FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 14, 2000
Contact: Kimberly G. Gentry
or Kevin P. Cox
336-758-5237
http://www.wfu.edu/wfunews/
CHAMBERS, CEO OF CISCO SYSTEMS, WILL DELIVER WFU'S COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS
John Chambers, president and chief executive officer of Cisco Systems Inc., will deliver Wake Forest University's commencement address and receive an honorary degree on May 15.
Chambers, whose company is a worldwide leader in Internet networking, will address graduating seniors who entered Wake Forest as it launched a comprehensive plan to enhance undergraduate education. The Wake Forest Undergraduate Plan is distinguished, in part, by a technology initiative that has provided laptop computers to all undergraduates, wired buildings across campus for Internet access, and provided new opportunities for teaching with technology. The plan also expanded the university's faculty, introduced first-year seminars, created new study-abroad scholarships, and more.
"We select commencement speakers based on their professional and societal contributions, as well as their involvement with Wake Forest," said Sandra Boyette, Wake Forest's vice president for University Advancement. "In addition to the fact that Mr. Chambers' daughter, Lindsay, will be graduating, it is also appropriate that the first class to participate in the Undergraduate Plan, which included a comprehensive technology component, will hear from the leader of one of the world's most innovative technology organizations."
Chambers joined Cisco, a top maker of equipment for creating and accessing information networks, in 1991 as senior vice president of worldwide sales and operations. Since being named to his current position in 1995, Chambers has overseen Cisco's growth from $1.2 billion in annual revenues to its current rate of $14 billion.
In 1999, Business Week magazine recognized Chambers as "Mr. Internet" and one of the top 25 executives worldwide for the second time in three years. Time Digital magazine listed Chambers among the top 10 most influential leaders shaping technology. In 1998, Forbes listed Cisco as the fourth most admired company in America.
Chambers will receive an honorary doctorate of laws degree during the ceremony. Including Chambers, Wake Forest will award six honorary degrees on commencement day. The other recipients are: The Rev. Frederick Buechner, Presbyterian minister and author, doctor of humane letters; Thomas W. Lambeth, executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, doctor of laws; Dr. Claude Lenfant, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute with the National Institutes of Health, doctor of science; Helen Lewis, an authority on Appalachian life and culture in the 20th century, doctor of divinity; and A.E. Dick Howard, constitutional law scholar and the White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs with the University of Virginia School of Law, doctor of laws.
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Attention: Photos of Chambers and the honorary degree recipients are available on the News Service web site.
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