The future is in the hands of Kellogg’s Class of 2026
The Class of 2026 is graduating into a world that no one can fully predict. At Kellogg’s convocation weekend that reality was not framed as a limitation. Instead, it was a challenge. If the future is not yet written, it is Kellogg Leaders’ to shape.
Across ceremonies for Executive MBA, all Full-Time MBA programs as well as Evening & Weekend MBA and Master in Management, speakers returned to a shared idea: leadership today is defined by how we respond to ambiguity, work together and build the roadmap for what comes next.
A moment of change — and responsibility
Opening the convocation, Dean Francesca Cornelli placed the milestone in a broader context.
“Today we are living through a period of extraordinary change — climate change, geopolitical tensions, shifting economic forces, and artificial intelligence,” she said.
While those forces are reshaping industries and institutions, she underscored what remains uniquely human.
“AI is trained on what already exists. But you will imagine possibilities that do not yet exist.”
That distinction shaped her message to graduates. They are not simply entering the future, they will help define it.
“AI will accelerate the future. But you will create it—you will lead us into this future.”
She also emphasized the responsibility that comes with that role.
“The future will be shaped by a constellation of individual leadership decisions… decisions made by each of you.”
Her charge to the class was direct: lead in ways that “advance society, that include more than exclude, that expand opportunity.”
Building what is still unfolding and becoming
In the faculty address, Professor Sébastien Martin — winner of Kellogg’s 2026 David Besanko Outstanding Professor of the Year Award — offered a complementary perspective grounded in both uncertainty and optimism.
“Nobody knows exactly what our careers will look like in five years,” he said.
But that uncertainty, he argued, creates space for possibility.
“Maybe we are heading into a world nobody can predict. But that also means nobody has decided it yet.”
Drawing on his work teaching AI, Martin reflected on the creativity he saw in student-built projects.
“Seeing the creativity and energy in these projects… turned me into an optimist,” he said.
His advice to graduates focused on action: “Build, build, build... The future is not just unknown: it is yours to build.”
He paired that with a reminder about what endures beyond the classroom.
“There is one thing that has no uncertainty at all: the value of the amazing relationships you built here,” he said.
Leadership as a shared endeavor
At the EMBA ceremony, Nickol R. Hackett ’92, ’97 MBA focused on the role of community in shaping leadership.
“You sat next to each other in classrooms and on screens, and now today, you sit here together as champions of each other,” she said.
“That is the power of community and more uniquely, the Kellogg community.”
She emphasized that this shared experience is more than a hallmark of the program.
“It’s the experience of listening, inviting, engaging, considering a broader set of interests and outcomes,” she said. “That’s the muscle you’ve been building… and that’s the muscle we need.”
Reflecting on her own path, she acknowledged how unpredictable the journey can be. What carried her forward was a mindset developed early in her career: “how to be both entrepreneurial and improvisational when the pieces don’t always appear to fit together.”
Staying open in a world of change
Keynote commencement speaker Ann M. Drake ’84 MBA brought the conversation into sharper focus by challenging how graduates think about uncertainty itself.
“I will tell you one thing you’ll encounter: chaos,” she said.
Rather than framing chaos as something to avoid, she described it as a necessary condition for growth and creativity.
“Chaos is where new ideas are born,” she said.
Her message pushed against the instinct to search for immediate answers.
“Answers are a gateway drug to conclusions, to certainty,” she said. “But conclusions close doors. Certainty kills possibilities.”
Instead, she encouraged a different posture.
“Stay curious, listen deeply and stay in anything-can-happen-ness,” she said.
She also reminded graduates that, in moments of uncertainty, relationships matter just as much as insight.
“There will be days ahead when what you’ll need isn’t so much insight as compassion… not so much answers as understanding.”
A class ready to shape what’s next
Taken together, the messages from convocation weekend offer a clear picture of leadership for this moment. Not one rooted in certainty, but in creativity, adaptability and connection.
Graduates leave Kellogg not just with knowledge, but with the responsibility and the capacity to shape what comes next.
As Dean Cornelli reminded them, “You are the impact that Kellogg has on the world.”
The path ahead may not be prewritten. For the Class of 2026, that is exactly the point.
Watch the speakers who shaped the day