Regent University Names Global Business Icon, Author & Philanthropist Ken Eldred as Keynote Speaker for Its 2019 Commencement Ceremony

Virginia Beach, VA (May 3, 2019) – Regent University has named global business icon, author and philanthropist Ken Eldred as its 2019 commencement keynote speaker. Dr. M.G. “Pat” Robertson, founder, chancellor and CEO of the university, made the announcement today.

The commencement ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 11 at 9:15 a.m. at the Regent University Library Plaza, with upwards of 10,000 people anticipated to attend. The university expects to confer 807 undergraduate and 1,508 graduate degrees – the largest graduating class in the school’s history. This brings Regent’s alumni total to more than 27,000.

Eldred has founded numerous successful companies, including Ariba Technologies, Inc. (now SAP Ariba), the first internet business-to-business company to go public – valued at $40 billion. He also founded and ran Inmac, the first direct-mail computer-products company, which went public in 1987 and later merged with MicroWarehouse. Internationally, Eldred is co-founder and director of Epicenter Technologies, a call center with over 2,500 employees, based in India.

“Regent’s dear friend and former Board member, Ken Eldred, has been acclaimed as Silicon Valley’s Entrepreneur of the Year. His brilliant insights into entrepreneurship and business management will inspire our graduates, families and friends who are attending the largest commencement in Regent history,” said Robertson.

Eldred’s recognition as Entrepreneur of the Year came in 1988. He served on the Board of Advisors for Crosspoint Venture Partners, named by Forbes as the most successful venture firm for three years in a row. He was also a member of President George W. Bush’s IT Advisory Committee and Commerce Department Transition Committee.

Eldred serves as the only non-Korean elder at Yoido Full Gospel Church, the world’s largest church with more than 800,000 members. In addition, he is on the boards of Dr. Cho Ministries International and Church Growth International. Recently, he spent five years on the board of Dr. James Dobson’s “Family Talk,” helping start and direct that new ministry. He previously served on the board of Regent University.

Eldred is the author of God Is at Work: Transforming People and Nations Through Business (Regal Books, 2005), named the number-one book in the field of business by the Business as Mission Network and now translated into seven languages. He also authored The Integrated Life: Experience the Powerful Advantage of Integrating Your Faith and Work (Manna Ventures, 2010), critically acclaimed and used at a number of universities as a text. He co-edited On Kingdom Business: Transforming Missions Through Entrepreneurial Strategies (Crossway Books, 2003), which earned a coveted Christianity Today Book Award.

Eldred currently focuses his efforts primarily on non-profit projects via Living Stones Foundation and Living Rock Foundation, two charitable entities he endowed. He is chairman of United in Purpose, an organization dedicated to seeing renewal in America.

Eldred holds a B.A. and an MBA from Stanford and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from Belhaven University. He also spent time as a visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute. He and his wife Roberta have been married since 1971.

For more information about Regent’s 2019 commencement: https://www.regent.edu/about-regent/regent-university-commencement-information/

ABOUT REGENT UNIVERSITY

Founded in 1977, Regent University has nearly 11,000 students studying on its 70-acre campus in Virginia Beach, Va., and online around the world. The university offers associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from a Christian perspective in more than 130 areas of study including business, communication and the arts, divinity, cybersecurity and technology, education, government, healthcare and nursing, law, leadership, and psychology. Currently, Regent University tops the list of Best Online Bachelor’s Programs in Virginia by U.S. News & World Report and is listed among top national universities.