2020 Commencement Speaker Announced

The University of Scranton announced that Susan M. St. Ledger ’86, president of worldwide field operations for Splunk, will be the principal speaker at its 2020 commencement on Sunday, Oct. 25. The University will confer an honorary degree upon St. Ledger and will confer degrees to members of the class of 2020 as well at a virtual ceremony on May 31. The formal presentation of the honorary degree citation and her commencement address will occur at the October ceremony.

“Susan St. Ledger will bring to our graduates a dynamic perspective from an uncommon career path that has led her to achieve incredible success in the high-growth technology field, while remaining firmly grounded in gratitude for the education, opportunity and guidance she received throughout her career. She is an advocate for the need for diversity and inclusion in the workforce and especially for the need to provide mentors to women in technology fields,” said Rev. Scott. R. Pilarz, S.J., president.

At Splunk, St. Ledger oversees global sales, customer success and marketing. She has more than 25 years of senior leadership in high-growth technology companies, including more than 11 years at Salesforce and more than 12 years at Sun Microsystems. She is a passionate learner and anchors her leadership principles in what she calls a high-growth mindset, which is required to transform and accelerate business. She has demonstrated expertise in identifying market opportunity and business transformation needs for SaaS environments.

In a 2008 Wall Street Journal article, St. Ledger credited her career success to “cross-functional experience, taking risks and consistently hiring great people.” Her rise up the corporate ladder was through what she calls a series of pivots and changes of direction, rather than a straight climb to the top. The diverse experience she gained along the way helped to broaden her perspective and success as a leader. In a 2009 Scranton Journal article, she credited her Jesuit liberal arts education for providing her “an incredibly competitive advantage in the marketplace.”

St. Ledger started her career in several technical jobs, including her first role out of college as a software engineer at the National Security Agency. In November 2019, St. Ledger became the first independent board member of HashiCorp, the leader in multi-cloud infrastructure automation software.

The St. Ledger family established the David F. St. Ledger ’56 Scholarship at the University to honor her late father, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Scranton and spent his career as a teacher at Forest City Regional High School and Carbondale Area High School. 

St. Ledger earned her bachelor’s degree in computer science, magna cum laude, from the University in 1986.

The University of Scranton’s 2020 commencement ceremony will be held at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, Wilkes-Barre, on Sunday, Oct. 25, at noon.