SMITHFIELD – Former President George H.W. Bush will be the keynote speaker at Bryant University’s undergraduate commencement on May 17, the university said today. He also will be one of four people to receive honorary degrees from Bryant this year.
Bush, Chinese entrepreneur and museum founder Fan Jianchuan and Boys & Girls Club of America President and CEO Roxanne Spillet all will receive honorary degrees on May 17, during the undergraduate ceremony.
John C. Warren, chairman and CEO of The Washington Trust Co. and Washington Trust Bancorp Inc., will receive his on May 15, when he will give the keynote address for Bryant’s Graduate School commencement.
Bush served from 1989 to 1993 as the nation’s 41st president. During his term, the Soviet Union collapsed, leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. Bush organized the 32-nation liberation of Kuwait and negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was later signed into law.
He previously had served as vice president under Ronald Reagan, from 1981 to 1989; as chief of the U.S. Liasion Office in the People’s Republic of China; as director of the Central Intelligence Agency; ambassador to the United Nations; and as a U.S. representative from Texas.
Since leaving office, he has helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars for charity, working with former President Bill Clinton to aid the Hurricane Katrina and Asian Tsunami relief efforts. In 2006, after the earthquake in south Asia, he served as U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s special envoy to the region.
Fan Jianchuan is president of the Chengdu, China-based development company Jianchuan Group, and founder and president of the Jianchuan Museum Complex. China’s largest private museum, the complex showcases more than 2 million historical and cultural relics, many from his own personal collection.
Fan is the author of “One Man’s Anti-Japanese War,” a Chinese best-seller. One hall of his museum is dedicated to the Flying Tigers, the volunteer air force organized by retired U.S. Army Capt. Claire Lee Chennault before the United States entered World War II, while the complex’s Plaza of Handprints of 3,000 Soldiers recognizes the role of Nationalist soldiers in China’s war against Japan.
Before founding the Jianchuan Group in 1993, Fan had served as an officer in the Chinese army, a university professor and vice mayor of the Sichuan Province community of community of Yibin.
Roxanne Spillet is president and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of America, a membership and community outreach group focusing on disadvantaged youths.
The BCGA now serves about 4.8 million girls and boys through more than 4,000 affiliates in the United States and on U.S. military bases. Under her leadership, the nonprofit has launched initiatives in education, technology and diversity and expanded its technology, human resources and resource development efforts.
Spillett was honored in 2006 as one of Newsweek’s 15 People who Make America Great; in 2004 and 2005, she was ranked by The Non-Profit Times among its Power 50 and honored by the National Human Services Assembly with its Excellence in National Executive Leadership Award.
John Warren has overseen a dozen years of growth at Washington Trust, including the acquisitions of Pier Bank in 1999; Phoenix Investment Management in 2000; First Financial, parent company of First Bank and Trust, in 2002;and Weston Financial Group Inc. in 2005
He joined the Westerly-based bank in January 1996 as its president and chief operating officer, was promoted to CEO in April 1997 and was named chairman in April 1999. He previously had worked at Shawmut National Corporation and Sterling Bancshares.
A board member for many civic, professional and charitable organizations, Warren has received the Rhode Island for Community & Justice’s 2004 Humanitarian Award, the Arts & Business Council of Rhode Island’s 2004 Encore Award for Support of the Arts and Leadership Rhode Island’s 2005 Community Service Award.
Bryant University is a business, liberal arts and technology school with more than 3,600 undergraduate and graduate students. Bryant is accredited by New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC); its College of Business is accredited by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International. To learn more, visit www.bryant.edu.
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