Jim Collins, an internationally renowned business researcher and author, will give the commencement address at the spring ceremony on Friday, May 11, at 9:30 a.m. in Folsom Stadium.
Collins, who grew up in Boulder, founded a management laboratory in Boulder in 1995 where he conducts multi-year research projects and works with executives from the corporate and social sectors. His research focuses primarily on the traits of effective leadership and how good companies can become great ones.
He is perhaps best known for co-authoring "Built to Last," a highly regarded book that has sold more than a million copies worldwide and has been translated into 17 languages.
Over the past 10 years, Collins said he has learned a great deal about what separates great institutions from the rest of the pack. He said he will talk about some of the strategies to the graduating class, because many of the factors that lead to a successful company also relate to life in general.
Collins has worked with senior executives and CEOs from more than 100 corporations and other enterprises including Starbucks Coffee, Johnson & Johnson, Patagonia, Johns Hopkins Medical School and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
Later this year he will be releasing a new book, "Good to Great," which will be based on research compiled over the past five years. During that time, he has employed more than a dozen CU-Boulder graduate students from the Graduate School of Business Administration and from the School of Law to help with the research.
Collins began his research and teaching career on the baby直播app at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where he taught for seven years.