 Purdue really gave me the fundamental building blocks to be successful in kind of whatever engineering career I decided to set forward on. It allowed me to know that I could make some giant leaps in really whatever business acumen I decided I wanted to go for and develop. I'm president and CEO of Technology Marketing Corporation, which is a semiconductor sales and consulting group here in the Midwest. I'm actually second generation business owner so my father started the business back in the mid-70s and once I got into that I was really successful at it and we grew the business significantly. In my spare time I'm president of the Boiler Business Exchange, which is a group of about 2,000 alum and business owners and executives in Indianapolis. I knew I wanted to get a world class engineering degree and you know give and produce value proposition and also it's outstanding reputation worldwide I mean it's really a no brainer why would you why would you go anywhere else. There's a couple things that Purdue really teaches you and one it's a work ethic and the ability to gut through anything that teaches you great time management skills and I think most importantly you know there's a lot of people around here that don't look like you act like you or think like you and it really taught you to function with those different types of people and how to be successful. Thanks to Purdue I can stand my Boiler Maker and wherever I go in the world and whoever I meet once they know that they know that being a Boiler Maker is really something very special and something to be proud of. I think the greatest footprint that Purdue has allowed me to leave is the fact that I've been relatively successful in business and with that I really believe in paying it forward and therefore I give back to Purdue whenever possible and I see the current students I see future grads like my daughter I see next generation kids coming up that will go through Purdue and it's really special to know that they're going to make their own footprints and have their own giant leaps and you were just a little bit of what made that possible and that's that's pretty cool. That was Matthew Folk, look for more stories at Purdue.edu slash footprints.