Sutardja Dai Hall Dedication

Weili Dai Remarks

UC Berkeley
February 27, 2009

Thank you, Professor Wright for the kind introduction. Good afternoon everyone!

In the early 1980's, Sehat, Pantas and I were engineering students here at Berkeley before founding our high tech Company, Marvell, in 1995. Today, Marvell is one of the top 5 Fabless semiconductor companies in the world. And, now with this building dedication, the journey that started here has come full circle back to this great university. To be standing here this afternoon, just a few paces from the Engineering Building, Cory Hall, where Sehat and I met while we were students, leaves us with emotions that are very hard to express in words. Put simply, we are honored to give back to this outstanding University.

Sehat and I studied, learned, grew and started our family here. Now, there is the added pride of knowing that our two lovely sons, Christopher and Nicholas, both now Berkeley undergraduate Engineering students, are also here to celebrate this great event with us.

What makes our journey all the more remarkable was that Sehat and Pantas came to this country as foreign students, and I came as an immigrant; Sehat and Pantas were born in Jakarta, Indonesia, and I was born in Shanghai, China. We studied English as a second language and overcame many other challenges that came with being newcomers in a new land. However, Berkeley prepared us well to be survivors. Today, we are fortunate that we can give back as successful entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Today's grand opening of Sutardja Dai Hall was made possible by the passion and vision of our late Dean Richard Newton. I still remember the day that late Dean Newton and Melissa Nidever (Assistant Dean, College Relations) shared their passion and vision for the CITRIS (Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society) project with us and the day that Shankar Shastry showed the advanced research activities to us. It was their enthusiasm, energy and dedication that moved us to become involved and make our contribution. Thank you Melissa. Thank you Shankar. I also wish that late Dean Newton was amongst us today to see the completion of his dream.

In this Center, scientists, professors, researchers and students will be able to collaborate and conduct research in the fields of clean and renewable energy, medical health, information technology solutions, and life sciences. The most challenging social, environmental and medical health problems our world faces demand a new kind of collaboration and cooperation: CITRIS will be a model of excellence. This building will also house the Marvell Nanofabrication Lab which will become the first on-campus wafer fabrication facility in the world.

For Sehat, Pantas and me, the reason for our success is clear: all of our achievements happened through passion, hard work, and determination. We have lived the American dream. If we can do it, I truly believe that each one of you will have the same opportunity!

Today, our country is facing some very tough times. These times require us all to work together to do our very best and contribute to help our country and the world become a better place. As our President Barack Obama said during his campaign, "YES WE CAN." These words inspired me greatly. Yes, we can reach our American dream together.

All of you, The Golden Bears, YES WE CAN!

Finally, we are very thankful to our parents for their loving, care and encouragement and to our sons for all their support. Also, we appreciate all the support from the rest of family and friends.

Special thanks to our Dean Shankar Shastry for his vision and leadership for building the world's best engineering, research and technology talents of the future and our Chancellor, Robert Birgeneau for his dedication and leadership for nurturing this wonderful university.

Thank you, thank you very much.

Diane Vanasse
Marvell Public Relations
Mobile: 408-242-0027 (editors should call me here)
Desk: 408-222-5198