Council President Speaks at Michigan State University Commencement

EAST LANSING, Mich.—Michigan State University’s candidates for advanced and undergraduate degrees will hear from speakers who are pioneers and visionary leaders in television, the arts, and regional development and global competition at the fall commencement ceremonies in December.

The three speakers are:

• Kay Koplovitz, founder of USA Network, television’s first advertiser-supported basic cable network, and the first woman network president in television history. She is the creator of the Sci Fi Channel and USA Networks International.
• Deborah L. Wince-Smith, president of the Council on Competitiveness, the only national organization bringing together chief executive officers, university presidents and labor leaders to promote U.S. productivity growth and success in global markets.
• Andrea Van de Kamp, former chairperson of Sotheby’s art auction house on the West Coast, chairperson emeritus of the board of the Music Center of Los Angeles County, and leader of fund-raising efforts to build the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

All three speakers will receive an honorary doctor of humanities.

The advanced degree ceremony, with Wince-Smith as the speaker, will begin at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center, at the corner of Harrison Road and Kalamazoo Street.

The 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 9, ceremony will feature Van de Kamp as the speaker. Students in the colleges of Arts and Letters, Education, Social Science, the James Madison College and The Eli Broad College of Business attend this ceremony at the Breslin Center.

The 2 p.m. Dec. 9, ceremony will feature Koplovitz as the speaker. This ceremony, also at the Breslin Center, is for students in the colleges of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Communication Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Natural Science and Nursing.

Biographical information on the commencement speakers follows.

Kay Koplovitz

Kay Koplovitz is a leader in raising venture capital for women entrepreneurs and in launching new programming companies that challenge the frontiers of the digital age.

As founder, chairperson and chief executive officer of USA Networks, she built her company into the number one ranking in prime-time viewership among cable networks for 13 consecutive years. She launched the Sci Fi Channel in 1992, and in 1994, launched USA Networks International which operates in several countries around the world.

She created Springboard Enterprises, a national organization that fosters venture capital investments in women-led high-growth companies, and co-founded Boldcap Ventures, a venture capital fund backed exclusively by leading women executives. In 1998, former President Bill Clinton appointed her chairperson of the National Women’s Business Council.

Also in 1998, she co-founded Koplovitz & Co. LLC., a New York-based media and investment advisory firm which makes investments in early and mid-stage companies in media, technology and related sectors. She is the author of “Bold Women, Big Ideas,” which was published in 2002.

Koplovitz, who received her master’s degree in communications from MSU, is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. She is the recipient of many awards recognizing her entrepreneurship, leadership, and accomplishments in business and industry.

Deborah L. Wince-Smith

Deborah L. Wince-Smith is an internationally recognized expert on strategies to enhance national and regional innovation, science and technology policy, regional economic development and global competition.

Wince-Smith has been nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as a member of the Oversight Board of the Internal Revenue Service.

She serves on many boards and committees, including the board of directors of the NASDAQ Stock Market and as chairperson of the Secretary of Commerce’s Strengthening America’s Community Initiative Federal Advisory Committee. This committee produced the first detailed assessment of federal investment and policy in regional economic development in nearly 40 years.

Wince-Smith served as the first assistant secretary for technology policy in the U.S. Department of Commerce Technology Administration from 1989-93. During the Reagan administration, she was the assistant director for international affairs and competitiveness in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. As a program manager at the National Science Foundation from 1976-84, she managed U.S. research programs with Eastern European countries and U.S. universities.

She also serves on the National Science Board’s Task Force on Transformative Research, the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board’s Nuclear Energy Task Force and the National Research Council’s Committee on Innovation Models for Aerospace Technologies, among other organizations.

A trustee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Wince-Smith graduated from Vassar College with a degree in archeology and received her master’s degree from King’s College, Cambridge University in England.

Andrea Van de Kamp

Andrea Van de Kamp, a graduate of MSU, has a long and distinguished career in business and education, and as a supporter of the arts.

She joined Sotheby’s, the world’s largest art auction house in 1989. As chairperson and senior vice president, she supervised the company’s business activities for the West Coast region until 2004.

She is currently an independent consultant in corporate community affairs and nonprofit board fund raising.

Van de Kamp is the second woman to serve as chairperson of the board of directors for the Music Center of Los Angeles County, the second largest performing arts center in the nation, and is the first woman to be chairperson emeritus. Van de Kamp led efforts to raise the prestige of the Los Angels Philharmonic, the Center Theatre Group and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. In addition, she chaired the development committee to raise funds to build the fourth center venue, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, a $270 million building that opened in 2003.

She served as associate dean of admissions and also as executive director of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law at Occidental College from 1974-77; associate director of admissions for Dartmouth College from 1971-74; and president and chief executive officer of the Independent Colleges of Southern California from 1987-89.

Other positions she has held include director of the Walt Disney Co., director of public affairs for Carter Hawley Hale Stores, director of development of the Museum of Contemporary Art and executive director of the Southern California Coro Foundation.

She received her undergraduate degree from Teacher’s College of Columbia University. In 2004, MSU presented her with a Distinguished Alumni Award.

Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 14 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.