 Well, good afternoon and thank you for the warm welcome in what I thought was going to be a chilly day. I'm honored to be among this distinguished group. Celebrating a momentous day for the University of Vermont. I'm also privileged to be able to say a few words about Dr. Suresh Garabella, the 27th president of this university. I will refer to him from here on as Suresh given the personal friendship that we've enjoyed over the years. Suresh and I come from very different parts of the world. He comes from India, I come from Columbia. It was Purdue University that got us together. Our common denominator are gold and black. Now Suresh is going to hold on to the gold, put aside the black and get the green and you're going to look very good in it, Suresh. Throughout our association, we also had another common denominator and that was our desire to help and serve on areas where we could help. Suresh made many life-changing contributions in different corners of the world, but I'm going to focus only on one that I know very well, Columbia. So I was always felt, I owed so much to the country where I was born and to the university where I was formed. So I was always trying to see how I could come bring together and help them both and that's how I became a sort of missing link that served me very well down the road to bring the two closer together. Through this Colombian Purdue initiative that was formed, there were many benefits for the countries, the universities, the professors, the students, all aiming at mutually beneficial, sustainable, economic development. For years, I've believed that success is a function of how you surround yourself and that's how Suresh comes into the picture. He was not only the person to help realize the dreams of the initiative, but also the partner to bring other people on board. Like former president of Purdue, Dr. Franz Kordoba, who was there with us at the time and is with us here today. So I will focus my comments on how I've seen Suresh through these experiences and I've seen three areas as a statesman, as a humanitarian and as a friend. As a statesman, you should have seen him with two presidents of Colombia. One even went on to say that if he were re-elected again, he would ask Suresh to become a Colombian citizen. Why? Because of his passion for Colombia and his knowledge of its people and its culture. We also interacted very strongly with people from the government. He smoothly moved around the ranks of the ministers of education, finance, agriculture, the heads of departments like the planning department, the equivalent of the National Science Foundation and ambassadors in Washington and vice versa, and scientists from two world-renowned research centers in tropical agriculture. As a statesman, he also was very much into building relationships with the universities, 12 private universities and 12 public universities, all very closely related to Suresh and among the best in the country and some among the best in Latin America. He was also very much into as a statesman with industry leaders. And today we have Alberto Velazquez with us who represents the Grupo Aval, one of the three largest conglomerates in the country, if not the largest. As a humanitarian, Suresh had a major impact on people. As an example, there's a research internship for undergraduate students in Colombia to come to Purdue and it's been a tremendous success because of the people that come, they are almost invited to come and join and end up in PhD programs. Right now we have about a hundred on track in that area and the snowball is quickly gaining size and speed. Now, as a Suresh, as an individual, he really cares about people and with that Omar Sharif look and that easygoing personality, he's an instant favorite with whomever he meets. And that's how, as an example, in very challenged parts of Colombia, kids that would never have opportunities that they could even imagine of came to Purdue gifted student programs and ended up, it's not only surprisingly, but very impressively, to become university students, almost all of them, half of them in engineering and half of them in other fields. This has to make Suresh feel very, very good about the impact that he will have on generations to come. Now, as a friend, as you can see he has many, many relationships which will be ongoing. Purdue will miss this emblematic and energetic leader and Vermont will benefit from his exemplary attributes at the helm. So, to Suresh, a gifted statesman, a compassionate humanitarian, a cherished friend, and with Lakshmi by your side, I am pleased to wish you well as you guide this university, one of the oldest in the nation, to even greater heights. We can't wait to see you shine. And friends at the University of Vermont, congratulations on a wonderful choice for this revered institution. You have a visionary leader, a strategic thinker, and a phenomenal doer. So, in closing, I'll just say, just fasten your seat belts and hang on, you're in for an amazing ride with President Suresh Grameral. Enjoy and best wishes.