 Well, Dick, thank you so much for joining us on the official university podcast. We're excited to talk to you. So just to tell us a little bit, you grew up in Indiana. You went to high school in Indiana. But what was your first impression of Purdue? When did you first hear about it? Well, being in Indiana and basketball, the path to anything regarding a college or institution was watching basketball games. So clearly my awareness of the word Purdue and the institution Purdue started on channel four on some regional channel for Purdue basketball. And how did you decide that Purdue was the right place for you? Well, there was a couple things. I saw Purdue campus probably about 1963 or something like that. I went to, again, went to a basketball game at Lambert with a bunch of buddies and my dad and another dad took us there. So I saw the campus and then as I thought about making the decision, probably around my freshman year in high school, which would have been 64, math and science were sort of distinguished in the curriculum. And I like math and science and I did fairly well in math and science. So I gave up the whole dream of going into medicine and decided that the answer was engineering. And then it became an easy decision. Purdue University, not near my home, within range of my home. Tell us a little bit about your time as a student at Purdue. Do you have any favorite stories or memories that really stick out? The memory goes back to the other side of things where I did work hard studying and that was kind of my value system upbringing achievement and so on. So I was very well known in the Memorial Center, what they called the stacks. The stacks were where all the old books were that they didn't have in the library. And they had metal desks, they had metal chairs, and they had light bulbs in the ceiling. And it was dark so it was very secluded and going down the engineering path there was lots of studying to do. So I had a habit of staying until midnight and the students that were at the desk in the front in the reception, I knew them because I was usually, if not always, the last guy out and I turned off the lights and as I'd walked by they'd say, you know, Dick, did you turn off the lights? So it was always at midnight. My college activities weren't that bad because I just started dating and going out after midnight because midnight I was still in the stacks. So that's the memory that I take away from, never played golf, did limited intramurals, but studied a lot. So midnight was your starting point of the night. Yeah, I was the opposite of Cinderella. So when you look back at your classes, do you have a favorite class, maybe a favorite professor that really impacted you? Yeah, I think both of those are good questions. One is the favorite classes I would not tie at him to industrial engineering. I will on the professor, but it was always fun from an intellectual level that they had this mathematical equation that one out of three engineers makes it through the program, the other two don't. So Physics 152 in your freshman year was where they could whack off those two guys that didn't belong. And so 152 was very interesting. The good thing was it was graded on the curve. So when you ended up with a number under 50, that still could have been good, you know. But 152 was very intellectually stimulating. And in the engineering field, I also liked material science engineering courses. I liked Chem E courses. They were very different, and that's why I think they were really engaging to me. On the professor's side, he's since passed, but there was a gentleman named Dr. Pritchker in the industrial engineering school. And he created sort of a more of a, he had his own research done around the critical path method or mythology. And critical path is just simply plotting out in business, manufacturing, or a new product. What are the steps to get to success? And it was always kind of simple locations, simple junctions where things got evaluated. What was the critical path? He applied probability to all of those. And what was interesting, I think he called it GASP. He had another name other than CPM. And it was very fascinating because what's relevant today, that was probably 1970. And today in artificial intelligence, I am involved in a couple other institutions. It was almost like he created the artificial intelligence idea of plotting a critical path back in 1970 by putting probability functions around, which is what a lot of the artificial intelligence does today. And it was very fascinating and it was very engaging, but I reflect on it. It's almost, if you fast forward, what, 50 years, you know, that's 70 to today, 50 years. Some of that thinking he had back then we see today. And he was a great professor, a very distinguished person and intellectually very high. And when you look back, you know, you're from a small town of 900 people. You told me earlier, you know, mowed lawns and you were working really hard. And now fast forward, you've been the CEO of multiple companies, really successful career. How did Purdue help you get to where you are today? I think I'll go to kind of, it's a catalyst, a foundation, was really what Purdue did. But just to give some perspective, I reflected on your numbers. You're right, the community, I grew up, the town that I grew up in was Clay City, Indiana, and it was about 900 people. In the farming community, it may have been 12 or 1500 total. But I went from that to this day, my businesses took me to five different continents and 44 different countries. So it was a little different than where I started, but for me, it was another massive education. I loved learning the cultures. I loved traveling all over the world. I missed a couple of continents, but today I don't necessarily want to travel much because I have probably, I estimated probably 5 million miles in the air. So I did travel a lot. Do you have a favorite travel spot? I know I didn't prepare you for this. Yeah, I mean, there's two places. I think Singapore and Sydney, Australia, I think are very unique and in a bunch of ways politically good and bad. But also just very interesting places to visit, plus Singapore is a city-state and that makes it very unique because it's its own country and it's just a city. The rest of them kind of sort of spill down, you know, Paris and New York and London and I have to say, you know, New York and San Francisco are still, now today, again, we get too close, but there's American cities that are very exciting, but I did a lot in China. I started a couple of businesses, so spent a fair amount of time in Shanghai and Korea and Tokyo and so on. So I had a good perspective of different cultures and cities, so I had lots of favorite places, but for some reason I go back to Singapore and Sydney, two really neat places. And so going back to, you know, you've had these successful businesses, how did Purdue tee you up? I think it was the whole idea of giving me a foundation of problem-solving. You know, a lot of things in life, people, you think of this as mathematics, but you can take it to sort of a conceptual level in that, you know, Algebra, for example, is, you know, solving a problem with an unknown. Well, engineering's a little bit that way. It's creating a new idea or solving a problem with unknowns. And I think, you know, a Purdue engineering degree gives you that kind of platform that's very unique. And even later on, as you know, from the marketing point of view, I think there's some carryover in this discussion of that, where, you know, engineering and marketing sound like they're a long way apart, but I don't. Another perspective of that would be engineering and marketing start, both start with facts and data. And then to think of today's world, I'm talking back in 1968 to 72, but still data and facts is where everything starts in the engineering education. And from the facts, you do analysis. And from the analysis, you pull together and you have findings. And what you do with the findings is you collect the findings and you have a conclusion. And when you have a conclusion, then you can think about a recommendation on what to do, but then ultimately you take that recommendation mindset and you make a decision, sometimes between one or two different ideas. So it goes facts, it goes analysis, it goes conclusions, it goes to recommendations, and it goes to a decision and a solution out in the real world. Well, what's interesting, you can line that up for engineering, it's very clear. I could line it up being the executive vice president of marketing and craft. It had the same thinking, very different characteristics, but still the same thinking in your brain, so to speak. It's really fun to compare those. They seem far apart, but from an education point of view, that's the transition, how did I get from engineering to marketing. And there was a lot of circumstantial things and luck there, but that's correct. I had craft marketing for about eight years of craft marketing. That's super interesting. So, you know, you're here at this president's council weekend. A lot of people know who you are at Purdue and you've been very generous in your donations. How do you think it's important to give back to Purdue after all this time? Yeah, giving back right now, I'm 71 years old, and so giving back is kind of in that season of my life. Purdue's been there a few years earlier, but I have a real focus today of giving back in general. And the underpinning of that is I try to touch as many people as I can. I have Purdue, I have the University of Chicago, I have Mayo Clinic, and then I have a hunger program and I have Habitat for Humanity efforts that go on. So I started Clay City though. I'm in the process of we're in the final phases of a community center being built there under my name and my mom and dad. So the gift thing is very much there. In the case of the gift of Purdue, it's just like, let's face it, I'm here today because Purdue is the foundation of where I started my education that led to the career we're talking about. And with your endowment with Coach Painter, it sounds like from a very early age you were excited about basketball. I was. So, you know, tell us about that and why you chose to give back to the athletics program specifically basketball. Athletics, this is another thing going back to sort of my experience in more of a larger perspective. I could go to major cities around the world and they know about the football team and the basketball team whether in Tokyo or Paris or London or Tel Aviv, wherever, people are aware of that. But they're very much aware of the engineering program. But it's interesting to see how speckled even athletics leaks through. Now, some of that just because people know me and want to follow the Purdue sports. But it's a very, athletics can actually be, in my word, back to touching as many people as possible. It can touch people in a global sense. Obviously, a lot more focus back to the United States. But it can also take sort of the conventional thing of alums. And by the way, this is dynamic if you think about it. It impacts alums over time. It impacts students over time. And it impacts high school or junior high kids over time. So you've got this mass of people that know more about the athletic department than the integrity of the engineering program or the pre-med or the vet school or on and on. So I looked at that in sort of maybe a convoluted way. But it's not only do I like the basketball athletic concept, but I think it's also very much of representing who Purdue University is. And it can be somebody from the third grade to somebody 95 years old. And it's all relevant. I do think that you mentioned one other thing was Matt plays a big important role in that whole setting. I mean, he is a paramount symbol of who Purdue is. Again, back to this visualization when you look at athletics. I mean, here's a guy that's second in the winning streak. So winning is important of Purdue. He's the fifth in terms of the Big Ten. And secondly, I know firsthand he works very hard on student-athlete education. And not just the education piece. What are you going to do? What are the careers? It's sort of the little league concept of how many kids are in little league that will ever play Major League Baseball when there's fewer than 800 people playing Major League Baseball. So he really works on that sincerely. I think the last point is, I think he's a model for all sports, college sports, when it comes to what is ethical and the right thing to do. So that's why athletics, that's why basketball. Oh, I've got a little one for you on basketball. Last year for the 2021 NCAA, because it was in Indiana, I thought it was a great phrase on plagiarizing. But it said, in 49 states, it's just basketball. But this is Indiana. So I think there's my basketball thing. And you're also really still involved with Purdue overall. You come back to campus a lot. You're involved with all different departments. What does it mean to you to be part of this community after all this time? I think it relates to the last things you were talking about. It's another way of giving back. And I'm trying to give back because it's not for any recognition or compensation or anything. It's just whatever I've done. I've done a lot, even with a couple Ivy League schools, because I did so much in China that the textbooks will tell all the graduate students in business what to do. But it doesn't have people talking about that were on the ground that started up businesses. So that's an example of the idea that it's giving back in that mode. I will say that the thing that I find really positive, I'll try to get some names for you, but I'm getting access to being back on campus. It's not me sort of running around. But J. Ackridge has just been fabulous. What a great provost. And obviously being the dean of the Agricultural School, he comes from a large base and foundation here, I think. And he opened a lot of doors for me. He opened doors with Natalie Duvall Cotill and in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship group, I'm actually doing a class March the 1st. So I do some presentations slash lectures. So I did that. But he also plugged in Professor Hummels, and he and I kind of have, he's really into basketball, so we have a little bit of a connection on that. He's a University of Chicago graduate as well, but he got the Ph.D. I got the MBA. And so I have a lot of access from him, and I am working with one of his people to be possibly doing lectures now in the MBA program. And I've done some work on the Engineering MBA five-year program, new degree. So I'm doing that. And then Matt Fault, the CEO of Purdue for Life, has opened doors. And then the Athletic Department, both all the way going back to Morgan Burke and now Mike Babinski, they make access for me. And or have me doing things, involvement. And that's very rewarding. So my desire is giving, but sort of the benefit is the things that are truly on the classroom and helping students and professors with whatever my experience can help with. When you look back and reflect on your time at Purdue, is there anything you would have done differently? No, I have a theme on that one. It's a little awkward. But I'm here today, a little bit of faith in this one, okay? I'm here today because it is meant to be. Okay? And that means I don't regret or resent anything back in the future. You're talking about what would I change at Purdue or what do I regret? I don't because that's all part of the equation of why I'm here today. And there's peaks and valleys in everyone's life. And I will say I'm very blessed, I'm very fortunate, but I'm meant to be here today and that's a composite of a bunch of things that have happened over time. And therefore I don't dwell on the past. I try to focus on where I am today and where we go from here. Sure, and like every little step brought you to where you are today. That's right. What advice would you give to today's Purdue student? Well, if I look around and think of success, of people I've seen that are successful, there is one characteristic that's very simple and first of all, they work hard. They really, really work hard. And what's interesting with that phrase, that can be sort of a descriptive or perscriptive thing, but the people that are successful persist to work hard. And so it's working hard and persistent. Sounds elementary, but that's true in your college education. It's true in every job you're going to do. I guess your family, your relationships, you know, you've got to work hard and you've got to keep at it. The second one is something that I write in personal life but I've used and everybody gets my friends get tired of the corny reference, but we only manage the future. We don't manage the past. We can learn from the past, but to a young student, for them to get in perspective, hey, don't worry about even failures. You can learn from failures in the past. And if things aren't going right, it's in the past. You can't change it. But what you do control 100% is you can manage the future. You can't manage the past. That's sort of two things I would think about with students. Sure. That makes sense. Why are you proud to be a boiler maker? What makes Purdue so unique in your eyes? Well, I think the word unique is exactly the appropriate word. It's because it is unique. It's not just unique in my eyes. I think it's authentically unique. And when I think about today, I've done some research with the University of Chicago and looking at the economy and seeing how the economy since 1989 has really been, with a very few exceptions, has been on a phenomenal growth, but it's been built around technology. And so Purdue is a STEM institution, the science, technology, engineering, and math that is there. And technology is one of those four, but really they still blend together. And when we think about the uniqueness of Purdue, it's clearly, and it's good today. It's even more of a billboard and a pronouncement today of uniqueness and value that it is an institution that's really grounded in that. And I think that's not wanting to be, you know, a superior, excellent educational institution, but in fact has a framework to make that happen. So I think the whole idea of technology driving the economy, the economy has been so strong since 1989, the consistency, and it's coming from technology, but it takes engineering and science and math and other things. I mean, there's other schools, obviously, in the Purdue curriculum and degree choices, but specifically to the area that I'm familiar with, I think it's a really, truly unique and superior institution. And the planning and the future need to continue to value that because I use the term in different ways. I hope that leadership of the university is looking at the horizon, you know, not at the ground. And the horizons, you know, where the earth and the sky meet, but it's as far as you can see, is the more better phrase to think about. And I think we're in a very good position today. And now the question is how do we, you know, perpetuate that into the future to be continuing to be unique and superior institution. And I also think that's with superior professors, unique and superior students, and unique and superior outcomes results. So that's kind of the way I think about that.