Ellen Kullman
Chair and CEO, DuPont
DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman addressed MIT's 2014 graduates, noting DuPont's long historical ties to MIT alumni and comparing both institutions as drivers of innovation. She framed her advice through an engineer's metaphor of heat, light, and water—representing intensity and drive, transparency and openness to diverse ideas, and the resources and personal fulfillment needed to nurture growth. Kullman encouraged graduates to embrace challenges, viewing them as opportunities for better directions, and told them that many of tomorrow's problems would be solved by them.
“within every serious challenge or issue you face, there are seeds of a renewed and often better direction.”
Key moments
- 01 DuPont's historical connection to MIT alumni leaders
- 02 Comparing MIT and DuPont as hothouses of innovation
- 03 The engineering metaphor of heat, light, and water
- 04 Encouraging graduates to embrace challenges and solve future problems
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Ellen Kullman at MIT, 2014
A commencement address about innovation hothouses, DuPont's MIT ties, heat, light, water, challenge, diversity, growth, and solving tomorrow's problems.
Speech arc
- 01DuPont ties
Opening move
- 02MIT innovation
Speech beat
- 03Heat
Speech beat
- 04Light
Speech beat
- 05Water
Speech beat
- 06Diverse ideas
Speech beat
- 07Challenges
Speech beat
- 08Tomorrow
Final charge
Lineage: Two innovation cultures meet
Kullman connects DuPont's history with MIT alumni leadership, framing both institutions as places built to turn science into durable public value.
History
DuPont and MIT share a long record of technical leadership and industrial invention.
Culture
The address treats innovation as an environment, not a lone spark.
Expectation
Graduates inherit a standard of solving problems beyond the campus.
Kullman connects DuPont's history with MIT alumni leadership, framing both institutions as places built to turn science into durable public value.
Heat: Intensity turns pressure into drive
The heat metaphor stands for the energy required to pursue hard work, confront uncertainty, and keep moving when the system resists.
Drive
Ambition supplies the temperature needed for growth.
Challenge
Pressure can reveal better directions instead of closing the path.
Resilience
Engineers learn by staying with difficult conditions long enough to adapt.
The heat metaphor stands for the energy required to pursue hard work, confront uncertainty, and keep moving when the system resists.
Light: Transparency opens better ideas
Light becomes a call for openness: seek different perspectives, make assumptions visible, and let diverse thinking improve the answer.
Openness
Clearer work invites critique before mistakes harden.
Diversity
Different viewpoints expand the design space.
Judgment
Illumination means seeing the human and technical dimensions together.
Light becomes a call for openness: seek different perspectives, make assumptions visible, and let diverse thinking improve the answer.
• Key takeaways •
Innovation needs environment
Connects to innovation.
Heat creates drive
Connects to engineering.
Light widens perspective
Connects to problem-solving.
Water sustains growth
Connects to diversity.
Challenges point forward
Connects to perseverance.
Closing charge
The final metaphor asks graduates to keep themselves and their communities nourished so innovation can mature into useful solutions.
Growth needs resources and fulfillment
Support
Sustained work needs relationships, resources, and renewal.
Fulfillment
Personal meaning helps technical careers endure.
Future
Tomorrow's problems become the class's opportunity to serve.
The final metaphor asks graduates to keep themselves and their communities nourished so innovation can mature into useful solutions.
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