STATESBORO–U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson will serve as the featured speaker at Georgia Southern University’s 2008 spring commencement on May 10.

The ceremony will be held in Allen E. Paulson Stadium beginning at 9 a.m. In case of bad weather, the ceremony will be moved to Hanner Fieldhouse and split into four sessions, at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

“We are very pleased to welcome Sen. Isakson back to Georgia Southern University as the 2008 commencement speaker,” said Bruce Grube, president of Georgia Southern University.  “This year’s graduating class is one of the largest in our institution’s history and we are excited for the graduates to have the opportunity to hear and learn from a speaker who has spent more than 30 years as a businessman and public servant in the state of Georgia.”

Isakson began his business career in 1967 when he opened the first Cobb County office of a small, family-owned real estate business, Northside Realty. He later served as president of Northside for 20 years, presiding over the company’s growth into the largest independent residential real estate brokerage company in the Southeast and one of the largest in America.

He entered Georgia Republican politics in 1974 and served 17 years in the Georgia Legislature and three years as chairman of the Georgia Board of Education. In 1999, Isakson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the first of three terms before being elected to the U.S. Senate in November of 2004.

Today, Isakson serves on six different Senate committees including Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee, the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, the Small Businesses and Entrepreneurship Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Ethics.  He is a 1966 graduate of the University of Georgia and he served in the Georgia Air National Guard from 1966 to 1972.

For more information on the spring commencement, visit: www.georgiasouthern.edu/commencement.