<p>2007, MIT President Emeritus Charles M. Vest (1990-2004), He chaired the President's Advisory Committee on the Redesign of the Space Station and serves on the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. He chaired the U.S. Department of Energy Task Force on the Future of DOE Science Programs, was vice chair of the Council on Competitiveness for eight years and is a past chair of the Association of American Universities.
Vest recently completed service as a member of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction and of the U.S. Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education. He now serves on the Department of State Secretary's Advisory Committee on Transformational Diplomacy and the Rice-Chertoff Secure Borders, Open Doors Advisory Board Subcommittee.</p>
<p>2006, Ben Bernanke, Chairman Federal Reserve</p>
<p>2005, Irwin Jacobs, Co-Founder, Chairman, CEO Qualcomm</p>
<p>2004, Elias Zerhouni, Director of NIH
2003, George Mitchell, former US Senator
2002, James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank
2001, Daniel Goldin, NASA Administrator
2000, Carly Fiorina, President & CEO, Hewlett-Packard
1999, Tom & Ray Magliozzi, MIT alums and hosts of National Public Radio's Car Talk
1998, William Jefferson Clinton, US President, and David Ho, AIDS researcher
1997, Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General</p>
<p>A lot of people were upset that Vest was the speaker this year, since he was the president only a few years ago and he's not famous or exciting (comparatively) and you can't brag about him to your harvard or podunk U friends.</p>
<p>BUT his speech was really good. He's a great speaker and a great speech writer. </p>
<p>I think my point is, lots of things at MIT are kind of like that. Really good quality even though whiny idiots complain about it.</p>
<p>true dat - I'd prefer a guy like vest with a vested (pun intended) interest in MIT, than some random dude like a stephen colbert or similar
for the class of 2008 I'll take Charles Barkley though.</p>
<p>I don't know, I think Chuck Vest was a pretty lame choice, because it's not even like he's been gone for very long. Graduating seniors remember when he was still their president. Someone wrote in a letter to the Tech something along the lines of, "whatever, if I want to hear Chuck Vest talk about my future, I can go into his office and ASK him, since he's still around campus." Which is a fair point. I mean, if they'd invited him to come back and speak like 10 years from now, that might be cool.</p>