Influential music executive Julie Greenwald to receive honorary degree at Unified Commencement

During the 2026 Unified Commencement, Tulane will confer honorary degrees upon three extraordinary individuals for their remarkable achievements. Julie Greenwald will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in recognition of her visionary leadership in the global entertainment industry.

Greenwald is one of the most influential executives in modern music and co-founder of 26.2, a new music company launched in partnership with Sony Music. She previously spent two decades leading Atlantic Music Group, where her strategic vision and marketing leadership helped shape the careers of some of the most impactful artists of this generation, including Bruno Mars, Coldplay and Cardi B, to name a few.  

A New York native, Greenwald graduated from Tulane in 1992 with a double major in political science and English. She joined Def Jam that same year and rapidly rose through the company’s executive ranks, becoming general manager of promotion and later head of marketing, helping shape the company into an urban music powerhouse.  

In 1998, with the merger of Island Records and Def Jam, Greenwald was charged with overseeing the entire combined marketing department, spanning genres from hip-hop to rock. In 2002, she was named president of Island Records and executive vice president of the Island Def Jam Music Group. Two years later she arrived at Atlantic Records, playing a central role in the re-architecting of one of the industry’s most iconic labels until her departure in 2024.  

Greenwald consistently ranks among the most powerful leaders in the industry and is widely recognized for reshaping how music is marketed, distributed and sustained in the digital era. She has been named Billboard’s Women in Music Executive of the Year a record five times and has also been featured as one of The Hollywood Reporter’s Power 100 Women in Entertainment, as well as being named to Newsweek’s Women in Leadership roster.  

Tulane's 2026 Unified Commencement will be held at Caesars Superdome on Saturday, May 16, at 5 p.m. The ceremony will include live jazz, a second line with graduates and a keynote address by Sterling K. Brown, the award-winning actor known for his performances in the television series “This Is Us” and his Oscar-nominated role in the film “American Fiction.”