Penn State Greater Allegheny held its Spring 2015 commencement on Saturday, May 9, in the Wunderley Gymnasium on the campus. Director of Academic Affairs Margaret Signorella presided as diplomas were conferred to students receiving baccalaureate degrees. The keynote speaker was Andrew Butcher, chief executive officer/co-founder of GTECH Strategies - Growth Through Energy and Community Health.
Butcher is an accomplished social entrepreneur with expertise in the fields of community development, renewable energy, social innovation, and environmental justice. A committed practitioner of creative social and environmental responsibility, he has installed solar panels in South America, deconstructed buildings in Colorado, and farmed Brownfields in Pittsburgh. Since co-founding GTECH in 2007, Butcher has been honored at the White House as an emerging leader in the field of social innovation, was awarded a prestigious, international Echoing Green Fellowship for social entrepreneurs, and a Yoshiyama Young Entrepreneur Award by The Hitachi Foundation. He has been featured on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and has presented at numerous institutions and conferences.
Butcher holds a master?s degree in public policy and management from the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University, and a bachelor?s in political science from American University in Washington, DC. He participated in the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs in St. Louis and holds certificates from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Julie, and their newborn daughter, Aurora.
