In one of his first speaking appearances after leaving the top job at Microsoft, Steve Ballmer will give the commencement address to graduate students from USC’s Marshall School of Business tonight. The speech will come just hours after Ballmer watched his son accept an undergraduate diploma from USC at a ceremony earlier today.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, Ballmer said he’ll be talking about both what he learned as the CEO of Microsoft, as well as his experiences with personal reinvention after his resignation.
“I’ll use the words ‘get in the weight room’ – you’ve got to build capability, build speed, build leverage,” he said in the interview. “I’m going to tell them that ideas matter. You need unique insight, whether it’s for your personal career, the job you want to do, or the company you want to build. You have to be hard core, some combination of passion, optimism, accountability for results, moving forward.”
The commencement ceremony starts at 6:30 p.m., and Ballmer is expected to take the stage around 7 o’clock. Watch live via the embedded player above or through this link.
