Robert Burgess knows what it takes to lead a troubled company into the black.

Burgess, former CEO of Macromedia and current board member at Adobe Systems, received an honorary degree from the Faculty of Business last week.

Having had a successful career as a “turn-around CEO,” he encouraged the Class of 2014 to take advantage of every opportunity and find ways to grow and innovate with the current technology.

“Every product, every industry, every management process, and every commercial endeavour is forever already changed,” said Burgess, who graduated from McMaster in 1979. “And it’s in line with the design sensibilities that you graduates grew up on.”

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