Speakers:
Sidney Harman, Ph.D., Executive Chairman, Harman International Industries Incorporated
Tyler Kemp, USC Annenberg Class of 2005
Location: McCarthy Quad
Sidney Harman, Ph.D.Executive Chairman, Harman International Industries Incorporated
Dr. Harman is one of the handful of pioneers who began the high-fidelity industry with the founding of Harman/Kardon, Inc. in 1952. Harman/Kardon grew into
Harman International Industries, a Fortune 500 company, which Dr. Harman now serves as Executive Chairman.
He is widely known for the Quality of Working Life programs he initiated at the Company’s plants and especially so for the program at Bolivar, Tennessee (begun in 1969), which has become a model for such activities in American industry and a principal case study at business schools in the United States and abroad.
For three years, Dr. Harman was President of Friends World College, a worldwide experimental Quaker college. He is the founder and an active member of the Program on Technology, Public Policy and Human Development at the John F. Kennedy of Government, Harvard University, and a member of the Advisory Committee of the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program at the same institution.
Dr. Harman serves on the boards of the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, The Carter Center and the Public Agenda Foundation. He is also a member of the Board of the Leadership Institute of the University of Southern California.
He is the co-author, with Daniel Yankelovich, of
Starting With The People, published by Houghton Mifflin in June 1988, and the author of
Mind Your Own Business, published by Currency/Doubleday in October 2003.
Having served on the boards of numerous leading educational, public service and philanthropic organizations, Dr. Harman has been a trustee of the Martin Luther King Center for Social Change, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and the National Symphony Orchestra.
Currently, Dr. Harman serves as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of BENS (Business Executives for National Security) and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Public Agenda Foundation. He is a member of the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the Council on Competitiveness.
Dr. Harman is a Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Tyler KempUSC Annenberg Class of 2005
After graduating from high school, Tyler Kemp, a native of Los Gatos, Calif., enlisted in the Marine Reserves and attended Marymount College in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. Following his freshman year, he was sent to recruit training (“boot camp”) in San Diego, where he graduated first in his class of 722. After receiving a meritorious promotion to Lance Corporal, Tyler returned to Marymount College where he served as the captain of the golf team before graduating with an Associate of Arts degree, with honors, in 2001. He attended the School of Infantry at Camp Pendleton before transferring to USC in Fall 2001. At USC, Tyler pledged Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and was elected president of his fraternity pledge class. Shortly after the school year began, his military unit was activated in response to the September 11th attacks. In 2002, the unit took on the mission of counter-terrorism Quick Reaction Force (QRF) for the central and western United States. His unit was then sent to Kuwait in early 2003 and shortly after, was deployed to Iraq as part of the initial wave of U.S. forces sent to invade Baghdad. Upon returning home from Iraq, Tyler’s unit was deactivated and he returned to USC in fall 2003. While at USC, he tutored first graders at Weemes Elementary as part of USC’s Joint Education Project. He was also one of the founding members of Youths Exploring Passion (Y.E.P.), a mentorship program for USC students working with at-risk neighborhood teenagers. Tyler was a “flanker” on USC’s varsity rugby team (undefeated in ’05), and played outfield for the Annenberg All-Stars intramural softball team. He continues to serve in the Marine Reserves as a Non-Commissioned Officer. Tyler would like to thank his mother, Melanie Kemp, his father and stepmother, Randall and Marsha Kemp, and his sister, Brodi Kemp, for their continued support and encouragement, and for helping make it possible for him to be here today to celebrate with his classmates and friends at the USC Annenberg School.