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Entrepreneurism and entrepreneurship is not

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a thing. It, it's a way of life.

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Greg Oslan and I'm an entrepreneur, uh, at heart,

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I've been this way my whole life. I don't think I realized it until I was much,

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much older. Uh, but it's in my d n a, it's in my blood, uh,

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and it's something I truly love to do. Today I am, uh, a board member,

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an investor,

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and a strategic advisor to both early stage companies in the

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tech sector as well as the US government. And with the US government.

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It's the application of commercial technologies applied to military mission.

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Quickly, when I, uh, applied to Indiana University and, um,

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my intent was to become, uh, a doctor, and after a couple years of doing that,

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realized that may not be my calling.

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One of the things that IU did for me is gave me the opportunity to explore and

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experience other things. Talked to a counselor there who said,

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Hey, Greg, you know, with your experience and your love of math,

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you ought to look at, you know, computers. And I'm like, huh.

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Didn't know much about those. In, you know, in 19 79, 1 thing led to another.

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I ended up getting my degree in, in quantitative business analysis,

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and I was very,

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very fortunate to be able to join at and t at a

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time where it was starting to go through its transition.

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And so was the entire industry. You know,

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I had eight different jobs at at and t and Ameritech over my career at 15 years

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there. And I was able to start everything on my own.

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So I went from computer programming to management,

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to computer operations to marketing and sales.

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And that allowed me to build my first business.

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I built a company called Mobile Vision. It was a joint venture between, uh,

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Ameritech and another third party company.

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So that kind of opened up the door to what do you do beyond, uh,

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corporate America?

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And I moved from being an intrapreneur in corporate America

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to an entrepreneur, uh, outside of the company. Uh,

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and across my career I've been chairman and or c e o of 12 companies,

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10 times that, that I've been involved in, uh, in investing in,

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or advising in through the various venture firms,

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each of those with a technology route.

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And each of those that could, and many of them that do today,

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uh, benefit, um, the US government in our way of life,

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either in the Department of Defense or the intelligence community.

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Each one of those has taught me something and has helped me learn, you know,

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along the way. And most have been extraordinarily rewarding.

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I've stayed connected to Kelly in a number of ways,

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but most of that credit is due to the School of

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Entrepreneurship. Uh, and, uh, Don Rocco, Dr.

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K Don came to California where I was living and

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was looking for people to help him build an entrepreneurship program.

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Long story, which we'll make short,

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but Don spent a lot of time trying to get on my calendar. And Don was, um,

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tenacious for those of you, you who know Dr. K.

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And he would not give up until he got a meeting with me. So he

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did get the meeting, and I gave him 15 minutes, and two hours later,

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I realized I was gonna be part of something big. Don walked in and said, Greg,

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let me, let me stop you, right there is,

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Don uses his hands and this is how he talks. So he said, let me tell you,

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I don't want any of your money. I want to build a great program,

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and I need your help. He said,

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I want to build the number one program in the country.

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Really good goal for a university that had no program.

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We've seen it evolve from 2002 of a very small group of students

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to the program it is today, which, um,

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with a much larger and broader group as well, as much broader offerings,

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we've had a number of students that have gone on to start their own businesses.

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So one student decided to form a company that ultimately was called Coex,

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that came outta the university and came out of a real problem,

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and he actually went on Shark Tank and turned out and did a real business.

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That's a, a great example of a super success.

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Many of us who've had success, um, in life,

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and the roots at a university such as Indiana. We just want to help.

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We just want to give back. And the ability to give back to the university,

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I think is what has made this, um, a rewarding experience.

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And one that I will continue to do.

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I want to thank you and I want to thank the Indiana University Kelley School of

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Business for the Distinguished Entrepreneurship Award.

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I'm honored, I'm humbled,

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slightly embarrassed maybe at some level because I'm not used to this. Uh,

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and I'm not one to promote myself individually in this way.

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I wanna thank Ash and ID for their leadership,

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and particularly Don, uh, and Dr. K for, uh,

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starting this program. Uh,

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I don't know that I would be here today if it was not for that. Uh,

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and I know a whole bunch of people in this world would not be great

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entrepreneurs if it were not for this program. Clearly,

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I could never have done what I've done without my family

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from my brother in my formative careers. He's in the audience today.

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We're still very close to my daughters,

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Jacqueline and Leslie. Leslie, my youngest, graduated from, uh,

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Indiana about seven years ago. And of course, my wife Sandy, um,

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who allowed me to do this last entrepreneurial gig as a C E O.

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And I do promise I won't do it again. Um,

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I want to thank all of you for being here tonight, and thank you, uh, for, uh,

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providing me this great honor.

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Congratulations to Greg Oslan on your most prestigious award, uh,

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Greg. It's, uh, fantastic. Uh, uh,

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I remember in 2016 when we started working together, uh,

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we formed a space portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit.

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Me doing the military side, you leading the commercial,

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there's just two of us today. It's the largest portfolio at D I U and, uh,

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certainly not just in terms of impact, but also in terms of dollars.

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So thank you very much. Uh,

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look forward to working again with you in the future,

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and congratulations once again.

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Hey, Greg, congratulations, um, uh,

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outstanding that Indiana University has recognized you for this award.

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They could not have chosen a better person. Um,

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you're very inventive and creative.

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Love the confidence that you have in yourself.

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You have this knack of convincing people, uh, even super complex, uh,

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problems are very achievable.

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And you also have this management style and leadership style, uh,

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to convince people how to do it and get behind it. Uh,

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and probably the last thing is, if you were, remember,

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we were raising daughters together at the same time.

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And thankfully my twins were a couple years younger. Uh,

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a lot of the advice that you gave me in talking me off the ledge, uh,

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not only made me, uh, you know, a better person, but a better father.

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I super appreciate that. And again, congratulations on such a great, uh,

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prestigious award for tonight.

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Well, Greg, this award is, uh, well deserved as a distinguished entrepreneur.

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I should know, you're one of my first, uh,

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advisors on the West coast that I came to and asked for advice to help us build

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this entrepreneurship program. You accepted, oh,

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there's a funny story behind that, of course.

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But you accepted and you become one of the, um, most powerful and, uh,

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valuable advisors that I have. And so, uh,

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now we look at our entrepreneurship program today, and it's, uh,

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one of the tops in the country and has been for 18 years. And ironically,

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that's about the time that we've served together on, on the board and stuff.

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And you've helped me. So, uh,

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you've been so meaningful and so important and so valuable,

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and obviously this award, I think is partially depicted with, uh,

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what you've done with our entrepreneurship program. So, congratulations. Uh,

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you mean the world to me. You're not only just an advisor, speaker,

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and board member, but a great friend. So, congratulations, Greg. Well deserved.