Mar 22, 2015 08:11 PM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

Erskine Bowles, co-founder of the Campaign to Fix the Debt and former co-chair of the National Commissions on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, will deliver the 2015 commencement speech at Maryville University.

"We are honored to host Mr. Bowles," President Mark Lombardi said in a statement. "He is an accomplished businessman, public servant and educator who will provide our students with insight and wisdom as they begin their journey to reshape their world."

Bowles, a veteran leader in business and government, will also receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree during the ceremony.

He is also president emeritus of the University of North Carolina, and former White House chief of staff and former administrator of the Small Business Administration under President Bill Clinton. As chief of staff, he was a pivotal negotiator in getting America's first balanced budget in decades.

Bowles is at the center of the national dialogue on what must be done to address America's deficit crisis. In 2010, President Obama asked Bowles to co-chair, with former Sen. Alan Simpson, the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a bipartisan group looking to erase the United States' multitrillion-dollar debt. He has since co-founded, along with Simpson, The Campaign to Fix the Debt, a non-partisan movement to put America on a better fiscal and economic path.

Founded in 1872, Maryville University is a selective, comprehensive, and nationally ranked private institution with an enrollment of nearly 6,000 students. Maryville offers more than 75 degrees at the undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels to students from 50 states and 32 countries. 

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