College Announces 2022 Commencement Keynote Speakers

April 15, 2022

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Zipcar President Tracey Zhen will serve as keynote speakers for the college’s 114^th Commencement on May 14, 2022. Zhen will speak at a 10AM Commencement Ceremony honoring Automotive and HVAC&R Technology graduates and Wu will speak at a 2PM Commencement Ceremony honoring graduates of all other programs.

“We are extremely excited to be hosting these two accomplished leaders as speakers for our first in-person Commencement Ceremony since 2019,” said President & CEO Aisha Francis, PhD. “Their work is closely aligned with our institutional mission. Zipcar, which Tracey Zhen has helmed since 2017, exemplifies the type of innovative tech companies where our graduates help evolve long-standing industries. Mayor Michelle Wu is focused on expanding economic opportunity for students like ours by creating a more equitable path to high paying clean tech jobs, and clearing a pathway for their tangible involvement in making Boston a Green New Deal City.”

The college is holding two separate ceremonies to allow social distancing by our students and guests as a COVID-19 safety precaution. Both ceremonies will take place in the Auditorium on the college’s South End campus and will also be livestreamed at www.bfit.edu/GraduationLive.

Founded in 1908 in Boston, we are a private, nonprofit college that offers affordable certificate, associate, and bachelor’s degree programs in variety of high-demand technology fields. Through personalized support, hands-on learning, and industry-informed curricula, the college prepares graduates for work, life-long learning, and citizenship. Graduates work in the following fields: Automotive and Autonomous Vehicle Technology, CAD Drafting, CNC Machining, Computer Information Technology, Construction Management, Cybersecurity, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Technology, Engineering Technology (including Renewable Energy, Mechatronics, and Advanced Manufacturing & Automation), Health Information Technology (including Data Analytics and Public Health), HVAC&R Technology, Opticianry, Network & Systems Support, Practical Electricity, Software Development, and Web Design Multimedia.

Speaker Bios

MICHELLE WU is the Mayor of Boston. She is a daughter of immigrants, Boston Public Schools mom to two boys, MBTA commuter, and fierce believer that we can solve our deepest challenges through building community. As Mayor, Michelle is working in coalition to deliver bold, systemic change and make Boston a city for everyone.

Mayor Wu has been a voice for accessibility, transparency, and community engagement in city leadership. First elected to the Boston City Council in November 2013 at the age of 28, Wu is the first Asian-American woman to serve on the Council. In January 2016, she was elected President of the City Council by her colleagues in a unanimous vote, becoming the first woman of color to serve as Council President.

As a Councilor, Mayor Wu was the lead sponsor of Boston’s Paid Parental Leave ordinance and Healthcare Equity ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity — both of which passed unanimously through the Council and were signed into law by former Mayor Martin J. Walsh. She also authored Boston’s Communications Access ordinance, which guarantees translation, interpretation and assistive technology for access to City services regardless of English language proficiency or communications disability.

Wu got her start in City Hall working for Mayor Thomas M. Menino as a Rappaport Fellow in Law and Public Policy, where she created the city’s first guide to the restaurant permitting process from start to finish, and was also a driving force to launch Boston’s food truck program. She later served as statewide Constituency Director in the U.S. Senate campaign of her former law professor, Elizabeth Warren.

As a former restaurant owner, legal services attorney, and legal guardian of her younger sister, Wu understands firsthand the barriers that families and communities face.  She has a background in community advocacy, having worked at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center in Jamaica Plain, providing legal advice to low-income small business owners, as well as at the Medical-Legal Partnership at Boston Medical Center on immigration law cases for survivors of domestic violence.

In 2016, Councilor Wu was honored as one of Ten Outstanding Young Leaders by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and as part of Marie Claire magazine’s New Guard: The 50 Most Influential Women in America.

Mayor Wu graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. She is fluent in Mandarin and Spanish, and lives in Roslindale with her husband Conor and her sons Blaise and Cass.

TRACEY ZHEN is president of Zipcar, the world’s leading car-sharing network, where she leads all facets of the business. As president, she is focused on innovation and leveraging technology to grow Zipcar’s position as a key player in the mobility industry.

Zhen has more than 20 years of experience in leadership roles at consumer technology companies, including senior management roles at TripAdvisor and Expedia where she oversaw business strategy, finance, operations, product development, and marketing.

Prior to Zipcar, Zhen held vice president roles at Tripadvisor, where she oversaw the company’s vacation rental brands, scaling the business and growing revenue through strategic acquisitions and the restructuring of its vacation rental business models. At Expedia, Zhen served as general manager for emerging markets and strategy, leading international business growth in Europe and Latin America. At Expedia, Zhen launched new markets, built a European strategy team, and scaled the business to multi-million-dollar growth. Zhen has a proven track record of scaling start-up businesses through product innovation, technology platform development, and consumer marketing.

Zhen started her career in investment banking at Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc., and she held senior roles at IAC where she built and oversaw a finance and analytics team, was responsible for new business development and subsequent wind-down, and aided corporate restructurings and capital financings.

Zhen is a graduate of New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, holding dual BS degrees in Finance and Information Systems. Zhen serves on the Board of Directors for Macy’s Inc., the Advisory Board of the Taubman Center at the Harvard Kennedy School, is Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council.