Gov. Jon S. Corzine scheduled to address Stevens’ graduating seniors, May 22, 2008

HOBOKEN , N.J. — New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine is scheduled to address Stevens Institute of Technology’s Undergraduate Commencement ceremony, Thursday, May 22, 2008, beginning at 10:30 a.m. one of Stevens’ largest graduating classes ever will also hear from Dr.Curtis R. Carlson, president and CEO of SRI International. Both the governor and Dr. Carlson will receive Doctor of Engineering degrees, Honoris Causa. The graduate ceremony, beginning at 4:30 p.m., will be addressed by Verizon Telecom President Virginia P. Ruesterholz, who is a Stevens alumna and Board of Trustees member. She will also receive an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree.

As in previous years, plans call for the use of a professional outdoor stage and seating areas installed on the 8th Street parking complex, at 8th Street and Castle Point Terrace, Hoboken.

(Note to reporters and photographers: Media attending must contact Patrick A. Berzinski [see below] for press parking – no exceptions. Satellite-feed trucks will not be allowed on campus.)

This year approximately 370 undergraduates and 950 graduate students will march.

The outdoor venue can accommodate more than 3,500 people. Those attending commencement can expect an attractive, well-designed setting that respects tradition but includes some technology flourishes such as live video from the stage displayed on a large screen, according to commencement planners.

“We are extremely pleased that Governor Jon Corzine is scheduled to address our seniors,” said Stevens’ President Hal Raveche. “His words will provide our graduating class with wisdom and memories that they will carry forward into the worlds of industry, research and post-graduate education, and draw upon for years to come. We know the same will be true of the words delivered by Curtis R. Carlson, a global leader in high-technology business.”

As in past years, the undergraduate and graduate ceremonies will be held separately. The undergraduate ceremony begins at 10:30 a.m., and the graduate at 4:30 p.m.

Undergraduate ceremony – 10:30 a.m.

Two honorary degree recipients are scheduled to speak:

Governor Jon S. Corzine graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1969 and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. He remained in the reserves until 1975, rising to the rank of sergeant in his infantry unit.

After his active duty in the Marine Corps, he began his career in finance, working as a portfolio analyst at the Continental Illinois National Bank in Chicago. He enrolled in the graduate business school of the University of Chicago in 1970, first attending classes at night. He received his MBA in 1973, and went to work at Bank Ohio, a regional bank in Columbus, Ohio.

In 1975, Goldman Sachs, the New York investment firm, recruited Corzine, and he and his family moved to New Jersey. He was named a partner at Goldman Sachs in 1980, and became chairman and chief executive officer in 1994. He left Goldman Sachs in May 1999 after successfully converting the investment firm from a private partnership to a public company.

During Governor Corzine’s leadership at Goldman Sachs, the business magazine Fortune named Goldman Sachs one of the 10 best companies to work for in America. The governor was named by Time magazine as one of the top 50 technology executives in the country in 1997.

As the chief executive officer at Goldman Sachs, Governor Corzine expanded the company's community outreach and philanthropic programs, establishing a company-wide service program in which employees volunteer on a regular basis in their communities. Also in 1997, Governor Corzine was the chairman of a presidential commission to study capital budgeting as a means of increasing federal investment in schools, technology, and infrastructure.

Corzine was elected to the United States Senate in November 2000. During his time in the Senate, he focused on serving the state of New Jersey, applying his financial expertise to major economic and regulatory issues, and pushing a forward-looking, progressive agenda.

As Senator he sought new federal investments in New Jersey’s transportation network, pursued new safeguards to protect chemical facilities against terrorist attack, introduced legislation to improve access to education and healthcare, fought for stronger environmental policies, and led the effort in Congress to crack down on corporate abuse.

In a major victory, the Senate adopted Governor Corzine’s resolution declaring the need for new safeguards at the nation’s vulnerable chemical plants. He also secured federal funding toward the construction of a second railroad tunnel underneath the Hudson River, long sought by New Jersey’s congressional delegation, and won federal support for a wide variety of community and economic development projects throughout the state of New Jersey.

In 2005, Corzine announced his candidacy for the governorship of New Jersey, promising to bring the same business practices and integrity that helped him run Goldman Sachs to state government. He built his campaign around his comprehensive ethics proposal, revamping the state’s property tax system, building a stronger economy, and improving education and healthcare. Jon S. Corzine was sworn in as New Jersey’s 54th Governor on January 17, 2006.

Dr. Curtis R. Carlson became president and CEO of SRI International in December 1998. Previously, he spent more than 20 years with Sarnoff Corporation, a wholly owned SRI subsidiary.

In 1973, Carlson joined RCA Laboratories, which became part of SRI in 1987 as Sarnoff Corporation. As head of Ventures and Licensing at Sarnoff, he helped found more than 12 new companies. He started and helped lead the high-definition television (HDTV) program that became the U.S. standard and in 1997 won an Emmy ® Award for outstanding technical achievement for Sarnoff. Another team started and led by Carlson won an Emmy for Sarnoff in 2000 for a system that measures broadcast image quality. In 2007, Carlson was named chairman of Sarnoff's Board of Directors.

He has been on numerous public and private boards, including Nuance Communications (computer speech recognition), Pyramid Vision (computer vision), Sensar (iris biometric identification), and Sarif (LCD displays). He is a member of General Motors’ Science and Technology Advisory Board, and serves as co-chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Singapore National Research Foundation.

In 2007, Carlson was given the Medal of Excellence Award for Alumni Lifetime Achievement by Rutgers University's School of Engineering. Also in 2007, he was given the Herbert F. Taylor Alumni Award for Distinguished Service by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). In 2006, he won the Otto Schade Prize for Display Performance and Image Quality from the Society for Information Display with Dr. Roger Cohen. In 2002, he received the Dr. Robert H. Goddard Award from WPI for his professional achievements. Carlson was a visiting distinguished scientist at the University of Washington in 1998. He is a Kobe ambassador for SRI’s contributions to Kobe, Japan.

Carlson has served on many government task forces, including the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory Technical Assessment Board, and the Defense Science Board task force on bio-chemical defense. He was a member of the original team that helped create the Army's Federated Laboratories. He was a founding member of the National Information Display Laboratory (NIDL) at Sarnoff, a new model for government-industry technology development and commercialization, which grew into the National Technology Alliance.

Carlson has published or presented more than 50 technical publications and holds fundamental patents in the fields of image quality, image coding, and computer vision. He has written a book with William Wilmot called Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want, published in 2006 by Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House. Innovation describes how SRI’s unique process for innovation can be applied to all types of commercial and nonprofit enterprises, including the government.

Carlson received his Bachelor of Science degree in physics from WPI and was named in Who’s Who Among Students. His Master of Science degree and doctoral degree in atmospheric physics are from Rutgers University. In 2006, he received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from WPI.

The Class of 2008 features not one but three students graduating with perfect 4.0 grade-point averages: Anthony Najem, Totowa, N.J., graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering degree with High Honors from the Chemical Engineering program in The Schaefer School of Engineering and Science; Kresti Pecani, Staten Island, N.Y., graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree with High Honors from the Chemical Biology program in The Schaefer School; and Amanda Rogers, Mahopac, N.Y., graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering degree with High Honors from the Chemical Engineering program, The Schaefer School.

All three students have the option of addressing their peers during the Commencement ceremony.

Graduate ceremony – 4:30 p.m.

The Stevens Graduate Commencement ceremony will witness the awarding of master’s and doctoral degrees to some 950 students.

Addressing the graduate class is a graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology’s program in Chemical Engineering, Virginia P. Ruesterholz.

From her professional beginnings as a manager at New York Telephone, Virginia Ruesterholz has risen through the ranks to become the President of Verizon Telecom – a $32 billion business that provides communications services to consumers and small businesses.

She is also responsible for transforming Verizon from a “telephone company” into the country’s premier broadband and entertainment provider, thanks to their innovative FiOS Internet and TV services. FiOS provides residential and small-business customers with advanced and innovative broadband and entertainment services that have earned the company numerous citations and awards, including being named #4 on the BusinessWeek 50.

Previously, Ruesterholz was president of Verizon Partner Solutions, responsible for Verizon's wholesale business, including marketing, sales, provisioning and maintenance.

In 1993, she was named NYNEX market area vice president and general manager for service delivery and field operations supporting consumer and business customers. After the Bell Atlantic/NYNEX merger, Ruesterholz was named vice president - Complex Installation and Maintenance for Network Services and, later, vice president - Operations Assurance. After the Bell Atlantic/GTE merger, Ruesterholz was named senior vice president of Wholesale Markets and led efforts for approval to enter the long-distance market.

In addition to her bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Stevens, she holds a Master of Science degree in Telecommunications from Polytechnic University. She is also a recipient of the prestigious “40 Under 40” award from Crain’s New York Business and was the first recipient of the “Rising Star Award” from the New York Women’s Agenda.

Ruesterholz, along with her husband, Kevin Ruesterholz ‘83, is a past co-chair of Stevens’ Edwin A. Stevens Society.

Ruesterholz was named a Trustee of Stevens Institute of Technology in April 2007.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,040 undergraduate and 3,085 graduate students, and a worldwide online enrollment of 2,250, with a full-time tenured/tenure-track faculty of 140 and more than 200 full-time special faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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