2026 Commencement Speaker | News | Worcester Academy

We are honored to welcome back Larry Gordon ’72, P’11 as Worcester Academy’s 2026 Commencement Speaker—a leader whose life has been shaped as much by curiosity and change as by accomplishment.

Larry’s journey did not follow a straight line. After studying at Tufts University and the MIT Sloan School of Management, he began his career at Intel, working as an engineer solving problems in the world around him. But like many people, he found that one path led to another. He moved from engineering into marketing, and later returned home to help guide his family’s business through a period of change and eventually took a leap that would define his career—transforming a small seafood packaging company into what became Cold Chain Technologies, a global leader in shipping life-saving medical products.

That work would later play a powerful and critical role in one of the most urgent moments of our time, helping to safely deliver hundreds of millions of COVID-19 vaccines around the world. Today, Cold Chain continues to set the standard for the safe and reliable distribution of critical pharmaceuticals. But if you ask Larry about his career, he is less likely to talk about scale or success than about the willingness to start over, to adapt, to meet the challenge of the moment, and to keep learning.

It is a mindset that began here on the Hilltop. As a Worcester Academy student, Larry could often be found behind the camera as a yearbook editor, or out on the water with the crew team, or on the ice playing hockey. More importantly, he remembers the teachers who challenged him, encouraged him, and helped him see possibilities he had not yet imagined for himself.

Today, Larry shares those same lessons with others—as a mentor to young entrepreneurs and as an advocate for expanding opportunity to those who possess drive and curiosity. His message is simple but powerful: your path does not need to be perfect—it just needs to be yours—and it is a path that should be embraced with gusto.

We are proud to welcome Larry back to Worcester Academy, where his story began, to share that message with the Class of 2026.

Worcester Academy’s 192nd Commencement will be held on June 5.