URI’s Engineering Entrepreneurship Lecture series
KINGSTON, R.I. – October 24, 2006 – Fred Goodrich, chief executive officer of Cellular Specialties Inc., president of XMA Corporation and president of Cellular Microwave Technologies Ltd., will speak on Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 2:30 p.m. at the University Club, Upper College Road, as part of the University of Rhode Island College of Engineering’s Risica Endowed Lecture Series in Engineering Entrepreneurship.
The lecture at the University Club on URI’s Kingston Campus is free and open to the public.
Goodrich’s talk, “An Unlikely Career: How One Below Average Engineering Student Achieved a Measure of Success – And Enjoyed the Ride,” will chronicle Goodrich’s experiences as a student with poor grades who was able to enjoy an exciting career in aerospace and then move on to start a wireless communication company. His presentation will further discuss the key decisions that led to Cellular Specialties becoming the fastest growing company in New Hampshire and his acquisition of what would become the XMA product line.
“Although I have enjoyed an exciting career and met with a degree of success after a rocky undergraduate experience, I do regret not working harder in school and getting better grades,” Goodrich said. “Had I been a better student, I believe that I would have had more confidence in my ability as an engineer, If someone had said to me, ‘Hey, learn this stuff well and you will remember it and use it for 45 years,’ I might not have believed it then, but I do now.”
Goodrich holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from URI.
The Anthony J. Risica Endowed Lecture Series in Engineering Entrepreneurship was established in 2003 with a $93,000 donation from Tony Risica, a URI engineering alumnus who helped start two telecommunications companies, Sonus Networks and Arris Networks.
For more information about the lecture, call the College of Engineering dean’s office
at 401-874-2186.