Nike Foundation's Maria Eitel and LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman Named 2012 Babson College Commencement Speakers

WELLESLEY, Mass., Feb. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Reid Hoffman, Executive Chairman of LinkedIn and partner at Greylock Partners, and Maria Eitel, President and CEO of the Nike Foundation, will serve as the Babson College 2012 graduation speakers.

Hoffman and Eitel and will speak at both the undergraduate and graduate ceremonies on May 19, 2012.  Eitel will receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at the 10:00 a.m. undergraduate ceremony, and Hoffman will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws during the Master's ceremony at 2:30 p.m.   

All graduates will receive a copy of Hoffman's new book, The Start-Up Of You, a blueprint for thriving in your job and building a career by applying the lessons of Silicon Valley's most innovative entrepreneurs.

Reid Hoffman is Executive Chairman of LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) and a Partner at Greylock.  He co-founded LinkedIn, the world's largest professional networking service, in 2003.  As of February 2012, LinkedIn has more than 150 million members in 200 countries.  Hoffman led LinkedIn through its first four years and to profitability as CEO and Chairman. 

Hoffman joined Greylock Partners in 2009.  He serves on the boards of Airbnb, Edmodo, Mozilla (Firefox), Shopkick, Swipely, and Zynga.  He has co-led investments in Coupons.com, Groupon, and Viki.  Reid also leads the Greylock Discovery fund, which invests in seed stage entrepreneurs and companies.  The Discovery fund is an extension of his prior angel investing, which included Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm, and Zynga.  Hoffman focuses on the consumer internet broadly, including marketplaces, networks, and platforms. Prior to LinkedIn and Greylock, Hoffman served as executive vice president at PayPal, where he was a founding board member.

He also believes strongly in the ability for entrepreneurship and technology to improve the world.  Hoffman serves on the boards of Kiva.org, Endeavor.org, DoSomething.org, and StartupAmericaPartnership.org.  He co-authored The Startup of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career. 

Hoffman earned a Master's degree in Philosophy from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and a Bachelor's degree with distinction in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University. In 2010 he received an SD Forum Visionary Award and was named a Henry Crown Fellow by The Aspen Institute.  In 2011, Reid was named an Endeavor Entrepreneur of the Year.

Maria Eitel is the founding President and CEO of the Nike Foundation where she works to unleash the girl effect, the powerful social and economic change brought about when girls have opportunity.  Prior to the Foundation, Ms. Eitel served as NIKE, Inc.'s first Vice President of Corporate Responsibility. Before Nike, she served at the White House, the Microsoft Corporation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and MCI Communications Corporation.  Early in her career, she was a reporter and producer in commercial and public broadcasting. She holds degrees from McGill University (BS) and Georgetown University (MSFS), and Stanford University (SEP).

Eitel serves on a variety of boards, committees and advisory councils including the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on HIV/AIDS, Millennium Promise, Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Lakeside School in Seattle, Young Presidents Organization International and the Acumen Fund. She is a regular speaker at local, national and global forums on corporate responsibility, governance, human and labor rights, sustainable development, philanthropy and social entrepreneurism.

Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds®. The College is a dynamic living and learning laboratory, where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society -- while at the same time evolving our methods and advancing our programs. We shape the leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to create economic and social value. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought and Action® as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value.  For information, visit www.babson.edu.

SOURCE Babson College