Spring Commencement 2009

Michael M. Wood, former U.S. Ambassador to Sweden and chair of Redwood Investments, LLC.
A son of Flint offered the Commencement address when Kettering hosted spring graduation ceremonies for 198 undergraduate and 97 graduate students in the Connie and Jim John Recreation Center Saturday, June 13. Michael M. Wood, who served our country honorably from 2006 to 2009 as the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, spoke to the graduates and also received an honorary doctor of Humane Letters degree during Commencement services.

Wood was very helpful in developing the international collaboration between Kettering, Linkoping University in Sweden and others to create a waste-to-energy bio-methane center at Flint's wastewater treatment facility. He was also instrumental in helping Kettering host the royal visit of His Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden, to campus in September of last year.

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Wood grew up in Michigan and attended Flint’s Whittier Middle School before leaving the state for an Ivy League high school on the East Coast. He enrolled at Yale University, where he joined the same fraternity as future President George W. Bush. Wood was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden in 2006. “Newsweek” magazine called him “the most famous and perhaps most influential U.S. ambassador to Sweden in history … and so successful that it has inspired other U.S. embassies, particularly in Scandinavia, to work harder on promoting alternative energy solutions.”

Tyler Finnegan of Elyria, Ohio, was the undergraduate student speaker and offered comments to his graduating class. Finnegan earned a Management degree. A student leader and outspoken advocate for cooperative education, he has often represented Kettering in the media, including a recent interview by the “New York Times” for a national news story on the University.

Thousands typically attend spring commencement exercises each year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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