Apple CEO Tim Cook to give MIT commencement speech

By Brinke Guthrie December 11, 2016

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When you’re rich and famous, you get to do some things that are out of reach for others. When you’re rich, famous, and head of the world’s highest profile tech company, you head to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That’s just where Apple CEO Tim Cook plans to be on June 9, 2017, giving the commencement speech to an audience that is sure to be clutching an iPhone or two under their respective caps and gowns.

No New England-centric MIT degree for this CEO though. The southerner through and through “earned an M.B.A. from Duke University, where he was a Fuqua Scholar and a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Auburn University,” according to his Apple bio.

On the MIT website, Graduate Student Council President Arolyn Conwill said “We are looking forward to hearing Tim Cook speak at Commencement. We believe that his innovative leadership at Apple, along with his commitment to advocacy on sustainability, security, and equality, will inspire graduates to make a far-reaching, positive impact on the world.”

Chancellor for Academic Advancement Eric Grimson is chair of the MIT Commencement Committee, and adds on the MIT site, “Apple is widely viewed as a company that champions innovation, that seeks creative and inventive solutions to problems across a wide range of domains, and that looks to balance technology with issues of social good. These are all themes that are of great importance to our graduates, and I am sure his remarks will be an inspiration to them.”

On Billboard’s site, the Apple CEO commented, “We believe deeply that technology can be a powerful force for good, and I’m looking forward to speaking to the Class of 2017 as they look ahead to making their own mark on the world.”

Cook’s predecessor Steve Jobs gave the commencement address for just-down-the-block Stanford back in 2005.

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