David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and co-executive chairman of the private equity firm, the Carlyle Group, was announced as the 2018 winter commencement speaker. The ceremony will be 10 a.m. Dec.15 in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Rubenstein is a Duke University graduate and received his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School. After graduating, Rubenstein practiced law before serving as chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments in 1975.
During the Jimmy Carter administration, Rubenstein was deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy and practiced law in Washington. Rubenstein is the chairman of the boards of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian Institution and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also the recipient of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy and is the host of “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations” on Bloomberg TV and PBS.
During the ceremony, IU President Michael McRobbie will deliver an honorary degree to Charles MacKay, distinguished general director of the Santa Fe Opera. McRobbie will also present the University Medal to Lee Hamilton, professor of practice in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs and founder of the Center on Congress at IU.
A total of 1,912 students will graduate, with the oldest graduate being 62 and the youngest being 20.
