Carl Schramm, one of the world’s leading experts on entrepreneurship, innovation and economic growth, will deliver the commencement address for the 2013 graduating class of the University of California, Davis, Graduate School of Management on Saturday (June 15).

Schramm will speak to a gathering of Master of Business Administration and Master of Professional Accountancy candidates, faculty, guests and administrators at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts on the UC Davis campus at 10 a.m.

With 165 MBAs and 29 members of the charter class of the new Master of Professional Accountancy program, the 194 graduates of the class of 2013 represent the largest graduating class in the management school’s history.

Schramm this spring taught an MBA course on entrepreneurship at UC Davis as the inaugural Arthur and Carlyse Ciocca Visiting Professor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Named “the evangelist of entrepreneurship” by The Economist, Schramm has played important roles in advancing entrepreneurial capitalism globally. He co-authored the best-selling book “Better Capitalism: Renewing the Entrepreneurial Strength of the American Economy” (2012) with Robert Litan.

As president and CEO, Schramm grew the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation into a global resource for expanding entrepreneurship through innovative programs, grantee partnerships, policy research and advocacy. Schramm has created or co-founded five companies, started the nation’s first academic center to study healthcare costs, and was an executive vice president at Fortis, one of the world’s largest insurance companies.

Schramm said that as the new graduates enter the world of commerce he will urge them to actively engage, not shrink from, the political process.

“Government power, unbridled and driven by an ideology that is fundamentally opposed to economic growth, has shown itself to be aggressively hostile to the interests of business,” Schramm said. “These new UC Davis business graduates must adopt an entirely constructive ideology, a counter-ideology, that the only way that welfare can expand, that poverty can be overcome, is that if business flourishes and the opportunities that a career in business affords are open to every single person, regardless of their circumstances.”

Steven C. Currall, dean of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, said: “Our students and entire community have benefited greatly from Carl Schramm’s teaching, thought leadership and expertise. I want to thank Carl for addressing our 31st graduating class as they prepare to launch their business and accounting careers — and many their own start-ups. Carl is poised to share a powerful and inspiring message.”

The commencement ceremony and Schramm’s address will be webcast live and available later as video stream. 

Learn more about Carl Schramm. at: http://www.gsm.ucdavis.edu/schramm.

Details about all UC Davis commencement ceremonies.

About the UC Davis Graduate School of Management

Dedicated to preparing innovative leaders for global impact, the UC Davis Graduate School of Management is consistently ranked among the premier business schools in the United States and internationally. The school’s faculty members are globally renowned for their teaching excellence and pioneering research in advancing management thinking and best practices. With prime locations in Northern California’s economic hubs, the school provides a bold, innovative approach to management education to more than 550 full-time MBA students and Master of Professional Accountancy students at the UC Davis campus, and part-time MBA students in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area.