Alumnus who is business executive, civic leader to keynote commencement

Ronald Dollens. (Photo provided)
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —Purdue pharmacy alumnus Ronald W. Dollens, retired president and chief executive officer of Guidant Corp., and chairman of the board of Halyard Health, will speak at Purdue’s summer commencement ceremony on Aug. 4.  

Dollens, formerly president of medical devices and diagnostics at Eli Lilly & Co., is a director of the Regenstrief Foundation. He has been a director for the Alliance for Aging Research, a director of the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, a trustee of Butler University and is past chairman of the United Way of Central Indiana.

Dollens had an advisory role for the Purdue School of Pharmacy, Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering and Stanford Advisory Council on Interdisciplinary Biosciences.

About 1,341 students are eligible for degrees, with 453 undergraduates, 894 graduate and seven professional program students eligible to participate in the ceremony, which begins at 9:30 a.m. in Elliott Hall of Music. Four undergraduate posthumous awards will also be presented.

President Mitch Daniels will attend the ceremony, and Nora Kiesler from Louisville, Kentucky, will give the student response. Kiesler, captain of the 2018-19 women’s basketball team, will receive a bachelor’s degree in management and marketing. She completed her undergraduate degree in three years and was Academic All-Big Ten in 2017 and 2018.

The commencement exercises will be livestreamed at http://www.kaltura.com/tiny/3d86e. The video will play once broadcasting starts.

Commencement videos will be available for $30 per DVD. Order forms can be obtained at the Stewart Center’s Loeb Playhouse box office, online at

http://www.purdue.edu/commencement/documents/DVD_Form.pdf, or by calling 765-494-3933. Forms may be submitted within two weeks of the event.  

State Street Redevelopment Project construction is in process. This work is closing portions of Stadium Avenue, McCormick Road, Airport Road and Williams Street and significantly affecting surrounding thoroughfares in West Lafayette.

Writer: Tim Doty, 765-496-2571, doty2@purdue.edu 

Source: Christine Pass, 765-494-6163, dehahn@purdue.edu