Honorary Degree Recipients

At the University of Massachusetts Lowell's 2009 commencement, four honorary degrees will be awarded to:

Bernard Amadei
George L. Duncan
Chaz Maviyane-Davies
Robert C. Pozen

The Distinguished Alumni Award will be presented to Kathleen B. Allen '77.

Bernard Amadei

Bernard Amadei is professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His main research and teaching interests have initially been in geomechanics and engineering geology. He obtained his MaSc degree in Civil Engineering in 1979 from the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering in 1982 from the University of California, Berkeley. He was recently elected a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. Prof. Amadei has been extremely active in publishing papers in both scientific journals and professional meetings. He has co-authored two books and approximately 160 technical papers. His research at the University of Colorado has been multidisciplinary. He has also provided consulting services to various engineering companies and organizations around the world. Prof. Amadei’s current interests cover the topics of sustainability and international development. At the University of Colorado at Boulder, Prof. Amadei directs the new Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities (www.edc-cu.org). Its overall mission is to educate globally responsible engineering students and professionals who can offer sustainable and appropriate solutions to the problems faced by developing communities worldwide. Prof. Amadei is also the Founding President of Engineers Without Borders - USA (www.ewb-usa.org) and co-founder of Engineers Without Borders-International (www.ewb-international.org). The mission of EWB-USA is to partner with disadvantaged communities to improve their quality of life through implementation of sustainable engineering projects, while involving and training internationally responsible engineering professionals and students. Prof. Amadei’s goal is to promote sustainable development, appropriate technology, service learning, and system thinking in the curriculum and research of civil and environmental engineering programs at CU Boulder and other U.S. universities.

top

George L. Duncan

George L. Duncan is founding chairman of Enterprise Bank, which opened for business on Jan. 3, 1989.  In 20 years the bank has grown to a 16-branch network with $1.18 billion in total assets, $440 million in investment assets under management, and $1.65 billion in total assets under management as of Dec. 31, 2008.  Duncan was also the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of First Bank, another high-performing local commercial and community bank prior to establishing Enterprise Bank. In addition to founding Enterprise Bank, Duncan’s entrepreneurial spirit carried on as founding Treasurer of the Greater Lowell Technical High School; founding incorporator and past board member of the Merrimack Repertory Theatre, founding President of the Lowell Development and Financial Corporation, which is now a national model for private/public partnerships; and founding President of the Lowell Telecommunications Corp. Duncan serves on numerous boards and committees of business-oriented, professional, civic, and cultural organizations. Duncan became chairman of the Board of Trustees of Lowell General Hospital in May 2008 — an honor that culminates over 25 years of leadership and commitment to the health-care needs of our community. He is a board member and former president of the Greater Lowell Community Foundation and is on the Advisory Committees of the Revolving Museum and the Whistler House Museum of Art. Duncan serves on the boards of the Greater Lowell Technical High School Charitable Foundation, UMass Lowell School of Health and Environment, City of Lowell Green Building Commission, the Lowell Cemetery, and former Board Member of the Coalition for a Better Acre.  In November 2007, Duncan received the Lowell High School Distinguished Alumni Award and in 2006 he was the recipient of The Revolving Museum’s Renaissance Award. He is married to Carol and has two grown children, Alison  and Andrew.

top

Chaz Maviyane-Davies

Chaz Maviyane-Davies has been described by the UK’s Design magazine as “the guerrilla of graphic design.” For more than two decades the award-winning, controversial designer’s powerful work has taken on issues of consumerism, health, nutrition, social responsibility, the environment and human rights. A native of Zimbabwe, he is currently professor at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. From 1983 until recently he ran the renowned design studio in Harare, Zimbabwe, The Maviyane-Project. Due to adverse political conditions in his homeland, Maviyane-Davies moved to the USA in 2001. As well as being published in numerous books, international magazines and newspapers, his work has been exhibited extensively and is included in several permanent collections at various galleries. When Maviyane-Davies was a teenager in the 1960s, posters from Cuba and the U.S. black power movement helped put the anticolonial struggle of his home country, then known as Rhodesia, in a global context. This global perspective continues to inform his work, which often uses African proverbs and cultural symbols to illuminate present-day concerns about human rights, the environment, and other social justice causes. Chaz’s Post-Graduate Design work was specifically aimed at designing and organizing information data sheets to enable doctors and prescribers to make optimum use of drugs/medicines. He received an Advanced Diploma in Postgraduate Filmmaking at the Central St Martins School of Art & Design (London) 1991. He has studied and worked in Britain, Japan, Malaysia, the U.S. and Zimbabwe. He is now at work on a book that anthologizes his art and tells his life story. He also hopes to secure funding to complete posters for the remaining 18 articles in the Declaration of Human Rights poster series.

top

Robert C. Pozen

Robert C. Pozen was awarded a Knox Traveling Fellowship after graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College. He continued his education at Yale Law School, and received a J.S.D. from Yale after completing his doctorial thesis on state enterprises in Africa. Currently, Pozen serves on the Board of Directors for the Commonwealth Fund, a charitable foundation that aims to promote a high performing health-care system. He also serves on the Council for the Harvard Neuro Discovery Center, a biomedical research group that focuses on cures for treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Pozen is Chairman of MFS Investment Management, which manages more than $150 billion in assets for over 5 million investors worldwide. He is an independent director of Medtronic, an innovative medical device company.  He also served as Secretary of Economic Affairs under Massachusetts Gov.Mitt Romney, where he helped develop the state’s individual mandate for health insurance. In late 2001 and 2002, Pozen served on President Bush’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security. He formulated two models for closing the system’s long-term deficit: “Retiring on a Budget,” New York Times (Feb 2004), and “Arm Yourself for the Coming Battle over Social Security,” Harvard Business Review (Nov 2002). More recently, his proposal to restore solvency to Social Security, known as progressive indexing, has been supported by Democrats and Republicans as an important part of Social Security reform.

top

Kathleen B. Allen '77

Kathleen Beaumont Allen was elected Corporate Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Millipore Corp. in 2000. Prior to that, Allen held a wide variety of positions in Millipore's financial organization since joining the company in 1983, including serving as Millipore's Corporate Controller and Chief Accounting Officer.  Prior to joining Millipore, Allen practiced public accounting for six years with Arthur Young and Company. She stepped down as Chief Financial Officer of Millipore in 2007, continuing as a corporate vice president until her retirement in 2008. Millipore is a Life Science leader, based in Billerica, providing technologies, tools and services for bioscience research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing.  Millipore is an S&P 500 company with more than 5,900 employees worldwide and revenues of $1.6 Billion in 2008. In 2005 Allen spoke at the Senior Executive Forum.  The annual series is sponsored by the UMass Lowell Office of University Advancement and the College of Management and offers a unique opportunity to engage in informal discussion with accomplished executives.  Allen was a recipient of the Francis Cabot Lowell Award in 2003 and is a member of the College of Management Advisory board. Allen and her husband Peter live in North Reading.  They have three sons.
 

top