Spring graduates will hear advice and encouragement from the state's top leader, Gov. Phil Bredesen, during commencement exercises beginning at 10 a.m., Saturday, May 6, in Hooper Eblen Center.

Gov. Bredesen

Bredesen, who earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Harvard, will address more than 1,150 graduates and their family and friends.

Before entering public service, Bredesen was a successful health care entrepreneur. The company he founded in 1980, HealthAmerica Corp., grew to more than 6,000 employees and traded on the New York Stock Exchange. He sold the company in 1986.

As mayor of Nashville from 1991 to 1999, he invested nearly $500 million to build new schools and hire new teachers. He developed a state-of-the-art library system, oversaw downtown redevelopment, expanded the city's park system and drove down the crime rate. Under his leadership, Nashville saw record economic growth by recruiting high-quality jobs and companies such as Dell Computer Corp. and HCA Inc. Bredesen also brought two professional sports teams to Nashville: the NFL's Tennessee Titans and the NHL's Nashville Predators.

Gov. Bredesen took office in January 2003. During his first year, he brought a new level of candor, openness and accountability to state government. In one of his first acts as governor, he opened the door to administrative budget hearings, allowing taxpayers to see for the first time the decisions that are made on how their money is spent. His first three executive orders established the toughest ethics rules in the history of Tennessee's executive branch. He managed the state through a fiscal crisis without raising taxes or cutting funding for education.

Since then, Bredesen has pushed measures to improve education, including raising teacher pay above the Southeastern average and expanding Tennessee's pre-kindergarten program as part of a statewide initiative. To recruit new industry and jobs, he worked with the General Assembly to reform Tennessee's workers' compensation system and invest in retraining programs to help laid-off employees develop new skills. He launched Tennessee's war on methamphetamine abuse and took control of TennCare.

Students graduating from Tennessee Tech this spring hail from 17 states including Tennessee, 79 Tennessee counties and 20 foreign countries. They represent 42 undergraduate fields of study and 19 graduate fields. Following spring commencement, Tennessee Tech will have granted more than 58,000 degrees.