Perot to Deliver Commencement Address

St. Mark’s is proud to announce that Distinguished Alumnus and Life Trustee Ross Perot, Jr. ’77, will be the Commencement speaker for the Class of 2024. 
 

A native of Dallas with over fifty years of association with St. Mark’s, Mr. Perot has enjoyed a distinguished career in business, technology, real estate and aviation. He currently serves as Chairman of The Perot Group, which manages various family interests that include real estate, oil and gas and financial investments. He is also the founder and Chairman of Hillwood, a leading global real estate development company. 
 

Throughout his career, Mr. Perot has maintained very close ties with St. Mark’s, as an alumnus, parent and Trustee. He served on the Board of Trustees for twenty-four years, from 1992–2016, including as President from 2004–2006. He regularly returns to campus to speak with Marksmen and their teachers and has been continuously involved in the strategic growth and progress of the School for decades. In recognition of his extraordinary career and dedication to the School, Mr. Perot was named a Distinguished Alumnus in 2002 and a Life Trustee in 2020.  

 

“St. Mark's was the most important 12 years of my life,” he said. “We need more young men of character in the world, and that’s what St. Mark’s delivers.” 

 

The Perot family’s generosity, leadership, and commitment are extensive and span every corner of the campus, from endowment funds that support faculty and student programs to gifts that have supported the construction of many new buildings. In 2011, Ross and his wife Sarah established the Gene and Alice Oltrogge Master Teaching Chair to honor two faculty members who gave longstanding and devoted service to the School, and they have played a foundational role in supporting the advancement of St. Mark’s Character and Leadership Education efforts for the past twenty years. Ross and Sarah are also the parents of four grown children. Their two sons attended St. Mark’s: Hill ’05, who now serves as a St. Mark’s Trustee and Hunter ’06, who is also an active St. Mark's volunteer on the West Coast. 

 

After graduating from St. Mark’s, Mr. Perot attended Vanderbilt University before joining the United States Air Force, where he became a fighter pilot. A lifelong aviation enthusiast, in 1982 he became the first person to circumnavigate the globe in a helicopter which is now on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Following eight years in the Air Force, Mr. Perot remained actively involved in and continued to support the military and its veterans. Among many other notable civic and corporate leadership roles, in the early 2000s, he chaired the foundation responsible for the establishment of the United States Air Force Memorial in Washington, D.C., which rises over the nation’s capital adjacent to the Pentagon. 

 

Mr. Perot has received many awards throughout his life and career, including the Gold Medal Award for Extraordinary Service from President Ronald Reagan, the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship and the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service.  

 

The Class of 2024 will celebrate their graduation on the evening of Thursday, May 30, at 8 p.m. in the Ida M. and Cecil H. Green Commencement Theater.