Commencement Speaker 2004

Patrick Von Bargen '78
Managing Executive for Policy and Staff
Office of the Chairman
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Continuing a popular Yale SOM tradition, Patrick Von Bargen '78, Managing Executive for Policy & Staff in the Office of the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, will address the Class of 2004 on Commencement Day, May 24.

Patrick Von Bargen, a member of the Yale SOM Charter Class, came to Yale SOM with an undergraduate and law degree from Stanford University. His career embodies the school's mission and has taken him into influential organizations in the private, public and nonprofit sectors.

Shortly after his graduation from Yale SOM, Patrick worked as an associate with the Sequoia Fund, a Menlo Park venture capital fund. From 1989 to 1999, he served as Chief of Staff for United States Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico. Before joining Senator Bingaman's staff, Patrick was an attorney, first with a San Francisco-based law firm, then as a partner with the largest law firm in Boulder, Colorado, where he developed and managed a corporate practice advising venture capital funds and high technology start-up companies.

Prior to joining the SEC, Patrick served as Executive Director of the National Center for Regional Innovation & Competitiveness (NCRIC) and Vice President of the Council on Competitiveness. From 1999 through 2002, he was the founding Executive Director of the National Commission on Entrepreneurship, funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Missouri.