Spring 2025 Commencement Speaker

John May

East Carolina University will welcome entrepreneur and alumnus John May ’93 as the keynote speaker for its spring commencement ceremony. More than 4,600 students and their friends and family will gather to celebrate Friday, May 9, at 10 a.m. in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

May is the founder and managing partner of CORE Industrial Partners, a private equity firm with approximately $2 billion in assets under management. Since its founding in 2017, CORE has become one of the fastest-growing firms in the industry, investing exclusively in lower middle-market manufacturing, industrial technology and industrial services businesses. The firm has offices in Chicago, Austin, Texas, and Cleveland.

As managing partner, May oversees all aspects of the firm’s operations and serves on the board of directors for each of CORE’s portfolio companies, including Fathom, Vantage, Cohere, Kelvix, Cadrex, Uptive, 3dxtech, PrecisionX Group, Century Box, Aviation Concepts and Winky Lux. In 2022, he rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange with Fathom Digital Manufacturing.

May has remained involved with ECU and its mission to serve the people of North Carolina. He serves on the ECU Foundation Board of Directors, including its executive committee, and has chaired its investment committee since 2022. In March, May hosted ECU College of Business (COB) students in his Chicago office and was the keynote speaker at the 2022 COB Leadership Conference.

A native of Greenville, May attended Wahl-Coates Elementary and graduated from Greenville Christian Academy. He went on to graduate with honors from ECU in 1993, earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a double concentration in management and management information systems. He credits his ECU education as the foundation for his career. May currently splits his time between Chicago and Austin with his wife and son.