‘Shark Tank’ Judge Kevin O’Leary to Speak at WT’s Hill Institute Lecture Series

Copy by Chip Chandler, 806-651-2124, cchandler@wtamu.edu

CANYON, Texas — Kevin O’Leary, Mr. Wonderful from ABC’s hit show “Shark Tank,” will headline the latest in a Hill Institute speaker series at West Texas A&M University.

O’Leary will present “Lessons from a Shark: Liberty, Responsibility and the Entrepreneurial Spirit” for the Hill Institute Lecture series at 7 p.m. Sept. 21 in the First United Bank Center on WT’s Canyon campus.

Tickets are $5 and available at wtamu.edu/HillLecture.

“The Hill Institute is committed to bringing to WT speakers whose accomplishments, ideas, and experiences challenge how we think about leadership, free enterprise, public service and engaged citizenship,” said WT President Walter V. Wendler, executive director of the Hill Institute. “Kevin O’Leary’s success as an entrepreneur, investor and communicator has influenced business leaders around the world. His willingness to engage difficult questions has shaped national conversations. Mr. O’Leary will no doubt engage students, faculty and the community.”

A sold-out crowd enjoyed Dr. Ben Carson in 2025 at the inaugural Hill Institute Lecture.

“Dr. Carson’s lecture challenged our audience to pursue a life of service by embracing The Hill Institute’s values of family, trust, exercise of virtue, and the free and open exercise of faith. Mr. O’Leary will continue that conversation from an equally important, yet distinctly different, perspective by highlighting the importance of hard work and persistence, personal responsibility and free will, personal and civic loyalty, and rugged individualism—values that have become synonymous with his entrepreneurial success,” said Jamie Allen, associate executive director of The Hill Institute. “His story reminds us that the American dream endures because the principles championed by The Hill Institute are as relevant today as they were at the founding of our great country.”

O’Leary’s success story began in his native Canada. In 1986, he founded SoftKey Software Products, later to be called The Learning Company, in his Toronto basement. Under O’Leary’s leadership, the company became a giant in its sector before it was acquired for $4.2 billion.

In 2000, O’Leary founded O’Leary Ventures, a generalist venture capital investment platform that has since invested in start-ups and early-stage companies across virtually every sector.

In 2003, he co-founded Storage Now, a leading developer of climate-controlled storage facilities, which was later acquired for $110 million. His next investment, Stream Global Services, was later acquired for $820 million.

In 2006, O’Leary joined the Canadian cast of “Dragon’s Den,” the international business reality show and forerunner of the U.S. “Shark Tank” franchise. His tough critiques and brutal honesty made him a popular judge. In 2009, he was invited to join the founding cast of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” alongside Mark Cuban, Robert Herjavec, Lori Greiner, Daymond John and Barbara Corcoran. “Shark Tank” continues to be one of the most popular television programs of all time, garnering multiple awards and nominations, including four Emmy awards.

In 2025, he made his acting debut in the movie “Marty Supreme” alongside Gwyneth Paltrow and Timothée Chalamet.

O’Leary currently serves as chairman for a portfolio of companies that reflect his guiding principles for business. They include venture capital investment platform O’Leary Ventures; Beanstox, an automated internet-based investment advisory service; and O’Shares Investments, which provides ETFs for long-term wealth management. He is the founder of O’Leary Financial Group and chief sommelier of award-winning O’Leary Fine Wines.

Since 2021, O’Leary has also been a strategic investor in WonderFi, now one of the largest regulated crypto asset trading platforms in the world. A strong believer in financial education and fostering the next generation of entrepreneurs, O’Leary is the author of a bestselling series of books: “Cold Hard Truth; Men, Women and Money” and “Family, Kids and Money.”

He has spoken to future entrepreneurs at Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Notre Dame, Waterloo and McGill. Corporate speaking audiences have included Ernst & Young, MassMutual, First Third Bank, Constant Contact, Comcast, Zendesk, Cisco Systems, National Conference of State Legislatures and ExxonMobil.

Named for Joseph A. Hill, the second president of WT and its longest-serving leader, the Hill Institute centers on 10 values: trust, family life, hard work, regard for others, personal responsibility, compatriotism and patriotism, virtue, faith, personal and civic loyalty, and rugged individualism.

The Institute is funded through philanthropic dollars rather than government funding.

The Hill Institute strongly reflects the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.

That plan is fueled by the One West comprehensive fundraising campaign, which raised more than $200 million dollars, the largest such campaign in Texas Panhandle history.

About West Texas A&M University

West Texas A&M University is a Regional Research University in Canyon, Texas, on a 342-acre residential campus, as well as the Harrington Academic Hall WTAMU Amarillo Center in downtown Amarillo. Established in 1910, the University has been part of The Texas A&M University System since 1990. WT boasts an enrollment of more than 9,000 and offers multiple options for students to graduate and succeed: 66 undergraduate degree programs, including eight associate degrees; and 44 graduate degrees, including an integrated bachelor’s and master’s degree, a specialist degree and two doctoral degrees. WT recently earned a Carnegie Foundation classification as a Research College and University. The Buffaloes are a member of the NCAA Division II Lone Star Conference and offers 16 men’s and women’s athletics programs.

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