NORTHERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY

SPRING COMMENCEMENT

May 2-3, 2008

 

 

 

 

 

COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER

AND

HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENT

 

JAMES P. SHAUGHNESSY ‘75

 

 

Jim Shaughnessy is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Orbitz Worldwide, Inc., a position he assumed in June 2007 shortly before Orbitz’s initial public offering.  He is responsible for managing Orbitz’s global legal affairs, as well as its public relations, government affairs, ethics, compliance and security functions. 

 

Jim has extensive experience with technology companies, including service as Senior Vice President and general counsel of Lenovo Group Ltd., the world’s fourth largest personal computer company, Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary of PeopleSoft, Inc. and in senior legal positions with Hewlett-Packard, Compaq and Digital Equipment Corporation. 

 

Prior to joining Digital, Jim worked with a leveraged buyout group in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and was in private practice in Washington, D.C. with the international law firms of Hogan & Hartson and Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine.

 

A 1975 graduate of Northern Michigan University, Jim received his JD and a Masters of Public Policy from the University of Michigan.

 

Jim has been married for 32 years to the former Margie Benesh, a 1974 BSN graduate of Northern Michigan University.  The Shaughnessys have four children, ages 16-26, and reside in Greenwich, Connecticut.