Spring 2012 (PDF) - Virginia Tech

UNIVERSITY COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER
United States Senator, Commonwealth of Virginia
The Honorable Mark R. Warner
Mark Warner was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008 and currently serves on the Senate’s Banking, Budget, Commerce
and Intelligence committees. Senator Warner also is a champion for small businesses, and he has been a leader in
Congress in efforts to reduce unnecessary regulations and encourage more start-up businesses. He also has established
himself as a leader in efforts to find bipartisan consensus in reducing the federal debt.
From 2002 to 2006, he served as Governor of Virginia, where he worked in a bipartisan way to turn a record budget
deficit into a surplus. Governor Warner also focused on improving public education and expanding economic opportunity,
and he recruited 135,000 new jobs to Virginia during his four-year term. When he left office in 2006, Virginia was
recognized as the nation’s “best-managed state,” the “best state for business,” and the state that offered the best
educational opportunities to its young people.
Before entering public office, Senator Warner was an early leader in the cellular phone business. He co-founded the
company that became Nextel, and made early investments in hundreds of start-up companies.
As Governor, he made a strong commitment to public education in Virginia, including a goal to make Virginia’s colleges
and universities national leaders in the arts, the sciences, and technology. He led a statewide campaign to secure more
than $900 million in bonds for critical capital improvement and expansion projects at Virginia’s colleges and universities
as well as Virginia’s state-supported museums and cultural agencies.
He also endorsed the Restructuring Initiative for Higher Education, granting more autonomy in administrative areas to
Virginia’s public institutions of higher education, and helping ensure that Virginia students have access to an affordable
and quality education. He also played a leadership role in developing the Higher Education Research Initiative, which
provided vital research dollars for state universities and spurred economic development.
Senator Warner also serves as the honorary chairman of A Billion+Change, a philanthropic effort that has enlisted
hundreds of U.S. companies to donate more than a billion-and-a-half dollars in volunteer service by their employees to
support our nation’s nonprofit organizations.
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