Graduate Commencement 2023

Reshma Kewalramani M.D., the first female CEO of a large U.S. biotech company, has dedicated her career to improving the lives of patients. As the CEO and president at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Kewalramani has expanded the company’s leadership in cystic fibrosis and advanced several programs into the clinic, including sickle cell disease, beta thalassemia, APOL1-mediated kidney disease, pain, type 1 diabetes, and alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. Since she joined the company in 2017, Vertex has grown to become the largest biotech company in Boston and remains relentless in pursuit of its mission to transform the lives of people with serious diseases.

Dr. Kewalramani is passionate about developing and supporting the next generation of scientists and giving back to her community. She is a member of the board of directors of the Biomedical Science Careers Program, an organization dedicated to supporting underrepresented students to pursue a career in STEM. She also is a member of the Massachusetts General Hospital Board of Trustees, the Ginkgo Bioworks Board of Directors, the Boston University School of Medicine Dean’s Advisory Board, and a Fellow of the American Society of Nephrology.

Dr. Kewalramani earned her medical degree, with honors, from the seven-year medicine program at the Boston University School of Medicine and completed the General Management Program at Harvard Business School. She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and her fellowship in nephrology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital combined program.

Dr. Kewalramani will be presented with an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters during the ceremony on May 13, 2023.

Richard W. Sorenson, MBA’68, MP’97’00 served as president of Carling Technologies, Inc. from 1975 to 2021. Mr. Sorenson joined Carling in 1969 and became president in 1975. Carling Technologies, Inc. develops and manufactures electrical components. The company was founded by Mr. Sorenson’s grandfather, Arthur Carling, as Carling Tool & Machine in Hartford, CT, in 1920. In December 2021, Carling Technologies was acquired by Littelfuse, Inc. Before joining Carling Electric, Mr. Sorenson had worked at General Electric from 1968 to 1969.

Mr. Sorenson grew up in Connecticut and graduated from the Kingswood-Oxford School, a private school in West Hartford, in 1962. He earned a BA in American literature from Brown University in 1966.

Mr. Sorenson has a long history of engagement at Babson. He served as a member of the Babson Corporation from 1996 to 1998, and as Trustee from 1996 to 2001. He became an inaugural member of the Circle of Distinction in 2019. His name has become synonymous with the arts at Babson, with the Sorenson Center for the Visual Arts and the Sorenson Theater both having been named in his honor. He and his wife Sandy also established and continue to support the Rick and Sandy Sorenson Endowed Scholarship for the Arts.

Two of Mr. Sorenson’s children, Jennifer Sorenson Buddenhagen, MBA’97, and Richard Sorenson, Jr., MBA’00, are also alumni.

Mr. Sorenson will be presented with an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters during the ceremony on May 13, 2023.