The University of Southern Indiana will present Mr. Wonderful, AI and Wealth Creation: An Evening with Kevin O’Leary, a discussion with Kevin O’Leary, best known as “Mr. Wonderful” on ABC’s four-time Emmy Award-winning Shark Tank, on Wednesday, September 23 at 6:30 p.m. at Liberty Arena, Home of the Screaming Eagles as part of the Romain College of Business Innovative Speaker Series. Doors open at 6 p.m., and the event is free and open to the public thanks to support from the USI Foundation.
During this discussion, O’Leary will share insights on artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship and wealth creation in what promises to be an inspiring and thought-provoking evening. The event will include both a presentation and a moderated Q&A with Dr. Nick Rhew, Associate Professor of Management and Chair of Management and Information Sciences.
After early achievements in television production as a founding partner of Special Event Television, O'Leary co-founded SoftKey Software in 1986, pioneering the use of consumer goods marketing in the software industry. In 1996, SoftKey changed its name to The Learning Company and by 1998 it was the world leader in the development of educational, reference and home productivity software and the world’s second largest consumer software company with annual sales over $800 million, two thousand employees and subsidiaries in 15 countries. In May 1999, The Mattel Toy Company acquired The Learning Company for $4.2 billion.
Since then, O’Leary has launched multiple ventures such as Storage Now in 2003 which was a leading developer of climate-controlled storage facilities when it was acquired by the In-Storage REIT in March 2007 for $110 million. He is also the Chairman of O’Shares ETF Investments and Beanstox, an automated internet-based investment advisory service. He also holds investments in over 30 private venture companies across a wide range of sectors.
In addition to being an investor and host of ABC’s four-time Emmy Award winning venture capital reality programs Shark Tank and Beyond The Tank, he is also a contributor to CNBC, ABC News and Good Morning America and an entrepreneur/investor co-host for the Discovery Channel’s Project Earth series that explores innovative ways man could reverse global warming by implementing large scale geo-engineering infrastructure projects. He is also the author of three #1 bestselling books “Cold Hard Truth”, “Men, Women and Money” and “Family Kids and Money”.
O’Leary earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and psychology from the University of Waterloo in 1977 and an MBA from Ivey Business School in 1980.
