Congratulations, Class of 2025!

Commencement Speaker

Howard S. Charney MBA ’73, J.D. ’77

S.B., MEng, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MBA, Leavey School of Business 

(formerly SCU School of Business and Administration)

J.D., Santa Clara University School of Law

Commencement Speaker, Santa Clara University School of Law Class of 2025

Howard S. Charney is a distinguished leader in innovation, technology, and education, known for his transformative work in the tech industry and his unwavering commitment to advancing both business and legal education. A recently retired senior vice president at Cisco, Charney has played a pivotal role in shaping the global internet infrastructure through the development of groundbreaking technologies such as Fast Ethernet and low-cost switching.

Charney co-founded 3Com, a pioneering company that was integral to the development of Ethernet and wired local area networking (LAN) technology, both of which enabled Internet access to the desktop–and later founded Grand Junction Networks, which was acquired by Cisco in 1995. Throughout his career, he has been at the forefront of advising businesses, governments, and educational institutions worldwide on how to harness critical technologies to improve productivity and competitiveness. His leadership helped grow Cisco’s two-tier distribution business to over $2.4 billion and revolutionized networking technologies that underpin the modern Internet.

A passionate advocate for interdisciplinary collaboration, Charney is currently a distinguished professor of innovation at Santa Clara University School of Law, where he has been a longtime supporter and donor. In 2018, he was honored with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Santa Clara University in recognition of his contributions to both the tech industry and legal education. Recognizing the vital role that legal education played in his own successful business and engineering endeavors, Charney and his wife, Alida, have continued to advance the law school’s mission through their generosity to support student scholarships and the development of a new law school building at Santa Clara University–the Howard S. and Alida S. Charney Hall of Law–designed to foster collaboration between law, business, and engineering students.