke University, on the Board of Directors or Trustees of John Hopkins University and University of Chicago. As part of The Giving Pledge, he is one of the billionaires, who have pledged to donate more than half of their wealth to philanthropic causes or charities.

Watch Wharton’s MBA 2014 Graduation Ceremony (Mr. Rubenstein comes on after the thirty-eight minute mark):

4.    University of Chicago (Booth)
MBA Convocation on 14 June 2014, 9:15 AM
Main Quadrangle

Alum Speaker: Kathryn C. Gould ’78

Ms. Gould is one of Booth’s Distinguished Alumni Award winner and the alum speaker. She is the Co-Founder and General Partner of Foundation Capital. Realizing she was better at building companies than running them, this physicist turned venture capitalist quit her job at Oracle Corporation and co-founded Foundation Capital in 1995. Since her retirement in 2006 she has been flying planes, making cabernet sauvignon and oil painting.

5.    MIT (Sloan)
Convocation Ceremony
June 5 2014, 3:00 – 5:00 PM
Citi Performing Arts Centre, Wang Theatre

Alumnus Speaker: Joaquin E Bacardi III – CEO, Bacardi Corporation

Bacardi is the world’s largest rum producer and owner of over 200 brands across the world. Joaquin attended college at Bentley and did his MBA at Sloan in 1998. He is one of the members in Sloan’s Latin American Executive Board and he is also a mentor under the Youth Presidents Organization – an organization that encourages young business leaders.

6.    Northwestern University (Kellogg)
MBA Convocation on 20 June 2014, 5:00 – 7:00 PM
Ryan Field, Evanston.

Alumnus Speaker: Bob Eckert ’77, Chairman Emeritus, Mattel Inc.

A veteran in the toy and food industries, Mr. Eckert is the Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Mattel Inc. Mattel Inc. is the producer of the world’s most favorite toys, Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys to name a few. Bob served as CEO from 2000 to 2011. After completing his MBA from Kellogg in 1977, Bob kick-started his career at Kraft Foods, where he rose from President to CEO. Bob was named one of Business Week’s Top 25 Managers in 2002.

7.    University of California, Berkeley (Haas)
Commencement on 23 May 2014, 2:00 PM
Greek Theatre

Speaker: Cathie Lesjak, MBA ‘86 – EVP and CFO, Hewlett-Packard

The onus of managing the company’s worldwide cash, debt, foreign exchange, capital structure and risk has been Cathie’s for over two decades. Cathie also served as interim CEO from August to October 2010. Currently she also serves as a director for SunPower Corporations. After her degree from Stanford, she went on to pursue an MBA from Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

8.    Columbia Business School
Recognition Ceremony for MBA Candidates
Sunday, 18 May 2014 from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM
South Lawn, Morningside Campus 

Speaker: Roger C Altman, Chairman & CEO of Evercore Partners

More on Altman – His career in investment banking started at Lehman Brothers in 1974 where he was the general partner. In 1987 he joined the Blackstone Group as Vice-Chairman and was responsible for the firm’s international business. In 1996, Evercore Partners was born, now known as the world’s most active banking boutique. He has served in the treasury department twice, once under President Carter and later under President Clinton. Besides this he has also served as advisor to two presidential candidates – John Kerry in 2004 and Hillary Clinton in 2008.

9.    Dartmouth College (Tuck)
Investiture – 7 June 2014, 2:30 PM
Tuck Circle

Keynote Speaker: Sherri C.Oberg D’ 82, T ‘86, President, CEO and Founder at Acusphere, Inc.

Ms. Oberg’s company is a specialty pharmaceutical company that has generated four candidates for human clinical trials. Prior to this she was a venture capitalist at Aegis Venture Funds and at Inco Venture Capital Management. Massachusetts Biotechnology Council and Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council had her on the board of directors. She is a history major from Dartmouth and later earned her MBA from Tuck.

10.  New York University (Stern)
Graduate Convocation on 22 May 2014, 3:00 – 6:30 PM
Radio City Music Hall

Keynote Speaker: Ajay Banga, President and CEO, MasterCard

Banga worked with Nestle, PepsiCo and  Citigroup Asia Pacific before he joined MasterCard in 2009. He is a member of the Board of Overseers of Weill Cornell Medical College and also on the Board of the American Red Cross. Banga was awarded the Foreign Policy Association Medal in 2012. He received his degree in Economics from Delhi University and is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad.

Watch NYU Stern School of Business’s 2014 Commencement Keynote Address with Ajay Banga of MasterCard here:

The faculty and administration at Stern created a video and presented it at Stern’s Graduation Convocation on May 22nd.

11. UCLA (Anderson)
Commencement on 13 June 2014, 4:00 PM
Wilson Plaza

Keynote Speaker: Susan Wojcicki ’98, CEO, YouTube

Ms. Wojcicki is an American businesswoman and CEO of YouTube. She studied history and literature at Harvard ‘90, received her masters in economics from University of California, Santa Cruz ‘93 and later, her MBA from Anderson in ‘98. What we don’t know is that the same year Larry Page and Sergey Brin set up office in her garage at Menlo Park. This unknown Googler was also listed on Forbes’ “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” in 2011.