Dennis L. Wade

May 2016 Commencement Speaker

Dennis L. Wade, businessman and civic leader, is president and CEO of the Jackson Companies, a family-owned Myrtle Beach recreational and real estate firm.

Active in the community, Wade has served on the board of visitors of CCU’s E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration from 2002 to 2016 and the Coastal Educational Foundation since 2004, including two years as chairman. He chaired the board of directors of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and received the chamber’s Citizen of the Year award in 2005. He is a recipient of the Leadership Grand Strand’s Ann DeBock Leadership Award and the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business Distinguished Young Alumnus Award.

In his remarks to Coastal Carolina University’s Class of 2016, Wade encouraged the graduates to cultivate good attitudes, to pursue their personal passions, to embrace change, to set high standards, to have empathy for others, and to maintain a healthy balance between work and family life.

“When it comes to your family, the phrase ‘I don’t have time’ is not an excuse. Make time or you’ll regret it …. The standards to which you hold yourself are your choice and your choice alone. Only you can measure your success and happiness and no one else. Don’t compare your success and happiness with others. That’s a waste of time. Focus all your efforts on reaching your own success and you will find that failure is not an option.”

Wade closed his remarks with a quote by evangelist John Wesley: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”

Wade was presented the honorary degree Doctor of Public Service from Coastal Cariolina University during the ceremony.