Broad College of Business alumnus John Duffey, president of Six Flags Entertainment Corp., will serve as one of the keynote speakers at Michigan State University’s fall commencement ceremony on Saturday, December 17.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: John Duffey Broad College alumnus and president of Six Flags
Duffey will be joined by alumna Barbara Ross-Lee, vice president for health sciences and medical affairs at New York Institute of Technology.
“MSU has given our alumni speakers the tools to affect people’s lives in extraordinary ways,” said MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon. “From leading the world’s largest regional entertainment company to breaking barriers in medicine, the stories of our speakers will inspire our newest graduates as they, too, go on to do great things. It gives me great pride to welcome our speakers back to campus.”
Duffey served as chief financial officer of Six Flags, the world’s largest regional theme park company, from September 2010 to February 2016 before his appointment to president. Before joining the company, Duffey was executive vice president and chief integration officer for Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, where he led the integration of Siemens Medical Solutions Diagnostics and Dade Behring. Prior to Dade Behring’s acquisition of Siemens, Duffey served as the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Dade Behring Inc.
In February, Duffey and his wife, Becky, made a $2.5 million gift to MSU to assist with renovations of the Breslin Center and to establish a named professorship in the School of Hospitality Business. In addition to both being alumni, the Duffeys are members of the Athletic Director’s Campaign Leadership Council, a group of leadership donors and campaign volunteers from around the country.
Duffey will speak at the 10:00 a.m. ceremony and will receive an honorary doctorate of business. He will address graduates from the colleges of Arts and Letters, Broad Business, Education, Music, Social Science, Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and James Madison.
