USC Annenberg will award doctoral, master's and bachelor's degrees to more than 700 graduates on May 15 at the 2009 commencement ceremonies.
Former president and CEO of E! Entertainment Television and executive vice president and general manager of MTV and VH1 Jarl Mohn and Executive Producer and host of KCRW’s Which Way L.A.? and To the Point Warren Olney will deliver keynote speeches at the
Olney will speak at the Journalism Satellite Ceremony held in USC's Argue Plaza and Mohn will speak at the Communication Satellite Ceremony held in USC's McCarthy Quad. Both ceremonies begin at 10:30 a.m. — after the main University activities conclude. The University-wide ceremony starts at 8:30 a.m. with a recommended arrival time of 7 a.m. or earlier. If you are not attending the University-wide ceremony, please arrive at the Satellite ceremonies no later than 10:15 a.m.
Students from this year's graduating class have been named PRWeek's Student of the Year, awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and earned top national honors from the Society of Professional Journalists, among many other honors and accolades.
Mohn, formerly known as Lee Masters, has been in the media business for 42 years. The first 19 years were in radio as a disc jockey, then program director, station manager and, finally, as owner of a group of stations. Mohn then ran MTV and VH1 in the mid and late ’80s. In 1990 he became the founding CEO of E! Entertainment Television, which he ran for nine years. He then founded Liberty Digital, a publicly traded company that invested in Internet, technology and interactive television companies such as Tivo and Priceline.com. He left Liberty Digital in 2002 to do venture investing for his own account.
He has served on the boards of numerous public companies including XM Satellite Radio, The Scripps Networks (owner of Food Network and HGTV) and comScore. He was chairman of CNET Networks until the company was sold to CBS in 2008. He and his wife, Pamela, created The Mohn Family Foundation in 2000, with a mission to support numerous organizations involved in literacy, the environment and civil liberties.
Olney is the Executive Producer and host of KCRW’s Which Way, LA? and To the Point. Which Way, LA? became an influential Southern California program in June of 1992, covering the L.A. Race Riots. Olney and both of his programs have been honored with nearly 40 national, regional and local awards for broadcast excellence and Olney is the only person to have been twice named "Broadcast Journalist of the Year" by the Society of Professional Journalists, Los Angeles for his work in both radio and television. He is the recipient of Emmy Awards for reporting and anchoring, and Golden Mikes for investigative reporting.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be the Commencement speaker for the University ceremony.
