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Hewlett-Packard exec, USD grad discusses global responsibility

Founded in 1939 in Palo Alto, California, Hewlett-Packard is an international information technology corporation with more than three hundred thousand employees. While HP’s computers and printers first come to the mind of many, the company has another side that specializes in developing technologies for sustainability. 1993 University of South Dakota graduate Paul Ellingstad is a partner and program development director for H-P’s Sustainability and Social Innovation team. Although he now lives in Ireland, Ellingstad made a stop in his hometown of Vermillion to speak with students, professors and community members at his alma mater. SDPB’s Cassie Bartlett spoke with Ellingstad about his experiences and brings us today’s Dakota Digest.

If you would have asked Paul Ellingstad 20 years ago when he was graduating college where he expected his life to be today, he most likely wouldn’t have said an executive at Hewlett-Packard working in sustainability.
 
“This would not have been one of the options that I foresaw. But now looking backwards, I couldn’t be any more happier that the choices I’ve made have come together and really created a rewarding life,” Ellingstad says.
 
Speaking to a filled Houtz Auditorium in USD’s Beacom School of Business, Ellingstad’s lecture “People, Planet, Profit…What Matters?” outlines companies’ social responsibilities and global citizenship. Ellingstad describes the world as small and interconnected, rather than split among business, public, local and international sectors. He says David Packard and Bill Hewlett founded their company on the belief that businesses should benefit more people than just the shareholders.
 
“Companies and the employees of companies have a responsibility to make a contribution back to society in terms of, and that can be sort of what you’re doing for the company, the technical contribution that you’re making. But really it’s about being an active member of society, playing an active role,” Ellingstad says.
 
Ellingstad says the mindset of companies has changed. Now, businesses aren’t looking at profits before determining how much they can give to charities. Instead, they can focus on driving the business perspectives, while also contributing to society.
 
“Our model is a bit like, I’d say, a business development role of saying how can we leverage all of the talent, all of the expertise we have in the company to advance health and education and environmental initiatives,” he says says.
 
Ellingstad shows audience members how HP’s technology is being used to help document HIV cases to determine the timeline when treatment is most effective in young children. He says the technologies and data resources are also expanding to other diseases. Ellingstad says although HP has many different facets to the company, it’s important to have that variety and cooperation.
 
“I think it’s human nature to want to simplify things and make things as easy as possible. The reality is that we live in a big, complex world where everything tends to be interrelated. I think there’s a lot of challenges, but if you look at it from the other side, a lot of opportunities. There’s an African proverb that says, ‘If you want to go fast, go by yourself. If you want to go further, go together,’” Ellingstad says.
 
While HP is a multinational company that impacts big cities in the United States to small villages in Africa, Ellingstad says South Dakotans can still learn from its business model and social responsibility. He says he hopes his story gives people inspiration to take advantage of opportunities.
 
“What you do and the role that you can play has consequences, or can have consequences, both for better or worse globally. I think one of the things, at times you might be sitting in Vermillion and saying you’re sort of out of the mainstream or what opportunities do I really have? In part through technology and part of how we're all wired in now, you can be sitting here or you can be sitting in Timbuktu and still make a contribution and make a difference,” he says.
 
Driving home to Vermillion isn’t easily accomplished when you live in Ireland, and Ellingstad says he always enjoys coming back to speak with students and old professors. USD business school dean Mike Keller says the purpose of the Dean’s Lecture series is to connect students with alumni that have amazing stories to tell.
 
“It also does a lot to show students that they can do anything they need/want to do from either in South Dakota or with their education that they’re getting here. I think it’s a real confidence booster, so I like to have as many of them as we can get to have our students be reinforced that this is good stuff they’re getting here, and there’s no reason they can’t be the senior sustainability office for Hewlett-Packard,” Keller says.
 
Keller says one of the advantages students from the Midwest have is being more realistic and accepting of situations. He says unlike students from larger schools and states, South Dakotans are known for their hard work and humbleness.
 
“When they leave here and they get into a corporate environment, they discover that they know just as much or more than anybody else. We sometimes think that the east coasters and west coasters know something special. I want to keep bringing people with these kind of credentials, street credentials, as evidence that no, they don’t know anything special. In fact, they may be a little confused. His (Ellingstad’s) reference to the Silicon Valley people being over-confident and thinking they have the answers is a mistake,” Keller says.
 
Keller says he appreciates the alumni that speak in the Dean’s Lecture series and dedicate their time to sharing their experiences. Ellingstad says although he’s on a different continent, he still feels connected to South Dakota and USD and considers it a privilege.  For South Dakota Public Broadcasting, I’m Cassie Bartlett.