WASHINGTON, PA (May 11, 2017) – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author George Anders will give the keynote speech at Washington & Jefferson College’s (W&J) 2018 Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, May 19 at 10 a.m. in the James David Ross Family Recreation Center. Internationally renowned peace builder Mary Montague will speak at the College’s Baccalaureate Service on May 18.
Anders is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of five business books, including the New York Times bestseller Perfect Enough, and his latest, You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a Useless Liberal Arts Degree.
He began his career at The Wall Street Journal, where he worked as a senior special writer and bureau chief for more than two decades. In the 1980s, he was part of the founding team of The Wall Street Journal Europe. In the mid-1990s, he chronicled America’s struggles over health care, sharing a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1997. Subsequently, he refocused his attention on the rise of Internet technology, with all the excitement and apprehensions that have ensued.
Currently, Anders is an editor at large at LinkedIn, where he writes about college-to-career topics and the future of work. He also has served as a contributing writer at Forbes magazine, a founding member of the board of editors at Bloomberg View, and the Silicon Valley bureau chief of Fast Company magazine. His first book, Merchants of Debt, is a detailed account of the leveraged-buyout mania of the 1980s. BusinessWeek designated it as one of the top eight business books of the year when it first appeared in 1992. More recent books have focused on health care, the career of former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, and the best ways of spotting unexpected talent.
In 1978, Mr. Anders earned a B.A. in economics from Stanford University, where he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. A champion of the liberal arts, his W&J Commencement speech, “Becoming Your Own Mentor,” will encourage new graduates to draw on the strengths they acquired during their time at W&J and recognize that even with limited experience, they are more powerful than they realize.
Montague, who has worked extensively with W&J’s Conflict & Resolution Studies program, will give a Baccalaureate speech entitled “Love and Belonging.”
A native of Northern Ireland, Montague has spent decades promoting peace both at home and abroad. She specializes in bringing opposing parties together and encouraging them to take part in inter-community peace talks. She acted as a mediator in the Northern Ireland conflict and made a significant contribution to reconciling the communities, and has mediated in other areas of crisis throughout the world, including: Kosovo, the Balkans, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, the Middle East, Asia, and Northern Africa. Montague co-founded the non-profit organization TIDES Training & Consultancy to give ex-combatant groups and security leaders a chance to recover from the trauma they endured during the Northern Ireland conflict by letting them discuss and share their experiences.
About Washington & Jefferson College
Washington & Jefferson College, located in Washington, Pa., is a selective liberal arts college founded in 1781. Committed to providing each of its students with the highest-quality undergraduate education available, W&J offers a traditional arts and sciences curriculum emphasizing interdisciplinary study and independent study work. For more information about W&J, visit washjeff.dev, or call 888-W-AND-JAY.
