2025 Wharton Graduation Speakers
Our Graduation speakers bring a diverse range of business acumen and embody the values we strive to uphold each day — innovative thinking, resilient leadership, and global collaboration.
Wharton MBA Program for Executives Graduation Ceremony
Saturday, May 17, 2025
Keynote Speaker
David Fajgenbaum, M’12, WG’15
Associate Professor of Medicine & Founding Director, Center for Cytokine Storm Treatment & Laboratory
University of Pennsylvania
Co-Founder & President
Every Cure
David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc, is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Founding Director of the Center for Cytokine Storm Treatment & Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania where he is one of the youngest faculty members to receive tenure at Penn Medicine. He is also the Co-Founder & President of the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network and Co-Founder & President of Every Cure.
He’s also a patient battling idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease, which he discovered a repurposed treatment for that is saving his life and others as he described in his national bestselling memoir, Chasing My Cure. Determined to unlock more hidden cures from existing FDA-approved medications, Dr. Fajgenbaum has identified and/or advanced 13 more repurposed treatments for diseases they weren’t originally intended to treat. He recently co-founded Every Cure to accelerate the search for repurposed treatments and is pioneering a new field called “computational pharmacophenomics,” which uses AI to systematically match all drugs with additional diseases they may treat. The U.S. government and the TED Audacious Project have announced more than $100 million in funding to power this transformative vision.
One of the youngest ever awardees of multiple top federal grants, Dr. Fajgenbaum has published over 100 scientific papers in leading journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation, which included a paper selected as one of the top innovations in science and medicine of 2020. He has been profiled by The New York Times, TODAY Show, Good Morning America, Forbes 30 Under 30, and others, and received numerous awards including the 2016 Atlas Award along with then VP Joe Biden, 2022 NDRI Service to Science Award alongside Nobel Laureates Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman, 2023 Philadelphia Citizen of the Year Award, and 2024 American Philosophical Society’s Judson Daland Prize, which is awarded every 3-5 years for outstanding clinical research. As a leading voice for precision medicine and rare disease, Dr. Fajgenbaum also serves on the Board of Directors for the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA, which was created by Congress to support the mission of the FDA.
Dr. Fajgenbaum earned a BS from Georgetown University, MSc from the University of Oxford, MD from the University of Pennsylvania, and MBA from The Wharton School. Beyond his coursework, David was a Division I college quarterback and founded and led a national grief support network during college and graduate school.
Wharton Undergraduate Graduation Ceremony
Sunday, May 18, 2025
Keynote Speaker
Karen Finerman, W‘87
CEO & Co-Founder
Metropolitan Capital Advisors
Panelist
CNBC
Ms. Finerman co-founded New York-based hedge fund Metropolitan Capital Advisors in 1992 and serves as its CEO. She has been a panelist on CNBC’s Fast Money from its debut year in 2007 until the present. She is the author of the New York Times best-selling book, Finerman’s Rules: Secrets I’d Only Tell My Daughters About Business and Life. She is also the host of the podcast How She Does It. She is an investor in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and is a strong advocate for women’s sports.
Ms. Finerman is a proud board member of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and the Wharton Board of Advisors, her alma mater. She sat for 15 years on the board of Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. She lives in New York City with her husband Lawrence Golub. They have two sets of twins: Lucy, Jack, William, and Kate.
Wharton MBA Graduation Ceremony
Sunday, May 18, 2025
Keynote Speaker
Nicolai Tangen, W’92
CEO
Norges Bank Investment Management
Nicolai Tangen became CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management in September 2020. Previously, he founded and served as CEO and Chief Investment Officer of AKO Capital from 2005. In 2013, he established the AKO Foundation, which supports initiatives in education, the arts, and climate change mitigation. His earlier roles include serving as partner and senior analyst at Egerton Capital and as an equity analyst at Cazenove & Co.
Mr. Tangen’s educational background combines business and humanities, with a Bachelor’s in Finance from the Wharton School and Master’s degrees from both the Courtauld Institute of Art (Art History) and the London School of Economics (Social Psychology). He also completed Russian language studies at the Norwegian Armed Forces’ School of Intelligence and Security.
Past Graduation Speakers
2024
MBA
Mike Sievert, W’91, Chief Executive Office, T-Mobile
MBA Program for Executives West
Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., Immediate Past President & CEO, TIAA
MBA Program for Executives East
Mohamed El-Erian, President of Queens’ College, Cambridge University
Undergraduate
Vivek Bantwal, W’99, Head of Global Financing Group, Goldman Sachs
2023
MBA
Thasunda Brown Duckett, President and CEO, TIAA
MBA Program for Executives West
Ravi Ahuja, W’92, WG’97, Chairman, Sony Pictures Television
MBA Program for Executives East
Lara Abrash, Chair and CEO, Deloitte & Touche LLP
Undergraduate
Brandon Copeland, W’13, 10-Year NFL Veteran, Educator, Public Speaker, RE Developer, and Philanthropist; Copeland Media
2022
MBA
Alex Gorsky, WG’96, Executive Chairman of Johnson & Johnson
MBA Program for Executives West
Shellye Archambeau, WG’84, Fortune 500 Board Member, Former CEO of MetricStream, Advisor, Author
MBA Program for Executives East
Chike Aguh, WG’12, Chief Innovation Officer at U.S. Department of Labor
Undergraduate
Scott Mills, W’90, CEO and President of BET
2021
Keynote Speakers for One Wharton Virtual Ceremony
Rosalind Brewer, WAM’01, CEO, Walgreens Boots Alliance
Tory Burch, C’88, Executive Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Tory Burch LLC
Sundar Pichai, WG’02, CEO of Google and Alphabet
Marc Rowan, W’84, CEO of Apollo Global Management, Inc.
2020
In lieu of a traditional, in-person ceremony, the Wharton School saluted the Class of 2020 with 30-minute virtual celebrations.
2019
MBA
Jonathan (“Jon”) Gray, C’92, W’92, President and COO, Blackstone
MBA Program for Executives West
Anthony Noto, WG’99, Chief Executive Officer, SoFi
MBA Program for Executives East
David M. Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Chairman of the Carlyle Group
Undergraduate
Stacy Brown-Philpot, W’97, Chief Executive Officer, TaskRabbit
2018
MBA
Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Chobani, LLC
MBA Program for Executives West
Safra Catz, W’83, L’86, Chief Executive Officer of Oracle Corporation
MBA Program for Executives East
F. William McNabb III, WG’83, Chairman of Vanguard
Undergraduate
Jeff Weiner, W’92, Chief Executive Officer of LinkedIn
2017
MBA
Yuri Milner, Founder of DST Global
MBA Program for Executives West
K. Robert “Bobby” Turner, W’84, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Turner Impact Capital
MBA Program for Executives East
Adam Grant, Saul P. Steinberg Professor of Management at the Wharton School and Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania
Undergraduate
Nathaniel “Nat” Snead Turner V, W’08, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flatiron Health
2016
MBA
Ruth Porat, WG’87, Chief Financial Officer of Alphabet
MBA Program for Executives West
Jacqueline Reses, W’92, Capital Lead of Square
MBA Program for Executives East
Anthony Noto, WG’99 (WEMBA 23), Chief Financial Officer of Twitter
2015
MBA
Neil Blumenthal, WG’10, and Dave Gilboa, WG’10, Co-Founders and Co-Chief Executive Officers of Warby Parker
MBA Program for Executives West
Josh Kopelman, W’93, Founder of First Round Capital
MBA Program for Executives East
David Pottruck, C’70, WG’72, Chairman of High Tower Advisors
2014
MBA
David Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of The Carlyle Group
MBA Program for Executives West
Neel Kashkari, WG’02, Former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department
MBA Program for Executives East
Dan Tangherlini, WG’01, Administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration
2013
MBA
Andrea Mitchell, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for NBC News
MBA Program for Executives West
Inder Sidhu, WG’91, Senior Vice President of Strategy for Worldwide Operations at Cisco Systems
MBA Program for Executives East
Alex Gorsky, WG’96, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Johnson & Johnson
2012
MBA
Dr. Mehmet Oz, M’86, WG’86, talk show host and Director of Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital
MBA Program for Executives
Carol Bartz, Former President and Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo! and Autodesk
2011
MBA
Vikram Pandit, Chief Executive Officer of Citigroup
MBA Program for Executives
Laurence M. Baer, President and Chief Operations Officer of San Francisco Giants
2010
MBA
Robert Kapito, W’79, Co-Founder and President of BlackRock
MBA Program for Executives
Paul Otellini, President and Chief Executive Officer of Intel Corporation
2009
MBA
Muhammad Yunus, Founder of Grameen Bank and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner
MBA Program for Executives
Peter Robertson, WG’71, Chevron Corporation
2008
MBA
Jon M. Huntsman, Jr., Governor of Utah
MBA Program for Executives
Art Bilger, Managing Director of Shelter Capital Partners, LLC
2007
MBA
Lakshmi N. Mittal, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Arcelor Mittal and Founder of Mittal Steel
MBA Program for Executives
Patrick T. Harker, Dean of The Wharton School
2006
MBA
Leonard Lauder, W’54, Chairman of Estee Lauder Companies
MBA Program for Executives
Kenneth Moelis, W’80, WG’81, President and Joint Global Head of Investment Banking for UBS Investment Bank
2005
MBA
Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Board of Governors for the Federal Reserve System
MBA Program for Executives
David Pottruck, C’70, WG’72, President and Chief Executive Officer of Charles Schwab
