UCF commencement speaker Gloria Caulfield criticised over Tavistock ties
Gloria Caulfield, vice president of strategic alliances at Tavistock Development Company, delivered the University of Central Florida spring commencement address on May 8, 2026. Her appearance drew criticism because Tavistock holds large-scale Central Florida real-estate investments and health-sector partnerships that some students and alumni oppose. UCF's official recording contains the full address, with Caulfield's remarks beginning at the 1:21:09 mark. The episode matters because inviting an executive from a company with major local development and health ties spotlights how universities manage relationships with corporate partners.
FWIW, because this seems hard to find, this was at the University of Central Florida, and the speaker is Gloria Caulfield, "VP of strategic alliances" at Tavistock Development Company, which the more I google the more it sounds like a villain in a Mission Impossible film. www.ucf.edu/news/ucfs-sp...
Will Bunch30The owner is an inside trader who was pardoned by Trump www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/11/13/b...
Adam Bonin23Gloria Caulfield's full remarks are here (📌 1:14:52). I wanted to see if it was just a bad moment in an otherwise good speech. It wasn't. She name-drops important people she's met (Bezos), offers banal "dream big" stuff, says AI now is like Internet revolution was, and it's all met by silence.
Amanda Montagne17I mean, they're a private equity company, that already confirms they're villains. Oh, and I see they're based in the Bahamas. BECAUSE OF FUCKING COURSE THEY ARE.
Captain Dunsel12"May I finish?" How about no. How about these people get shut down by actual living human beings each and every time they start this anti-person/AI push.
Brad G.9Isn't the real story that UCF could only get a VP of who gives a sh!t to be the speaker?
Mike Habegger6Just googled myself and it looks like it’s a bunch of ultra modern office buildings? Why are they based in the Bahamas? Oh that’s right they are villains.
John5The Marquess of Tavistock was a leading Nazi-sympathizer British aristocrat during the 30s. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasting...
Benjamin Rose4Was gonna say Tavistock sounds like the name of a corporation in a Crighton novel.
She's not a college administrator - tho administrators did invite her to speak - she's works a big Florida development company as the VP of "Strategic Alliances" whatever that is
Uneasy Writer285It’s hard for me to sort these managerial types, they all seem to merge into a big blob of Corpspeak.
Kate Tuttle55Looking at that company’s website is like wading through a kiddie pool filled with manure. It’s inexplicable, mysterious, and feels fundamentally wrong.
julius caesarhands24People like this think AI is a game changer because they don't actually do anything, they don't KNOW how to do anything, and they don't even know that knowing how to do things is a thing to be known. They think stuff happens because people lesser than them toiled away at a menial task, like cattle.
Dave Ferguson15"Strategic alliances" is the term you use so as not to say "MLM tiers."
Katniss E.12I think they need to replace her job with AI.
Jen O’FFS9ha. Friends live next to Lake Nona. It’s basically a corporately-owned town technically in Orlando. Sounds like she’s in charge of finding healthcare tenants.
Kathy Love7It's difficult to imagine how they could send someone out with this script without her being aware of how it would go down in real life. She must live in the most impermeable bubble in the world. An extraordinarily poor choice of speaker. (And, I'm sorry to say, an extraordinarily poor speaker.)
jm6566.bsky.social4These people are so out of touch with reality. The top 1% that don’t have a clue.
J. Hamilton Hatch4"Prior to joining Tavistock, Gloria worked as an executive for a national consulting group with the mission of identifying and quantifying new revenue streams for integrated healthcare systems across the country." That says all you need to know.
Sara B4Exactly the type of position that benefits most from bullshit (ie AI)
Dave Fynan3Tavistock has developed the Lake Nona area of Central Florida. It’s founder received a pardon after conviction. www.bbc.com/news/article...
justaconcernedguy.bsky.social3poster child for this book
waldogeraldofaldo.bsky.social3I would be very disappointed to have someone this mid as a grad speaker
mlex2that speaker deserves to be a laughing stock
Gloria Caulfield at the UCF commencement, in case you were wondering
Adam Bursi8“Gloria specializes in healthcare and life sciences as a real estate executive” Huh! Really scraping the bottom of the barrel for speakers these days resources.wellcertified.com/people/homes...
George S5Sharing locally so our speakers can get their rewrites done by next Saturday 😅
Todd Walker4I’ll bet she didn’t expect that speech to make her famous, er, infamous.
Tara Goddard3I mean, she's not wrong ... if she'd been talking about negative ecological impacts on a global scale, contribution to increasing income disparities, and worsening power imbalances. I take it that was not her thesis.
Why the fuck did UCF invite this person to speak to Arts & Communications majors? She’s not an alum and she has no relevant experience. For that matter, why did she accept?
Tyler King16Like, what? I have absolutely no idea who spoke at my UCF graduation. And I had two of them. I don’t remember being particularly inspired. www.linkedin.com/posts/univer...
Abominable Snow Doc3At least it gave us this delightful exchange where her bubble was burst.
Geoffrey Hughes2Often this is a prelude to asking a whale for money or rewarding them for money they've already given with a chance to feel important.
WTF is a Gloria Caulfield and what is it doing giving a commencement speech anyway? I would feel so disappointed in my university and my degree if this was what was dredged up to speak at my commencement.
Pat Host11Amen. This is usually why most non elite schools default to chancellors and university presidents so you don't insult students by trotting out some salesperson or lobbyist.
jophanc.bsky.social4GLORIA CAULFIELD VICE PRESIDENT OF STRATEGIC ALLIANCES, TAVISTOCK DEVELOPMENT COMPANY www.ucf.edu/wp-content/b... Page 9 1/2
