Trump to give commencement address at West Point: These CEOs are graduates
President Donald Trump will speak at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point's commencement ceremony over the weekend.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Thursday the president will "deliver the commencement address" at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, on Saturday morning.
This comes after Trump said in late April that he had "agreed to do the Commencement Address at two really GREAT places, the University of Alabama and, WEST POINT."
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While the academy is best-known for producing Army officers, including Gen. George S. Patton and Gen. Douglas MacArthur as well as Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower, some of its graduates have gone on to become CEOs of major companies.
Here are some current CEOs who graduated from West Point.
Ken Hicks, a graduate of the Class of 1974 who served in the Army, currently helms PetSmart. He became the pet supplies retailer’s CEO in October after holding the top job at Academy Sports + Outdoors. He was also the CEO of Foot Locker for several years.
Steve Smith became the CEO of communications infrastructure company Zayo Group in 2020. Prior to that, he worked as managing partner of GI Partners and as CEO of Equinix, with the latter position running from 2007 to 2008, according to his biography on Zayo Group’s website. He spent eight years in the Army.
Joe DePinto graduated from the military academy in 1986, according to West Point. Since 2005, he has been CEO of 7-Eleven Inc., which "operates, franchises and/or licenses more than 13,000 stores" in North America, according to the company.
Anthony Noto is the CEO of SoFi. He came to the financial services company from Twitter, now X, where he served first as its chief financial officer and later as its chief operating officer. He was part of West Point’s Class of 1991, according to the military academy.
Flowserve, a flow control products and service provider, has had West Point graduate R. Scott Rowe as its CEO for about eight years. He had been president of the Cameron Group before that and led Cameron International Corporation as CEO before its merger with Schlumberger, according to Flowserve.
Other graduates of West Point went on to become business leaders.
For example, the late James Kimsey, a Class of 1962 graduate, co-founded AOL and was its first CEO.
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Former Procter & Gamble CEO Robert McDonald, former Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky and former Campbell’s Company CEO Mark Clouse are also graduates.
Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick was part of West Point’s Class of 1987, according to the academy. He was CEO of Bridgewater Associates before he launched his campaign for the U.S. Senate.