To the participants in The 2022 Cornell Asia-Pacific Leadership Conference

My connections to the Asia-Pacific region go back many decades.

In my time as CEO of Applied Materials we expanded the company from being primarily a U.S. supplier of semiconductor equipment to a company where more than half of its sales came from Asia. In 1981 we set up one of the first U.S.-based wholly owned subsidiaries in Japan. I then made my first visit to China in 1984. In time Applied set up subsidiaries also in Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and India.

I have also been deeply involved in Asia via my association with The Nature Conservancy (TNC). In 2003 I joined the TNC Asia Pacific Council of business leaders, which advised TNC management in Asia. It was co-chaired by Hank Paulson, then CEO of Goldman Sachs and Lee Kuan Yew, the Prime Minister of Singapore. I participated for 15 years.

Leadership Lessons from Cornell

When I was getting my MBA at Cornell, business schools were not paying that much attention to the science of good management and the techniques of effective hiring. We learned a lot of nitty gritty business skills like accounting, marketing, and finance, and I always appreciated the education I received in analyzing industries and the driving economic forces that would sweep through them.

Lessons learned at Cornell had a tremendous impact on my future success in business. I would not have thrived in high-tech management without those formative experiences.