Charles Koch, chairman and CEO of Koch Industries Inc. and an MIT alumnus, will discuss his management commitment to scientific and social progress on Thursday, May 1 at 3pm in Wong Auditorium (Tang Center, Building E51).
The 90-minute presentation, entitled "Succeeding Through the Foundations of Science," is part of the Industry Leaders in Technology and Management lecture series, co-sponsored by the School of Engineering and the Sloan School of Management and hosted by the Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development.
Under Mr. Koch's leadership, Koch Industries has grown from $177 million in sales in 1966 to nearly $30 billion today, ranking it as the second-largest privately held company in America. The firm headquartered in Wichita, KS, includes enterprises in oil and gas, chemicals, chemical technology, agriculture, hard minerals, real estate and financial businesses.
A set of 10 principles outline the values in Mr. Koch's Market-Based Management (MBM) philosophy, which encourages the firm's 13,000 employees to become "a society of explorers, where everyone strives to practice humility, intellectual honesty, teamwork and an acceptance of risk in the process of discovery." His academic and philanthropic interests include funding programs that apply market solutions to social problems.
Mr. Koch received the SB (1957) and SM degrees in mechanical engineering (1958) and chemical engineering practice (1959). He was a member of the MIT Corporation from 1977-82 and member of two Corporation Visiting Committees, earth sciences (1978-85) and chemical engineering (1970-76).
The lecture is open to the MIT community. Seating is limited to a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, call x8-7897 or refer to the CTPID home page at
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on April 16, 1997.
