Growing up in a small town in Holland during the Cold War, Almar Latour, SOC/MA ’96, CEO of Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street Journal, aspired to move to America and become a real-life Tintin, the intrepid young reporter from his favorite Belgian comic book series. 

Latour realized his dream before he even graduated from AU, interning in Brussels with the Wall Street Journal Europe and working as a news assistant in the paper’s Washington bureau, just down the street from campus.

After collecting his journalism degree, the Eagle staffer headed back overseas, where he reported for The Wall Street Journal Europe from London and Stockholm. One night, after filing a front-page story for the next morning’s edition, he left for a date. Latour was “feeling very, very good about myself” when he returned to the newsroom to pick up his things after the date—until reality smacked him in the face. 

“I opened the door, and I heard my editors shouting my name—and not in a good way,” he told graduates from the School of Communication and the School of Education during commencement on May 10. “They had about 30 questions, hadn’t been able to reach me, and had missed the print deadline.”

The next morning, when he was summoned to the publisher’s office, Latour learned that “40,000 people did not get their paper because of me. I could have protested. I could have argued. And he could have fired me on the spot. But I took responsibility for letting the paper down, and he gave me a second chance.

“Fred,” Latour said, turning to his former boss-turned-close friend, who was among those gathered in Bender Arena for AU’s 149th commencement, “thank you for not firing me.” 

The lesson, he told the Class of 2025, is to stay humble. “Be grateful for second chances—and give others second chances, too,” Latour said. “Because not everyone will be like Fred.”