{"id":139160,"date":"2021-12-21T09:22:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T16:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=139160"},"modified":"2022-09-20T14:28:17","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T20:28:17","slug":"philanthropists-journey-to-the-top-of-microsoft-started-at-uccs-scott-oki-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=139160","title":{"rendered":"Philanthropist\u2019s journey to the top of Microsoft started at UCCS | Scott Oki \u201974"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/537488563?h=d5ee60b8f0&amp;dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"740\" height=\"416\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On March 1, 1982, UCCS alum Scott Oki started a job at a Seattle-based computer software company. On March 1, 1992, Oki retired from that company after helping build it into a billion dollar global corporation known as Microsoft.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oki\u2019s story started in Seattle, where he grew up in poverty but enjoyed a \u201cvery good life\u201d with his parents, Japanese-Ameicans who were interned during World War II. A passion for music took Oki from Seattle to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, where he participated in the Air Force Academy band. He wasn\u2019t attending classes at Air Force, so he decided to pursue his undergraduate degree at another school in the area, University of Colorado Colorado Springs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oki quickly fell in love with the school. The low enrollment meant small class sizes and focused attention from his professors. He credits one professor in particular, Dr. Couger, who not only encouraged Oki to learn more about computers, but also guided him and supported him in his early career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt was an amazing experience,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it weren\u2019t for professors who are constantly pushing you to do different things, to experience different things, and to live life to the max, I think we\u2019d end up in other places that we wouldn\u2019t want to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oki earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in accounting in 1974 and a master of business administration in 1975. After a failed software company of his own, he joined Bill Gates at Microsoft as manager of special accounts in 1982. When he retired in 1992, he was Microsoft vice president of sales and credited with expanding Microsoft\u2019s operations internationally.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oki stresses to college graduates today that understanding their passion is key in finding success. \u201cLife is too short. The most successful people are those who are doing what they\u2019re passionate about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oki\u2019s passion has turned from computers and business to philanthropy, starting 20 nonprofit organizations since his retirement from the private sector. \u201cMy father set a great example. He spent more time volunteering than he did on his full-time job, and that stayed with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scott Oki is a distinguished alumnus who delivered the fall 2014 commencement keynote speech. <a href=\"https:\/\/alumni.uccs.edu\/news\/distinguished\">View a list of other notable alumni here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>On March 1, 1982, UCCS alum Scott Oki started a job at a Seattle-based computer software company. On March 1, 1992, Oki retired from that company after helping build it into a billion dollar global corporation known as Microsoft.\u00a0 <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=139160\" title=\"Philanthropist\u2019s journey to the top of Microsoft started at UCCS | Scott Oki \u201974\">(More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":140009,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,427,22],"tags":[370,369,40,437],"class_list":["post-139160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-alumni-stories","category-video","tag-alumni","tag-alumni-success","tag-college-of-business","tag-video"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Oki.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-Acw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=139160"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142749,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139160\/revisions\/142749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/140009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=139160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=139160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=139160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}