Robert Hisaoka and Vishal Khera to Speak at Spring 2023 Commencement Ceremonies

The Smith School is pleased to announce that two distinguished alumni will be keynote speakers for the Spring 2023 Commencement ceremonies.

Undergraduate Commencement

Robert G. Hisaoka ’79 will deliver the keynote address at the Undergraduate Commencement ceremony on May 24. Hisaoka is the chairman and CEO of RGH Capital and the founder and event chairman of the Joan Hisaoka “Make A Difference” Gala Assisting Those Living with Cancer. He is also the chairman of the Inova Health Foundation. 

Hisaoka began his career as a CPA at a large local public accounting firm. He is now a partner in a group of automotive dealerships and related entities, as well as an investor and a member of the boards of numerous startups and disruptive companies. 

In 2013, Hisaoka was named the Robert H. Smith School of Business Alumnus of the Year and received the Inova Health System’s Building Our Legacy in Cancer Award. From 2017 to 2020, he funded and chaired the school’s Robert G. Hisaoka Speaker Series. He also previously chaired and funded the Dingman Center for Entrepreurship’s Pitch Dingman Competition for student entrepreneurs.

Hisaoka was recently honored as one of the first alumni to be inducted into the Robert H. Smith School of Business Hall of Fame, in recognition of his outstanding career of extraordinary achievement and leadership in the community.

Learn more about the Undergraduate Commencement ceremony.

Graduate Commencement

Vishal Khera, MBA ’00,  will deliver the keynote address at the Graduate Commencement ceremony. Khera was the co-founder and president of Creative Systems and Consulting, a leading digital transformation services firm. He is an entrepreneur who led a federal consulting business that helped several large U.S. federal agencies digitally transform their mission critical systems. In his role, he was responsible for overall business strategy, growth and innovation at Creative. Under his leadership, Creative was consistently ranked in the Inc5000 fastest growing private companies from 2014 to 2020. Creative was acquired by a publicly traded global management consulting firm in December 2021.

He is a technologist at heart and has recently founded Khera Ventures to invest in and assist entrepreneurs seeking to bring enterprise software and advanced technology products to market. His goal is to help the next generation of entrepreneurs with their respective experiences and overcome the challenges of bringing new products to market.

Prior to founding Creative, he was the Chief Architect at Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond where he led IT strategy and new technology introduction programs. He also spent 8+ years as an IT strategy consultant for Gartner, one of the world’s leading management and IT strategy consulting firms.

Khera serves on the Smith School’s Board of Advisors.

Learn more about the Graduate Commencement ceremony.