“Follow your heart, be brave about doing it, and take risk,” business executive and author H. Brian Thompson told attendees at the Capitol Technology University’s Scholarship Appreciation Breakfast on Wednesday (October 22nd), driving home the message that a successful career often unfolds in unexpected ways.
Thompson, a former member of Capitol’s Board of Trustees, is the executive chairman of GTT, a leading multinational internet and telecommunications firm, and also heads his own private investement and advisory firm, Universal Telecommunications Inc. He is the author of The Red Thread: My Fortunate Life in Telecommunications, which details his experiences as a rising business leader during a pivotal period in US technological history – the telecommunications boom and the dawn of the internet era.
Always at the center of emerging developments, Thompson worked closely with such figures as Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, dubbed the “fathers of the internet”, MCI founder and chairman William McGowan, wireless pioneer Marty Cooper, and industrialist David R. Williams, Jr.
Like Thompson himself, many of these business and technology pioneers studied engineering in college but pursued careers far removed from their original fields of study. While a university education builds the necessary foundations, he said, the ever-changing economy often yields opportunities in unexpected areas.
“Through you’re scholarship and what you’re learning here, you’re creating a base of understanding and knowledge,” he told the students in attendance at the SAB event. “What happens the rest of your life, in the real world, quite often bears no resemblance to what you think you’ve learned here. That’s the real learning experience – from how you go from here to doing those things.”
Looking back retrospectively makes it possible to locate the “red thread” that connects the milestones in a varied career, Thompson said, referring to the title of his book.
The SAB is an annual event that brings together scholarship recipients and the donors whose financial support makes their scholarships possible. It takes place in the McGowan Center, named for the MCI chairman. This year’s breakfast was scheduled to coincide with a groundbreaking ceremony marking the school’s transition from Capitol College to Capitol Technology University and the construction of a new residence complex.
Harvey Weiss, current chairman of the Board of Trustees, introduced Thompson. His predecessor, Gabriel A. Battista, and several other board members were also in attendance.
Capitol President Michael T. Wood opened the event and briefed participants on notable student achievements in recent months.
Among these accomplishments is the student-led TRAPSat project, designed to trap space debris and bring it back to earth. “I just saw the spectral analysis of the junk they brought back. It’s inspiring to see what our students can do, gathering space debris 80,000 feet up,” Wood said.
“I would also point out that we sent a group of students representing our IEEE chapter to Rowan University, and they won a national competition. In fact, they were the only group of students who could successfully put together a piece of equipment from elements and parts that were put together for them, so they understood both the theory and the hands-on of how to do it,” he said.
“That’s a testament to the hands-on learning that our faculty provides,” he said.