Leadership and the Value of a Liberal Arts Education

This talk is part of minicourse UC 170: How to Give the Talk of a Lifetime, a partnership between LSA and TEDxUofM. It is free and open to the public.
Entrepreneur and former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo (BS CCS 85, LLD Hon 13) will give a talk about the influence of his liberal arts degree on his career, his entrepreneurial spirit, and his ideas about leadership. Following the talk, there will be an open question-and-answer session.

Costolo, who graduated with a degree in Computer and Communication Sciences, began his career unconventionally, turning down job offers in his field to study improvisational theater at Second City in Chicago. During his time there, he noticed enormous potential for the Internet "“ which was then just beginning to blossom. He harnessed his entrepreneurial spirit to start and later sell three companies, including FeedBurner, which he sold to Google for $100 million. Costolo became the CEO of Twitter in 2010. After presiding over the company's meteoric growth, Costolo departed in 2015 and is now on the board of directors of Patreon, a tech startup that helps artists raise money for their creative projects.