Angel Cabrera

George Mason University President Ángel Cabrera will be the keynote speaker at Northern Virginia Community College’s 47th Commencement on Sunday, May 19. During the ceremony, Bobbie Kilberg, president and CEO of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, will be awarded an honorary associate degree in humane letters in recognition of her lifelong public service and support for higher education.

The ceremony, which is open to the public, begins at 2 p.m., in George Mason University’s Patriot Center.

Dr. Cabrera was named the sixth president of George Mason University effective July 2012. Mason is an innovative, entrepreneurial institution with global distinction in more than 200 academic fields. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., Mason provides its 33,000 students from 136 countries access to diverse cultural experiences and some of the most sought-after faculty, internships and employers in the country. Named a top “Up-and-Coming University” by U.S. News & World Report and a “Best Value in Public Colleges” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Mason is a leading example of a modern, public research university.

Prior to joining Mason, Cabrera served as the 11th president of Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona from 2004 to 2012, being designated President Emeritus in April 2012. He was professor and dean of IE Business School in Madrid, Spain, from 1998 to 2004. Thunderbird is regarded as the world’s leading graduate school of international management and IE Business School has been ranked by the Financial Times among the top 10 business schools in the world. During the last decade, Cabrera pioneered efforts to educate women entrepreneurs in emerging markets and co-founded The Oath Project, an international initiative to establish a code of conduct for business leaders. In 2011, the Financial Times recognized him as one of the top 20 business school leaders in the world.

Cabrera’s expertise in international business and higher education has been recognized by top international organizations. The World Economic Forum named him a “Global Leader for Tomorrow” in 2002 and a “Young Global Leader” in 2005. Two years later, the United Nations asked him to chair the international task force that developed the U.N.’s “Principles for Responsible Management Education.” In 2008, the World Economic Forum appointed him chairman of the Global Agenda Council for promoting entrepreneurship, and The Aspen Institute named him a Henry Crown Fellow. In 2010, he was named topic leader for the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative.

Cabrera is a frequent speaker at prestigious international forums and he has written numerous papers in leading academic journals. His latest book, “Being Global: How to Think, Act and Lead in a Transformed World,” was published by Harvard Business Review. His views on global leadership, higher education and corporate citizenship have been quoted by leading global media, including The Economist, Time, CNN, CNBC, El País, Forbes, the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. Business Week honored him in 2004 as one of 25 “Stars of Europe.”

Cabrera serves on the board of specialty retailer PetSmart. He also serves on the boards of the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars (Fulbright Scholar Program), ESSEC Business School, and the Iberoamerican Academy of Management and the Bankinter Foundation for Innovation in Madrid. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Future Trends Forum in Madrid, and he is the past chairman of the Georgia Tech Advisory Board.

A native of Spain, Cabrera holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain’s premier engineering university. He earned master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology and cognitive science from the Georgia Institute of Technology, which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar.

Bobbie Kilberg

Bobbie Kilberg has been president and CEO of the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) since September 1998. NVTC is the largest technology council in the nation with about 1,000 member companies employing 200,000 people in the Potomac region. In December 2001, she was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) during his term in office.

Kilberg is a graduate of Yale University Law School (J.D.), Columbia University (M.A.) and Vassar College (B.A.). As a White House Fellow, she served on the staff of President Richard Nixon’s Domestic Policy Council. Following that position, she was an attorney with the Washington law firm of Arnold & Porter and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Mount Vernon College. She served as Associate Counsel to the President under President Gerald Ford, as Director of the Aspen Institute’s Project on the Future of Private Philanthropy, and as Vice President and General Counsel of the Roosevelt Center for American Policy Studies. She held two consecutive positions for President George H. W. Bush, as Deputy Assistant to the President for the Office of Public Liaison and as Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

In Virginia, Kilberg has served on the Speaker’s Citizens Advisory Committee on Legislative Compensation; the Joint Judicial Advisory Committee for the merit selection of judges; the Attorney General’s Task Forces on Identity Theft, Regulatory Reform and Economic Development, and Youth Internet Safety; and the Governor’s Northern Virginia BRAC Working Group. In November 2009, Governor-elect Bob McDonnell named her as one of the five co-chairs of his Transition Team. From 2010 to 2012, she served on the Governor’s Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring and the Governor’s Commission on Military and National Security Facilities.

Kilberg has been very involved in her community. She is a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, and the boards of directors of the Equal Footing Foundation, the American Action Forum and Grandma Rita’s Children, a special trips camp for at-risk children. She is also a member of the boards of directors of United Bank and RG Group Inc. Kilberg formerly served on the boards of trustees/directors of The George Washington University, public television station WETA, the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, The Potomac School, U.S. Naval Academy (Board of Visitors), U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, Lab School of Washington, and the Greater Washington Sports Alliance.

In July 2009, Kilberg was named Business Leader of the Year by Washingtonian magazine. Washingtonian also named her as one of the 100 Tech Titans of Washington in 2011 and 2009, one of Washington’s 100 Most Powerful Women in 2009 and 2011, and one of the region’s 150 Most Powerful People in 2007. Virginia Business magazine named Kilberg one of the 25 People You Need to Know in 2011 and one of the 50 Most Influential Virginians in 2013. In 2012, she was named to the Power 100 lists of both the Washington Business Journal and Washington Life magazine and received the Elizabeth J. Somers Faculty Award from the George Washington University Mount Vernon Campus and Alumnae Association. Kilberg was named one of the Influential Women of Virginia by Virginia Lawyers Weekly and the inaugural recipient of the NOVAForward Award from the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce in 2011. She has also received the 2001 Anti-Defamation League’s Women of Achievement Award, a 2001 Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship from the Virginia-Israel Technology Trade Summit, the Volunteer Fairfax 2003 Community Champion Award, the 2003 Girls Inc. D.C. Celebration Honoree Award, the 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Technology, the 2005 Women Who Mean Business Award from Washington Business Journal, and the 2007 Bravo Women Business Achievement Award and 2008 Choice Award from Washington SmartCEO.

Kilberg has sought elected political office twice in Virginia, in 1987 as the Republican candidate for the State Senate and in 1993 as a candidate for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. She lives in McLean, Va., with her husband Bill Kilberg, a senior partner at the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. They have five children and six grandchildren.

By: NOVA Fortnightly Staff

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