VT Stories Oral History with Greg Fansler, March 3, 2017 (Ms2016-015)

Ren Harman: So good evening. Today is March 3, 2017 at about 3:15 p.m. This is Ren Harman, the project manager for VT Stories. We are in the Alumni Library within the Holtzman Alumni Center on the campus of Virginia Tech. A very special guest with us today. So if you could just introduce yourself, just say your full name, when you were born and where you were born.

Greg Fansler: Sure. Thanks, Ren. My name is Gregory Thomas Fansler, and I was born on January 22, 1980. And I was born in Wilmington, Delaware, though we lived in Landenberg, Pennsylvania, so near Langhorne Gardens and south of Philadelphia. I'm not sure if you asked this, but where I grew up I kind of claim the Mid-Atlantic. About the age of six we moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, then to Pittsburgh, where I finished elementary school, through middle 1:00school and into high school. And then we moved to Richmond, where I finished high school before I came to Virginia Tech.

Harman: Okay. So what degrees do you have from Virginia Tech, and what years were those?

Fansler: Yeah. No, I have a double major in management and finance from the Pamplin School of Business, and that was in 2002, when I graduated. I came back to work at Virginia Tech in 2007 and enrolled in the professional MBA program. And I got my MBA in 2010.

Harman: Okay, really cool. All right, so before we get into Virginia Tech, can you tell me just a little bit about growing up? It sounds like you kind of moved around a lot. What was growing up like?

Fansler: So growing up was terrific. For me I think moving into these different locations kind of shaped who I am today in that, you know, I still have friends from each of these spots. Even though…and, you know, even though I was very young, those first two stops still are connected to those folks.

The reason why we moved around so much is my dad worked for DuPont. And he's 2:00actually an alumnus himself, class of '67, and got his degree in chemical engineering and his master's in chemical engineering. And so each city, if you will, that we lived in was kind of a phase of life for me that, as I think back on, you know, pre elementary, kindergarten into first grade, and then middle school, and kind of forming those relationships, learning your place and pecking order in groups. And as I think back on, you know, kind of my strengths were forming groups, going out to play basketball, hide and go seek, capture the