John Rose to address Tennessee Tech University fall graduates on Dec. 19

Posted by Karen Lykins - Friday, December 04 2009
klykins@tntech.edu
Office of Communications & Marketing

thumb_MrJohnRoseJohn Rose, a Tennessee Tech University alumnus, farmer, entrepreneur and public servant, will engage and encourage TTU graduates with the featured speech at this fall’s commencement at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 19, in Hooper Eblen Center.

Rose served as Tennessee’s 33rd Commissioner of Agriculture under then Gov. Don Sundquist. As commissioner Rose also served on the Tennessee Board of Regents, The University of Tennessee Board of Trustees and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission. In 2005 and 2008, Rose was appointed to the Tennessee Heritage Conservation Trust Fund Board by Gov. Phil Bredesen. The Trust Fund promotes public-private partnerships as a means for conserving the state’s natural spaces as well as managing state funds budgeted for land preservation and protection initiatives.

Rose graduated summa cum laude from TTU in 1988 with a degree in agribusiness economics and went on to earn a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Purdue University and a law degree from Vanderbilt. In 2000, TTU honored Rose with its Outstanding Young Alumnus Award. That same year, the College of Agriculture and Human Ecology named Rose its distinguished agriculture alumnus.

After practicing law for a few years, Rose decided to take a leap of faith with a start-up company. Co-founder of Transcender Corp., he watched the company experience explosive growth as a leading provider of information technology certification training. Under Rose’s leadership, the company earned the prestigious Music City Future 50 Award for five consecutive years. The award annually recognizes Middle Tennessee’s 50 fastest-growing private companies.

In 2001 Rose became one of TTU’s million-dollar donors with a gift that supported the College of Agriculture and Human Ecology and the university. More than half of the gift went toward the creation of the Jerry and Betty Williams Rose Scholarship Endowment in honor of his parents. In 2003 he earmarked $50,000 for the School of Nursing. His most recent donation earlier this year of $100,000 was earmarked for the Millard Oakley Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

The TBR selected Rose as the 2007 recipient of the TBR Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Philanthropy. He currently serves as chairperson of the Tennessee FFA Foundation and the TTU Foundation.

Rose owns Lancaster Farm, one of Tennessee’s oldest working farms and the oldest farm in Smith County. Established in 1790, the Lancaster Farm is one of only 41 farms in Tennessee that predates the formation of the state of Tennessee

In addition to farming, Rose is a principal of Smith Fork Ventures, Inc., an investment firm with interests in the media and information technology learning markets. Rose is president of Boson Software, LLC, an information technology training software company based in Nashville with offices in Tampa, Fla. Rose serves on the board of Main Street Media LLC, a Tennessee-based media and printing company that publishes local newspapers in Williamson, Wilson, Sumner, Macon and DeKalb counties in Tennessee as well as five senior lifestyle newspapers on Florida’s west coast.

Rose is a native of Putnam County and graduated salutatorian from Cookeville High School. He lives in the Temperance Hall Community of DeKalb County and is a member of the Cookeville First Baptist Church.

Students graduating from Tennessee Tech this fall hail from 26 states including Tennessee, 72 Tennessee counties and 12 foreign countries. They represent 40 undergraduate fields of study and 20 graduate fields. Following fall commencement, Tennessee Tech will have granted more than 66,000 degrees.
Apply Now