 Thank you. Thank you. I am delighted now to be able to introduce to you our keynote commencement speaker, David Bonette. David is one of the most successful and distinguished technology entrepreneurs and philanthropists in America. He launched GeoCities, an early social networking platform back in 1994. He has dedicated his life to creating positive change through community building and social activism. He grew up in suburban Chicago, earned his bachelor's in business administration at USC and his master's in finance at the Ross School right here at Michigan. While he lived in Ann Arbor, he worked as a volunteer hotline counselor for the university's lesbian and gay male program office, now called the Spectrum Center. In addition to serving now as chair of the David Bonette Foundation, he is a member of the president's advisory group at Michigan, a presidential trustee of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, a board member of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. And by the way, he also has quite a full-time job running a successful venture capital fund focused on early stage tech companies. Since 1999, his foundation has provided funding, state-of-the-art technology, and technical support to hundreds of innovative organizations and institutions. Among his philanthropic priorities are cities. He has a deep commitment to addressing the challenges faced by great American cities. And so his foundation has established partnerships with the Ford School, with UCLA and NYU, partnerships that send the best and brightest graduate students to work for cities, the cities of Detroit, LA, and New York. Launched in 2011 here at the Ford School, Bonette Fellowships are competitively awarded to three incoming master's students each year. Their prestigious award comes with two years of tuition support and, most critically, a funded internship in the city of Detroit Mayor's Office, working directly with a group executive on the mayor's policy priorities. The Bonette Fellows have worked to analyze Detroit's housing inventory, evaluate urban agriculture initiatives in the city, spearhead a community service volunteer initiative for elderly residents, launch a graffiti removal project, and much, much more. Specific and strategic work that taps into the Ford School training to improve the lives of Detroit residents. Earlier today, we hosted a launch at my home for David Bonette and the Bonette Fellows, current students, graduates, and alumni. In the careers of those alumni, we see the lasting, ongoing impact of David's gift. Among them is the executive manager of the Crime Intelligence Unit for the Detroit Police Department, an associate director in the city's housing and revitalization department, a policy analyst for Detroit City Councilmember, and the state representative for Michigan's sixth district now running for the state senate. They and many others are committed, well-trained leaders and public servants whose lives were forever changed by David's generosity. We're deeply grateful to David for his generous investment in the work of the Ford School and in the lives of our students. Please join me in welcoming Mr. David Bonette. Thank you, and thank you Vice President Harper, Michael Dean Barr, assembled faculty, students, parents, families, and congratulations most especially to you, the Ford School class of 2018. I'm very honored to be here today for a number of reasons, and I'd like to call out two people that are here tonight that are extremely special both to me personally and to the University of Michigan. In 1971, Jim Toy founded the Human Sexuality Office, which became the lesbian and gay male program office and is now the Spectrum Center. 1971, Jim Toy founded the first Human Sexuality Office in any institution of higher learning, and it was here at the University of Michigan, and it really established Michigan in the forefront of the lesbian and gay civil rights movement. Along with Judge Judy Levy, who was a judge of the district court of Michigan, Judy's a Michigan graduate, and Judy and I both were volunteers working for Jim Toy when we were here at school, and it's an honor to have you both here. I'd like to recognize Jim and Judy, thank you very much. I recall with great fondness when I stood in your place to receive my master's degree from the Ross School. The sense of hope, anticipation you feel today is genuine and will play out in many ways, mostly positive and mostly quite far from how you expect the future to turn out from today's perspective. With over a quarter century experience since my own graduation here at Michigan, I know personally that no one job or experience lasts forever, not the positive ones and thankfully not the negative and challenging ones. You will be tested in ways you can't even imagine, and you leave this university well-equipped to embrace the opportunities ahead and deal with the challenges you face. As Dean Barr mentioned over the last 15 years, my foundation has invested nearly $5 million in scholarships and internships here at Ford and sister programs at NYU and UCLA. Now philanthropists are forever looking to data to prove the value of their programs, and I know that subjective observation is not the same as hard data, but having spent time with graduates here and these fellows, I emerged with the knowledge that our grant program could not have been wise or more efficient or more timely. And we really can't celebrate another graduating class from this esteemed institution without acknowledging President Gerald R. Ford. One of the great privileges of my life was becoming friends with Senator Teddy Kennedy, and it was Teddy and his niece Caroline Kennedy who presented the Profiles in Courage Award at the President Kennedy's Library to President Ford in 2001. In remarking on that day, Senator Kennedy said of President Ford, Jerry Ford understood that you can work with your opposition, you can stay true to your principles, and you can get something done, and the country wins, and the people who are involved with it win. He understood, I think, a very important concept of political life today that is rarely recognized in something we haven't seen in recent times. There is few times, I think, for those in public life that they take the difficult, challenging decisions in the face of the wrath of the people, and in their time are vindicated so thoroughly as President Ford was. A reporter at the time noted of President Ford encouraged that, it reminds us that heroism doesn't always win the onlooking crowd's attention. It reminds us that the jury room of history tolerates no hurried verdicts. It reminds us, too, that columnists and commentators can often be wrong, especially when they agree, and especially when there is a touch of self-righteousness to their consensus. History can be funny that way. Our ability to look back and appreciate it. Perhaps revisit our judgments on those who have gone before, and the decision that they or we did and didn't make. But today is really, of course, about our future, your future, and our country's future. When I drove away from Ann Arbor that May day after graduation and headed back to Los Angeles where I had done my undergraduate work at USC, I had no idea that there would be technology on the horizon that would change the world and most certainly change my life. I spent the next decade or so in a career in software and tech doing what so many of you will do, working my way up through a number of organizations and positionings, building relationships, not networking, not connections, but real relationships. And it was the power of relationships and power of community that propelled me to create my internet company geocities.com, which at the time became a very popular community-based social networking site in the early days of the web. My idea for geocities was all about my passion for empowering others, giving everybody a voice, and a chance to contribute and participate in the new medium of the internet. Through my own experience in business and in life and in coming out as a gay man, I saw how powerful it was to stand up and have a voice, to be able to meet other people of similar interests, share my thoughts and ideas in an open and welcoming environment. Geocities.com went public in 1998, four years after I found the company, and we were acquired by Yahoo a year after that. As so often happens in business, technological advances and the passion and zeal of younger startups ultimately eclipsed the success of geocities. But what's left is the legacy of a company that enshrined and validated the concepts of user-generated content and the power of community and social networking. And while it is tough to believe almost 25 years have passed since I founded geocities, the challenges, the enormous challenges facing those who followed in our early social networking path were on full display a couple of weeks ago, as those of you who may have saw Mark Zuckerberg testifying in front of Congress. Most everyone in this audience today depends on Facebook, Instagram, and other sites for keeping up with one another, from celebrating your relationships and touting your latest professional or academic achievement or simply posting moments in time. But as I listened to the testimony that day, Mr. Zuckerberg and the senators seemed to have very little in common. Indeed, they had a tough time communicating with one another, almost as if they were speaking different languages. I don't mean to make light of it. Cyber privacy and security is a serious challenge and something we must be vigilant about. But it's tough to do that, to take on the serious challenges of this world when you spend so much of your energy not listening, but simply waiting your turn to speak. If we are to succeed as a society, as a people, as graduates, as Dean Barr said, we must get better at hearing one another. Whether we are discussing policy or technology, it is not effective or acceptable for us to speak past one another or over one another. That can, as we have seen far too often, only lead to rank or confusion and chaos. Ute shows the Ford School for its curriculum and core values of community, integrity, service, action, and leadership to advance and improve our world. I suggest adding listening as one of the more critically important values on that list. Throughout my career as a business person, philanthropist, and civil rights activist, I've learned three things that have helped me be successful in achieving meaningful social change. First, I mentioned, and as Dean Barr said, is really just to shut up and listen. Really listen, listen hard, ask questions, and then listen more. When you listen more, you learn from others. Listening creates trust, and trust is the key factor in successful leadership. As you identify where you want to make your mark, what social justice cause matters most to you, the best way to make a difference, and the best way to make a difference is to become an expert in all facets of your chosen field. The way to become that expert is learning and listening to everyone who has an interest in the process and outcome. Someone once told me that the power of deep listening empowers others with their own voice. I can assure you this is true. So first, empower others by listening. Second, I'll share with you a phenomenon that is real and powerful, and one that I wouldn't have recognized. But it happens too often not to pay attention. And that's the concept I call. Thank you for telling me no. In my professional career running an early stage tech fund, as well as my job as the chair of a nonprofit grant making organization, increase stream in daily from entrepreneurs looking for capital to help grow their business or from social service organizations looking for grants to help fund their important work. Of course, we're unable to say yes to every funding request that comes our way. But what is part of our culture and part of what we can do is let someone know our response right away, especially if it's no. As a result, my approach is to respond right back to the ambitious entrepreneur or passionate nonprofit leader and let them know that their request is not fit within our current focus or priority. And if we can, we direct them to other potential investors and funders. Almost invariably, we get the response back. Thank you for telling me no. We appreciate you letting letting us know where we stand. Showing someone the courtesy of a timely and definitive answer, even if it's no, gives them the ability to move on to other prospects without spending further time and psychological energy, wondering when and if you'll give them an answer. If someone feels like their request has been listened to and thoughtfully considered, then telling them no can be the most helpful contribution you can make. This same concept applies to interpersonal relationships, by the way. Sometimes the hardest and most difficult thing to do is to tell someone no, we're not interested or no, I'm not able to help you with that. As hard as that is, you do yourself and the other person a tremendous tremendous service to be clear and unequivocal in your viewpoint. I'm speaking of respectful and responsible behavior and the perception thereof as fellow missionaries for social justice. Our effectiveness is directly in proportion to our honesty, candor, trustworthiness and personal accountability. Third and lastly, you've all undoubtedly faced difficult personal and academic challenges along the path that brought you to this point. Some of those challenges you've conquered and learned from. And some of them left you with a feeling of frustration and despair. The benefit of career and activism and philanthropy has taught me is the philosophy is that there is no problem you can't give your way out of. I lost my point, lost my place. There is no problem, put another way, excuse me, put another way, commit to develop a problem solving lens that includes service to others. What I mean by that is embodied in the legacy of President Ford, who led by embracing the spirit of public service in the pursuit of common good. He truly gave of himself to others. Now, not every problem has a solution. And but we can bring to the problems we face a true duty, commitment and passion to look outside ourselves for the solution. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, life's most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others? Graduate of the Ford School are taught the tools you need to apply rigorous scientific methods to the pressing social problems of our day and prepare you to answer the question posed by Dr. King. As you tackle the inevitable challenges in your chosen field of endeavor, remember these three things that will help ensure your success. Empowering others through listening, developing a culture of personal philosophy of accountability, letting people know where you stand and approach problems with the commitment to develop a solution through personal service to others and to society. Now more than ever, our great country needs your generation to lead us forward, to show us that lifting others up lifts us all and to beat back the current culture of divisiveness and fear of the future. I'm humbled and grateful to speak for the opportunity to speak with you today and my serious wishes for your future success and a very warm welcome to the wonderful network of alumni of our beloved University of Michigan. Go Blue!