Over 400 Students Graduating at Midyear Commencement

Michigan Technological University will honor the achievements of over 400 graduates at Midyear Commencement Saturday, Dec. 12.

A total of 308 bachelor’s, six associate, 91 master’s and 24 PhD degrees will be awarded.

George Butvilas, a member of the Board of Directors of Citizens Republic Bancorp Inc., will be the commencement speaker. At the ceremony, he will receive an Honorary Doctorate of Business.

Butvilas has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Michigan Tech Fund since 1997 and currently serves as its chair. He is president and CEO of Quincy Hill Advisors, which provides consulting services to the banking community and the FDIC.

He previously served as vice chair and director of Republic Bancorp, headquartered in Lansing, and was president and CEO of D&N Bank from 1990 to 1999, when it merged with Republic Bancorp. Prior to coming to the Copper Country, he spent 17 years in banking in the Chicago area.

In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed him to the Board of Directors of the Veterans Corporation in Washington, DC, where he served as chair and director.

In 2005, he received the Michigan Tech Honorary Alumni Award. He is a member of the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science Honor Academy and is the former chair of the School’s Advisory Board. He also is a member of the School of Business and Economics Honor Academy and has served as chair of the School’s Applied Portfolio Management Program, Michigan Tech’s student investment initiative. He is a director of the Michigan Tech Golf Course Advisory Board and chaired the Houghton/Hancock Local Development Authority, which established the Michigan Tech Enterprise SmartZone.

Butvilas has been involved in numerous other civic and philanthropic activities, including the Better Government Association of Chicago, the Calumet Theatre, Omega House, Pine Mountain Music Festival, the Michigan Tech Campaign Committee, and many others.

He is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and a Vietnam veteran. Butvilas received his MBA from the Illinois Institute of Technology and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program of the Harvard University Graduate School of Business.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.