At the University of Pennsylvania, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Finance Minster of Nigeria, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will be conferred with an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Pennsylvania on Monday, May 13, 2013.

Other recipients of honorary degree are Kwame Anthony Appiah, Michelle Bachelet, Ursula M. Burns, , Samuel H. Preston, Ellen Mosley-Thompson, Lonnie G. Thompson and James Edward West.

Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice President of the United States will deliver the address at the institution’s commencement.
“We are thrilled to welcome Vice President Biden and all of our honourees to campus on May 13,” said Andrea Mitchell, Penn trustee and chair of the Trustee Honorary Degrees Committee.

“They represent the highest level of achievement in diverse disciplines, having excelled in leadership and public service, scholarship, business and innovation. I know their life stories will inspire our graduates and their families and friends, as well as those of us in the wider University community.”

• Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is Nigeria’s coordinating minister for the economy and minister of finance and a renowned development economist and economic reformer. Okonjo-Iweala is responsible for managing the finances of Africa’s most populous nation and one of the world’s fastest growing economies. She’s a former managing director of the World Bank where she had oversight responsibility for the bank’s $81 billion operational portfolio in Africa, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia. She also spearheaded initiatives to assist low-income countries during the food crisis and later the financial crisis, and she chaired the raising of $49.3 billion in grants and low-interest credit for the world’s poorest nations.

Okonjo-Iweala will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws.

Joseph R. Biden, Jr., 47th vice president of the United States is a former U.S. senator who chaired or was a ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee for 17 years. He’s widely recognized for his work on criminal-justice legislation, including his part in drafting the landmark 1994 Crime Bill and authoring the Violence Against Women Act.

As the chairman or ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden also played a pivotal role in shaping U.S. foreign policy, working on legislation related to terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, post-Cold War Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Biden will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws.

http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/vice-president-biden-speak-penn-s-257th-commencement