Randall Wright, senior liaison officer with MIT’s Industrial Liaison Program, received the Austrian Decoration of Honor in Gold on Oct. 6, at a reception in his honor at the Austrian Embassy in Washington.
Wright has served as liaison officer for the Austrian Federal Trade Commission for the past 20 years and has been instrumental in strengthening ties between MIT and Austria by hosting numerous delegations in Cambridge, Massachusetts, assisting Austrian researchers and companies in identifying their counterparts at MIT, and bringing more than a 100 MIT faculty members to Vienna to speak at seminars and the biannual MIT Europe Conference at the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber. Wright’s honor is part of the Order of Merit of the Austrian Republic and is conferred upon persons providing outstanding public benefit and/or excellent services to the Republic of Austria.
The bestowal ceremony was held by the Austrian Ambassador Hans Peter Manz at his Washington residence. Michael Schrage of the MIT Sloan School of Management, a long-time friend of Randall and a frequent visitor to Austria as a speaker on innovation and entrepreneurship, took part in the ceremony.
