- Graduates and guests,
I'm so pleased to introduce the man
that even President Biden calls "the boss",
please join me in welcoming Mr. Pat Gelsinger.
(crowd applauding)
- Thank you, thank you.
And to class of '22, congratulations, you did it.
We made it to this place.
Graduation is the time to celebrate,
reflect on the sacrifices, the accomplishments of the past
and the possibilities of the future.
My path to this stage was anything but normal.
I was born in the Amish Pennsylvania Dutch Company,
country in Eastern Pennsylvania.
I often tell people
that when you get to nowhere in Pennsylvania,
we were just five more miles.
My junior year of high school,
I accidentally took a scholarship exam and I won.
I shortly found out
that I wasn't supposed to take it till my senior year.
So the guidance counselor suggested,
hey, maybe some community college credits
and you could go right away.
I think she just wanted to get rid of me.
And so off I went at 16 years old
to begin my college career.
Technology enthralled me.
I discovered something in every class
and the first time I touched a computer,
I was hooked.
After getting my two year degree, I interviewed with Intel.
You know, and my first trip on an airplane
was to California paid for by Intel.
That was cool.
And the interviewer said smart, arrogant, aggressive,
he'll fit right in.
You know, and I was fueled by this deep belief in technology
and Intel became my second family.
The opportunity to work for innovation
and the life changing baseline
of how every human operates just thrilled me.
And of course I brought that work ethic with me.
If I wasn't being kicked by a horse, bitten by a cow,
covered in hay dirt, working in an air conditioned building,
this was pretty darn good.
I spent the first 30 years of my career at Intel
becoming the company's first chief technology,
I helped create 14 generations of microprocesors,
helped to create seminal technologies like wifi and USB.
Whenever my granddaughter plugs her USB stick in,
she says, "thank you papa."
My dream job was to become the Intel CEO,
and then in 2009 after 30 years with the company,
I was pushed out.
I was heartbroken.
My vision was crushed.
I then spent 11 years outside of Intel,
and the same amount of time curiously
that Steve Jobs spent outside of Apple.
First at EMC, and then as CEO of VMware
and this period outside was an extraordinary period
of learning, maturity, growth and development.
And then about a year and a half ago,
I was invited to come back as the CEO of Intel,
my dream job.
So here I am in my dream job.
And here are you back,
back after a couple of dreadful years.
You know, and think about the family, friends
and loved ones, the past three years
and all that we've had to work through
and what it's been like to be a student.
And I say, you've been through something extraordinary,
a global pandemic, and here you are,
you should be very, very proud.
And today every aspect.
Please. (crowd applauding)
Today every aspect of human existence is becoming digital.
Digital technology,
and technology in itself is neither good, nor bad,
it's largely neutral.
It's our jobs to shape technology as a force for good
because when it is good, it is magic.
And much of tomorrow's magic
will be built right here in Ohio.
Back in February, I was honored to join your president
as well as Senator Portman
and other elected officials
to announce the end of the Rust Belt
and our plans to create a new epicenter of technology
right here in Ohio,
the Silicon Heartland. (crowd applauding)
The first phase
is a $20 billion investment spanning over a 1000 plus acres,
seven times larger than Disneyland.
And we hope to scale this to be the largest,
most advanced manufacturing facility for semiconductors
anywhere in the world, right here in Ohio.
(crowd applauding)
This is part of our commitment
to restoring American leadership in innovation
and manufacturing right here in the USA, right here in Ohio.
As every consumer knows by now,
we need more chips, chips for cars, appliances, computers.
Now we implore Congress to finish the Chips Act,
Senator Portman, you knew I had to say that today,
(chuckles)
to make this dream fully realized.
And with OSU and other universities in the region,
we have also committed to a $100 million of innovation funds
that will enable us to develop the pipeline
of diverse students, of talent and of capabilities
so that we can fully realize this dream.
This project will create 1000s of jobs for you,
the graduates of the Ohio State University.
Did I get that right? (crowd applauding)
We are just getting started with this transformation
and you are just getting started in your careers.
So some advice that has served me well in my career
and I call this the career map, MAP.
M is for mentors.
Find them, listen to them.
And I've had five significant mentors in my life,
and unfortunately only one of them is still with me.
But I speak to him every Friday morning.
You know, early in my career,
I was a precocious young engineer
and I was working on one of our key products, the 8386.
And I realized that we had some persistent problems
that if they weren't address,
the chip was not gonna be successful.
I had a major operations review with the founders of Intel,
the veritable gods of the industry,
you know, the seminal figures of Silicon Valley,
and I demanded that they urgently fix these issues.
A week or so after the meeting,
I got a phone call from Andy Grove,
soon to be CEO of the company, semiconductor genius,
management guru and future Time Magazine "Man of the Year".
"I was impressed by the presentation that you gave Pat."
said Andy, "what do you read?
What do you study?
What are you working on?
What are your career goals?"
Well, I was shocked.
And I muttered some lame answers and he quickly shot back,
and he said, "those are lousy answers.
Be in my office in a week with better ones."
That began a mentoring relationship that lasted for 35 years
until Andy's passing.
Mentoring with Andy Grove was like going to the dentist
and not getting novocaine.
But those are the kind of people that you need in your life
that if you're gonna be made better,
they will make you better.
We're diamonds in the rough,
and we need people like Andy Grove
to knock off those rough edges,
every major successful person I've met with,
they can reflect on their Andy Grove.
And I challenge you,
do you have that influence in your life?
M, A for audacious goals, write a mission statement.
Live it, manifestation is a trendy word these days,
and if anything, I'm not a trendy guy,
but I do believe that you can manifest your goals.
In the mid 20s, I had a period of aimlessness,
I had gotten my first patent, I had written by first book.
It was a thriller, "Programming the 8386".
I'm sure many of you have read it.
Married, and our second child was on the way,
but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do
with the rest of my career.
In that period,
I struck on the idea of writing a mission statement,
the audacious statements
of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life,
the unattainable things that I wanted to dream about
and strive for.
And for 25 years, I was daily doodling armchair CEO.
Could have said what Andy Grove said.
Would I have done it?
Was I smart enough to do it?
It drove me every day.
God sized goals that are much bigger
than you could ask or imagine.
Keep the most important thing the most important thing.
Ruthlessly prioritize your time against your mission.
M, A, P for passion.
Find something you are good at that you love doing
and do it with people who you enjoy.
40 years into my career, I am as fired up today
as when I first walked into Intel as an 18 year old kid.
And I wanna be able to share that passion for innovation,
never lose that excitement, that drive, live your life
in a relentless pursuit for what is right.
Not mostly right, but totally and absolutely right.
Your values define you
and they shape who you are and how everybody sees you.
Realize they call it work for a reason,
you will have crappy days.
Life is not a walk in the park.
You will get angry, you will get fired,
you will fail, you will lose the deal,
you will be passed over for the promotion
that you know that you deserved,
but aggressively embrace those moments and make them better
because these failures are your opportunities
to learn and grow.
Use your passions to fight through those periods,
those challenges, and you will have moments like today
when everything is glorious and celebrated.
Finally and most importantly,
be intent in growing and learning
and be confident in who you are.
Bring your whole self into the workplace.
I'm a devout Christian, and I love talking about my faith,
but also aggressively doing so
and embracing diversity and inclusion.
I believe every day, God has a higher purpose for my life.
You shouldn't have to cultivate different personas
for different parts and experience of your life.
The experiences you have in one area
can be the most helpful and beneficial in others.
Any business is more likely to succeed
when people bring their differences and thought,
experiences, background, culture, into the workplace.
Diversity enriches and empowers high performing teams
and ultimately feeds innovation.
Be open to others and be entirely you.
In conclusion, we can improve the lives
of every human on the planet through technology.
We have the opportunity ahead
to build out the world we want to live in.
We cannot stand still,
we must move forward, faster to the future.
It is up to us, no, it is up to you today's graduating class
to define this era that is before us,
as you leave this incredible stadium today,
may each of you commit to your life map,
and mentors to make you better,
audacious goals that are impossible until they're not.
And pursue your passion and purpose.
Class of 2022, I humbly pass the future to you.
Come join me in Licking County.
We're gonna have some fun.
And I'm looking forward to working with you
on so many developments that are not yet possible, yet.
Thank you, Buckeyes. (crowd applauding)