John Mackey, Chairman and CEO of Whole Foods Market(R), and Ellen M. Zane, President...

John Mackey, Chairman and CEO of Whole Foods Market(R), and Ellen M. Zane,
President and CEO, Tufts Medical Center and the Floating Hospital for
Children, Offer Advice to Bentley Students at May 17 Commencement
"Who will create the conscious businesses of the 21st century? Why not Bentley
graduates? Why don't some of you go out and create conscious businesses that
transform the world? Maybe that's what your heart is calling out to you to
do." -- John Mackey

WALTHAM, Mass., May 17 /PRNewswire/ -- In a heartfelt keynote address to
approximately 1,000 Bentley undergraduate students at the 89th commencement
ceremony on May 17, John Mackey, chairman and CEO of Whole Foods Market, urged
graduates to follow their hearts, to use obstacles as opportunities for
growth, and to help create "conscious businesses" in the 21st century.
"We should commit ourselves to following our hearts and doing what we most
love and what we most want to do in life," he began. "If you could do
absolutely anything in the world, what is it that you would do? Your heart
knows the answers to these questions. Even as I'm saying these words right
now, some of you can hear the whispering in your own heart. So listen to it
and follow it. You will have no better guide in your life than your own
heart."
Essential to the journey, Mackey noted, is the ability to deal with fear.
"It is fear which prevents most people from reaching their fullest potential
in life -- we become afraid that we're not good enough, we become afraid of
what the judgments of other people will be. We fear failure ... and some of us
will even have a fear of our own greatness because of the burdens it might
place on us."
Mackey openly discussed personal and business challenges he has faced over
the past year, involving a proposed merger with a competitor and
investigations and media criticism over internet postings he made, and the
lessons he has learned. "My most valuable lesson has been about the importance
of communicating with greater thoughtfulness. I believe that I've always lived
my life with a passion for honesty-tell the truth as I saw it regardless of
how that truth would be interpreted by others ... While I still believe that,
I've now discovered that it's so easy to be misinterpreted, so easy to have
things taken out of context. In today's world of digital media, I've found it
to be a very wise thing to be very thoughtful and careful in everything that I
will communicate and say going forward."
He shared the simple rules he applies to everything he says, writes, or
does now, including, "How would I feel if that was printed on the front page
of the Wall Street Journal or The New York Times? -- because it just might be.
If it's going to embarrass me or I'm going to feel ashamed of it, I'm not
going to do it. So I'm still going to be honest, but I have learned to be more
diplomatic and tactful. I hope you will learn that lesson without a great deal
of unnecessary pain and suffering."
The keynote concluded with Mackey urging graduates to play an integral
role in developing "conscious businesses" in the 21st century; businesses with
a deeper purpose beyond only making profits. "Just like individual people can,
by following their hearts discover their own sense of deeper purpose, so can a
business enterprise. It can have a deeper purpose. If you think for a moment
about some of the greatest businesses in the world, you will see that most of
them have a deeper purpose.
"Who will create the conscious businesses of the 21st century? Why not
Bentley graduates? Why don't some of you go out and create conscious
businesses that transform the world? Maybe that's what your heart is calling
out to you to do."
Mackey received an honorary doctor of commercial science degree at the
ceremony.
McCallum Graduate School of Business Commencement
During the McCallum Graduate School ceremony, Ellen M. Zane, president and
CEO of Tufts Medical Center and the Floating Hospital for Children, provided
"management pearls" to nearly 600 graduate students.
"I thought that a series of realities would be most helpful ... things
that are not intellectually complex, things that don't challenge your IQ, but
they challenge your EQ -- your emotional quotient. Things that will make a
difference and that have to me in my path to leadership. Things that I wish
someone had taught me along the way beyond the important things one learns in
a classroom. My Dad explained that many of these things were the difference
between goodness and greatness."
Zane began with the importance of taking risks, citing personal career
risks she has taken. "Just remember, that you cannot steal second base with
your foot on first. So risk is a very good thing to do, and do it with jobs
that are hard and that nobody else would take ... the personal gratification
is unbelievable ... the highs are higher -- the lows are also lower -- but
it's worth it."
She also urged graduates to surround themselves with excellence, saying,
"I am not the smartest person I know, but I am smart enough to know that I
should hire people who are smarter than me, and all of their good work will
accrue back to me."
Noting Bentley's strong commitment to community service, Zane said " ...
never compromise the high road ... recognize through your careers that what
you do as a human being, along with what you do as a professional, is
enormously important ... long after I am gone as the CEO of Tufts Medical
Center, I will not be remembered for the decisions I made everyday ... but I
will be remembered for who I am and for what I have given them."
"In the end," she concluded, "all roads lead to leadership. Management and
leadership are two very different things and your degree today has given you
the groundwork to be excellent managers. Now the test will be: Are you
excellent leaders?"
During the ceremony, Zane was presented with an honorary doctor of
commercial science degree.
About the Graduates
At the undergraduate ceremony, 1,048 Bachelor of Science degrees, 18
Bachelor of Arts degrees, four Associate in Science degrees and four
certificates were granted to 1,074 students from 29 U.S. states and
territories and 43 countries.
At the McCallum Graduate School of Business ceremony, 327 Master of
Science degrees, 214 Master of Business Administration degrees, and 51
certificates were granted to 592 graduate students from 15 U.S. states and
territories and 21 countries.
Faculty and Student Awards
The Gregory H. Adamian Excellence in Teaching Award was presented to
Clifford Putney, senior lecturer in History. R. Gilbert Congdon, adjunct
instructor for Mathematical Sciences, received the Joseph M. Cronin Award for
Excellence in Academic Advising. Bentley bestowed the Award for Excellence in
Scholarship to Christine B. Williams, professor of International Studies.
Student honorees included Michaela Erin Racette and Scott Tindall, who
were both winners of the Professor Robert J. Weafer Award for Undergraduate
Academic Excellence. The Professor William E. Dandes Award for Graduate
Academic Excellence went to Michael J. Albert, Rian A. Brarmann, Robert A.
Henley, Sarah L. Thomson and Rayon K. Ward. Katerina Bisbas was recognized as
the Outstanding Evening Student.
An honorary doctor of commercial science degree was awarded posthumously
to Samuel H. Pierce II, recently deceased faculty member from the Finance
Department. A teacher, mentor and friend, Pierce's longstanding goal to hold
a doctoral degree -- one in which he was supported unstintingly by his wife,
his family and his colleagues -- was fulfilled.
About the Speakers
John Mackey is one of the most successful CEOs in the fast-growing natural
foods industry and has built Whole Foods Market into a $5.6 billion Fortune
500 company that is now one of the top 12 supermarket companies in America.
In 1978, at the age of 25, Mackey was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug.
Borrowing $10,000 from his father and raising the first few thousand of what
would eventually become hundreds of millions of dollars in equity investments,
he co-founded Safer Way Natural Foods with his girlfriend Renee Lawson. Two
years later, in 1980, they teamed up with two other young entrepreneurs to
create Whole Foods Market, a 10,000 square foot store on Lamar Boulevard in
Austin, Texas.
By the end of 2006, the global organic foods industry was more than $40
billion in size, a development Mackey sees as good for all concerned,
especially Planet Earth. Whole Foods Market now has over 270 stores in the
U.S. Canada, and the UK. The company's goal is to become a $12 billion company
by 2010.
Ellen Zane is the first woman to run Tufts Medical Center and the Floating
Hospital for Children in its 210-year history. The 450 bed hospital employs
over 5,000 doctors, nurses, researchers, and other healthcare workers in both
facilities. Zane is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine,
Division of Clinical Care Research at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Prior to her current position, Zane was Network President for Partners
HealthCare System, Inc. where she was responsible for the development of a
provider network featuring the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham &
Women's Hospital, along with community-based physician groups and community
hospitals within eastern Massachusetts. The network encompassed 5,600
physicians and represented $800+ million of managed care revenue. Today, this
entity represents one of the largest physician networks in America.
Zane has also served as the Chief Executive Officer at Quincy Hospital in
Quincy, Massachusetts, a 290-bed acute care community and public hospital.
Prior to her tenure at Quincy Hospital, Zane was the Vice President for
Professional Services at the Morton Hospital & Medical Center in Taunton,
Massachusetts.
For all her work, Zane has received numerous awards including the
Arthritis Foundation Dr. John I. Sandson Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Details on Commencement 2008 are available on Bentley's official
commencement website: http://www.bentley.edu/commencement-2008/index.cfm
SOURCE Bentley College

Helen Henrichs, Bentley College, +1-781-891-2277, hhenrichs@bentley.edu