Honorary Degree Candidates and Speakers

Babson’s 2012 Commencement ceremonies will honor Reid Hoffman, Executive Chairman of LinkedIn and partner at Greylock Partners, and Maria Eitel, President and CEO of the Nike Foundation.

Reid and Maria will speak at both the undergraduate and graduate ceremonies. Maria will receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at the undergraduate ceremony, and Reid will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws during the graduate ceremony.

All Bachelors and Masters degree graduates will receive, as a gift from Reid, a copy of his new book, The Start-Up Of You. The book provides a blueprint for thriving in your job and building a career by applying the lessons of Silicon Valley’s most innovative entrepreneurs.

Reid Hoffman

In 2003 Reid Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking service—as of November 2011, LinkedIn has more than 135 million members in 200 countries. Reid led LinkedIn through its first four years and to profitability as CEO and Chairman.

He joined Greylock Partners in 2009. Reid serves on the boards of Airbnb, Edmodo, Mozilla (Firefox), Shopkick, Swipely, and Zynga, and also leads the Greylock Discovery Fund, which invests in seed stage entrepreneurs and companies. The Discovery Fund is an extension of his prior angel investing, which included Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm, and Zynga. Reid focuses on the consumer internet broadly, including marketplaces, networks, and platforms. Prior to LinkedIn and Greylock Partners, he served as executive vice president at PayPal, where he was a founding board member.

As impressive as these accomplishments are, Reid also believes strongly in the ability for entrepreneurship and technology to improve the world. He serves on the boards of Kiva.org, Endeavor.org, DoSomething.org, and StartupAmericaPartnership.org.

Reid earned a Masters degree in Philosophy from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and a Bachelors degree with distinction in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University. In 2010, he received an SD Forum Visionary Award and was named a Henry Crown Fellow by The Aspen Institute. In 2011, Reid was named an Endeavor Entrepreneur of the Year.

Maria Eitel

As the founding President and CEO of the Nike Foundation, Maria Eitel works to unleash “the girl effect,” the powerful social and economic change brought about when girls have opportunity. Prior to the Foundation, Maria served as NIKE, Inc.’s first Vice President of Corporate Responsibility. Before Nike, she served at the White House, the Microsoft Corporation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and MCI Communications Corporation. Early in her career, she was a reporter and producer in commercial and public broadcasting. She holds degrees from McGill University (BS) and Georgetown University (MSFS), and Stanford University (SEP).

Maria serves on a variety of boards, committees and advisory councils including the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on HIV/AIDS, Millennium Promise, Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Lakeside School in Seattle, Young Presidents Organization International, and the Acumen Fund. She is a regular speaker at local, national, and global forums on corporate responsibility, governance, human and labor rights, sustainable development, philanthropy, and social entrepreneurism.