2025 – Hank Green, science communicator, video creator, and entrepreneur
2024 – Noubar Afeyan, Flagship Pioneering CEO and Moderna co-founder
2023 – Mark Rober, engineer, educator, and founder of CrunchLabs
2022 – Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization
2022 (Special Ceremony for the Classes of 2020 and 2021) – Kealoha Wong, Poet Laureate of Hawai‘i
2021 – Bryan Stevenson, Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative
2020 – William H. McRaven, US Navy Admiral, Retired, and Chancellor, University of Texas System 2015–2018
2019 – Michael Bloomberg, Founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies
2018 – Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook
2017 – Tim Cook, Chief Executive Officer of Apple
2016 – Matt Damon, Actor, Filmmaker, and Co-Founder of Water.org
2015 – Megan Smith, Chief Technology Officer of the United States
2014 – Ellen Kullman, Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, DuPont
2013 – Drew Houston, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Dropbox
2012 – Salman Khan, Founder and Executive Director, Khan Academy
2011 – Ursula M. Burns, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Xerox Corporation
2010 – Raymond S. Stata, Chairman and Co-Founder of Analog Devices, Inc.
2009 – Deval Patrick, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
2008 – Muhammad Yunus, Managing Director, Grameen Bank and Nobel Peace Prize Recipient, 2006
2007 – Charles Vest, President-elect, National Academy of Engineering and President Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2006 – Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve
2005 – Irwin Jacobs, Co-Founder, Chair of the Board of Directors, and Chief Executive Officer of QUALCOMM
2004 – Elias Zerhouni, Director of the National Institutes of Health
2003 – George Mitchell, Former United States Senator from Maine
2002 – James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group
2001 – Daniel Goldin, Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
2000 – Carleton Fiorina, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Hewlett-Packard Company
1999 – Raymond and Thomas Magliozzi, Hosts of the National Public Radio Series, "Car Talk"
1998 – William Clinton, President of the United States | David Ho, Physician and AIDS Researcher
1997 – Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations
1996 – Albert Gore, Vice President of the United States
1995 – Hanna Gray, President Emerita of the University of Chicago
1994 – Karim Aga Khan IV, Spiritual Leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslims
1993 – Carlos Salinas de Gortari, President of the United Mexican States
1992 – Leslie Aspin, Congressman from Wisconsin and Chair of the House Armed Services Committee
1991 – Walter Massey, Director of the National Science Foundation
1990 – Virgilio Barco, President of the Republic of Colombia
1989 – Paul Tsongas, Chair of the Board of Regents of Higher Education of Massachuetts and Former Senator from Massachusetts
1988 – A. Bartlett Giamatti, President of the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs and President Emeritus of Yale University
1987 – Kenneth Olsen, Founder and President of the Digital Equipment Corporation
1986 – William Hewlett, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Hewlett-Packard Company
1985 – Lee Iacocca, Chair of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of the Chrysler Corporation
1984 – Shirley Chisholm, Former Congresswoman from New York
1983 – Helmut Schmidt, Former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
1982 – Katherine Graham, Chair of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of the Washington Post Company