Weather Channel CEO Goes Back to School
Thirty years ago this week, Weather Company chairman and CEO David Kenny graduated from the General Motors Institute in Flint, Mich. On Sunday, he returned to the school, since renamed Kettering University, to give the commencement address.
On graduation day, “if I’d had any idea that I’d be back up here now, I assure you, I would have paid much closer attention,” he quipped. “Instead, I was counting the minutes until I would be in the White Horse Tavern.”
Jokes aside, Kenny—the first in his family to go to college—told the class of 2014 that he believes they are the generation that will apply math and science to the three biggest challenges our humanity has ever faced: mastering climate change, providing great healthcare to the largest human population to have ever inhabited the earth and the challenge of transporting twice as many people and goods as when he graduated. His advice to grads is to both court uncertainty and conquer uncertainty. You can watch the speech above.
During the ceremony, Kettering presented Kenny with an honorary Doctor of Management degree.