Colleen McCreary, a C-suite executive for scaling technology companies, and Philip Napoli, a researcher in the field of media and democracy, will serve as speakers at the Boston University College of Communication convocation ceremonies for 2026 graduates this May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McCreary<\/a> (COM\u201995) is the chief people officer for Confluent<\/a>, a data streaming infrastructure company in Palo Alto, California, and chair of the Dean\u2019s Advisory Board<\/a> for the College of Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She will address undergraduate students at the undergraduate convocation ceremony<\/a> at 9 am, Friday, May 15, at Agannis Arena, 925 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With more than 20 years of experience in human resources, operations, recruiting, and mergers and acquisitions, McCreary brings a wealth of expertise in managing people operations to support rapid-growth technology companies. She has held executive team leadership roles through two IPOs and three company acquisitions, and served as a top people and communication executive for Ribbit Capital, Credit Karma, Vevo, Zynga and Electronic Arts. McCreary was a technical adviser for HBO\u2019s Silicon Valley, and inspired the character Tracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She holds a Bachelor of Science in mass communication and public relations from Boston University\u2019s College of Communication, and a Master of Science in higher and adult education from Columbia University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Napoli<\/a> (COM\u201994) is the James R. Shepley Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at Duke University<\/a>, where he researches media regulation and democracy, and is the director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n