The initiative includes a series of events in California in January. California is home to the third largest concentration of WPI alumni in the United States, after Massachusetts and Connecticut. We want to help the more than 1,200 men and women there feel more connected to and informed about their alma mater. The centerpiece for the upcoming California events is the dedication of the Silicon Valley Project Center on Jan. 30.
Silicon Valley is a legendary center for high technology and the entrepreneurial spirit.
What better place for students interested in Information Age careers to learn how today's good ideas can become tomorrow's breakthrough technologies and hot companies. The idea for the center was born in discussions that WPI President Edward Alton Parrish, Provost John F. Carney III and other senior administrators had with a number of alumni who have had successful careers as entrepreneurs and executives with Silicon Valley companies. The group urged the University to take advantage of the wealth of opportunities for building links to the Valley's burgeoning computer industry and to tap into the considerable experience represented by West Coast alumni. The center will be dedicated with a special evening at the Stanford Park Hotel in Menlo Park. The event will feature a keynote address by Ronald L. Zarrellla 71, president of GM North America and chairman of the WPI Board of Trustees, and talks by WPI President Edward Alton Parrish, Curtis Carlson '67, president of SRI Inc., and Michael Paige '68, vice president and director of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center.