Former software executive James L. Barksdale will give the keynote address to 288 graduating students at this year's commencement ceremonies, scheduled for Saturday, May 10, at 10 a.m. on the Millsaps campus. (Commencement ceremonies will be moved to Thalia Mara Hall in the case of inclement weather.)

A Jackson native who began his career as a salesman at IBM, Barksdale is the former president and chief executive officer of Netscape Communications Corp. Known for pioneering Internet technology, Barksdale is a special adviser to General Atlantic Partners and is president and CEO of Barksdale Management Corp., a philanthropic investment company. He is also a partner and co-founder of The Barksdale Group, an investment and advisory group committed to growing companies in Internet services.

Prior to his tenure at Netscape, Barksdale served as CEO of AT&T Wireless Services. He later served as the executive vice president and chief operating officer for Federal Express Corp., where he had previously been chief information officer.
Netscape received the Entrepreneurial Company of the Year award in 1997 from alumni groups at both Stanford and Harvard business schools. Computer Reseller News named Barksdale the Executive of the Year, PC Magazine named him Person of the Year and at the 1997 European Technology Roundtable Exhibition Conference in Budapest he received the Executive of the Year award. Barksdale has also received a NetDay Hero award for his work in education, and he has been inducted into the Mississippi Hall of Fame and the Society of Entrepreneurs.

Barksdale sits on the boards of several companies and foundations, including AOL Time Warner, Federal Express, The Fund for the Capitol Visitor Center, Mayo Foundation, Sun Microsystems Inc. and TechNet. He was also appointed to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board by George W. Bush.

In January 2000, Barksdale and his wife, Sally, donated $100 million to the State of Mississippi to create The Barksdale Reading Institute, a statewide organization devoted to literacy. The effort is a joint venture with the Mississippi Department of Education and the state's seven public university schools of education.

Other honorary degree recipients include Turner Cassity, poet and author, and philanthropist and public servant Sally McDonnell Barksdale. Clay F. Lee, a Millsaps graduate and Methodist bishop, will give the address at Baccalaureate services, which will be held Friday, May 9, at 6 p.m. at Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church.