http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxf1_ocibp8

“When you graduate from this university, you can compete on the world stage with anybody, from any time and any place,” said Holliday, who was the speaker of the fall commencement ceremony, held this morning at Thompson Boling Arena.

Holliday, chair of Bank of America and former CEO of DuPont, also received an honorary doctorate in engineering during the ceremony.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxf1_ocibp8

More than 1,800 UT students received undergraduate and graduate degrees at ceremonies held Friday and today.

Holliday said the American research university is a unique invention and “the best in the world by a long piece.”

“We don’t have a copyright on it, we don’t have a patent on it but all those who have tried to copy it have not been successful,” said Holliday, who recently chaired a National Research Council committee focused on strengthening higher education’s role in global competitiveness. “In this world that you’re going into, take great confidence that you have what it takes to compete.”

He asked the group to have faith in America and its ability to restore its position as a global power.

“What we have seen in 2012 is a fundamental shift in the key mechanism for a modern society, a modern economy, and that’s energy,” Holliday said. “Due primarily to American creativity, which has found a way to tap natural gas and oil that’s been here all along, we see a route now to energy stability and independence within a couple of decades.”

He added: “I’m telling you that this country is going to lead the world again and you can put that in your notebook and just check me on that over the next couple of years.”

The alumnus urged graduates to protect their integrity and to seek careers with companies and organizations that demonstrate high ethical standards.

Holliday received his bachelor’s in industrial engineering from UT’s College of Engineering in 1970. Chancellor Cheek said UT is “incredibly proud to claim him as our own, a Tennessee Volunteer.”

“Chad Holliday is an accomplished Tennessean who is firmly committed to advancing business, industry and society as a whole,” Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek said. “We are proud to award him an honorary degree from his alma mater and the flagship institution of our state.”

A Nashville native, Holliday parlayed a college summer job at DuPont’s Old Hickory plant in Nashville into a 38-year career at DuPont.

Holliday is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is currently chair of the National Academy of Engineering.

Holliday also chairs the American Energy Innovation Council, whose mission is to re-establish America’s energy technology leadership in developing clean energy technologies.

Holliday and his wife, Ann Blair Holliday, have two sons, Chad and Scot.

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CONTACT:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)

Karen Simsen (865-974-5186, karen.simsen@tennessee.edu)

Larsen Jay, the nonprofit’s founder and executive director, wants to take the charity nationally. Through skills he’s learned at UT, he’s poised to do just that. Jay graduates today from UT’s Executive Master of Business Administration for Strategic Leadership program.

Starting next year, the Knoxville-based charity will expand to one other city—Nashville, Indianapolis or Tampa—with plans to spread to twenty target cities around the country in coming years and eventually to expand internationally.

Jay has received requests from across the country and from people in Australia and England who are interested in his work.

“The goals are simple: Do another one and prove it can be successful again,” said Jay, a former television and film producer.

Since its inception in 2008, Random Acts of Flowers has delivered flowers to almost 20,000 people. The 100 percent recycling green charity receives donated used flowers from weddings, special events, churches, funeral homes, and retailers. The flowers are pulled apart and rebuilt into professional-looking arrangements.

“We’re trying to make one person’s day better with somebody else’s garbage,” Jay said. “We’re helping create an industry that’s a receptacle for the second-hand flower market. There really isn’t an industry that deals with what to do with used flowers. But it’s often the number one question brides and funeral homes have.”

Through UT’s intensive year-long executive MBA program, Jay gained “the ability to think on a much bigger level and an enormous toolbox of practical knowledge that’s going to help build this into a national charity,” he said. “I learned skills and made connections I didn’t have before.”

The organization’s business model, he said, is simple—an endless supply of free flowers, countless numbers of people who could use a smile, and a large team of volunteers.

“We fit into one little sliver of the market that no one else touches,” Jay said.

The idea for the charity was born out of one of the darkest periods of Jay’s life. In summer 2007, a ladder collapsed from underneath him while he was fixing the roof of his workshop in North Knoxville. He landed face down on the concrete, breaking his left arm, left and right wrists, right elbow, right femur, nose, and ten facial bones.

During his time in the intensive care unit, the trauma unit, and then a rehabilitation center, he received multiple deliveries of flowers every day from friends and family around the country. When he was able to leave his room via wheelchair, he noticed many of the patients on his hospital floor had “no flowers, no plants, no visitors, and no life” in their rooms, he said.

So he and family members loaded up his wheelchair with his excess flowers and delivered them room by room.

“The reactions from the people in the rooms were unbelievable,” Jay said.

A year later, he established Random Acts of Flowers. The organization has about 300 volunteers and a number of partner hospitals, nursing homes, and hospices. The liaisons there identify people who haven’t had visitors or who are having a rough time. Deliveries are made several times every week.

The organization is supported through financial donations, fundraising events, and grants from corporations and foundations. It delivers 600 to 800 bouquets a month.

“I know virtually nothing about flowers. I’m a TV and film producer,” Jay said. “But I know about happiness and the impact a moment of kindness and compassion can have on a person.”

To learn more about Random Acts of Flowers, visit www.randomactsofflowers.org.

To learn about UT’s Executive MBA program, visit the program’s website.

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CONTACT:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)

As the years passed, he realized the experience made him want to go into hospital administration—because he knows that’s a career where he can have a positive impact.

Today, Haag takes a major step toward that goal when he receives his MBA from UT.

“I know a little about hospitals,” said Haag, of Hendersonville, Tennessee. “I was at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital for three months. I see hospitals as a place of healing.”

Haag’s tragedy occurred one Christmas Eve; he was eight years old and riding in the car with his father and two brothers. The crash killed his father and middle brother and severely injured Andrew and his oldest brother. Andrew suffered a broken lower back and major abdominal injuries, leaving him unable to walk without forearm crutches and leg braces.

Already big fans of University of Tennessee football, Haag and his brother, Eric, received phone calls after the accident from then-UT Head Football Coach Phillip Fulmer and quarterback Peyton Manning.

“I remember looking across the hall and seeing my brother’s excitement while talking on the phone,” remembers Haag. “Then my phone rang. It was Coach Fulmer and Peyton Manning. They were in Florida for the Citrus Bowl, and they called us! There are no words to describe what that means to a child at a time like that.”

Over the years, Fulmer remained in contact with the family, bringing both Haag and his brother under his wing as student equipment managers in the Vols football program. With the obvious tie to sports, Haag originally thought his path would be sports management or marketing.

“In my senior year as a marketing major, I decided that sports wasn’t the path I wanted to travel,” Haag said. “I kept thinking about my childhood experiences and realized that the hospital setting was where I could have the most impact. I wasn’t interested in the clinical side —I wanted administration—so I knew I needed to get my MBA.”

While earning his MBA, Haag has worked as a graduate assistant in the Center for Executive Education and as an administrative intern at UT Medical Center.

“Being in the hospital strengthened my commitment to the path I am on,” he says. “Whether wearing a white coat in the patient’s room or a business suit in the accounting office, caring for patients is the first priority.”

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C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

Boonstra graduates from UT’s Aerospace and Defense MBA program today.

Boonstra had earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. He joined the military while in college.

On September 11, 2001, he was based in Kentucky as U.S. Army helicopter pilot with the prestigious 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment Airborne, also known as the Night Stalkers.

He was at home when the first plane commandeered by a terrorist hit the World Trade Center.

“I told my wife, ‘This is no accident,’ and I headed out the door for the base. I knew something very foreboding was happening.”

Boonstra was walking in the door at his office when the second plane hit the Twin Towers. The elite military team around him stood silent and focused.

“We all just looked at each other and silently started preparing–boxes being packed, gear put in order,” Boonstra said. “We knew. Even in the midst of the tragedy, I felt such pride that we were ready. We didn’t know how, why, or what, but we were ready.”

The unit was deployed almost immediately. “The 160th was smaller then,” Boonstra said. “It is the only unit I know of that has been constantly deployed since 9/11.”

Boonstra’s deployments included two tours of duty in Afghanistan and thirteen tours of duty in Iraq. He was part of the Jessica Lynch rescue, providing aviation support for the ground forces that went in to get her.

There were other rescue missions for Boonstra, but the details aren’t things he can talk about.

“Rescue operations always touch something in a soldier. Being able to bring someone home to enjoy the freedoms we are fighting for is a great honor,” he said.

Boonstra retired in 2009 and now lives Tucson, Arizona He is a program manager in advanced missile systems for the Raytheon Company, which specializes in defense, homeland security, and other government markets.

“As I get increasing levels of leadership, I thought it was important to understand the business side of my industry,” he said, explaining why he opted for UT’s ADMBA program.

Boonstra said the lessons he learned in his almost twenty-five years of military service have helped him in the business world and in the classroom.

“What makes a successful business is very much like what makes a good special ops unit,” he said. “You need a high-reliability organization with processes and procedures for getting things done. But you also need leaders who can make decisions based on gut and intuition.

“In business and in the military, that intuition is based on your experiences, years of learning, pattern recognition, and the ability to think on your feet. These traits are prominent in many of my classmates. The ADMBA faculty and class of 2012 are another exceptional team of which I am proud to be a part.”

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C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

The university-wide fall commencement ceremony is set for 9:00 a.m. Saturday, December 15, at Thompson-Boling Arena. The university will honor alumnus Charles O. “Chad” Holliday, chairman of the board of Bank of America and former CEO of DuPont, with an honorary doctorate in engineering. He will be the featured speaker.

Several graduate hooding ceremonies will take place Friday across the campus. All ceremonies are being webcast.

The schedule is as follows:

Friday, December 14

College of Business full-time MBA Hooding Ceremony, 10:00 a.m., Alumni Memorial Building Cox Auditorium. Watch online.

College of Business Executive MBA Hooding Ceremony, 1:00 p.m., Alumni Memorial Building Cox Auditorium. Watch online.

Graduate Hooding Ceremony, 4:30 p.m., Thompson-Boling Arena. Watch online.

Saturday, December 15

Fall Commencement, 9:00 a.m., Thompson-Boling Arena. Watch online.

Friday’s graduate hooding ceremony and Saturday’s commencement ceremony will be shown on UTTV, the campus television channel. UTTV is channel 65 on campus and channel 194 on Comcast digital cable.

For more information, including details on parking, visit the commencement website.

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C O N T A C T :

Karen Simsen (865-974-5186, karen.simse@utk.edu)