{"72514":{"#nid":"72514","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Al West to Give Undergraduate Commencement Address","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAlfred P. West Jr., founder, chairman and CEO of SEI Investments and Georgia Tech alumnus, will deliver the address to undergraduates at Georgia Tech\u0027s 226th commencement ceremonies on Saturday, December 16, at 9:00 a.m. for computing, liberal arts, architecture, management and sciences, then at 3:00 p.m. for engineering, in the Alexander Memorial Coliseum. Dr. Catherine Br\u00c3\u00a9chignac, president of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France, will address masters and Ph.D. graduates at the graduate commencement ceremony on Friday, December 15 at 7 p.m. in the Alexander Memorial Coliseum. About 1,350 students are expected to participate in the ceremonies.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWest currently serves as chairman and CEO of SEI, which was ranked fourth on the \u003Cem\u003EWall Street Journal\u003C\/em\u003E\u0027s Wall Street Honor Roll in 2001. In 2002 the American Banker magazine called West \u0027the most successful financial services chief executive over the last ten years.\u0027 In addition Barron\u0027s ranked West fifth behind Warren Buffett as the best CEO value in the country.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWhile he was an MBA student at the Wharton School, West and two classmates developed a computer strategy game to teach bank loan officers the art of commercial credit. The bankers liked the game and used it as a training tool through which they compared their loan decisions against those of the computer model. This initial success led the three students to found Simulated Environments Inc.  Later, in 1971, West and his associates introduced an automated bank trust system that streamlined labor-intensive portfolio accounting functions, and the first trust department clients were signed on. In 1972, the company was reincorporated, changed its name to SEI Corporation, and began automating the back rooms of trust departments throughout the country.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBy 1981, when the company went public, SEI had garnered 34 percent of the trust market and began diversifying into asset management and pension consulting through several acquisitions. Today SEI has revenues of more than $1 billion and a market capitalization of more than $5 billion. The firm manages more than $160 billion in assets, administers another $360 billion, and processes trillions of dollars worth of financial transactions each year.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to his success in the business world, West has been a tireless advocate for Georgia Tech. He is chairman of the steering committee for the Institute\u0027s forthcoming comprehensive campaign and a member of the Georgia Tech Foundation Board of Trustees. He has served as chairman of the Georgia Tech Advisory Board and as a member of the National Campaign Steering Committee for the Campaign for Georgia Tech (1995-2000).\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EA native of Florida, West holds a bachelor\u0027s degree in aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech (1964) and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMaster\u0027s and Ph.D. Commencement Speaker Catherine Br\u00c3\u00a9chignac\u003C\/strong\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDr. Catherine Br\u00c3\u00a9chignac, a renowned scientist and scholar in the area of nanophysics, is the current president of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France, the largest and most influential scientific organization in Europe. Br\u00c3\u00a9chignac is known within the international scientific community as a specialist in atomic physics working at the interface of nuclear and molecular physics. Since the early 1990s, she has been a research collaborator with Georgia Tech faculty and recently has been instrumental in the establishment of a formal partnership between CNRS and Georgia Tech to engage in research of mutual interest. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn 2001 Br\u00c3\u00a9chignac\u0027s extensive work with Tech faculty led to her appointment as adjunct professor of physics and distinguished visiting scholar chair at Georgia Tech.  Georgia Tech has been collaborating with the CNRS since 1998 when a Georgia Tech Lorraine-CNRS Telecom lab opened on the Georgia Tech Lorraine campus in Metz, France.  Recently this relationship has been strengthened with the formation of an international partnership known as \u0027Unite Mixte Internationale (UMI)\u0027 between Georgia Tech and CNRS.  This partnership is the first of its kind in France, where CNRS has partnered with a non-French entity (Georgia Tech) to engage in research of mutual interest.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBr\u00c3\u00a9chignac and Silas to Receive Honorary Degrees\u003C\/strong\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDr. Br\u00c3\u00a9chignac and Mr. Cecil J. \u0027Pete\u0027 Silas will receive honorary doctoral degrees at the fall Commencement ceremonies. Silas received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Georgia Tech and had a distinguished business career at Phillips Petroleum, culminating with a decade of service as its chairman and chief executive officer. Silas has been a civic leader at the local, state and national levels, including service as chairman of Junior Achievement, the National Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute. He has also been very supportive of the Institute for many years, including service on the Georgia Tech Foundation Board of Trustees and the Georgia Tech Advisory Board. This honorary degree recognizes his outstanding career in the energy field, his lifelong commitment to community service and his dedication and service to his alma mater.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Catherine Br\u00c3\u00a9chignac Will Address Graduate Students"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"Alfred P. West Jr., CEO of SEI Investments, addresses undergraduates at commencement ceremonies on Dec. 16. Dr. Catherine Br\u00c3\u00a9chignac, president of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, speaks at the graduate commencement ceremony on Dec. 15.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Catherine Br\u00c3\u00a9chignac will address graduate students"}],"uid":"27301","created_gmt":"2006-12-08 01:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:01:37","author":"Elizabeth Campell","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2006-12-08T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2006-12-08T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"72515":{"id":"72515","type":"image","title":"Al West","body":null,"created":"1449177934","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:25:34","changed":"1475894658","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:44:18"},"72516":{"id":"72516","type":"image","title":"Dr. Catherine Br\u00c3\u00a9chignac","body":null,"created":"1449177934","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:25:34","changed":"1475894658","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:44:18"},"72517":{"id":"72517","type":"image","title":"Cecil J. \u0027Pete\u0027 Silas","body":null,"created":"1449177934","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:25:34","changed":"1475894658","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:44:18"}},"media_ids":["72515","72516","72517"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/news-room\/release.php?id=1145","title":"Honorary Degrees"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/commencement\/","title":"Commencement Information"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"133","name":"Special Events and Guest Speakers"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"2667","name":"Brechignac"},{"id":"627","name":"commencement"},{"id":"629","name":"graduation"},{"id":"167357","name":"SEI"},{"id":"167610","name":"Silas"},{"id":"2560","name":"west"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003ELisa Grovenstein\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications \u0026amp; Marketing\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=lgrovenste3\u0022\u003EContact Lisa Grovenstein\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404-894-8835\u003C\/strong\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["lisa.grovenstein@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}