Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organization of American States, will be the commencement speaker at the Graduate School of the College of Charleston ceremony on May 6, 2011. The commencement exercises will be held in the Carolina First Arena starting at 5:30 p.m.

Insulza took office as Secretary General of the OAS on May 26, 2005. He was named Secretary General of OAS based on his accomplishments and record of public service in his home country of Chile. In March 1994, he joined the administration of President Eduardo Frei, serving first as Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs and later as Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1999, he became Minister Secretary General of the Presidency, and was appointed the following year to be President Ricardo Lagos’s Minister of the Interior and Vice President of the Republic. When he left the post in May 2005, he had served as a government minister for more than a decade, the longest continuous tenure for a minister in Chilean history.

Approximately 100 students will receive degrees during the ceremony.