Lorenzo di Bonaventura ’76 will share on his Choate experiences and his film expertise at Commencement. Photo courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter
On March 26, 2019, Head of School Dr. Alex Curtis announced this year’s Commencement speaker: Choate alumnus Lorenzo di Bonaventura ’76, a renowned movie producer and recipient of the 2019 Alumni Award. di Bonaventura will deliver his speech on May 26.
In his announcement, Dr. Curtis provided a summary of Mr. di Bonaventura’s career, noting his myriad achievements. After graduating from Choate, Mr. di Bonaventura received an undergraduate degree in intellectual history at Harvard University and a Master’s degree of Business Administration at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
In 1989, he joined Warner Brothers, at which he was involved in productions such as The Matrix (1999) and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), and eventually became the President of Worldwide Production. In 2002, he started his own production company, di Bonaventura Pictures, based at Paramount Pictures. There, he gained even more success, especially through the Transformers series. In 2011, he started di Bonaventura Pictures Television, which was based at ABC Studios.
Mr. di Bonaventura is currently on the Board of Directors for the American Cinematheque, the Board of Advisors for Claremont Graduate Colleges, the Board of Trustees for Emerson College, and the Honorary Committee of the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Los Angeles.
In order to select this year’s Commencement speaker, the Alumni Relations office curated a list of appropriate speakers from which senior officers made their final decision. Ms. Monica St. James, Director of Alumni Relations, said she reached out to Mr. di Bonaventura back in August: “He wasn’t the easiest to get a hold of, but a certified letter that you have to sign for does the trick — just two of them had to be sent. So they got through to Paramount, and then his assistant called me. He is very pleased to get the award.”
Dr. Curtis and Ms. St. James are both excited to have Mr. di Bonaventura as this year’s speaker. Ms. St. James said, “I think he’s going to be wonderful. I really wanted the students to realize that we have an alumnus who is of his stature and at the top of the world in his field.” She added, “It’s interesting that Lorenzo di Bonaventura’s work has impacted — I bet — every single student in the school because of The Matrix and Harry Potter; I can’t imagine that we all haven’t seen every Harry Potter [movie]. And he’s responsible for bringing those to the film industry, not to mention the Transformers series.”
Dr. Curtis mentioned, “We always try to find someone that we hope will be interesting to the students primarily, but also to the faculty, staff, the parents, and the alumni that are in the audience. Anything that someone has done at a high level that is interesting, inspirational, and provides food for thought would have a good message for the class.” He continued, “Students may have seen The Matrix or not, but The Matrix was a groundbreaking movie. Some of the questions it poses [have]actually impacted teaching but also movies and popular culture.”
Dr. Curtis expressed his hope to have recipients of the Alumni Award as Commencement Speakers moving forward. He said, “The thing about graduation is you’re becoming an alum of the school. And so one of the things we want to do is highlight what you have to look forward to and honor those that have been in your seats before. We hope it’s also inspirational for the current students to see what the goal is and what it can lead to. The student body is looking at the seniors having achieved one goal; they also see an alum who’s in various different ways reached other goals.”
He continued, “When we have an alum that can relate to the students — ‘I lived in one of those dorms,’ ‘I played on that rink,’ or ‘I was on that stage’ — ‘and these are the things I did afterwards’ — I just think that’s really exciting. So, the last couple of years, we really have tried to move to people who have achieved things, but also as alumni, who have had a similar experience and can relate to our students.”
