Cyrus Krohn ’94, a leading digital communications strategist with experience in news and politics, will be University of Lynchburg’s 2015 commencement speaker on Saturday, May 16.
Nearly 700 students, including 543 undergraduates and 140 graduate students, are expected to receive their degrees. The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. on the Dell, with Turner Gymnasium as the rain location.
The College will honor its graduating students with several events in addition to the commencement ceremony. A new tradition in the commencement lineup this year is the Ringing of the Bell. Seniors who have purchased their class rings will take turns ringing the College’s Victory Bell at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 13, to celebrate their class rings and the completion of their undergraduate academic career at University of Lynchburg.
A full schedule of events is available at http://www.lynchburg.edu/aboutlc/commencement/
Krohn, who played lacrosse for LC while earning his communication studies degree, has titled his commencement address “Changing of the Guard: Why Our Future Depends on the Class of 2015.” Since the beginning of his career in digital communications, technological advancements have created turmoil for many Fortune 500 companies. His speech will focus on how the Class of 2015 will further uproot traditional business and societal norms in areas including media, medicine, parenting and politics.
Named one of the Top 50 digital political strategists in the United States in 2013, Krohn is currently executive producer at Cheezburger.com, one of the world’s largest digital media companies focused on humor and entertainment. Prior to Cheezburger, Krohn co-founded Crowdverb, a platform that builds and mobilizes communities, and sold the start-up to the world’s largest communication services group. Krohn has worked as a senior director and executive producer at technology companies including Yahoo and Microsoft. He was Slate Magazine’s first employee and later became its publisher when the webzine was owned by Microsoft. He also has served as director of digital strategy for the Republican National Committee’s New Media Division.
Krohn worked in CNN’s Washington, D.C. bureau producing Larry King Live and Crossfire and served as an intern in the White House for Vice President Dan Quayle. Krohn was president of the Washington State News Council, an independent, nonprofit, statewide organization whose members share a common belief that fair, accurate and balanced news media are vital to our democracy.
Krohn has served on the Board of Advisors of the George Washington University Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet and the E-Voter Institute. He has lectured on the Internet’s impact on the political process at the 2013 Personal Democracy Forum and at institutions including Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, University of Pennsylvania, The Aspen Institute, Harvard, and MIT.
