Seaver College to Celebrate 2016 Commencement Ceremony

The Pepperdine University Seaver College 2016 commencement ceremony will take place at Alumni Park on the Malibu campus on Saturday, April 30, at 10:30 AM.

Michael K. Powell, a former chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will deliver the commencement address and receive the University’s highest honor, an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

Powell’s FCC nomination came from president Bill Clinton in 1997, and he was designated as FCC chair by president George W. Bush in 2001. As chair, Powell led initiatives to open up markets in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Wi-Fi, and Broadband over Power Lines (BPL). He advocated for the updating of media ownership rules to reflect new communications technologies, such as the Internet—a move that critics considered as increasing widespread media consolidation. In 2005 he campaigned for the National Do Not Call Registry.

In 2011 Powell became president and CEO of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), one of the largest corporate lobbies in Washington, D.C., to represent the telecommunications industry. Prior to working for the NCTA, he served for two years as cochair of Broadband for America, a coalition that consists of over 300 companies united in their commitment to expanding the discussion of Broadband for America.

Powell currently serves on a number of nonprofit boards, including Mayo Clinic, Aspen Institute, and America’s Promise, where he serves as the cochair of Grad Nation, an effort to end the high school dropout crisis in the United States.