The Entrepreneurship Hour speaker series provides a venue for students to engage and network with world-class entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and business leaders from across the globe. This gateway class explores fundamental topics in entrepreneurship such as emerging business models, new venture creation, and technology commercialization while exposing both undergraduate (freshmen – seniors) and graduate students to the ecosystem in a variety of industries. Note: These talks are open to the community as space permits.

About Dinesh Paliwal:

Dinesh Paliwal is president and chief executive officer of HARMAN, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Dinesh joined HARMAN in 2007 and has transformed the company into a customer-centric and innovation driven technology leader, expanding the company’s business in high-growth emerging markets, instituting best-in-class operating processes that have resulted in significant top and bottom-line growth and positioning the company as the premier tier one partner to automotive companies around the world. In addition to serving as president and CEO, Dinesh served as chairman of the Board of Directors of HARMAN from 2008 to March 2017 when the company was acquired by Samsung Electronics for US$8 billion.

Dinesh has worked and lived in six countries on four continents, including the United States, China, Switzerland, Singapore, Australia, and India. Prior to joining HARMAN, he spent 22 years with ABB Group (NYSE:ABB, a $50 billion global energy and industrial leader), where he last held the dual role of president of ABB Group with responsibility for the company’s global P&L, and chairman and chief executive officer of ABB North America. Most notably, he achieved profitable growth for the multi-billion North American operation following 18 years of losses.

Moving to Beijing in 1994, Dinesh established ABB’s operations in China and North Asia, where he subsequently grew the region’s business ten-fold in four years. After becoming the youngest executive to join the ABB management board in 2001, Dinesh was tapped by the board to run the global Automation division, representing more than half of ABB’s sales. As president of the division reporting directly to the chairman, Dinesh posted 14 consecutive quarters of top-line and earnings growth.

In addition to the HARMAN Board, Dinesh serves on the boards of Bristol-Myers Squibb and Raytheon Company. He is a member of the CEO Business Roundtable and serves on the corporate advisory boards of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Wilson Center, and the India Business Advisory Council of Lincoln Center. He also serves on the board of directors of the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) and the Business Advisory Council of the Farmer School of Business, Miami University.

Previously, Dinesh served on the board of directors of Tyco International Ltd. (NYSE:JCI), ADT Security Services (NYSE:ADT), and Embarq, now CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE:CTL), and served as chairman of ABB India Ltd. (a publicly-listed company with a multi-billion dollar market capitalization). He also has served as Chairman of the U.S. National Foreign Trade Council and on the boards of the U.S.-India CEO Forum, the U.S. China Business Council, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the International Swimming Hall of Fame. He served for three years as Economic Advisor to the governor of Guangdong Province, China.

In 2010, Ernst & Young named Dinesh “Entrepreneur of the Year” for the New York region, and the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) honored him with “Indian American Achiever” Award. In 2011, the American India Foundation (AIF) honored him for “Corporate Leadership”. In 2012, Dinesh was inducted into the International Honor Society Beta Gamma Sigma, and the Asian American Business Development Center presented him with the “Pinnacle Award”. In 2014, Fortune magazine named him to their “Business Person of the Year” list and the following year, Yahoo Finance included him on a short list of five-star CEOs. In 2015, The T.J. Martell Foundation honored Dinesh with its Music Innovation Award, and in 2016, he was honored by Breakthrough, a global nonprofit, for his contributions to advancing women’s causes. In 2017, Dinesh was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, one of the nation’s most prestigious awards, which celebrates patriotism, tolerance, brotherhood and diversity.

Dinesh holds a master’s in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Roorkee). He also earned both a master’s in applied science and engineering and an MBA from Miami University of Ohio.