Awards, People, Profiles

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff to address graduates this Saturday

By Yasmin Anwar

ATTENTION: Reporters covering higher education and general assignment beats; weekend, photo and TV news assignment desks

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff will address the Class of 2015

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff will address the Class of 2015

WHAT: The University of California, Berkeley, will celebrate its annual commencement honoring all graduating seniors in the Class of 2015. This year’s campus-wide ceremony is expected to draw 4,300 graduates and 21,000 spectators, which will include family members, friends, faculty and staff.

Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce, philanthropist and an outspoken advocate for social justice, will deliver the commencement address. The event will also include remarks by Chancellor Nicholas Dirks and Patrick Awuah, MBA ’99, founder and president of Ashesi University in Ghana, and this year’s recipient of the Elisa and Walter A. Haas International Award.

Also speaking at the event will be UC Berkeley’s top graduating senior Radhika Kannan, this year’s winner of the University Medal for her outstanding scholarship, public service and strength of character. Kannan, 21, majored in economics with a minor in conservation studies. She excelled at Berkeley, earning a near-perfect GPA, despite her mother’s sudden and inexplicable death during her junior year.

UC Berkeley video by Phil Ebiner

WHEN: This Saturday, May 16, at 10 a.m. The media check-in table will open at 8:30 a.m., and news media are encouraged to arrive before 9:30 a.m. Space is limited.

WHERE: California Memorial Stadium, on the southeast corner of the UC Berkeley campus (See campus map). Reporters must stop at the media check-in table located between Gates 1 and 2 to receive credentials. Bags are allowed but will be checked and tagged.

DETAILS: Credentialed news media wishing to cover all or part of the event should R.S.V.P. to Amy Hamaoui Atlas, interim executive director of communications and media relations, at amy.hamaoui@berkeley.edu. Parking is extremely limited; please register for specific parking instructions. TV trucks will be directed to an adjacent lot.

Click here for more details about commencement, and here for a roundup of UC Berkeley’s 2015 graduation season highlights.