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Adelphi University will confirm graduates at the associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels during its 114^th Commencement on Tuesday, May 18, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. in the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, 1255 Hempstead Turnpike, Uniondale, NY. Adelphi’s School of Business alumna Carol A. Ammon M.B.A. ’79 will deliver the Commencement address and will be recognized with an honorary degree.

Ms. Ammon is the founder and retired CEO and chairman of Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company with market leadership in pain management. After leading a management buyout team and purchasing 37 pharmaceutical products from The DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company in 1997, Ms. Ammon formed Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. In July 2000, Endo became a publicly traded company, known as Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc, following the completion of its acquisition of Algos Pharmaceutical Corporation. The company is engaged in research, development, sale, and marketing of branded and generic pharmaceuticals.

A member of Adelphi University’s Board of Trustees from 2005 to 2010, Ms. Ammon made the largest gift in the University’s history in March 2006, when she donated $9.5 million in honor of her mother Ruth S. Ammon, class of 1942, for whom Adelphi’s School of Education is named. Ruth Ammon, a second grade teacher in New Hyde Park School District’s Hillside Grade School, was loved by her students and was well liked and respected by her friends and colleagues, and a strong proponent of and highly committed to education. She returned to Adelphi University in the late 1960s and early 1970s for graduate coursework in the fields of special education and remedial reading. A special bond existed between Carol and her mother; Ruth was Carol’s own second grade teacher. In addition, Carol Ammon’s brother, Frederick, earned his M.S.W. at Adelphi’s School of Social Work in 1994.

In April 2007, Adelphi announced a challenge grant from Ms. Ammon of $500,000 for student scholarships, meant to inspire alumni, faculty, and friends of the Adelphi University School of Business to contribute $250,000 for scholarships for the School of Business. The challenge resulted in over $800,000 in new endowed funds benefiting Adelphi Business students.

Prior to forming Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., Ms Ammon spent 23 years in the pharmaceuticals division of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. During her career at DuPont, she served in positions of increasing responsibility across research and development, finance, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. She held roles such as president of the generic pharmaceutical business unit of The DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company, the pharmaceutical joint venture of DuPont and Merck & Co., Inc., starting in 1993. Three years later, she was named president of the United States Pharmaceuticals division of DuPont Merck, and oversaw a significant share of the company’s corporate revenue and earnings.

Ms. Ammon’s achievements have been acknowledged numerous times. In 2006, she was recognized as Outstanding Alumna at Adelphi’s Sixth Annual President’s Gala, the University’s major annual benefit for student scholarships. In 2004, she was named CEO of the Year by the Eastern Technology Council, an organization of 800 technology and life sciences companies in the Philadelphia region and in 2003, Endo received the Eastern Technology Council’s Company of the Year award. Additionally, Ms. Ammon received the 2003 Greater Philadelphia Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the health sciences category.

A native of New Hyde Park, NY, Ms. Ammon received a master’s degree in business from Adelphi University, completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University, and received a bachelor’s degree from Central Connecticut State University.

For more information about Commencement 2010, please visit http://www.adelphi.edu/commencement/.
About Adelphi University: Adelphi University, chartered in 1896, was the first institution of higher education for the liberal arts and sciences on Long Island. Through its schools and programs—The College of Arts and Sciences, Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Honors College, Ruth S. Ammon School of Education, University College, and the Schools of Business, Nursing, and Social Work—the co-educational university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as professional and educational programs for adults. Adelphi University currently enrolls nearly 8,500 students from 41 states and 63 foreign countries.