Mitt Romney To Address HBS Class Day, Receive Alumni Achievement Award

Former Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) will return to Harvard Business School this spring as the alumni speaker for HBS Class Day, the school announced last week.

Romney, who earned his M.B.A. from HBS in 1974 and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1975, will address graduating M.B.A. students on May 27, one day before Harvard’s University-wide Commencement exercises.

The former Republican presidential nominee is also one of four recipients of the 2026 HBS Alumni Achievement Award, the school’s highest honor for graduates. The other honorees are GE Aerospace Chairman and chief executive officer H. Lawrence Culp Jr., Madison Dearborn Partners co-founder and chairman Paul J. Finnegan, and civic leader Jennifer Eplett Reilly.

HBS Dean Srikant M. Datar praised Romney’s selection in an April 29 announcement, citing his “deep commitment to leadership, service, and principled decision-making.”

“His willingness to take on complex challenges across sectors and his focus on values-driven leadership make him an inspiring choice for the Class of 2026,” Datar said.

Class Day, a longstanding HBS tradition held before Commencement, is organized by a committee of second-year M.B.A. students and includes remarks from student leaders, faculty award recipients, and a distinguished alumni speaker. This year’s celebration will take place on Baker Lawn.

Romney’s return to HBS comes after a decades-long career that has spanned private equity, state government, presidential politics, and the U.S. Senate. He represented Utah in the Senate from 2019 to 2025 and served as governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. In 2012, he became the Republican Party’s nominee for president.

Before entering elected office, Romney worked as a consultant at Bain & Company and later co-founded Bain Capital, the Boston-based private equity firm that became central to both his business career and his national political profile. He also led the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games, a role HBS highlighted in its announcement of his Class Day address.

Romney’s political career has long intersected with Harvard and Massachusetts. As governor, he signed the state’s 2006 health care overhaul into law, a policy that later drew national scrutiny during his presidential campaigns. In the Senate, Romney became one of the most prominent Republican critics of U.S. President Donald Trump and was the only Republican senator to vote to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial.

The Alumni Achievement Award has been presented by HBS since 1968 to graduates who have made significant contributions while upholding what the school describes as high standards and values.

Culp, who received his M.B.A. from HBS in 1990, leads GE Aerospace and previously served as chairman and CEO of General Electric and president and CEO of Danaher Corporation. Finnegan, who graduated from the Business School in 1982, co-founded Madison Dearborn Partners and previously served as Harvard treasurer from 2014 to 2023.

Reilly, who graduated from HBS in 1990, is a civic leader and former chair of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. She also co-founded the Echoing Green Fellowship, a program that provides seed funding and leadership support to early-stage social entrepreneurs.

The award recipients will be recognized during HBS’s Commencement celebrations on May 28.

—Staff writer Siena G. Devine Guzmán can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @sienadevinee.

—Staff writer Katharine E. Chavez can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @KatharineEC7.