Business Convocation kicks off week of graduations

More than 600 business degrees will be awarded Monday at the DeGroote School of Business’ Convocation ceremony.

The event is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. at Hamilton Place in downtown Hamilton.

Robert Burgess, who served as CEO of software company Macromedia and who later joined the board of Adobe Systems, will receive and honorary degree at the ceremony.

Burgess holds a bachelor of commerce from McMaster and has received the Michael DeGroote Distinguished Alumni Award.

Read: Rob Burgess: A lifetime interest in service 

Now on the Board of Directors at Adobe, which purchased Macromedia in 2005, and other tech companies in the Silicon Valley area, Burgess looks back on a successful career as a “turnaround CEO” and credits his time at McMaster with starting that trend.

Burgess had no grand design for being a turn-around CEO. “I never had the ambition of being CEO until I was one,” he says. “I never really applied for a job – one thing just led to the next.”

The 2014 spring convocation ceremony will confer degrees on 482 Bachelor of Commerce graduates and 278 graduates of DeGroote’s Master of Business Administration program.