Judith Muhlberg, who works for the consulting firm Gagen MacDonald, will be the keynote speaker for the business school graduation ceremony Friday. As a consultant, Muhlberg devised a plan to help save United Airlines from bankruptcy.

Muhlberg, who is the parent of graduating senior Erika Muhlberg, first worked in the the White House communications office when Gerald Ford was president. She was also was an aid to chiefs of staff Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Muhlberg then assumed communications positions at the Ford Motor Company, and was senior vice president of communications at The Boeing Company. In 2005, she served as acting senior vice president of Sprint Nextel.

She is a member of the Women Corporate Directors, and she sits on the board of The Cradle, a non-profit adoption agency and the Arthur W. Page Society.