The Right Honorable Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of the UK, is set to deliver the keynote address at NYU Abu Dhabi’s commencement ceremony on May 24.

Brown will be the second in a short but prestigious list of NYUAD commencement speakers, only following former US President Bill Clinton, who spoke at NYUAD’s inaugural graduation last year.

For many at NYUAD, Brown is a familiar face. Brown served as Prime Minister from 2007 until 2010, when he joined NYU as its Distinguished Global Leader in Residence, maintaining a close relationship with NYUAD and speaking passionately about NYU’s global vision.

In 2010, Brown said that NYU appealed to him as a leader in global education.

“The idea of a global network university where barriers are broken down and people can use modern technology to debate and educate each other is incredibly appealing,” he said. “NYU is setting the pace that others will follow.”

A close friend of NYU President John Sexton, Brown has given lectures at Institute events and interacted with NYUAD students in small classroom settings, such as that of Sexton’s course The Relationship Between Government and Religion. NYUAD students have described Brown as both a straightforward and inspiring speaker.

In a statement for The Gazelle, NYUAD Vice Chancellor Al Bloom referred to Brown as a friend of NYU.

“We are delighted to welcome the Rt Hon Gordon Brown as the keynote speaker for the NYUAD 2015 Commencement,” wrote Bloom. “He has been amongst the closest friends of this institution and a formidable source of empowerment to our commitment to building a cooperative world and a united humanity."

Drawing from his experience as a world leader, Brown has spoken to NYUAD students about politics around the world, ranging from the 2008 financial crisis to the UK and the UAE’s collaboration in saving Malala Yousafzai after she was shot by a member of the Taliban in 2012. In 2012, Ban Ki-moon appointed Brown as the UN Special Envoy for Global Education.

"Gordon Brown’s exemplary service to his nation and to the betterment of our globe will inspire our graduates to invest with even greater energy and care their wisdom and talent in responding to the critical challenges of this century," Bloom added.

Recently in Scotland, Brown will be seeing violet again soon when he arrives on Saadiyat Campus in May and puts the finishing touches to his speech.

In his commencement speech last year, Clinton congratulated students but cautioned that the NYUAD mission is still unfinished. Arriving shortly after new allegations of labor abuse on the construction of Saadiyat Campus surfaced in the media, Clinton said that he trusted the university and the UAE government will inquire into the allegations.

That inquiry, Nardello & Co.'s investigations into the allegations, was released two weeks ago.

This year’s commencement ceremony will also welcome Graça Machel DBE, Minister for Education and Culture of Mozambique and widow of the late Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa.

Machel will receive the NYUAD Vice Chancellor’s Medal for outstanding service to the university and to society. Machel was also lately announced as commencement speaker for Morgan State University's May 16 graduation.

Machel has been at NYU before, when Nelson Mandela was awarded the Presidential Medal at NYU’s launch of the African Scholarship Fund.

Also receiving the Vice Chancellor's Medal at NYUAD's commencement on 24 May is His Excellency Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development. 

Sherrilyn Ifill will be the keynote speaker at NYU's commencement ceremony at Yankee Stadium in New York on May 20. Ifill is an NYU Law alum and currently the seventh President and Director-Council of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Ifill has written about race in the USA in her book On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 21st Century and is currently working on a book about race and the US Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

Machel will also attend the commencement in New York to receive an honorary degree, along with pianist Lang Lang, mathematician Peter Lax and immunologist Jan Vilcek. John Paulson, of investment management firm Paulson & Co., will receive the Gallatin Medal and Adam Weinberg, Whitney Museum Director, will receive the Rudin Award.