Jeffrey L. Kenner ’65 ’66
A member of the Class of 1965, Jeffrey Kenner majored in industrial engineering. He continued his studies and earned a second degree in business the following year. Kenner began his career as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse & Co. In 1979, he left Price Waterhouse to join a Wall Street firm active in leveraged buyouts and venture capital. In 1986, he formed his own firm, Kenner & Company, Inc., which specializes in leveraged buyouts and recapitalization of closely held companies. He served as a trustee of Reed College in Oregon.
As a distinguished alumnus, Kenner served from 1995-2002 on the Lehigh University Board of Trustees, participating on the cultural affairs, development, and physical planning and plant committees. In addition, he was chairman of the Review and Prioritization Board of the university’s Iacocca Institute.
In addition to his commitment to undergraduate scholarship support, Kenner provided funding for a classroom in the Rauch Business Center and the former Kenner Theatre in Upper Grace Hall, now re-purposed with Kenner’s name affiliated with the renovated Great Hall in Lamberton. He also provided funding for the entrance road to campus and critical seed funding for the Integrated Business and Engineering undergraduate program. Kenner endowed the Kenner Lecture on Cultural Understanding and Tolerance in the College of Arts & Sciences in 1997 and has been a longtime member of both the Asa Packer and Tower Societies. He resides in New York City with his wife, Hyunja, and daughter, Caroline. His older daughter, Julie, lives in Colorado.
The Kenner Lecture on Cultural Understanding
Past Speakers
2025 Thomas Friedman — "The Big Trends Shaping the World Today: Economics, Technology, and Geopolitics"
2024 Liz Cheney — “Defending Democracy”
2023 Anne Applebaum — “Disinformation and the Threat to Democratic Institutions”
2022 Ezra Klein — “What We Can Do About Toxic Polarization”
2021 David Ignatius — “New World Disorder: Snapshots From a Journalist’s Notebook”
2020 Charlie Dent — “A View From Inside the Trenches: The Politics of Anger and What Challenges Centrist Problem Solvers”
2019 Judy Woodruff — “Speaking Across Political Differences Today in America”
2018 Mary Robinson — “Climate Justice: Why Climate Change Is a Threat to Human Rights”
2017 Arun Gandhi — “Lessons Learned From My Grandfather: Non-Violence in a Violent World”
2016 Senator Bill Bradley — “We Can All Do Better”
2015 Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn — “Why Students Should Care About Their World and Change It”
2014 Michele Norris — “NPR Presents: The Race Card Project”
2013 Madeleine Albright — “Education and Truth in the 21st Century”
2011 Khaled M. Abou El Fadl — “Is Shari’ah the Solution? The Promises and Problematics of Divine Law Today”
2009 Charles Villa-Vicencio — “Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes: Does the South African Settlement Have Anything to Teach the World?”
2006 Shirin Ebadi — “Islam, Human Rights, and Democracy”
2004 Rabbi Marc Gellman and Monsignor Tom Hartman — “The God Squad”
2003 Salman Rushdie — “Step Across This Line”
2001 Bernice Sandler — “We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, but Not Far Enough: Problems and Progress of Women in Higher Education”
2001 Elaine Scarry — “Thinking in an Emergency”
2000 Judy Chicago
1997 Cornell West — “Race and Religious Tolerance”