Leadership in Action: Dividends and Interest - Fewer Leaders are Fit for a Cap and Gown

POLITICAL LEANINGS

So if Bill Gates isn't making commencement addresses, who is? It turns out that even before the corporate scandals of the recent past, business leaders weren't exactly front-runners in the realm of commencement speaking.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has published a list of the 2002 commencement speakers at 679 colleges and universities. I recognized only 141 of the names. That leaves 538 commencement addresses that I am glad I didn't have to sit through. The names I recognized on the roster broke down this way:

Politicians	46%
Performers	14
Journalists	9
Business leaders	9
Religious leaders	8
Military leaders	6
Athletes	4
Writers	4

Because of the number of speakers whose names I didn't recognize, ...