Field Museum, Apple execs speak at December commencement

Field Museum president and CEO Richard Lariviere.

Field Museum president and CEO Richard Lariviere and Apple vice president of technology Kevin Lynch will be the speakers at UIC’s first mid-year commencement Dec. 11.

Two ceremonies at the UIC Pavilion will honor students who graduate after summer and fall semesters.

Lariviere will speak at the Graduate College commencement, which begins at 2 p.m. Lynch will speak at the undergraduate commencement, beginning at 7:30 p.m., for students in the colleges of Applied Health Sciences, Architecture, Design, and the Arts, Business Administration, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Urban Planning and Public Affairs, Education and Engineering.

About 1,200 undergraduates and 850 graduate students will receive degrees.

Apple vice president of technology Kevin Lynch.

Lariviere has led the Field Museum since 2012. He was dean of liberal arts at the University of Texas at Austin, provost and executive vice chancellor at the University of Kansas and president of the University of Oregon. Companies he has worked with include Deluxe Corp., General Instrument Corp. (now part of Motorola) and Cisco Systems.

Lariviere’s career in academia and business is grounded in his expertise on India. An expert on the Indian legal system and an award-winning author of books and articles on Indian law and culture, he is fluent in French, Hindi and Sanskrit.

Lynch is vice president of technology at Apple Inc., focused on the software of the Apple Watch and the company’s health software. Before he joined Apple in 2013, he was chief technology officer at Adobe. He joined Macromedia in 1996 and led its move to web publishing, including the creation of Dreamweaver. Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005.

In 1984, Lynch helped establish one of the first Mac software startups and later helped pioneer handheld personal communicators. He studied interactive computer graphics at UIC, working with artists and engineers in the Electronic Visualization Laboratory in the College of Engineering.