Elizabethtown College 2014 SCPS Commencement Speaker Announced

ELIZABETHTOWN, PA (04/11/2014)(readMedia)-- Elizabethtown College President Carl J. Strikwerda recently announced that Edward Martin, president and CEO of Blue Clay Ventures, has accepted an invitation to speak at the College's 2014 School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS) Commencement taking place at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 17, in the College's Leffler Chapel and Performance Center. At Commencement, the College will present Martin with an honorary doctoral degree.

In addition to his role with Blue Clay Ventures, Martin works with Richard Saul Wurman, founder of TED talks, on the 555 Conference, a new initiative that brings together five global experts, five predictions of future patterns and five cities across the world. Martin serves as chief marketing officer of Zaycon Foods and chief marketing officer of Look ToThe Stars, a celebrity charity organization. He also is founder of Nexus Capital, a private impact investment firm.

He was elected to the board of the Peace Research Endowment, which focuses on academic and policy research and implementation as a means of reducing global conflict and is chair emeritus of the Association of National Advertisers Research and Measurement Council.

Martin has held key positions in top Fortune 500 organizations. He helped to lead new product innovation for the Kellogg Company, ran insights for all youth brands for Coca-Cola, headed the customer satisfaction and loyalty research process for Citigroup and was director of global consumer insights with Ford Motor Co. and was head of mobile marketing with the Hershey Co.

The 2014 Commencement speaker has served as an Executive in Residence at Georgetown University and was an adviser to the Millennium Project and to the ambassador from Uganda to the United States. He has served on advisory boards and in a number of advisory roles for The Pack Shack, The Health Store Foundation, Malaria Foundation, Health People in the South Bronx, Harvard AIDS Prevention Research Project, Look To The Stars and Chamber of Commerce BCLC. He was co-chair of the Parade All American Volunteering Initiative at the White House.

Martin served as an adviser to the State Department and to USAID on the Global Diaspora Initiative. He served on the executive board of the Congressional Coalition For Adoption Institute, working with members of Congress and the Senate to shape policy to best fulfill the needs of children around the world for "forever families." He is, perhaps, best known for pioneering global "business to cause" win/win models which drive profit and growth for companies in ways that also support initiatives around poverty, health, education and the environment.

Originally from Detroit, Mich., Martin earned a bachelor degree in psychology from the University of Michigan in Dearborn and a master's degree in business administration from Wayne State University in Detroit. He and his wife, Joan, have one daughter and live in Lancaster, Pa.

The 2014 SCPS Commencement ceremony begins at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 17, 2014. The event also will be live-streamed at http://www.etown.edu/commencement/scps-graduates.aspx

The Elizabethtown College School of Continuing and Professional Studies offers accelerated adult degree programs on our main campus in Elizabethtown, Pa., a short drive from Lancaster or Harrisburg. This campus setting offers a convenient and stimulating learning environment for working adults in south-central Pennsylvania and norther Maryland.

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Posted Friday April 11, 2014 at 06:03 am by Elizabethtown College
Last Updated Friday April 11, 2014 at 02:18 pm