"Pursuit of Happyness" Author To Speak at Mentor Tech Banquet, Presidential Lecture & Performance Series Event

WHO: Christopher Gardner

WHAT: Media availability

WHEN: Today and Thursday (April 25 and 26)

WHERE: Mentor Tech Banquet at 7 p.m. April 25 at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center Banquet Hall. Presidential Lecture & Performance Series at 2 p.m. April 26 in lecture hall 202 of the Rawls College of Business Administration Building

EVENT: The Rawls College of Business Administration, the Office of Institutional Diversity and its Mentor Tech program together with the Presidential Lecture & Performance Series will co-host a lecture by Christopher Gardner, best-selling author and CEO of his own brokerage firm.

A series of circumstances in the 1980s left Gardner and his toddler son homeless in San Francisco. Without connections or a college degree, he earned a spot in the Dean Witter Reynolds training program, and then became a top earner at Bear Stearns & Co.

Gardner’s book recently was made into a movie with Oscar-nominated Will Smith playing Gardner’s character.

To organize an interview with Gardner or for more information on the banquet, contact Cory Powell.

CONTACT: Cory S. Powell, associate director, Mentor Tech Mentoring Program, Texas Tech University, (806) 742-8692, cory.powell@ttu.edu.