Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts CEO and PNC Bank New England Regional President to Deliver Bentley University 2026 Commencement Addresses
Sarah Iselin, president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, will deliver the keynote address at Bentley University’s 107th undergraduate commencement ceremony in May. Jon Bernstein, New England regional president of PNC Bank, will deliver the keynote address at the 51st commencement ceremony for Bentley’s McCallum Graduate School of Business.
As president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Iselin leads one of the largest independent Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in the country. She played a key role in the development of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation’s “Roadmap to Coverage,” which contributed to the passage of Massachusetts’ landmark 2006 health reform law. It resulted in the lowest uninsured rate in the country and later became the model for the Affordable Care Act. Iselin served as the foundation’s president from 2010 to 2012, and later as the company’s chief strategy officer and senior vice president of strategy, policy and community partnerships.
Before her current role, Iselin was executive vice president and chief operating officer of Blue Shield of California. She also served in a variety of executive leadership roles at GuideWell/Florida Blue and Optum and was commissioner of the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy under former Governor Deval Patrick.
Iselin sits on the boards of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Boston Green Ribbon Commission, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Blue Health Intelligence and Solis Mammography.
She received her Master of Science degree in health policy and management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and bachelor's degree in fine arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Jon Bernstein has more than 30 years of financial services experience. Before joining PNC in 2019, he served as a managing director in the Financial Institutions Group at Barclays. In this role, he advised on several transactions for nationally branded financial services firms and led coverage for banking institutions that included PNC as well as banks from New England, the Midwest and Southeast. Bernstein’s experience also includes private equity investing, corporate development and investment banking at Morgan Stanley, A.G. Edwards and Credit Suisse Group.
Bernstein chairs the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, where he aims to bring people together to tackle affordability and economic uncertainty so businesses and communities can thrive. He is also a board member of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and helps amplify the local business community as co-host of the podcast PNC C-Speak: The Language of Executives Boston.
A devoted Boston sports fan and standout oarsman on Harvard’s first varsity heavyweight crew from 1988 to 1990, he is a member of the National Rowing Foundation.
Bernstein also co-chairs the Massachusetts Early Childhood Coalition, a group of business leaders advocating for policies and programs that make early childcare and education more available to Massachusetts workers. He earned an undergraduate degree in history from Harvard College and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Cambridge.
In 2025, both Iselin and Bernstein were named to Boston Magazine’s 150 Most Influential Bostonians list.
About the Ceremonies
Bentley University’s graduate and PhD commencement ceremony will be held on Friday, May 15, 2026, and the undergraduate ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 16.
Undergraduate students will receive bachelor’s degrees from a variety of business and liberal arts programs that prepare them to be future business leaders who will deliver value in the marketplace and lasting positive effects for society. Graduate students will receive advanced degrees that include a Master’s in Accounting, Master’s in Business Administration, Master’s in Business Analytics, Master’s in Finance and Master’s in Human Factors in Information Design. At the respective ceremonies, Bernstein and Iselin will receive honorary Doctor of Commercial Science degrees.