Roux and his wife Barbara partnered with Northeastern in 2020 to launch the Roux Institute in Portland, Maine. He will address graduate students at 10 a.m. on Sunday, May 11, at Fenway Park in Boston.
Entrepreneur David Roux will be the speaker at Northeastern University’s 2025 graduate commencement.
The ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. on Sunday, May 11, at Fenway Park in Boston.
Roux is an advocate for “future proofing” — having a great purpose, surfing large trends and employing the most advanced technology tools to pursue dreams.
“I’m a great believer in the promise of technology and the value of innovation to create meaningful opportunities for society,” says Roux, who, with his wife Barbara, partnered with Northeastern in 2020 to launch the Roux Institute in Portland, Maine.
When Roux addresses the students, he will be encouraging his audience to use technology in pursuit of a higher calling — to be empowered by these advances without becoming defined by them.
“The key message to the graduates will be to make your life worth remembering — not an artificial or managed digital reflection,” Roux says.
Based on Northeastern’s Portland campus, which is one of 13 in its global network of campuses, the Roux Institute works in partnership with more than 200 organizations throughout Maine. It is designed to educate graduate students for the digital and life sciences sectors while driving sustained economic growth in its host city, state and region.
“When I first met Dave he had a bold vision to invest not in a company, but in a community,” says Joseph E. Aoun, president of Northeastern University. “His plan to transform Maine has turned into a partnership with Northeastern and has become a national model for reimagining innovation economies through the power of artificial intelligence, the life sciences, and the digital revolution. Dave understands that education provides opportunity and builds the future. We look forward to having him share his wisdom with our graduate students.”
Roux says he looks forward to speaking about the role that memory plays in our lives — including the ideal of being remembered — not for who you are, but what you’ve done. It’s what makes someone truly memorable, he says.
“For our society to function and for us to have a healthy culture, we need to be aware,” Roux says. “We need to be connected. And in the best of all worlds we need to be making vital contributions to the welfare of the people around us, whether those are family members, work colleagues, neighbors, whoever it may be.”
The morning ceremony for 4,200 graduate students will be followed at 4 p.m. by an undergraduate commencement ceremony. In all, 10,400 graduating students representing all 50 states and more than 125 countries will be represented at the two commencement events at iconic Fenway Park.
Roux, a native of Lewiston, Maine, is chairman of BayPine, a private investment company. He is a co-founder, former chairman and co-chief executive officer of Silver Lake, the world’s largest technology-focused private equity firm.
The Roux Institute is the product of David and Barbara Roux’s recognition that Maine needed more talent in digital and life sciences. The Rouxs’ goal was to invest in a research and innovation ecosystem that would enable Maine-based companies to get up to speed in the digital era, encourage U.S. businesses to relocate their operations to the state, and generate startup companies.
David and Barbara Roux spent two years in conversation with universities throughout North America looking for the right partner. They decided to make an investment in a partnership with Northeastern to launch the Roux Institute in Portland, Maine. The institute focuses on graduate studies and research in fields such as AI, digital engineering, and advanced life sciences, amplified by industry partnerships. It was specifically designed to be a model of how higher education can be the catalyst for economic development in regions with great potential to become innovation economies.
At a groundbreaking ceremony last September for a new Portland campus that is currently under construction, Roux offered details of the institute’s rapid growth — the hiring of more than 100 faculty and staff serving a class of 1,000 students with close to 300 graduates moving forward with their careers.
Northeastern is building the permanent campus in support of the Roux Institute as well as the new Alfond Center for learning, research and collaboration, which is supported by an investment from the Harold Alfond Foundation.
The state-of-the-art, multi-building complex on the waterfront of Portland, Maine’s largest city, will serve as a hub for education and research on AI and other high-tech, high-growth fields. In line with Northeastern’s approach throughout its global university system of 13 campuses in three countries, the new Portland campus is the result of alliances with business, civic and regional partners.
A new commitment from David and Barbara Roux helped facilitate the new campus.
Set to celebrate at Fenway Park with their families and friends, the 4,200 graduate students will have earned degrees across multiple disciplines, including computer science, engineering, health and business. Upon graduation, they will join a global network of more than 310,000 alumni who live and work in over 180 countries.