News

Neal Keny-Guyer, Mercy Corps CEO, has accepted the University’s invitation to deliver the spring 2005 commencement address Saturday, June 11, in Portland’s Rose Garden Arena.

“Given the gravity of events throughout the world during the past year and Mercy Corps’ mission to help build communities around the globe, I cannot think of a more appropriate perspective to be shared with this graduating class,” says President Dan Bernstine.

Keny-Guyer joined Mercy Corps in 1994 as CEO. During his leadership, Portland-based Mercy Corps has emerged as a leading international relief and development agency, with programs today in more than 35 countries, over 2,000 staff, and an annual operating budget of nearly $200 million. A native of Tennessee, Keny-Guyer earned his B.A. in public policy and religion from Duke University and a master of public and private management from Yale.

This term, Mercy Corps has partnered with Portland State to offer students “International Humanitarian Relief: Reports from Mercy Corps Staff” every Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m. Topics have ranged from Food for Work Programs to Microfinance in Afghanistan. In addition, on Feb. 9, Provost Michael Reardon presented Mercy Corps with a check for $2,000. This money was raised by and from students on campus to aid in the eastern Asia tsunami relief efforts.