Newswise — Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani will be the keynote speaker at The University of Southern Mississippi’s Centennial Celebration Commencement ceremony Saturday, May 15, in M.M. Roberts Stadium.
“I think Mississippians, perhaps more than others, can appreciate a hero. Strong leadership in the midst of chaos changes lives and gives people reason to hope and work and endure,” said Southern Miss President Martha Saunders. “Rudy Giuliani earned the country’s admiration for his role in the aftermath of 9/11. I am eager to hear his thoughts on lessons learned from tragedy.”
More than 1,500 students who are candidates for graduation from all university locations are expected to participate in the ceremony. Southern Miss has graduated more than 120,000 students in its 100-year history.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Giuliani began his career as a law clerk to United States District Court Judge Lloyd F. MacMahon in the Southern District of New York. In 1970, he joined the office of the U.S. Attorney and was soon named chief of the Narcotics Unit and promoted to the position of Executive U.S. Attorney. In 1973, at age 29, Mr. Giuliani was placed in charge of the police corruption cases resulting from the highly publicized Knapp Commission report.
Two years later, Giuliani was recruited to Washington, D.C., where he was appointed Associate Deputy Attorney General and chief of staff to the Deputy Attorney General. In 1977, he returned to New York to practice law and joined the firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler.
A graduate of New York University Law School, Giuliani was appointed in 1981 by President Reagan as Associate Attorney General, the Department of Justice’s third-highest position. In this role, Giuliani supervised the U.S. Attorney offices nationwide, as well as federal law enforcement agencies, including the Bureau of Corrections, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Marshals Service. In 1983, he became U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he earned a national reputation for his efforts to eradicate organized and white-collar crime and government corruption. During his high-profile prosecutorial career, Mr. Giuliani secured 4,152 convictions, with only 25 reversals.
Following his tenure as a U.S. Attorney, Mr. Giuliani returned to private practice as a partner at White & Case and later as a partner at Anderson, Kill and Olick.
In 1993, Mr. Giuliani was elected as the 107th mayor of the City of New York, becoming the first Republican elected to the position in a generation. He was re-elected in 1997, and by the end of his second term in 2001, the city’s crime rate had fallen by 57 percent, prompting the FBI to rate New York as America’s safest large city.
A number of novel law enforcement strategies implemented under Mayor Giuliani’s leadership became models for other cities around the world, including the CompStat program for monitoring criminal activity, which won the 1996 Innovations in Government Award from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
In recognition of his leadership of the city following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Time magazine named Mr. Giuliani the 2001 “Person of the Year.” He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and was presented the Ronald Reagan Presidential Freedom Award by former First Lady Nancy Reagan.
In 2002, Giuliani formed Giuliani Partners, a New York-based consulting firm specializing in security, preparedness and crisis management, and became the firm’s chief executive officer. That same year, he was named Consultant of the Year by Consulting magazine. He also is the author of the best-selling book, “Leadership” (2002), in which he reflected on decision-making, management skills and the 9/11 crisis.
A one-time contender for the Republican Presidential nomination, Giuliani is a name partner in the Bracewell & Giuliani law firm since 2005.
The Southern Miss commencement ceremony will begin at 9 a.m. and will include students from the university’s campuses in Hattiesburg and Long Beach in one united ceremony. During 2010 the university is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its legislative founding on March 30, 1910.
More information about the day’s ceremony is found online at www.usm.edu/commencement.
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