Milwaukee School of Engineering will hold its Spring Commencement on Saturday, May 27, 2023 at the Kern Center, 1245 N. Broadway. Nearly 500 students will receive their bachelor’s or master’s degrees. There will be two ceremonies: at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Visit msoe.edu/commencement for ceremony details.

Commencement Speakers / Honorary Degree

Steve Booth, chairman and CEO of Baird, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Business and Economics in recognition of his contributions to the financial industry and his career achievements. He also will deliver the keynote address during the afternoon ceremony. Booth is a member of the MSOE Board of Regents.

Booth also is a member of the board of directors of Baird Financial Group and affiliated entities including Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated. Booth joined Baird’s Investment Banking group in 1994, went on to lead its Industrial and Global M&A teams and, in 2004, became head of Investment Banking, a position he held until January 2014. He was named chief operating officer of Baird in early 2013, became president & COO in 2014, president & CEO in 2016, and chairman & CEO in 2021.

Prior to joining Baird, Booth was at Kidder, Peabody & Co. in its Chicago Corporate Finance Office. He received his MBA degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Southern Methodist University. In addition to serving on the MSOE Board of Regents, Booth serves on the boards of directors of The Water Council, the United Performing Arts Fund, United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha County, Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, Carmen School of Science and Technology and RiverFront Investment Group LLC. Booth also serves on the executive board of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences at SMU and the executive board of the Cox School of Business at SMU. In 2022, Booth was named Wisconsin Business Leader of the Year by the Harvard Business School Club of Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

During the morning ceremony, Lt Col Catherine R. Olszewski ’08 will deliver the keynote address. Lt Col Olszewski serves as Operations Officer at the 417th Flight Test Squadron, Eglin AFB, Florida. She is responsible for overseeing all C-130 Developmental Test operations including scheduling, training, and standardization and evaluation. Lt Col Olszewski was commissioned in February 2008 through the ROTC program at Marquette University after graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Milwaukee School of Engineering. She attended undergraduate pilot training and was selected to fly the HC-130 Combat King. After completion of HC-130 training, she served as an operational HC-130 pilot at Davis-Monthan AFB, deployed to Afghanistan and flew combat missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. In 2016 she was selected for USAF Test Pilot School and graduated in 2018.

Lt Col Olszewski has been serving with the 417th Flight Test Squadron at Eglin AFB in Florida since May 2018, first as chief of training, then its chief of standardization and evaluations, now as operations officer. Recently she was selected for squadron command. On June 2 she will take command of the 417th Flight Test Squadron. She laid the groundwork for the squadron to acquire its first assigned C-130 aircraft for developmental test.

Lt Col Olszewski has earned several major awards and decorations from the U.S. Air Force including the Meritorious Service Medal; Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters; Aerial Achievement Medal with one oak leaf cluster; Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters; and the Air Force Achievement Medal with one oak leaf cluster.

As a student at MSOE, Lt Col Olszewski was a five-sport athlete. She earned honors in track & field, basketball and soccer, while also running cross country and playing golf for the Raiders. For all of her athletic accomplishments, she was inducted to the MSOE Athletic Hall of Fame in 2014.