Dr. Chenxi Wang to deliver INI commencement address

The former CMU faculty member and WINI co-founder will inspire INI graduates at the diploma ceremony on May 15.

Dr. Chenxi Wang will be the keynote speaker at the Information Networking Institute (INI)'s diploma ceremony on May 15, 2022. An influential technologist and thought leader in cybersecurity, Wang has close ties with Carnegie Mellon University and the INI, serving as a CMU faculty member and co-founder of Women@INI (WINI).

A leading venture capitalist in the Bay Area, Wang is the founder and general partner of Rain Capital, a Silicon Valley-based venture fund. She previously held leadership positions at top companies including Twistlock, Intel and Forrester, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for MDU Resources, a Fortune 500 company. Wang is also a Forbes contributor and writes a column for Dark Reading.

As an outspoken advocate for women in tech, Wang was named Women Investor of 2021 and 2019 by CyberRisk Alliance and Women Tech Founders. She was featured as one of SC Magazine’s Women of Influence for her innovative contributions to the field of information security and privacy. As co-founder of WINI along with INI Director Dena Haritos Tsamitis, Wang has helped advance gender diversity and inclusivity among the INI community and beyond.

"I am honored to speak at this year's graduation ceremony. This graduating class spent their academic years during the pandemic. Celebrating this moment is extremely meaningful and important," she said.

"Celebrating this moment is extremely meaningful and important."

This will be INI’s first in-person diploma ceremony since 2019. This special event will recognize the class of 2022 and those who graduated between December 2019 through December 2021, whose celebrations took place virtually due to COVID-19.

“We have been looking forward to this moment for a long time. Our diploma ceremony is such a special tradition at the INI and I’m excited that we can come together as a community once again to celebrate our graduates’ accomplishments over what has been a challenging past few years,” said Dena Haritos Tsamitis, Barbara Lazarus Professor in Information Networking and director of the INI. 

Our most recent graduates have secured outstanding roles at top technical companies such as Adobe, Amazon, NVIDIA, Salesforce and VMware. Several students will go on to serve their country after graduation, starting careers with the Air Force, Army, NSA, Department of Defense and other federal agencies. Others are working for start-ups and emerging companies contributing to cutting-edge R&D efforts.

As this year's commencement speaker, Wang hopes to inspire graduates to "trust your instincts and let your dreams soar."  

“Chenxi is a true changemaker who has left a transformational impact at CMU and on the industry as a whole,” said Haritos Tsamitis. "I know our graduates will be inspired by her story as they enter this next phase of their lives."

"Trust your instincts and let your dreams soar."

The 2022 INI Diploma Ceremony will take place on Sunday, May 15, 2022, at Rodef Shalom in Pittsburgh.