Dan Schulman, PayPal President and CEO, Named Rutgers University’s 252nd Anniversary Commencement Speaker
Schulman will receive an honorary degree, along with health care advocate and former Robert Wood Johnson Foundation CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey
The Rutgers Board of Governors announced today that Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal, has been chosen as the 252nd anniversary commencement speaker for Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences.
Schulman will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the May 13 ceremony at High Point Solutions Stadium in Piscataway. Equitable health care advocate Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president emerita and former CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), will receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree during the ceremony.
As PayPal’s leader, Schulman is focused on transforming financial services to make life easier for billions of people around the world. With his deep experience in payments and mobile technology, the New Jersey native is guiding PayPal to reimagine how people move and manage money and how merchants and consumers interact and transact.
Schulman is the recipient of the 2017 Brennan Legacy Award, established to honor the Supreme Court justice and his career-long commitment to social justice and “common human dignity.” The Council for Economic Education named him as its 2017 Visionary for promoting economic and financial literacy to create a better-informed society.
Schulman has been recognized as one of the top 10 CEOs in the world by Fortune, named one of the top 100 most creative people by Fast Company and included on the 2017 Recode 100 list of people making the biggest impact on business and technology. He also has been recognized as one of the top 10 most innovative CEOs in banking.
He previously served as group president of Enterprise Growth at American Express, where he led its global strategy to expand the company’s alternative mobile and online payment services. Prior to joining American Express, he was president of the Prepaid Group at Sprint Nextel Corporation following its acquisition of Virgin Mobile USA, Inc., where he led the company as its founding CEO for eight years. Earlier in his career, Schulman was president and CEO of Priceline Group, Inc., where he led the company through a period of rapid growth and expansion. He also spent 18 years at AT&T, holding a series of positions, including president of the Consumer Markets Division. Schulman served on the Rutgers Board of Trustees from July 2006 to June 2012 and was a member of the university’s Board of Governors from April 2008 to June 2013.
Schulman earned a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College and a master of business from New York University’s Stern School of Business. He is a board member of Autism Speaks, and serves on the World Economic Forum’s Future of the Global Financial System taskforce and the boards of Flextronics International Ltd. and Symantec Corporation, where he is the non-executive chair of the board. He is also an avid mixed martial arts practitioner.
Schulman was chosen to speak at Rutgers as part of a yearlong selection process that involved students, faculty and staff.
Lavizzo-Mourey – physician, educator, and advocate – has devoted her career to providing and promoting care for children, the elderly and the poor. She was named the RWJF University Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor of Population Health and Health Equity at the University of Pennsylvania, with joint appointments in the Perelman School of Medicine, the School of Nursing and the Wharton School, on Jan. 1, 2018.
During her tenure at RWJF, Lavizzo-Mourey has spearheaded bold health initiatives, such as creating healthier, more equitable communities; strengthening the integration of health systems and services; and ensuring every child in the United States has the opportunity to grow up at a healthy weight. This work culminated in the foundation’s vision of building a Culture of Health, enabling everyone in America to live longer, healthier lives.
Prior to joining the foundation, Lavizzo-Mourey, a specialist in geriatrics, served as the Sylvan Eisman Professor of Medicine and Health Care Systems. She also directed Penn’s Institute on Aging and was chief of the University’s division of geriatric medicine.
Lavizzo-Mourey earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and her master of business administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She worked as deputy administrator for the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research under President George H.W. Bush’s administration and continued to direct policy for the subsequent administration, serving as Quality of Care chair for President Bill Clinton’s panels on health care. She has served on numerous federal advisory committees and was appointed by President Barack Obama to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition.
Lavizzo-Mourey is the recipient of numerous honors, including honorary doctorates from Colby College and Brown University. Forbes has included her in its list of the 100 most powerful women in the world eight times, and she has been on Modern Healthcare’s 100 most influential people in healthcare 11 times.
She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. She currently serves on the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents, as well as on several other boards of directors.
The board previously announced that Anita Hill, a national figure leading the #TimesUp movement against sexual harassment and assault and a vocal advocate for equal opportunities for women in STEM and other fields, will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws from Rutgers University-Camden during the Rutgers Law School commencement ceremony on May 17. She also will deliver the keynote address for the Class of 2018 at that commencement ceremony.
Rutgers University-Newark previously announced that Newark’s Queen Latifah will deliver the keynote address at the Rutgers-Newark commencement ceremony on May 14 at the Prudential Center. The hip-hop icon, award-winning actress, singer/song-writer, producer, entrepreneur and humanitarian also will receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a leading national research university and the state of New Jersey’s preeminent, comprehensive public institution of higher education. Established in 1766, the university is the eighth oldest higher education institution in the United States. More than 69,000 students and 22,500 full- and part-time faculty and staff learn, work, and serve the public at Rutgers locations across New Jersey and around the world.