Embry-Riddle Trustee Kenn Ricci, Alumnus Steve Altemus Inspire Largest Graduating Class
Kenn Ricci, an Embry-Riddle Board of Trustees member and a world-renowned aviation entrepreneur whose companies include private aviation leader Flexjet, told graduates of the world’s leading aviation and aerospace institution that aviators have a special bond.
“You joined this community when you came to Embry-Riddle,” said Ricci, who served as the keynote speaker at the second of two ceremonies at Daytona Beach’s Ocean Center.
A total of 1,043 undergraduates from the Daytona Beach Campus received degrees on Tuesday, May 5, at Spring 2026 commencement ceremonies for the College of Aviation, David B. O’Maley College of Business, College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences. The ceremonies capped Embry-Riddle’s year-long celebration of the university’s 100th anniversary.
Flexjet Chairman Kenn Ricci served as the keynote speaker to graduates of the College of Aviation and the David B. O’Maley College of Business (Photo: Embry-Riddle/David Massey)
To a packed audience of Eagles and their families, Ricci also spoke about finding his passion for aviation as an Air Force ROTC cadet and student pilot while earning his degree in accounting at Notre Dame in Indiana.
He described some of his most memorable experiences as a young corporate pilot, including flying British aviation magnate Richard Branson when he was promoting Virgin Cola and piloting pianist Van Cliburn to Moscow, “when there were no maps or airport approach targets for the Soviet Union,” to play before the Gorbachevs in 1989.
He also piloted the plane that carried Bill Clinton during his first campaign for U.S. president in 1992.
“I fell in love with our profession and discovered the uniqueness of the aviation community,” he told the graduates of Embry-Riddle’s College of Aviation and the David B. O’Maley College of Business. “This community that shares this love of flight, of independence and of discovery, whether it's in space or in invention, or in discovering the awe of new places and people. It's a romantic profession. It captivates us, and it captivates others.”
Ricci — who is the principal of Directional Aviation Capital, a consortium of companies that generate more than $4 billion and touch every aspect of aviation and aerospace — advised the new graduates to treat their extended aviation and Embry-Riddle communities as family.
The leader of companies that employ more than 5,000 people and operate more than 340 aircraft, Ricci also encouraged graduates to give back. Last October, Ricci, along with his wife, Pamela, and their family, endowed two faculty chairs for aviation, aerospace, or space innovation at Embry-Riddle.
“Much of my success is because I engaged with and received support from the aviation community you are joining,” he said. “You’re members of this very special community. You'll be working on it. You'll be connected to each other. You'll have a shared mission, a shared vision and a common purpose.”
At the conclusion of Ricci’s keynote address, Embry-Riddle Board of Trustees Chairman Mori Hosseini presented him with an honorary doctoral degree.
“You have earned this degree for exceptional contributions to the field of aviation, including shaping the future of private aviation through your entrepreneurial achievements,” Hosseini said upon conferring the Doctorate of Humane Letters. “This degree also recognizes your profound philanthropy, contribution to higher education and your unwavering support of the next generation of leaders and innovators.”
Steve Altemus: ‘Imagine Your Future into Existence’
In his speech earlier that day to graduates of the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences, Steve Altemus, chief executive of Intuitive Machines and an Embry-Riddle alumnus, urged Eagles “to start with imagination.”
Alumnus Steve Altemus, who is the co-founder of Intuitive Machines, served as the keynote speaker to graduates of the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences. (Photo: Embry-Riddle/David Massey)
“Because every breakthrough, every invention, every bold leap forward begins there, quietly in the mind of someone willing to believe in what does not yet exist,” said Altemus, whose company has launched two commercial satellites to the moon.
Altemus, who earned a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Embry-Riddle in 1987 and went on to head roles and functions at NASA before establishing Intuitive Machines, described definitive moments from his career, including leading the team that reconstructed 85,000 pieces of the space shuttle Columbia Orbiter after it broke apart upon its return to Earth, killing all seven astronauts on board.
“This was not just an engineering problem. It was a human one,” he said. “Because every piece told part of a story, and we had a responsibility to understand it and return the shuttle to flight.”
Altemus later served as director of engineering at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, which he called the “NFL of engineering,” and then as the center’s deputy director.
In 2013, he co-founded the space company Intuitive Machines. In 2024, the company’s Odysseus vehicle landed on the moon — the first U.S. spacecraft to reach the lunar surface in more than 50 years.
A year later, a second lander, Athena, also touched down on the moon’s south pole region.
“From an idea — to a company — to the surface of the moon,” he said. “That is the power of imagination sustained over time.”
The next breakthrough, he continued, “may begin with someone sitting right here in this auditorium.”
Embry-Riddle honored more than 1,800 students who received their degrees at residential campus ceremonies in Daytona Beach and Prescott, Arizona.
Graduates celebrate at the first of two commencement ceremonies at Daytona Beach’s Ocean Center. (Photo: Embry-Riddle/David Massey)
“Today, as you join the ranks of 170,000 alumni around the world, you become part of a global community defined by the relentless pursuit of excellence,” said Embry-Riddle President P. Barry Butler, Ph.D. “I can think of no better way to mark the closing of our centennial year than with today’s commencement.”
‘Good For Go’
The undergraduate ceremonies for the Daytona Beach Campus featured student speakers: Skylar Butler, an Astronomy and Astrophysics graduate, and Aurora Belle Christianson, an Uncrewed Aircraft Systems graduate.
Butler reflected on Embry-Riddle’s 100-year history of producing graduates who push boundaries.
“The world we’re entering is full of difficult problems,” she told her fellow graduates. “The future of aerospace, climate science, national defense and space exploration will require bold ideas and courageous attempts.”
In her speech, Christianson recounted her journey from a Top Gun-obsessed girl in rural Pennsylvania to finding her community at Embry-Riddle. She ended her speech by telling her fellow graduates that “we are good for go.”
Commencements also included 85 graduating ROTC students who were commissioned as officers: 45 Air Force cadets, 24 Army cadets and 16 Navy midshipmen.
At a graduate hooding ceremony on Monday, May 4, 169 students received their master’s degrees and 15 their doctorates.
Featured student speaker Spoorti Nanjamma, who earned her Master of Science in Systems Engineering, told her fellow graduates, “Today we celebrate degrees, but we also honor growth.”
Prescott Campus Commencement
The Prescott Campus ceremony, held May 2, honored 533 graduating students, including nine who received master’s degrees. Ten students from the Worldwide Campus participated in the ceremony. The class also included 31 Air Force ROTC cadets and 10 Army ROTC cadets who commissioned as officers.