2026 Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipients

Photo of man smiling in in front of city building in gray suite with crossed arms and wearing glassesCommencement Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipient

David McCourt

Chairman and CEO, Granahan McCourt Capital

David McCourt is an internationally regarded business leader and investor, best-selling author, Emmy award-winning TV producer and philanthropist.

The Economist describes David as possessing "impeccable credentials as a telecom revolutionary", while the New York Times once pointed to his revolutionary talents by referring to him as “Che Guevara in a suit”.

Early in his career, David founded Corporate Communications Network, America’s first competitive phone company, which was later merged with MFS Communications to create MFS McCourt. MFS later sold to WorldCom for $14.3 billion. Following this transaction, David went on to build telecom networks all over Europe and South America.

Today, he’s the founder and chairman of National Broadband Ireland, responsible for delivering the Irish Government’s €5 billion National Broadband Plan. This is the largest Public Private Partnership in global telecoms and is widely considered one of the most ambitious infrastructure rollouts in the world.

Portrait photo of man smiling, in blue jacket, wearing glasses with a dark backgroundHonorary Degree Recipient

Michael Hoge

Professor of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine; and Director, Yale Behavioral Health

Michael Hoge, PhD, is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and Director of Yale Behavioral Health, which provides mental health and substance use services to adolescents and adults. Trained as a clinical psychologist, he is a founding member and Senior Science and Policy Advisor of The Annapolis Coalition on the Behavioral Health Workforce. He is the senior editor or author of three major works by the Coalition: the SAMHSA-funded national Action Plan on Behavioral Health Workforce Development; the Alaskan Core Competencies for Direct Care Workers in Health and Human Services; and the SAMHSA and HRSA-funded Core Competencies for Integrated Behavioral Health and Primary Care. Most recently he developed and delivered the Coalition’s intensive Recruitment and Retention Learning Collaboratives in Behavioral Health across the nation. Michael has presented and published widely on workforce challenges and strategies and consulted to the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health and countless federal and state agencies, foundations, and provider organizations. He has been a member of two National Academy of Medicine (IOM) Committees that addressed mental health and substance use workforce issues for older adults and individuals with cancer. He also served as Chair of the Behavioral Health Professional and Technical Advisory Committee of The Joint Commission.

portrait of asian adult male with no hair, and in a dark jacket with neutral backgroundHonorary Degree Recipient

Paul W. Lee

Co-founder and Chair, Asian Community Fund, Boston Foundation

Paul W. Lee is Co-founder and Chair of the Asian Community Fund at the Boston Foundation which is working to unite the AAPI community in MA to build a stronger collective voice. He is also Co-founder of the Asian Business Empowerment Council which assists AAPI owned small businesses in MA. He is a retired partner at Goodwin Procter LLP in Boston where he was a corporate transactions lawyer and one of the first Asian American partners at a Boston law firm.

Born in Boston Chinatown, Paul has devoted himself to serving the Asian American community as well as all communities of color in MA and nationally. He was Co-founder and first President of the Asian American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts, Co-founder and past Board President of the Asian Community Development Corporation which develops affordable housing in Chinatown and other Asian American communities. Nationally, He is a past President of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and past Board Chair of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC, the leading national Asian American civil rights organization. Paul is a member of the Boards of the Conservation Law Foundation, WGBH and the Coalition for Anti-Racism and Equity in Education (CARE) and a past Board member of the Boston Foundation and Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence. Paul has been recognized for his community service numerous times, including the American Bar Association Spirit of Excellence Award for Diversity and Inclusion, Boston Bar Association Beacon Award for Diversity and Inclusion, United Chinese Americans National Public Service Award, Greater Boston’s 100 Most Influential People of Color, Harry Dow Memorial Legal Assistance Fund Long Arc of Justice Award, Chinese Historical Society of New England Sojourner Award and Josiah Quincy Elementary School Humble Dragon Award.