By Lacie Blankenship
Eric Johnson, Dean of the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management, announced that Paul Jacobson (MBA’97), Executive Vice President and CFO of General Motors Co. (GM), will speak at the school’s 2022 Commencement on May 13.
Paul Jacobson
Jacobson joined GM in December of 2020 after serving as CFO of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (Delta), where he was named best airline industry CFO 8 times by Institutional Investor magazine’s poll of Wall Street analysts and investors. Jacobson helped transform Delta into one of Fortune magazine’s Top 50 Most Admired Companies for 6 consecutive years.
Along with his traditional duties as CFO, Jacobson is a key player in GM’s historic shift to electric vehicles. “GM is becoming a platform innovator, and in doing so, we will change the growth trajectory of our business,” Jacobson wrote in a reflection on his first year at GM.
Jacobson graduated from Auburn University with a bachelor’s degree in aviation management and later received a Master of Business Administration from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management.
He serves on the board of trustees for the Auburn University Foundation, The Harbert College of Business Advisory Council at Auburn, and The Owen Graduate School of Management Board of Visitors at Vanderbilt.
As part of the Owen Century Partners, Jacobson has made a $2.5M commitment to Owen’s building renovation to name the admissions suite the Jacobson Family Admissions Center.
