Chicago Booth Graduation 2022

Speaker 1:

Please rise for the faculty procession.

Welcome to the Chicago Booth Graduation Ceremony of the 536th Convocation of the University of Chicago. We are delighted you could be here to celebrate with the men and women who are graduating today. Please be seated.

Madhav Rajan:

Good afternoon. I’m delighted to welcome each of you to this recognition of scholarship and celebration of personal achievement. Class of 2022, today is your day. It’s a day for celebrating accomplishment, of course, but it’s also a day to show appreciation, to reaffirm aspiration, and to reflect on the school and the unique community that embodies its values.

Madhav Rajan:

The personal achievement of each of you is predicated not only on your hard work, but also on the support of your classmates, families, friends, and colleagues. I thank you all for the sacrifices you have made to support these students. I would also like to add my thanks to the deputy deans, the faculty, and the staff for teaching and supporting another successful group of Booth graduates. A special thanks to our faculty speaker today, Amir Sufi, the Bruce Lindsay Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Public Policy, and our alumni speaker, Tom Ricketts of the Chicago Cubs and InspereX, for being here today to share their thoughts and advice.

Madhav Rajan:

Finally, I’d like to thank our graduating students. You have been exemplary members of the Booth community, both academically and socially. Your hard work during this rigorous journey and your resilience, focus, and social purpose have been impressive.

Madhav Rajan:

Chicago Booth is as dependent upon the participation of its students as it is the scholarship of our faculty. I love to brag about the excellence of both groups. But I think what ultimately sets us apart is our unique community, whose culture is based on a set of values seen in every action we take, individually and collectively.

Madhav Rajan:

At Booth, we believe that to develop and support outstanding individuals as business leaders, we must instill a firm grasp of fundamental knowledge, plus the thoughtful analysis skills to apply these concepts in the real world. Thus, our mission is twofold: to produce knowledge with enduring impact, and to influence and educate current and future leaders. Booth’s greatest asset is our world-class faculty who produce pathbreaking ideas with global impact. In the Chicago tradition, this means asking and answering important questions about how the world works so that we can understand it better and make better decisions. The development of theories to explain and predict real-world phenomena, the testing of those theories with data, including now big data or machine-intensive computational methods, as well as using those theories to make real-world decisions, are part of what makes Chicago distinctive.

Madhav Rajan:

Second, we then disseminate that knowledge so that it has impact either by delivering a superior education or by disseminating the knowledge in other ways, such as through books. You can think of Richard Thaler’s Nudge or Nick Epley’s Mindwise, plus speaking engagements, school publications, and other channels.

Madhav Rajan:

You were admitted to, and now graduate from, the best business school in the world.

Madhav Rajan:

Thank you.

Madhav Rajan:

So getting admitted to Booth and flourishing in the program—these are huge achievements, and you’re among a very, very small group of students that have had this opportunity. This should give you great confidence in your ability to succeed in whatever path you end up choosing. I encourage you to view your graduation as the beginning of the relationship. We want you to be lifelong partners with the school and with one another. You now join a community of well over 56,000 Booth alumni worldwide.

Madhav Rajan:

This community is as strong as you’re willing to make it. Those who invest in the network and give back to the school—not just financially, but also being involved in many other important ways—find that this is an immensely rewarding experience. This is not just in terms of financial success and career goals, but also by gaining friends, helping others, building a community. And the community is broader than Chicago Booth. You’re also joining a large and influential UChicago alumni network. For our part, we commit to providing you with a rich set of opportunities to continue the relationship with us and, in so doing, enrich your careers and your lives.

Madhav Rajan:

So let me conclude by congratulating all of you on an amazing accomplishment and wishing you all the best in whatever dreams you pursue, knowing that the Chicago Booth community is here to support you. Thank you.

Speaker 2:

Now it is my privilege to introduce Professor Amir Sufi, who will be offering the convocation address this afternoon. Professor Sufi, the Bruce Lindsay Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Public Policy, is also codirector of the Corporate Finance Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He serves as an associate editor for the American Economic Review and the Journal of Finance. Professor Sufi was awarded a 2017 Fischer Black Prize by the American Finance Association, given biannually to the top financial economics scholar under the age of 40. Professor Sufi’s research focuses on finance and macroeconomics. His research on household debt and the economy forms the basis of his book, coauthored with Atif Mian, House of Debt: How They (and You) Caused the Great Recession, and How We Can Prevent It from Happening Again, which was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2014. He joined the Chicago Booth faculty in 2005. Please join me in welcoming Professor Amir Sufi.

Amir Sufi:

Good afternoon. It is my immense pleasure to be here to address the graduates of the class of 2022. Let’s give them a huge round of applause.

Amir Sufi:

You know, there’s going to be a lot of applause for these graduates today, and they deserve all of it and probably a little bit more. I also want to thank the family and friends of the graduates and welcome you here. We at Booth are so happy to host you, and we hope you have a really great time this weekend.

Graduation is always super fun for me as a faculty member. I get to put on this kind of cool outfit and this cool hat. You may not realize this, but we don’t actually wear these robes when we teach. Parents often line up as we’re walking out and take pictures of us and focus on us, and it’s really unusual for us faculty members. We’re used to being treated like the nerdy kids in the front row of a class. And it’s rare that we get to be treated like movie stars on the red carpet. So we appreciate it, and thank you very much for that.

Amir Sufi:

So the topic of my lecture today is connections. My research focuses on finance and macroeconomics, and a common theme is the sometimes surprising connections that tie us together in an economy. As my research has progressed over the years, I’ve started to realize that the economy is a bit like an ecosystem—that if you see a shock or disruption in one part of the economy, it oftentimes translates into ripple effects throughout the entire economy.

Amir Sufi:

So let me give you an example: the Great Recession of 2007 and 2008. Atif Mian and I did a lot of research talking about how the severity of that recession was due to the collapse in house prices amidst very high household debt levels. It turns out that, especially some states—think California, Arizona, Nevada, Florida—they saw very big declines in house prices, and we saw sharp pullbacks in consumer spending in those states as a result.

Amir Sufi:

However, an interesting aspect of the recession is that some states almost avoided the entire decline in house prices entirely. Take, for example, the state of Tennessee. Tennessee avoided a house price decline, and politicians in that state noticed. So, for example, a senator from Tennessee objected to policies that would’ve provided relief for homeowners throughout the country that had experienced a sharp decline in house prices. The senator said, and I quote, “The assistance being proposed means Tennesseans and other Americans who acted responsibly will be paying for the consequences of the reckless housing practices in other states, like California, Florida, Nevada, and New York.” End quote. Look, I get it. My wife and I have two teenagers and a 10-year-old at home; we’re all about practicing personal responsibility in our house. But the problem with the senator’s argument is that it underestimates the importance of the connections between Tennessee and the rest of the economy.

Amir Sufi:

For example, in Tennessee, there’s a fair amount of people who actually work in auto plants, about 115,000 people as of 2007. Those workers build cars that are oftentimes being exported to other states where house prices have declined and people are pulling back on spending. So Tennessee was not isolated from the decline in demand from those states. It turns out that one out of every four Tennesseans working in the auto-plant sector lost their jobs during the recession. If you look more broadly at sectors that generally export services and goods, one out of six Tennesseans lost their jobs. So the point is, a big shock in one part of the economy quickly spreads to the rest of it. Tennessee is not an island; it is closely connected to the rest of the economy.

Amir Sufi:

Another example from our more recent research—this is with Atif Mian and Ludwig Straub—concerns the rise in household and government debt over the last 40 years. Let me start with an anecdote. I remember in 2016 walking into a department store to buy a pair of pants. When I go to check out, the sales associate says, “Oh, if you open a charge card, you can get 15 percent off the pair of pants.” I don’t know, many of you’ve probably had this experience—buying furniture, buying clothing, electronics. It’s only accelerated with the recent “buy now, pay later” credit instruments that especially our students probably know well, given that many people are going to be working in that area, and maybe some use those things as well. So a question that comes to mind is, why are these companies so eager to get you to borrow? A surprising answer that we point out in our research is that it is linked to the increasing amount of income that’s been going to the top 1 percent.

Amir Sufi:

So this is not immediately obvious. Why would there be a connection between rising debt levels and the share of income going to those at the very top of the income distribution? Well, what we show is that individuals at the top of the income distribution tend to save more of their income even in the longer run. And so as more income goes to the top 1 percent, more money floods into the financial system, trying to earn a return. This helps to explain why I now have a Bloomingdale’s charge card, even though all I wanted was a pair of pants when I walked into the store that day.

Amir Sufi:

So the broad conclusion of this research is that a substantial part of the rise in savings coming from the top 1 percent ends up in both government debt and in debt borrowed by the bottom 90 percent. We find this by doing an exercise we call “unveiling the financial system.” So, for example, suppose you buy Apple stock. Well, Apple actually has about a hundred billion dollars of cash sitting on its balance sheet as of 2019. Where does that money all go? It goes to money market funds and banks, oftentimes ending up in mortgages of Americans buying their homes. So when you buy Apple stock, you are, at least in part, financing mortgages. So the point of this exercise is just to say that to explain the rise in household debt and government debt, you can’t just look at the borrowing side of the economy. You have to think carefully about who’s actually saving.

Amir Sufi:

I find economics so interesting because new insights can be made by zooming out, focusing not on the particulars, but on the connections between the particulars. One of my hopes is that this is the experience that you graduates have had at Booth. You can focus today on the education you received, the skills you learned, and the great job that hopefully all of you got, but I also hope that you have made connections here that will last. And perhaps it is those connections that will ultimately define your experience when you think back at your time at Booth.

When I say “connections,” I mean, first and foremost, the connections that you made with your classmates. I hope that these have deepened your experience and that these connections prove to be lifelong. I also hope that you made valuable connections with faculty, staff, and other members of the university community. Finally, I hope all of you made a connection with the city of Chicago. I’ve lived here for 17 years and I really love this city, and I hope that that’s been your experience as well.

Amir Sufi:

So, let this be a day in which we celebrate not only your individual achievements but also the connections you made while you were here at Booth. And of course, let it be a day in which we celebrate the connections you have with your loving family and friends who are all here to show you your support. I wish you all the best, and congratulations again.

Starr Marcello:

At this time, I’d like to introduce the University of Chicago Booth School of Business alumni speaker, Tom Ricketts, executive chairman of the Chicago Cubs and founder, chairman of InspereX. Mr. Ricketts founded Incapital, later renamed InspereX, in 1999 and was its CEO through 2009. He was named Institutional Investor magazine’s 40 Most Influential in E-finance five times and was the 2010 E&Y Midwest Entrepreneur of the Year in financial services. In 2009, he led his family’s bid for the Chicago Cubs. In 2016, the organization won its first World Series title in 108 years, snapping the longest ... Yeah. Snapping the longest championship drought in North American major sports history.

Starr Marcello:

Among many honors, he was named the Sports Business Journal Executive of the Year in 2017. He led the family’s $1 billion private financing of the restoration of Wrigley Field and development of adjacent properties now known as Gallagher Way and the Hotel Zachary. He is chairman of Marquee Development, which is working on similar projects around other sports facilities. He has an AB in economics from UChicago and an MBA in finance from Chicago Booth. He received Booth’s Distinguished Young Alumni Award in 2005. Please join me in welcoming Tom Ricketts.

Tom Ricketts:

Thank you, Starr. Everybody always laughs at that 108-year thing, but anyway. It is pretty funny, 108 years is a long time. A lot of those years, there was only like 10 baseball teams. So, it’s a more impressive stat than you even knew. Anyway, good afternoon to everyone, and particularly to our graduates, a hearty congratulations. I know that the tools and skills that I learned at the Booth School were extremely important to me in my career. And I’m sure they’ll be extremely valuable to you in yours.

Tom Ricketts:

So, when the dean asked me to speak, the message was very simple: “Tell our students everything you learned in business, but keep it to about seven minutes.” I was like, “Wow, seven minutes. How am I going to fill seven minutes?” Fortunately, as I thought about it, I think I do have a couple business life lessons that I can pass along to you today.

Tom Ricketts:

The first one is a lesson that I learned from one of my many mistakes, and thank goodness I have been able to learn from my mistakes. You’re going to make a lot of mistakes in your career, and it’s very important you learn from them. Although I often sit around wondering how far I would’ve gotten in life if I could learn any other way. But my first ask is, you should all do something that’s meaningful to you. The most precious resource you have is your time; do not waste it on projects that don’t give you a sense of purpose.

Tom Ricketts:

Now, I’ve had basically three careers. I started as an independent market maker on Chicago Board of Options Exchange, which is like one of those old-school trading floors. We stood in a big circle and yelled prices at each other and did trades. And I got to admit, it was kind of fun, it was a great lifestyle. I was working for me. If something went well, it came to me. If I did something wrong, no one knew but me. People thought I was pretty cool because I worked for myself, and being a trader had kind of a cool thing about it. But frankly, it was all a little hollow, and I just wasn’t happy.

Tom Ricketts:

I look back on those days and realizing it wasn’t the right fit for me, I think that I had a lot of fun, but I look at them like a missed opportunity. Thankfully, I got my MBA and got engaged to my incredible wife, Cece. I decided to move with her to a new city, where she was doing her medical residency. There, I stumbled into the world of bonds and found out that I liked sales. I liked making presentations. Despite the fact that I had spent so many years working alone, or maybe because of the fact I had spent so many years working alone, I really loved being on a team. But perhaps the most important thing I learned is I realized that I really loved customers and making them happy.

Tom Ricketts:

A few years later, at the age of 33, I started my own company to underwrite and trade bonds. It was my company, but this time it was different. I worked with many people that I truly loved to leverage emerging technology, to create new financial products that gave individual investors greater access to the corporate bond markets. Wall Street firms tried to stop it, then later copied it. But in the end, we carved a relatively small but meaningful space in the capital markets world. Our products were successful and value-added.

Tom Ricketts:

It was extremely fulfilling to know that we solved a problem for thousands of financial advisers and hundreds of thousands of their investors. So, while that company was doing very, very well, I got involved in a project with a little higher profile. Of course, I know what you’re saying, “Oh, come on, Tom, what has a higher profile than making individual investors access to corporate bonds?” Right? I get ya, right?

Tom Ricketts:

Well, in 2009, I led my family’s acquisition of the Chicago Cubs. Now, believe me when I say that nothing in life can prepare you for the passion that people feel for their sports teams. And, in particular, the Cubs. Well, first of all, since you’ve all made connections to Chicago, I want to know how many people graduating today have been to Wrigley Field. Well, that’s pretty solid. That’s pretty solid. All right. Good for you.

Tom Ricketts:

Anyway, so, if you’ve been to Wrigley Field, or if you’re a regular at Wrigley Field, you know that I walk around the ballpark almost every game. I have this thing where I have baseballs printed: “June 3, Cubs versus Cardinals,” or whatever, and I hand them out to little kids in the upper deck or the bleachers. I’ve been doing that for every game for over 12 years. So I meet a lot of fans and it leads to a lot of very, very interesting discussions.

Tom Ricketts:

Now, we’ve talked about the fact that the Cubs hadn’t won for 108 years before our last World Series, and it was interesting those first few years, because perhaps the most common discussion I had at Wrigley Field involved a stranger walking up and talking about their own mortality. It kind of went like this: “Hey, Mr. Ricketts, I’m 71 years old, please win the World Series before I die.” To which I would reply, “OK, I got it. You’re 71, but tell me now, do you take care of yourself? Do you exercise? Do you eat right? How much time do you think we have on this project?”

Tom Ricketts:

So, I had many, many of those conversations. And at the time, we were also making a lot of roster changes. The team wasn’t very good, and we had to change a lot of things out, and there’d be the negative fans who would come up: “Hey, Ricketts, you’re screwing this all up.” To which I would ask that fan, “Well, answer me one question, which is your favorite championship, 1907 or 1908?” Then after a brief pause, while they thought about it, I’d say, “You get the joke here. I’m just asking you, what are you holding onto?” So we also have some people that come up a little more economically minded: “Hey, Ricketts, why is it five dollars for a Pepsi?” To which I always reply, “Why is it 20 million for a starting pitcher?”

Tom Ricketts:

And in those days, despite having very bad teams and a very negative sports media market, fans in the ballpark were generally very supportive. Honestly, those one-to-one conversations got me through those first very, very tough years. After those games, I went to sleep every night hoping and praying that I was doing everything I could to pay back their trust. I have never told anyone this, but there were nights when I couldn’t sleep, and I would try to calm my nerves by practicing the speech I would give when we won the World Series and the commissioner gave me the trophy.

Tom Ricketts:

Through the great work of so many people, a little luck, and a short rain delay, we did win the World Series after 108 years to deliver a championship in 2016 that meant so much to so many people. It really hit home for me during the parade. The parade was incredible. I was down in the clubhouse with the governor, the mayor, and the chief of police. Basically, with the parade, you get on these double-decker buses and you go from Wrigley down to Grant Park. And I said to the chief of police, “How many people are at Grant Park right now?” And he said, “Well, twice as many as the Blackhawks.” I’m like, “Well, how many did the Blackhawks have?” “Well, they had 1.5 million.” And I’m, “So you’re saying there’s three million people in Grant Park waiting for us?” “Yeah, something like that.”

Tom Ricketts:

Well, I’m not sure that’s exactly true. It was a nice day, and it was full. But if those numbers are correct, it would’ve been the largest gathering of humans in the history of the Western Hemisphere. But it was crowded all the way down. But the memory I have the most from that day is, as we were pulling out of Wrigley going down Addison Street, there was a little boy on his father’s shoulders, holding a sign that was clearly made for a departed loved one. It just said, “We did it, Grandpa.” And I’ll never forget that. I still get choked up when I think about it, honestly.

Tom Ricketts:

But had I not realized that working as a team to make others happy was my true passion, I’m not sure I would’ve been at that parade, and I’m not sure there would’ve been a parade at all. Now, not everyone here will have an opportunity to do something as high profile as that. And I don’t recommend this kind of profile for everybody. But the key is to know yourself, know what makes you tick, and do something that means something to you. If you are not doing something you love, something that gives you purpose, you will not reach your potential, and don’t waste any more of your time.

Tom Ricketts:

The other piece of advice, which I think is just as important as the first one, that I thankfully did not learn from one of my mistakes, is that for most people, the first half of your career will be defined by your accomplishments. And the second half of your career will be defined by your relationships. In the beginning of your career, it’s about accomplishments. I mean, can you do the job? Do you work hard enough? Are you willing to do what it takes to succeed? But the second half of your career will be defined by your relationships. In the end, to achieve your ultimate goals, you will need people to know you and people to trust you. That trust will largely be determined by how you treated other people in your career.

Tom Ricketts:

As you were building your career, were you good to people that you reported to? Were you good to the people you worked with? And most importantly, were you good to the people that you managed? Trust me when I say that when you mistreat a subordinate, in any context, everyone notices and everyone remembers. And if you did not treat people well, you will not create the kind of relationships that you will need to achieve your ultimate goals. Please, please believe me when I say, I know a lot of people who did not treat others well or build relationships. Their careers stalled, and they finished without the satisfaction of knowing that they reached their full potential. So, in the end, business can be very, very complicated, but I think life is relatively simple. I truly believe that if you find something you love with real purpose and you treat people well as you go along the way, you’ll be very, very, very successful. Thank you.

Speaker 4:

As we begin the presentation of graduates, may I call your attention to the award of honors listed in the program. Before the congregation of scholars, family, friends, and colleagues here assembled, the deputy deans of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business will now present to the dean the degree recipients of the master’s of business administration in the Full-Time Program, doctor of philosophy, doctor of philosophy and financial economics, in the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Starr Marcello:

Dean Rajan, these students have completed the program of professional studies prescribed by the faculty of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. The class of 2022 leaves our school stronger for their resiliency, adaptability, their overcoming of many obstacles and investing in building a truly dynamic community, despite the challenges presented over the past two years. We are confident in their ability to go forward and pursue the highest aspirations of their fields. It is with great pleasure and enormous pride that I present these leaders as recipients of the degree of master of business administration.

Speaker 3:

Let’s go.

Speaker 5:

Okechukwu Nnaeto Abana. Nicholas Peter William Adams. Akinade Aderele.

Speaker 3:

Let’s go.

Speaker 5:

Aman Agarwal. Sambhav Ahuja. Andres Aigla. Ankita Ajjampur. Amir Akleh. Tiago Azevedo de Albuquerque. Kevin Scott Allen. Talal Almudhaf. Kofi Amoako-Gyan. Christine Ngozi Anene. Deepti Anthony. Christian Antweiler. Shuta Aoki. Maame Boah Appiah-Korang. Diego Aragon. Yohei Arai. Anthony Arias. Maria Camila Aristizabal. Juan Pablo Arriaga. Yesenia Arteta Bonett. Hassan Assaad. Christopher Au. Kevin Patrick Aukee. Matheus Bachetti Vervloet. Ben Badower. Joe Bailey. William Baird. Pallavi Bamzai. Simon Baqué. Lauren Rae Barnhart. Kamila M. Barquet Stege. Gabrielle Anh Thu Bates. Mikhail Belkin. Matthew Charles Bell. Gal Ben-Chorin. Wilbur Benitez. Blake Austin Ber. Nina Berenger de Resende.

Speaker 5:

Samuel Vincent Bergström. Samson Berhane. Walter Cliff Bersani. Nicholas Robert Bessler. Nitya Bhaskar. Ariana Natalie Bhatia. Pranjal Bhatia. Anushree Bhimani. Marcos Bianchi. Andrew Bieber. Kay Bishnoi. Dariusz Mark Blachowicz. Brendan Bossidy. Douglas Alexander Bowen. Alexander Boyarsky Pratt. Ian Boyd. Paula Rodrigues Braga. Alexander Brecht. Madeline Brock. Steven Kenneth Broker. Justin Brown. James William Buchanan. Suzanna Quayle Buck. Alexandra Burton. Leila Ramachandran Bushman. Alejandro Cadena. Shelby Hardaway Cain. John Stewart Cambern. Michael Campbell. Brian Majeska Carlson. Jose Carrera. Chris Carter. Valentin André Roger Cassan. Paul Crowley Cassani II.

Speaker 5:

Matthew Castellini. Jordan Caticchio. Joana Caxaria Fontoura. Erdem Cebeci. Cristian Ceppi. Tanika Chadha. Edward McPherson Chandler. Rohit Narayan Chandran. Justin Chang. Eutiquio Chapa. Austin Chen. Emily Christelle Chen. Lifang Chen. Linlin Chen. Chitra Lekha. Stacey Chiu. Hyeong Sun Cho. Luke Cho. Jee Su Choi. Ronald Chow. Earl John Chua. Alexandra Eunjhong Chung. Jesse Norman Chupp. Erica Nicole Cid. Domingo Claro. Mia Cleary. Andrea Christine Clinton. Henrique Coelho. Spencer William Coffin. Shelley Collins. June Cong. Terence James Leroy Conklin. Juan Cooper. Robert Collins Cortes. Daniel Cortese. Cullen Cosco. Caitlin Leigh Cox. Yuchen Cui. Emily Cunningham.

Speaker 5:

Matías Cura. Elizabeth Curtis. James Vincent Damato. Ashley Christina Daniel. Jeffrey Glen Danielson. Alexander Danly. Anh Tung Dao. Arpita Das. Rohan Noel Dcruz. Kevin De la Fuente Guízar. Juliana de Paiva Batista. Rachel Elizabeth DeChiara. Aaron Demsetz. Iva Deng. Agney Sanjeev Deshpande. Gregory Arthur Despard. Dustin Dieckmann. Zach Diener. Drago Dimitrov. Madeleine Ava DiSalvo. Faizan Diwan. Scott Allan Lovquist Donald. David Jun Dong. Michael Doobin. Daniel Pedro Ramos dos Santos. Brian Richardson Drumm. Harper Haonan Du. Amrisha Dubey.

Speaker 5:

Rex Duval. James Dwyer. Jacob Ray Eder. John Lewis Emery. Joshua David Engle. Adam Joseph English. Laura Jennifer Epstein. Haotian Fang. José Fantoni Izquierdo. Allyson Dana Feitler. Lucy Reiter Ferguson. Gabriel Frassi. Elliot Vincent Ferrara. Dor Fledel. Ayobami Timothy Folaranmi. Christian Ford. Kevin Richard Fox. Casey E.K. Fullman.

Speaker 5:

Maria Gambi Romero. Parth Gandhi. Wendy Yuanhui Gao. Rachel Lauren Garber. Consuelo Beatriz Garcia-Garcia. John Patrick Garvey. Dylan Elizabeth Geary. Jorge Geldres Bacigalupo. Filippo Gesuato. Fabrizio Giovannini Filho. Manuela Gois e Silva. Sam Goldman. Agustin Gomez. Diego Enrique González Ríos. Fabian Gosselin. Brittani Alana Grabell. Martin John Grady. Forrest Graves. Joshua Graves. Leandro Grespan. María Juliana Gómez Hernández. María Grimá Algora. Maria Alejandra Guarnizo. Ma. Sharlene Guiriba. Anura Gupta. Medha Gupta. Samridh Gupta.

Speaker 5:

Salim Hafid. Ryan Hall. Nathan William Hamming. Andrew Richard Hammond. Morgan Cayce Harden. Cameron Harrigan. Amanda Jayne Harshbarger. Ivan Kurniawan Hartana. Andrew Thomas Hausmann. Brennan Anton Hawkins. Jake Hesselroth. Jessica Hickey. Maxwell Carey Hirsch. Nicholas Paul Hobbs. Ryan Mathias Hoerger. Benjamin Holloway. Xinyin Hu. Shaoyu Huang. Daniel Thomas Huizinga. Sam Hunter.

Speaker 5:

Erin Elizabeth Ibarra. Shazia Ijaz. Katarzyna Imielska. Yuki Ishida. Kevin Virender Jain. A.J Jaiyeola. Ishaan Jalan. Grace Jaroscak. Dhiyanan Jayamohan. Joshua Lee Jelesky. Ceara Jemison. Eric Ji. Zhendong Jin. Tori Jones. Aditya Joshi. Anne Mary Joy. Jennifer Ladi Juma. Luka Kachukhashvili. Courtney Cavanaugh Kameros. Kathy Kang. Bhavana Venkataram Karnik. Sneha Kasuganti. Devon Alexandra Katch. Christine Kausal. Yoshia Kawamura. Amira Kay Khatib. Nathan Kile Kibby. Dayton Killian. Jeffrey Ira Killion. Tad Kin. Morrie Kim. Matthew Aaron Klein. Kyle Koch. Jordan Kohn. Julia Kong. Joseph Steven Koomar. Natalie Cantrell Koonce. Anthony James Kosinski. Amala Krishnan. Gokul Krishnan. Eric Reid Krolczyk. Prachi Kulkarni. Eric Rudolph de Mello Kuusisto. Megan Kwan.

Speaker 5:

Chandler Lally. Jason Ryan Lally. Mayara de Almeida Landucci. Enoch E. Lau. Justine Brooke Laufer. Jacob Noel Lazebnik. Aldo Lazzaroni. Alec Morris Leavitt. Evan James Lee. Olivia Gabrielle Lee. Stephanie Lee. Daniel Lehner. Nathan Aaron Levy. Victor de Oliveira Petrus Levy. Lee Danjing Li. Fred Li. Jennifer Mei-Ching Li. Marissa Mengzhu Li. Tingqian (Alex) Li. Xinyu Rebecca Li. Eva Yun Li. Alexandre Lin. Amanda Ting Lin. Andrea Linares. Eric Liu. Catherine Liu. Yingqi Liu. Loris Llazani. Orianne Lobjois. Maxwell Arling Longi. Jessica Loo. Anna Kronauer Look. Felipe Lopez. James Lovejoy. Amber Alyssa Lowey. John Lu. Blake Patrick Lueders.

Speaker 5:

Miguel Meza. Charles Madarikan. Yashu Madhavan. Charles Magiera. Aditya Subramaniam Mahadevan. Srishti Maheshwari. Brandon Maiello. Samantha Hailey Malone. Nathan Daniel Mamuyac. Priyanka Suresh Mangtani. Audrey Manicor. Joseph Charles Manzinger III. Megan Rose Marchuk. Eden Marcus. William Andres Marin. Oscar Marquez. Erin Martell. Nekane Martínez Belausteguigoitia. Jarell Teron Mason. Francisco Matte Izquierdo. Patrick Pitman Mays. Kyle Johnston McDonald. John Michael McEnaney. Ryan Thomas McGinnity. Tessie McGough. Nicolette McMorrow Westhauser. Peter Kimball McNally. Christopher Charles Nguyen Meggs. Brandon James Meier. Manuel Menendez Malpica. Ana Maria Meneses. Fandi Meng. Chap Michie. Alfred Miller. Rikki Danielle Miner. Sanjibita Mishra. Sabrina K. Mittal. Andrea Mollica. Bill Momanyi. Patrick Monaghan. Andres Agustin Mondino. Mathias Manuel Mondino. Antonio Montero Perez. Charles Richard Montgomery. Manuela Montoya Arismendi. Martin Montoya-Olsson. Noel Konrad Moore. Silvia Carrara de Moraes. Cooper Morrison. Arjun Motta. Nhlanganiso Ishmael Moyo. Nisha Mulay. Matthew Reed Mulkey. Robert Joseph Murphy. Sean Charles Murphy. Jacob Nathaniel Myron.

Speaker 5:

Rashmi Naik. Vidya Nandapurkar. Vaishnavi Narayanan. Seamus Naughton. Thao Phuong Nguyen. Jorge Nicolin Martinez. Nicholas James Noglows. Nicholas Novarro. Matthew Weiner Novich. Christopher Robert Iloba Nwaka. Adrian O’Connell. John Hull O’Connor. Kristen Anne Odland. Claire Elise O’Donnell. Tolulope John Ogunrewo. Elizabeth Jane O’Loughlin. Fade Oluokun. Seun Omotunde. Esosa Omozuyi. Gal Ordo. Mark Hyun-Lee Otto. Gonzalo Oyanedel Vial. Rayna Ashni Palsule. Tony Pan. Manya Mullick.

Speaker 5:

Dhruv Parikh. Hardik Parikh. Brett Parket. Carlos Patiño. Tyler Patrick. Divya Peddi. Nicholas Edward Pellicciaro. Michael Jones Pelts. Benjamin Eric Perelman. Rodolfo Gabriel Perez. Stephen Rufino Perez. Robert Alexander Perry. Ismael Peruzzo Zamoner. Alex Peterson. Ryan Michael Peterson. Aavni Piparsania. Julia Leah Plottel. Connor Prater-Burgess. Clara Margaret Purk.

Speaker 5:

Donna Ann Quinlan. Ben Caleb Rachman. Varun Rajagopalan. Manasvini Rajaram. Shravni Ramkumar. Adam Recker. Stephanie Regimbal. Abid Rehman. Lucas Camara. Michael Valentin Riva. Regina Rivero Perkins. Jacob William Roberts. Maxwell Lawrence Roberts. Siofra Szeli Robinson. John David Roche. Samuel Lee Rodman. Rodrigo Rodríguez Martínez. Joseph Rogers. Erica Romero. Roberto Carlos Rosas. Jake Rosenfield. Emily Hollis Rowe. Laura Sofi Rudman. Austin David Russell.

Speaker 5:

Nisha Saboo. Mariana Saborío. Chloe Saddler. Itka Safir. Vivek Saini. Majd Mahmoud Saoud. Kathleen C. Schaaf. Grace Mitchell Schlesinger. Victoria Lee Schneider. Jacob Ryan Scholl. Elijah Mark Schussler. Lucas Cameron Schwalbe. Mitchell Scott Schwinkendorf. Benjamin Sandom Seiden. Marina Seki Hellmeister. Lihi Shadmi. Jonathan Helmers Shaham. Dallin McKinley Shaner. Ankit Sharma. Sannidhi Sharma. Yatharth Sharma. Andrew Benjamin Shein. Matt Shieh. Roy Thomas Shillock. Meaghan Elizabeth Shimota. Akshata Shirahatti. Aishwarya Singh. Tanvi Sinha. Alexander Sir. Sivaranjani Sivamohan. Hansel Chalid Sjukur. Morolake Oluwafunmilayo Sodipe. Magnus Lien Solberg. Kiran Sonty. Samuel Liam Spar. Srividvatha Sridhar. Sashank Srinivasan. Matthew Michael Staab. Madeleine Clair Stanich. John William Starcevich. Julia Starr. Virginia Ward Stattman. Margaret Clare Stonerock. Randell Norman Strowbridge. Erika Sulecki. Mark Sun. Anisha M. Suterwala. William Reese Swanson. Christopher Robert Swarbrick.

Speaker 5:

Janice Hoi Yee Tam. Qin Tang. Collin Avery Taylor. Kira Rose Tebbe. Michael Steven Tenerelli. Kevin Louis Terhar. Krishan Thakkar. Corey Mitchell Theiss. Shiqi Toh. Shi-Wei Toh. Rachel Beck Tranel. Amanda Lauren Traub. Christopher Turner. Seth James Udelson. Anthony Francis Ulloa. Jahnvi Vaidya. Hannah Van Demark. Blake Edward Van Patten. Dan Vandeveer. Rahul Varshney. Iliana Vazuka. Nikita Veera. Uma Veerappan. Hernan Nicolas Veitman. Alejandro Vélez Mejía. Vikram Venkat. Andrew Joseph Ventrelle. Molly Joy Verghese.

Speaker 5:

Anna Versen. Alexander Stewart Vichinsky. Benjamin Eastman Vidal. Gonzalo Vidal. Enrico Del Carratore Vieira. Jennifer Rose Vihon. James Wilbourn Vise. William Andrew Vorbrich. Thomas Lester Voutsos. Dulany Wagner. Jonathan Harris Waitzer. Chanel Alexis Walker. Jessie Wang. Sean Robert Wareham. Alexandra Maria Wassink. Bryan John Waterhouse. Michael Jia Wei. Maximilien Weiss. Victoria Lily Wen. Stacy Yi-Xin Weng. Joseph Francis Whalen. Ryan Michael Wilkinson. Roni Willett. Caleb Jonathan Williams.

Speaker 5:

Darren Marquis Williams. Taylor Britt Williams. Creighton Wilson. Kendra Ruth Witkewicz. Hunter Dennis Dickson Witmer. MacKenzie Charlotte Witmer. Catherine Woeste. Austin Woldmoe. Yann Wollman. Helen Wu. Jacqueline Jean Wulfsohn. Ke Xiao. Sean Xin. Jing Xu. Ellen Xue. Jiamin Yan. Jay Yarlagadda. Sarvani Lakshmi Yellayi. Jaqueline Yen Sanches. Jiyoung Yoon. Connor Chadwick Young. Robert Harold Young III. Amy Ge Yu. ManYee Yu. Walter Yu. Zhou Zang. Sebastian Zegarra. Melanie Zelenka. Katherine Zhang. Qianhui Zhang.

Speaker 5:

Weiye Zhang. Xi (Diana) Zhang. Yahan Zhang. Yiran Zhang. Jade Zhang. Cathy Zhao. Nikki Zhao. Shibo Zhong. Lilly Zhu. Huibing Zhuang. William Robert Ziesing. Jessica Veronique Olofsson. Eduardo Dominguez Cantu. Maria Romano. Rodrigo Zozaya. Guillermo Menendez Kirn. Julian Balderrama. Ghilad Davide Holzer. Alexandru Chivescu. Isabel Rodriguez Garcia. Pablo Zaldivar. Moshe Kult Perry. Raul Colas Beltran. Robert Austin Yates. William Bradley Dillon. Jiangtao Sun. Weinan Yuan. Jane Boo. Junting John Meng. Begoña Iriso. Javier Scaglia. Ruoda Yuan.

Speaker 6:

Dean Rajan, the students I now present have attained scholarly distinction in advanced studies and have prepared dissertation that contributes to knowledge in a particular field of research. On behalf of the faculty of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, I have the honor to present them as recipients of the degree of doctor of philosophy. We welcome them into our community of scholars and look forward to their future contributions to the field.

Speaker 5:

Vera Chau.

Speaker 6:

Vera is being hooded by Professor Sufi.

Speaker 5:

Carter Kent Davis.

Speaker 6:

Carter is being hooded by Professor Pastor.

Speaker 5:

Russell Charles Hannigan III.

Speaker 6:

Russell is being hooded by Professor Ata.

Speaker 5:

Wenxi Li.

Speaker 6:

Wenxi is being hooded by Professor Chintagunta.

Speaker 5:

Zhonglin Li.

Speaker 6:

Zhonglin is being hooded by Professor Syverson.

Speaker 5:

Kelly Posenau.

Speaker 6:

Kelly is being hooded by Professor Kashyap.

Speaker 5:

Annabelle Roberts.

Speaker 6:

Annabelle is being hooded by Professor Fishbach.

Speaker 5:

Andrés Shahidinejad.

Speaker 6:

Andrés is being hooded by Professor Notowidigdo.

Speaker 5:

Gurpal Singh Sran.

Speaker 6:

Gurpal is being hooded by Professor Christensen.

Speaker 5:

Uyen Tran.

Speaker 6:

Uyen is being hooded by Professor Hitsch.

Speaker 5:

Lauren Vollon.

Speaker 6:

Lauren is being hooded by Professor Christensen.

Speaker 5:

Blair Vorsatz.

Speaker 6:

Blair is being hooded by Professor Pastor.

Speaker 6:

The students I now present have attained scholarly distinction in advanced studies and have prepared a dissertation which contributes to knowledge in the field of financial economics. On behalf of the faculty of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the faculty of the Division of the Social Sciences, I have the honor to present the recipients of the degree of doctor of philosophy in financial economics.

Speaker 5:

Ehsan Azarmsa.

Speaker 6:

Ehsan is being hooded by Professor Koijen.

Speaker 5:

James Alexander Traina.

Speaker 6:

James is being hooded by Professor Hurst.

Speaker 5:

Please rise for our alma mater.

 

(singing)

Madhav Rajan:

Please be seated. This now concludes the formal Chicago Booth Diploma and Hooding Ceremony of the 536th Convocation of the University of Chicago. I thank you for attending today’s ceremony, and on behalf of the faculty and staff of the university and Chicago Booth, I want to extend best wishes to all graduates and their family and friends.

Madhav Rajan:

And now to close, will our newest graduates please rise? Congratulations, you’re all now graduates of Chicago Booth. And because of your achievements that we celebrate today with your family and friends, each of you will always be connected to the University of Chicago—a connection that I hope you and we will foster for many years. Thank you.

Speaker 1:

Please rise for the faculty procession.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Chicago Booth Graduation Ceremony of the 536th Convocation of the University of Chicago. We’re delighted you could be here to celebrate the achievements of the students here today. Please be seated.

Madhav Rajan:

Good afternoon. I’m delighted to welcome each of you to this recognition of scholarship and celebration of personal achievement. Class of 2022, today is your day.

Madhav Rajan:

It’s a day for celebrating accomplishments, of course, but it’s also a day to show appreciation, to reaffirm aspirations, and to reflect on the school and its unique community that embodies its values. The personal achievement of our students is predicated not only on all the hard work that you’ve put in, but also on the support of your classmates, families, friends, and colleagues. I thank you all for the sacrifices you have made to support these students. I’d like to add my thanks to the deputy deans, to the faculty, and the staff for teaching and supporting another incredible group of Booth graduates.

Madhav Rajan:

Special thanks to our faculty speaker, Kevin Murphy, the George Stigler Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, and our alumni speaker, Jennifer Scanlon of UL, for being here today to share their thoughts and advice. Finally, I’d like to thank all of you, our graduating students. You have been incredible members of the Booth community, both academically and socially. Your hard work during this rigorous journey and your resilience, your focus, and social purpose have been impressive. Chicago Booth is as dependent on the participation of our students as it is on the scholarship of our faculty. I love to brag about the excellence of both of these groups, but I think ultimately what sets us apart is our unique community, whose culture is based on a set of values seen in every action we take, individually and collectively.

Madhav Rajan:

At Booth, we believe that to develop and support outstanding individuals as business leaders, we must instill a firm grasp of fundamental knowledge, plus the thoughtful analysis skills to apply these concepts in the real world. Thus, our mission is twofold: to produce knowledge with enduring impact, and to influence and educate current and future leaders. Booth’s greatest asset is our world-class faculty who produce pathbreaking ideas with global impact. In the Chicago tradition, this means asking and answering important questions about how the world works so that we can understand it better and make better decisions. The development of theories to explain and predict real-world phenomena, the testing of those theories with data, including, nowadays, big data or machine-intensive computational methods, as well as the use of those theories to make real world decisions—these are part of what makes Chicago distinctive.

Madhav Rajan:

Second, we disseminate that knowledge so that it has impact. First, by delivering a superior education to all of you, and by disseminating the knowledge in many other ways, such as through books—such as Amir Sufi’s House of Debt, Richard Thaler’s Nudge, or Nick Epley’s Mindwise—plus speaking engagements, scholarly publications, and many other channels. You were admitted to, and now graduate from, the best business school in the world.

Madhav Rajan:

Just getting into Booth, let alone flourishing in the program, is a huge achievement, and you’re among a very small group that has had this opportunity. This should give you great confidence in your ability to succeed in whatever path you end up choosing. I encourage you to view today, your graduation, as the beginning of a relationship with the school. We want you to be lifelong partners with the school and with one another. You now join a community of well over 56,000 Booth alumni worldwide. This community is as strong as you are willing to make it. Those who invest in the network and give back to the school—not just financially, but also through being involved in many other important ways—find that it’s an immensely rewarding experience. This is not just in terms of financial success or career goals, but also by gaining friends, helping others, and building a community. And the community is broader than even Chicago Booth. You’re also joining a large and influential UChicago alumni network.

Madhav Rajan:

For our part, we commit to providing you with a rich set of opportunities to continue the relationship with us, and in so doing, enrich your careers and your lives. So let me conclude by congratulating all of you on an amazing accomplishment and wishing you all the best in whatever dreams you pursue, knowing that the Chicago Booth community is here to support you. Thank you.

Speaker 2:

Now, it is my privilege to introduce Professor Kevin Murphy, who will be offering the convocation address this afternoon. Professor Murphy, the George J. Stigler Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, is the first professor at a business school to be chosen as a MacArthur Fellow. He also is a faculty research associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research. He primarily conducts empirical analyses of inequality, unemployment, and relative wages, as well as the economics of growth and development and the economic value of improvements in health and longevity.

Speaker 2:

In 2007, he and fellow Booth professor Robert Topel won the Kenneth J. Arrow Award for the best research paper in health economics, for “The Value of Health and Longevity,” published in the Journal of Political Economy. The award is given annually by the International Health Economics Association. A fellow of the Econometrics Society and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Professor Murphy was a John Bates Clark Medalist in 1997. He has received fellowships from the Earhart Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, and the Friedman Fund. He earned a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago and joined the Booth faculty in 1984. Please join me in welcoming Professor Kevin Murphy.

Kevin Murphy:

Welcome, family, friends, and colleagues, as graduates. I’m honored here to have been selected to give the faculty talk at this year’s graduation. The last two times I spoke at Convocation, I talked about a principle I called thinking inside the box. It is my opinion that you hear far too much about thinking outside the box and not nearly enough about thinking inside the box. The basic thesis of thinking inside the box was that box exists for a reason. The things that are in the box are in there for a reason. Ideas that are in the box are there because people have found them useful. One should not forget that.

Kevin Murphy:

The flip side is that most of the things outside the box are bad ideas. In most cases, that’s why they’re outside the box. If you want to learn more about the economics of thinking inside the box, I refer you to my 2012 Convocation speech. I will not repeat it here. Today, I will talk more about the box itself. Roughly speaking, the box is the collection of broadly accepted ideas, practices, and knowledge. Some of these are formal collections of knowledge, such as the discipline-based knowledge taught at Booth. Discipline-based knowledge is Booth’s specialty and defines the Booth brand. Booth’s specialization is reflective of the geography of box in a modern society. Booth is a small place in a big box. There are no wise men in a modern society. In a modern society, no one knows everything that is known. The box is simply too big.

Kevin Murphy:

In the aggregate, we have built an enormous box full of great, and some maybe not so great but useful ideas through the process of specialization. Specialization reflects the fact that each of us only masters a small part of the box. Like most things, specialization is both a blessing and a curse. With specialization in trade, all can benefit from the broad collection of knowledge contained in the box. Each individual firm or organization develops expertise at the activities they will perform and provides goods and services that people want based on that expertise. Each entity’s economic and social rewards reflects that expertise and not their deficiencies at other activities. In a modern economy, they’re rewarded based on how good they are at what they do, even if they could not earn a dime doing something else.

Kevin Murphy:

The fact that specialization is an essential feature of the box has many important implications. First, because you are specialized, you will come across others with different, sometimes very different, specializations. Those people will have other skills from other parts of the box. Some of those individuals will have advanced degrees, and some will not. But don’t take the presence or absence of a degree as a signal of the importance of what they know. Some of the most important knowledge is held by those without such degrees. Even for individuals with formal degrees, much of their valuable knowledge is in what they learned outside of school. Please remember that when you assert your authority based on your Booth MBA degree. Having that training gives you an advantage, but does not give you a dominant set of skills—more so, different skills.

Kevin Murphy:

The key to success is typically combining what you know with what others know. This requires communicating and working with others that are familiar with other parts of the box. In many cases, that is not easy. The process of specialization means that you will have a different set of experiences and reference points than others. For example, when you talk to the person who’s going to repair your car, from your perspective, that person is one of the many people who you rely on to fix your mechanical problems. From that person’s perspective, you are one of many customers they encounter. Some of those customers know a lot about electronic and mechanical systems; some barely know the gas pedal from the brake.

Kevin Murphy:

In such encounters, something that seems odd to you might seem obvious to them and vice versa. Remember, they see a different part of the box. If you want an entertaining example of this kind of clash of specialization, watch Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon Video. The key here is to remember what you don’t know. In today’s jumbo-size box, that is just about everything. It is also important to understand by which the process by which the box is created and maintained. To understand this aspect of the box, one needs to understand the concepts of stocks and flows. Knowledge is a stock. It is the accumulated wisdom from past research, evaluation, and expertise. The stock is built through a combination of exploration, testing, and natural selection. Things that work stay in the box; things that don’t, get discarded. Adding new things to the box is hard. Remember, the world outside the box is filled with bad ideas, but finding the good ones is important because once valuable insights have been vetted and added to the box, they are added to the stock of knowledge, where they can be used again and again.

Kevin Murphy:

In contrast, research, experimentation, and innovation are flows. They represent potential additions to and refinements of the stock of knowledge. Given the nature of the world outside the box, such flows must be consumed with caution and skepticism. In many ways, the flows themselves are toxic in their raw form and should not be consumed until they have been vetted and refined.

Kevin Murphy:

If you came to Booth hoping to learn the greatest cutting-edge ideas, I think you came here for the wrong reason. Based on my experience, the results in the latest working paper or findings of the latest research trend are likely misguided, wrong, or at least poorly understood. Some are great, but it will take time to figure that out. That does not mean we should stop such activities. Quite the opposite. Without these flows, the sides of the box could not be expanded, and existing things in the box could not be improved or discarded. The most valuable thing Booth can provide you is a perspective on our part of the box. Our part of the stock of knowledge.

Kevin Murphy:

As researchers, we are excited by the flows. They represent the key input into our efforts to produce context for the box. As customers of a research and teaching enterprise, you should focus more on what is already in the box.

Kevin Murphy:

Keep all this in mind when you pick up your next copy of Chicago Booth Review. What you read there is a mix of knowledge and research. The research part is a flow that might represent the latest great idea, or yet another intellectual dead end. Those new ideas are stimulating and potentially useful, but don’t go to the bank with them. This is particularly true for the most sensational new results that challenge conventional wisdom. They are selected because they potentially break new ground and correct our past mistakes, potentially adding substantial value to what is in the box. For that same reason, they are likely wrong, which is, as I detailed in my prior talks, a condition required for equilibrium in the market for ideas. Time and experience will help sort those things out.

Kevin Murphy:

The geography of the box has other important implications for how we build and maintain the box. First and foremost, we need to be humble. Most ideas will be bad. Many seem obviously so. Those presenting those ideas should recognize those ideas are likely to be wrong or need adjustment, particularly on dimensions they don’t see or understand based on their part of the box. Those evaluating those ideas need to recognize those same ideas might be good, even though they might look downright silly from their perspective. Remember, it is a big box. Those evaluating ideas can and should point out why they think those new ideas are right or wrong, but preventing such new ideas from being expressed or tried is very dangerous and should be avoided. Remember, we only see a small part of the box.

Kevin Murphy:

An analogy might help here. New restaurants are on average worse than the ones we have, but it would be silly to prevent people from trying new restaurants or new restaurants from opening on the grounds that customers are likely to be disappointed, even though they will. The bad restaurants will close down, and the good ones will expand and grow. This is the essence of competition and helps turn a not-so-good, even toxic flow into a highly useful stock.

Kevin Murphy:

In my opinion, competition is the essential element in this process. Economics provides two critical reasons for this focus on competition. First, competition provides a mechanism for turning a flow of mostly bad ideas into a valuable stock of knowledge even when nobody sees the entire box. Second, efforts to suppress competition are likely to be particularly pernicious. As you’ve seen with COVID-19, natural selection is a powerful force. Viruses don’t plan their evolutionary path, but natural selection makes them difficult opponents. Many, if not most, mutations are worse in terms of survival than the status quo, but those mutations die off and mutations more effective at survival take over. The competitive process, working in the case of our box, is somewhat less random but works in much the same way, if allowed to operate.

Kevin Murphy:

This has important implications for how we should approach the competitive process. Finding universal truths is important, but we need to be careful how we identify and manage such common truths. In particular, the danger of declaring a problem solved, when in fact it is not, likely exceeds the cost of continuing to challenge our well-accepted truth. There is nothing wrong with common or universal knowledge. Indeed, such knowledge is a gold standard for what belongs in the box. But not all paths to universal acceptance are created equal. For knowledge to be truly universal or common, an idea or principle must represent the commonality of individual views, not the individual acceptance of common views. Truly common ideas are built and supported from the bottom up. That ensures that you’re checked against the wide range of things in the box, not just one small part of the box. To warrant common acceptance, an idea must be able to maintain that acceptance by winning acceptance over all alternatives, including those from outside their neighborhood. To maintain such a process, even views that have been soundly rejected, or seem unpopular, need to have the opportunity for a hearing, lest we refuse to believe that we could wrong.

Kevin Murphy:

The geography of box and the process of competition also have important implications for the use of experts and expertise. Given the size of the box, specific expertise is generally an input, not a solution. That is true of would-be gurus like Anthony Fauci or lowly economists like me. Sound policy decisions rarely depend on one area of expertise alone. Specialized experts can find important input to help solve problems, but experts generally do not have complete answers. They, like everyone else, can simply see two little of the box. To me, this is a significant challenge. We want people to take advantage of experts and their expertise, but there’s significant danger in mandating that they do so. Even if short-run outcomes could be improved by mandating adherence to expert advice, it is unlikely to be wise in the longer run. It is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish ex ante the truly bad ideas we are overriding from those that only look bad when viewed from our little part of the box. Remember our restaurant example. Mandating compliance will eliminate both the good ideas that only look silly along with those that truly are. Even when someone can say for sure an idea is wrongheaded, they need to be cautious. Their means of preventing the implementation of a wrongheaded idea are likely to stifle other ideas that don’t even know exist.

Kevin Murphy:

Remember the size of a box. How you group actions and ideas will not be the same as others do. Your prohibition on green bananas could be seen as a prohibition on bananas or a prohibition on all things green, depending on how others view the world. Neither prohibition would be good.

Kevin Murphy:

Finally and most critically, if we give those in charge the right to decide what other ideas can challenge existing ideas, those in charge will undoubtedly have bad incentives. Those with weak ideas will have the greatest incentive to protect them, and those in charge of the status quo will have the perverse incentive to challenge the most threatening alternatives. Freedom of thought, expression, and action are essential elements of managing the box. The bottom line here is to be humble and recognize that you don’t know everything.

Kevin Murphy:

This brings me to my final point. As graduates of Booth, you have the privilege of graduating from the University of Chicago, an institution that is the leading champion of free expression and rigorous debate. These principles are stated in the Kalven Report and the Chicago Principles on Free Expression. If you have not read them, you should. These principles provide a framework for free expression and debate. Under the Kalven principles, the university does not take a position on social and political issues. The choice of position is left to the individual faculty and student. This prevents the pernicious censorship of ideas I warned about above. The culture of rigorous debate fostered at Chicago allows competition to work to sort out these competing ideas.

Kevin Murphy:

To be faithful stewards of the box, we must strike a balance: teaching the enormous value of the ideas contained in the box while at the same time, recognizing that the strength of those ideas depends on competition. To make this effective, competition must be based on the merit of the ideas, on not simply who can shout the loudest or most effectively intimidate their challengers. Doing so requires the humility to admit what we don’t know while using our expertise to help evaluate new ideas and hone the existing ones. In that way, competition will maintain, expand, and protect the box. I hope you take that with you as part of what you learned here at Booth. Thank you, and congratulations.

Starr Marcello:

At this time, I’d like to introduce the University of Chicago Booth School of Business alumni speaker, Jennifer F. Scanlon. Ms. Scanlon is president and chief executive officer of UL, what she calls her favorite job because it draws upon her training at Booth using math, technology, science, and engineering to solve today’s business problems. Her commitment to these STEM capabilities has shaped her approach to advancing UL’s leadership in driving confidence and trust in the next generation of innovation.

Starr Marcello:

Prior to becoming CEO of UL in September of 2019, she served as president and CEO of USG Corporation, a manufacturer of innovative building products. In her 16 years at USG, she also served as chief information officer and head of corporate strategy. She led the company through a major international expansion, transformed the role of technology in driving operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, and invested in research to develop sustainable building materials. Ms. Scanlon began her career at IBM. Her experience informs her leadership in building new offerings, opening new markets, and creating the next generation of solutions at UL. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame with dual degrees in government and computer applications and earned an MBA in finance and marketing from Chicago Booth. She received Booth’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2020. Please join me in welcoming Jennifer Scanlon.

Jennifer Scanlon:

Thank you, Starr, for your kind introduction, and graduates, congratulations. It feels like yesterday that I was in your seats, but it was a while ago. And when I graduated, one of the things I looked forward to was getting back to culture. I still think about the play The Odyssey, which was brilliantly staged in the late ’90s by Mary Zimmerman at the Goodman Theatre. And like Homer, who wrote The Odyssey, I want to talk about an epic journey—the epic journey that you’ve just begun. You’re the lead character. Some days you’ll play the hero; other times, you will be the reluctant protagonist. You’re going to win allies, you’re going to gain supporters, and you are going to face rivals. Some days you will enjoy smooth sailing; other days you will weather the storms. Some chapters are going to have an unexpected plot twist, and other plot twists will be your fault. Setbacks are temporary hurdles, and impediments can result in unexpected victories.

Jennifer Scanlon:

So an epic journey is the story of a hero such as Odysseus, who goes through a variety of challenging experiences that reveal his qualities and his importance over time. Now you think getting through Booth was challenging? Just you wait. There are elements of my epic journey that Starr described that may be relevant to you. I did begin my career at IBM, and there, early days, one of the vice presidents told me that someday I could run the place; that is, I was identified as a high-potential leader. Now I learned at Booth to run the math. Given that IBM had 400,000 employees, and I believe that probably 5 percent of those employees were being told what I was told, that’s 20,000 high-potential employees we were talking about. As the dean referred to, it’s a big box. But let me say, it lit a spark.

Jennifer Scanlon:

Now, while I was at IBM, there were a lot of clouds appearing on our horizon. Bill Gates called us dinosaurs. Our stock price, which was about $160 when I joined, sank to $40 a share. We downsized from 400,000 employees to 250,000. And IBM’s board, for the first time in their history, went outside of the company to recruit a CEO, Lou Gerstner, who I believe saved the company. Yet much to my father’s dismay, I left. I departed a tech giant, a Fortune 50 company, an iconic brand, and I joined a 40-person boutique consulting firm—owned by a woman, no less.

Jennifer Scanlon:

Now the question was, had I taken the wrong tack? The rest of my class from Booth, they were sailing off to beautiful weather, Silicon Valley, excitement and rich rewards. But what I realized in retrospect is no, I was on the right path and everything that I learned at Booth came in handy.

Jennifer Scanlon:

Now, when you’re in a small firm, there is no hiding when your credibility and your firm’s reputation are on the line every day, and my consulting journey unfolded through a number of stops. First, there was a recession that ultimately led to the bankruptcy of my largest client, an insurance behemoth. Then my small firm was acquired. Then the Y2K frenzy, which is probably about the time some of you were born, it threatened the stability of old technology. The dot-com revolution came along and the tech bubble, and that challenged our business model because of the hype around new technology: what was real, what wasn’t. Then, tragically, 9/11—a day where two of my colleagues and thousands of others perished. It took the wind out of all of our sails.

Jennifer Scanlon:

Now, as I look back, none of those events were predictable. None of those events could have been changed because of my actions. But from all of those events, I learned to control what I can control, and that is an important mantra as each of you enter business and stay on course. Control what you can control.

Jennifer Scanlon:

Now, 20 years ago I took control and decided to pursue a new path in manufacturing. One of my clients, USG, hired me. Now, I loved that USG had invented Sheetrock and owned the brand. And I was fascinated that Warren Buffett was one of our shareholders. And manufacturing’s exciting. It’s very different from consulting, but what is more exciting than walking into a plant and actually seeing something tangible being made? I took a job that no one wanted, implementing an ERP system across our North American network, and it was great. I was out in the field, I was meeting customers, I was talking to plant managers, and we were sailing along so well. We had a precise implementation plan. And suddenly, the winds changed. We found a mistake. We had underestimated network security requirements, and that put our entire project in jeopardy.

Jennifer Scanlon:

Guess what? This plot twist, it was my fault. This mistake was my team’s estimate. I owned an $80 million problem, and I needed to control it. Like Odysseus, I thought that this lightning strike was going to be the end of me. And I appeared before the assembly—in that case, our board of directors—to explain our options, and the board agreed to support me and make a larger investment. I collected my wits and I guided my team to complete that project on time and on budget. One of the ways that helped me was I had a mentor who proved to be an invaluable ally. He helped me sharpen and deepen my skills, and that’s another piece of advice to you: seek allies who you can trust and who will make you better.

Jennifer Scanlon:

A few years later, I was promoted to CIO and the housing bubble burst. So being the leading manufacturer of building products was no good in 2008. Then the financial crisis hit and we, as a corporation, had to borrow $300 million in convertible debt from Warren Buffett to keep the lights on. Cash is king in a crisis. Anything that isn’t strictly essential stops. And in that type of environment, being CIO and wanting to innovate and grow is not exciting. So I raised my hand and I asked our leaders, how could I help the company in other ways? They gave me the additional role of corporate strategy, and that was demanding, but what a gift, because it put me in front of our board of directors and our senior executives. And as the recession waned, it put me in the position to be offered president of our international division.

Jennifer Scanlon:

Now, let me tell you, there were a lot of people who thought I would not take the role of president of international because I had two young daughters. Another piece of advice to you: don’t ever assume what your team will do for you. Always ask them, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. International was a sleepy underperformer, and I traveled the world, 200,000 miles a year. I did so to make our company truly global; partnerships across the Middle East, India, and Asia. And we pulled together a very strategic joint venture—$1.6 billion of investment across Asia, Australia, and the Middle East—and I was named the first chairman.

Jennifer Scanlon:

Then I went on to become president of our distribution business. And remember, we’d had a cash crunch, and I was tasked with turning around the business and divesting it to bring about the cash to get us out of the debt situation we were in and back to investment grade.

Jennifer Scanlon:

My journey then took a great twist when I was named CEO and we were finally positioned to focus on growth and innovation. But around the bend, and I knew they were there, lurked creatures like Charybdis and Scylla … activists. I see you in that audience. I know who you’re going to be. Let me tell you, a year later our number-two shareholder approached us as an activist with an unsolicited hostile takeover bid, and that ship tossed and turned hourly. Nonstop phone calls with attorneys, investment bankers, shareholders, frequent meetings with the board. And the fight became public. Our largest shareholder criticized us on Squawk Box. Let me tell you, that was a plot twist I didn’t expect at 5:30 that morning. But ultimately, I succeeded in negotiating a higher purchase price than our largest shareholder had publicly stated he would accept, an extra 5 percent benefit to all shareholders reflecting our intrinsic value.

Jennifer Scanlon:

But boom, at that point, my career really did feel like it was over. My 16-year reign, like a thunderbolt from Zeus, at USG ended. And I had to decide, was my journey finished? Was this the end? Did I sit back and retire, or did I write a new chapter? I decided I had another round in me, at least another round, so in 2019 I became CEO of UL, and it is the global safety science leader and it is really, I think, the coolest job I could have possibly gotten. As Starr described, it’s math, it’s science, it’s technology, and we aspire to be our customers’ most trusted science-based safety, security, and sustainability partner in testing new products and keeping products safe on the market. Our future is especially relevant today, given the product safety challenges presented by the electrification of everything.

Jennifer Scanlon:

It’s a long and winding journey that each of you have ahead of you, and I want to remind you and conclude, remind you to seek allies in that journey. I have a great ally. My husband and I celebrated 30 years of marriage this week, right after I graduated from Booth. He was by my side every step of the way. And let me tell you, neither one of us could have had the careers that we’ve had if we’d tried to do it alone, so thank you to him. I want you to look around and remember that you didn’t get here alone and you’re not going to go through your journey alone. So look at your audience of support. Look at your family, your friends; these are your allies. They’re part of your success, and they are part of your future journey. So acknowledge and thank them. Embrace your journey; have that sense of curiosity. I love the idea of being in the box. Use the data. If there’s one thing that Booth taught us all, it’s use that data. Make the most of the fair winds that blow. Fight through those storms, and make your journey an epic one. Congratulations.

Starr Marcello:

As we begin the presentation of graduates, may I call your attention to the Award of Honors listed in the Convocation program. Before the congregation of scholars, family, friends, and colleagues here assembled, Deputy Dean Kroszner and I will now present to the dean the degree recipients of the master of business administration in the Evening, Weekend, and Executive MBA Programs in the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Randall Kroszner:

Dean Rajan, these students, these amazing students, have completed the program of professional studies prescribed by the faculty of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. This amazing class, the class of 2022, leaves our school stronger for the resilience and adaptability, overcoming obstacles, investing in building dynamic community despite the challenges presented by the pandemic. We’re confident in their ability to go forward and pursue the highest aspirations in their field. It is with great pleasure and enormous pride that I present these leaders as recipients of the degree of master of business administration.

Speaker 5:

Mark Angelo Cabaña Acosta.

Speaker 5:

Michael Joseph Adamo.

Speaker 5:

Colin Laney Adams.

Speaker 5:

Kweku Adams.

Speaker 5:

Aleena Jagat Agrawal.

Speaker 5:

Seungjun Ahn.

Speaker 5:

Oluwaseyi Ayodeji Akinwale.

Speaker 5:

Ghassan Alabdulgader.

Speaker 5:

Brenna Elizabeth Albert.

Speaker 5:

Josh Alexander.

Speaker 5:

Talha Ali.

Speaker 5:

Namig Amiraslanov.

Speaker 5:

Paul Ayodeji Amund.

Speaker 5:

Paul John Anderson.

Speaker 5:

Nana Yaw Appah-Sampong.

Speaker 5:

Enrique Arana Bachelis.

Speaker 5:

Koldo Aranguren Alberdi.

Speaker 5:

Reza Ardiyanto.

Speaker 5:

Antonio Arenas Torres.

Speaker 5:

Gabriela Arismendi.

Speaker 5:

Paul Jesuseun Awosoga.

Speaker 5:

Bruno Balod dos Santos.

Speaker 5:

Jasmine Zetelmo Barksdale.

Speaker 5:

Tom Bass.

Speaker 5:

Gustavo Bastos de Souza.

Speaker 5:

Charles Michael Bauer.

Speaker 5:

Seema Bedi.

Speaker 5:

Paul Benjamin.

Speaker 5:

Brittney Rose Bennett.

Speaker 5:

Joseph Arie Bernstein.

Speaker 5:

Gandhi Bhakthavachalam.

Speaker 5:

Sowmyatta Bhardwaj.

Speaker 5:

Arman Bhuiyan.

Speaker 5:

Julie Marie Bhusal Sharma.

Speaker 5:

Manjul Bhusal Sharma.

Speaker 5:

John Laurance Birney.

Speaker 5:

James Bittl.

Speaker 5:

James Francis Blackburn.

Speaker 5:

Carly Ann Bloom.

Speaker 5:

Charles Donald Bognanno.

Speaker 5:

John Miller Bonner.

Speaker 5:

Joseph Boucher.

Speaker 5:

Nathan Thomas Bradley.

Speaker 5:

Ross Conover Brinkman.

Speaker 5:

Matthew Alexander Broullire.

Speaker 5:

David Anthony Brown.

Speaker 5:

Michael Joseph Budzinski.

Speaker 5:

Zachary Thomas Burghardt.

Speaker 5:

Jordan Burke.

Speaker 5:

Ferran Cabratosa Vidal.

Speaker 5:

Joshua Cantone.

Speaker 5:

Ryan Carlino.

Speaker 5:

Jessica Carravallah.

Speaker 5:

Artemio Colin Cervantes III.

Speaker 5:

Jung Han Andrew Cha.

Speaker 5:

Kenneth Chung Yin Chan.

Speaker 5:

Roberto Chan.

Speaker 5:

Tsz Man Zoe Chan.

Speaker 5:

Meeka Charles.

Speaker 5:

Amartya Chatterjee.

Speaker 5:

Stephen Chen.

Speaker 5:

Matthew Po-Hsi Cheng.

Speaker 5:

Anurag Choudhary.

Speaker 5:

Jacquelyn Michelle Christensen.

Speaker 5:

Muk Wah Chu.

Speaker 5:

Kenneth Anthony Cid.

Speaker 5:

Samuel David Claassens.

Speaker 5:

Jennifer Marie Close.

Speaker 5:

Nicholas Royce Conant.

Speaker 5:

William R. Condon.

Speaker 5:

Jamaine Antonio Cook.

Speaker 5:

Robert George Cooper.

Speaker 5:

Sean James Cushing.

Speaker 5:

Khris Dai.

Speaker 5:

Kari Danek.

Speaker 5:

Manu Dattan.

Speaker 5:

Kartik Dave.

Speaker 5:

Alessio Stephan De Falcis.

Speaker 5:

Rachel Anne Dembo.

Speaker 5:

Leslie Therese DeMoss.

Speaker 5:

Julia Des Chenes.

Speaker 5:

Shruti Desai.

Speaker 5:

Thomas Neil Devane.

Speaker 5:

Zee Dhanani.

Speaker 5:

Michael Diarra.

Speaker 5:

Adriana Marie Diaz.

Speaker 5:

Jing Ding.

Speaker 5:

Yassine Dinia.

Speaker 5:

Michael Pope DiViesti.

Speaker 5:

Katherine Antonia Dold.

Speaker 5:

Tyler Donofrio.

Speaker 5:

Mairose Sherif Doss.

Speaker 5:

Joshua Joseph Drake.

Speaker 5:

Ravi Prakash Dronamraju.

Speaker 5:

Erica Ann Duncan.

Speaker 5:

Anusha Dwivedula.

Speaker 5:

Benjamin David Dymit.

Speaker 5:

Andrew David Edwards.

Speaker 5:

Oluwademilade Egbeyemi.

Speaker 5:

David Elkin.

Speaker 5:

Matthew Thomas Elsener.

Speaker 5:

John Weldon Emerson.

Speaker 5:

Sarah Elizabeth Erxleben.

Speaker 5:

David Falk.

Speaker 5:

Joseph R. Faller.

Speaker 5:

Shayan Farooq.

Speaker 5:

Temitope Fehintola.

Speaker 5:

Matthew Anthony Feider.

Speaker 5:

Courtney Feller.

Speaker 5:

Bernardo Fiaux.

Speaker 5:

Trillia Fidei-Bagwell.

Speaker 5:

Eric Michael Fink.

Speaker 5:

Lillian McAteer Foy.

Speaker 5:

Alex From.

Speaker 5:

Shusuke Fujita.

Speaker 5:

Timothy Furlong.

Speaker 5:

Cathleen Joan Benitez Gabriel.

Speaker 5:

Mayuresh Gandhi.

Speaker 5:

Ramasubramanian Ganesan.

Speaker 5:

Eduardo Garcia Balderas.

Speaker 5:

Shikha Garg.

Speaker 5:

Justin Garrett.

Speaker 5:

Ryan Matthew Gately.

Speaker 5:

Christopher George.

Speaker 5:

Derek Ryan George.

Speaker 5:

Vimal Roy George.

Speaker 5:

Hiteshree Gera.

Speaker 5:

Shamekha Mannaf Ghani.

Speaker 5:

Helen Kaitlyn Glass.

Speaker 5:

Elanda Goduni.

Speaker 5:

Jonathan David Goetz.

Speaker 5:

Sujith Gopinath.

Speaker 5:

Jasmyne Mary Gorrell.

Speaker 5:

Christian Gradlmuller.

Speaker 5:

Brian Grasso.

Speaker 5:

Shun Guan.

Speaker 5:

Meghan Elizabeth Guilfoile.

Speaker 5:

Sarah Elizabeth Gulezian.

Speaker 5:

Li Guo.

Speaker 5:

Ashish Gupta.

Speaker 5:

Neha Gupta.

Speaker 5:

Jaime Gabriel Gutierrez.

Speaker 5:

Mohammad Noah Haji.

Speaker 5:

Sanaa Hakim.

Speaker 5:

William Gosiger Haley.

Speaker 5:

Carson Blake Hallmark.

Speaker 5:

Yixiang Han.

Speaker 5:

Brigid Hanley.

Speaker 5:

Michael Hare.

Speaker 5:

Pierce Everett Harger.

Speaker 5:

Siddharth Harikrishna Mohan.

Speaker 5:

Ross Haynes.

Speaker 5:

Gary Mark Hill.

Speaker 5:

Ryan Hoff.

Speaker 5:

Cassandra Christa Horton.

Speaker 5:

Yu-Tien (Julia) Hsu.

Speaker 5:

Yihao Hu.

Speaker 5:

Richard Huang.

Speaker 5:

Zhongyang Marcus Huang.

Speaker 5:

Brian Anthony Hubick.

Speaker 5:

Kevin Alexander Hudson-Phillips.

Speaker 5:

Hubert Tolison Humphrey.

Speaker 5:

Syed Umair Hussain.

Speaker 5:

Hannah Jean Hussey.

Speaker 5:

Lily Jihee Hwang.

Speaker 5:

George Yudistira Irawan.

Speaker 5:

Anthony Ivy.

Speaker 5:

Ilyas Izotov.

Speaker 5:

Eleanor Norton Jacobs.

Speaker 5:

Spencer Jacque.

Speaker 5:

Ishan Jaithwa.

Speaker 5:

Michael Matthew Jakubczak.

Speaker 5:

Aarthee Janardhanadass.

Speaker 5:

Jeffrey Jensen.

Speaker 5:

Emily Claire Jester.

Speaker 5:

Nan Jiang.

Speaker 5:

Jonathan Joaquin Jimenez.

Speaker 5:

Dante Jin.

Speaker 5:

Erin Christensen Johanson.

Speaker 5:

Nicole Yonit Joison.

Speaker 5:

John David Jose.

Speaker 5:

Rohan Jyoti.

Speaker 5:

Ernest Stanley Kabuye.

Speaker 5:

Andrew Allen Kadavy.

Speaker 5:

Krishna Kadiyala.

Speaker 5:

Andrew Kam.

Speaker 5:

Jacob Gregory Kaminski.

Speaker 5:

Chandrakant Kanoria.

Speaker 5:

Adrian Kao.

Speaker 5:

Chandni Karania.

Speaker 5:

Kerdia Kargou.

Speaker 5:

Aarthee Subramaniam Karthikeyan.

Speaker 5:

Olaoluwa M. Kassim.

Speaker 5:

Benny Kay.

Speaker 5:

Timothy Kellen.

Speaker 5:

Patrick Allen Kenney.

Speaker 5:

Divya Kesharwani.

Speaker 5:

Dhruv Khade.

Speaker 5:

Omar Khan.

Speaker 5:

Daniel Edward Kocoj.

Speaker 5:

Monika Kocyk.

Speaker 5:

Christine Angela Koval.

Speaker 5:

Tomasz Kowalczuk.

Speaker 5:

Katie Krall.

Speaker 5:

Veronica Kriesemint.

Speaker 5:

Mahesh Krishnamoorthy.

Speaker 5:

Bryttie Sharie Kurtenbach.

Speaker 5:

Othmane Laghzaouni.

Speaker 5:

Arjun Lagisetty.

Speaker 5:

David John LaMore.

Speaker 5:

Martin Yuen An Lavoo.

Speaker 5:

Gangyong Lee.

Speaker 5:

Youngjoo Lee.

Speaker 5:

Oi Kin Leung.

Speaker 5:

Benjamin Adam Levinsky.

Speaker 5:

Fei Li.

Speaker 5:

Dane Lindholm.

Speaker 5:

Xinran Lilly Liu.

Speaker 5:

Sean Liu.

Speaker 5:

Zhiyu (Linda) Liu.

Speaker 5:

Aseem Lodha.

Speaker 5:

Guilherme Lopes Gama.

Speaker 5:

Valeria Alexandra Lopez.

Speaker 5:

Kyle Lucas.

Speaker 5:

Erik Lund.

Speaker 5:

Ajay Madiah.

Speaker 5:

Christopher Shane Madison.

Speaker 5:

Temitope Mafe.

Speaker 5:

Geoffrey Maites.

Speaker 5:

Sina Malekian.

Speaker 5:

Nickolas Francis Martin.

Speaker 5:

Ali Abdullah Masood.

Speaker 5:

Michelle Marie McCloskey.

Speaker 5:

Kasey Thomas McCurdy.

Speaker 5:

Kelly Ann McDarby.

Speaker 5:

Caitlin Bamford McIsaac.

Speaker 5:

Kelly McKay-Lumbreras.

Speaker 5:

Jared Thomas McKeon.

Speaker 5:

Mary McKinney Flaherty.

Speaker 5:

Parag M. Mehta.

Speaker 5:

Terry Zhe Ming.

Speaker 5:

Shadmn Mahmud Minir.

Speaker 5:

Ryszard Bernard Miodoński.

Speaker 5:

Lipika Mittal.

Speaker 5:

Shuhua Mo.

Speaker 5:

Laura Nicole Morris.

Speaker 5:

Michael Robert Morris.

Speaker 5:

Mikhail Morro.

Speaker 5:

Zofia Anna Mroz.

Speaker 5:

Stephen J. Murray.

Speaker 5:

Fadzai Priscilla Musoni.

Speaker 5:

Jessica Lee Myers.

Speaker 5:

Kranthi Narahari.

Speaker 5:

Abdullah Nasim.

Speaker 5:

Clifford Michael Nellis.

Speaker 5:

Ellie Trang Ngo.

Speaker 5:

Anh Duong Nguyen.

Speaker 5:

Vanessa Nguyen.

Speaker 5:

Eric Alexander Nicholson.

Speaker 5:

Allison Nie.

Speaker 5:

Jonathan Thomas Norton III.

Speaker 5:

Chibuzor Andy Nathan Nwaelele.

Speaker 5:

Watchen Nyanue.

Speaker 5:

Eddie Obissi.

Speaker 5:

Adewunmi Adetutu Odusanya.

Speaker 5:

John Olen.

Speaker 5:

Juan Hiram Orozco Juarez.

Speaker 5:

Brendan Patrick O’Shaughnessy.

Speaker 5:

John Andrew Otterman.

Speaker 5:

James Sebastian Pallikal. Nicolas Palma Ruiz. Kang Pan. Ritesh Panwar. Spoorthy Papudesi. Raju Paulose. Nathan David Paulsen. Jeffrey Pawola. Benjamin David Payner. John Pedersen. Kelsey Anne Pepmeier. Zachary Peschke. Sanjeet Shirish Phatak. Tiana Pidgeon. John Peter Planek. Macray Wendell Poidomani. Mena Poonaki. Lalu Prasad. Nino Predota. Jason Quiara. Hadley Arlin Quish. Sarmad Musa Qutub.

Speaker 5:

Neela Sridhar Radhakrishnan. Anthony Raimondo. Nitin Ramachandra. Venkat Ramachandran. Dinesh Ramamurthy. Prakash Ramani. Jacob Ramsey. Chinmay Bhupendra Raval. Shivani Raval. Arvind Ravi. Chayan Ray. Pratik Ray. Vasilisa K. Reist. Spencer Owen Reynolds. Tasleem Rhemu. Tucker James Rhodes. Nicholas J. Ribeiro. Robert James Ridlen. Lauren Risetter. Jason Scott Douglas Roberts. Benjamin Lloyd Rosenbaum. Emmanuelle Anne Rousseau.

Speaker 5:

Carmel Saldana. Keith D. Salette, Jr. Daniel Adam Salzman. Chirag Ishwarlal Sancheti. Lauren Schirripa. Whitney Bennett Schmucker. Ted Raymond Schnittgen Jr. Taylor James Schuster. Hannah L. Seoh. Arya Pradana Setiadharma. Ishaan Shandil. Richard Joseph Shannon IV. Danielle Rose Sharfman. Anoop Kumar Sharma. Charu Sharma. Neeraj Sharma. Nina Sanjay Shirole. Sarah Shu. Talha Fahim Siddiqui. Harpreet Singh. Cori Sloan. Daniel Jacob Slutsky. Charles D. Smith. Hayden William Smith. James So. Mohamed Cherif Sow. Arvind Sripada. Jacob Stangl. Josh Staske. John Edward Stephenson. Teddy Stuebi. Mark Aaron Sumlin. Timothy James Summers. Wei Sun. Jordan Sund. Michael Surtees. Faye Suter. Kirke Weston Suter. Shoichiro Suzuki. Conor Botham Sweeney. Montana Sweet. Aiman Syed Jaafar. András Szabó.

Speaker 5:

Katherine Tang. Brett Dylan Taylor. Andrew Michael Tinari. Neethu Urs. Neha Vadalia. Nicholas Adam Vasdekas. Shafali Veeramallu. Sriram Venkatachalam. Marc David Vernick. Nicholas Robert Vertin. André Vidal Alves. Nicole Ashley Villarreal. Marilisa Vitali. Jonny Vu. Victor Vun. Ravi Gul Wadhwani. Justin Tyme Walker. Kaiyi Wang. Wan Wang. Zongxing Wang. Robert Michael Ward. Maia Kiera Warner. Natasha Weatherby. Dan Wechter. David Weidman. John Christian Weinheimer. Patrick Humes Weitzel. Thomas d’Arcy White. Barrett Connor Wiencek. Robert Matthew Wiener. Anthony Frederick Woodside Jr. Scott Christian Wright. Rebecca Lee Wulfsohn.

Speaker 5:

Huayang Xie. Malia Krystine Xie. Qi Xu. Peter Wei Yang. Yalin Yang. Nicholas Andres Yepes. Hung Kit Yuen. Stephan Zajac. Buster Zalkind. Christopher John Zawisza. Andrew Mark Zeilbeck. Alexander Zelasko. Moran Zhang. Chuyang Zheng. Jiachen Zhou. Kanglun Zhou. Jianxi Zhu. Jordan Zola. Nikolaos Tsikas. Nikhilesh Tadiparthi. Dennis Jia Hsu. Camille Helene McCutcheon. Bing Wang. Khyati Shah. Pedro Arruda. Bhargava Chanumolu. Hannah Clare Rees. Junior Solis. Joshua Alan Buttenhoff. Hangyi Zhao.

Madhav Rajan:

It’s not over yet. Sit down.

Speaker 7:

Please stay standing for our alma mater. (singing)

Madhav Rajan:

Please be seated. This now concludes the formal Chicago Booth Diploma and Hooding Ceremony of the 536th Convocation of the University of Chicago. I want to thank you all for attending today’s ceremony. And on behalf of the faculty and staff of the university and Chicago Booth, I extend best wishes to all graduates and their family and friends. Now to close, will our newest graduates please rise.

Madhav Rajan:

Congratulations, you’re all now graduates of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. And because of your achievements that we celebrate today with your family and friends, each of you will always be connected to the university—a connection that I hope you and we will foster for many years. Congratulations, and thank you.