Walter Isaacson to deliver commencement address

Celebrated biographer, journalist and public policy thought leader Walter Isaacson, the current president and CEO of The Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan educational and policy studies organization, will deliver the address at Lehigh University’s 147th commencement on Monday, May 18th, 2015.

The former chairman and CEO of CNN and editor of TIME magazine will receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the commencement ceremony.

Isaacson is the author of Steve Jobs (2011), Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), and Kissinger: A Biography (1992), and coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986).

His most recent book is The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, a biographical tale of the people who invented the computer, Internet and other great innovations of our time.

“I couldn’t be more delighted to be able to have Walter Isaacson deliver this year’s commencement address,” said Interim President Kevin Clayton ’84, P’14. “With his unique perspectives on some of history’s most accomplished and fascinating figures, I’m sure he will have interesting insights to share with our graduating students and their families.”

Lehigh trustee Joe Perella ’64, the founding partner and chairman of Perella Weinberg Partners, said, “I am thrilled my friend Walter will be our commencement speaker in 2015. No one has captured the innovative entrepreneurial spirit of America more than Walter in his books The Innovators, Steve Jobs, Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin. His astute observations should resonate well with the Lehigh community.”

David Anastasio, professor and chair of earth and environmental sciences who also chairs the commencement speaker nominating committee, said the group considered several nominees, and is enthusiastic about the selection of Isaacson.

“It will be a great privilege to welcome Walter Isaacson as the 2015 commencement speaker,” Anastasio said. “His distinguished career in journalism and authorship of influential autobiographies of Franklin, Einstein, Kissinger and Jobs give him great perspective on brilliant minds and is a worthy voice for Lehigh graduates.”

Student Senate President Kerry Mallett ’15 echoed Anastasio’s endorsement, and said she is particularly intrigued about Isaacson’s thoughts on the evolution of journalism in the digital age.

“I think the Lehigh community will be very interested to hear from Isaacson because of his books on innovators and problem solvers,” she said. “This closely aligns with Lehigh's emphasis on creating graduates who are equipped to solve real-world problems. I think we will all learn a lot from Isaacson's relationship with Steve Jobs and from his research on other pivotal people in the Internet age.”

Mallett also cited Isaacson’s background in education and his work as president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, and as chair emeritus of Teach for America.

“Lehigh is a university focused on the educational development of its students and I am excited to hear about Isaacson's work in the educational field,” she said. “I’m thrilled he will be our commencement speaker.”

“A purveyor of knowledge”

Over the course of his more than four-decade career, Isaacson has garnered a number of honors, including a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 1993 for his biography of Henry Kissinger.

In 2012, he was selected as one of the Time 100, the magazine’s list of the most influential people in the world. He was described in that publication by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as a “purveyor of knowledge, a supplier to addicts who seek a deeper understanding of all manner of things.”

Albright wrote that Isaacson’s biographies represent among the best of the genre, “educating us while demonstrating the continued fascination of the seriously examined life, rendered by Isaacson with the objectivity of a true historian and the flair of a born storyteller.”

Most recently, he was selected by the National Endowment for the Humanities to deliver the 2014 Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government’s highest honor for achievement in the humanities.

Born in New Orleans, Isaacson is a graduate of Harvard College and of Pembroke College of Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He began his career at The Sunday Times of London and then the New Orleans Times-Picayune/States-Item.

He joined TIME in 1978 and served as a political correspondent, national editor, and editor of new media before becoming the magazine’s 14th editor in 1996. He became chairman and CEO of CNN in 2001, and then president and CEO of the Aspen Institute in 2003.

He is chair emeritus of Teach for America, which recruits recent college graduates to teach in underserved communities. He was appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate to serve as the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other international broadcasts of the United States, a position he held until 2012.

He is vice-chair of Partners for a New Beginning, a public-private group tasked with forging ties between the United States and the Muslim world. He is on the board of United Airlines, Tulane University, and the Overseers of Harvard University. From 2005-2007, after Hurricane Katrina, he was the vice-chair of the Louisiana Recovery Authority.