Article on Orr Fellowship Program Cites Several DePauw Grads

December 7, 2015

"For its first 15 years, the Orr Fellowship operated without an executive director," reports the Indianapolis Business Journal. "Volunteer board members and recent college grads effectively ran the not-for-profit, a two-year program that connects high-caliber graduates with high-growth companies. But the Indianapolis-based program, which has yielded local tech stars like TechPoint CEO Mike Langellier and Geofeedia Vice President RJ Talyor, has gotten so big that the old model had to go." (at right: former Indiana Governor Robert D. Orr, for whom the program is named)

The story follows up on the March hiring of Karyn Smitson to serve as the executive director of the program. In addition to Langellier, a 2004 DePauw University graduate, and Talyor, a 2002 alumnus of DePauw, the piece cites Alison Sales Roach '03, head of marketing and demand generation at hc1.com, who was awarded an Orr Fellowship her senior year at DePauw, and Angie Hicks '95, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Angie's List, who helped launch the Orr Fellowship program.

Jared Council writes, "Fellows often kindle interest in students at their alma maters. That’s what happened with TechPoint’s Langellier, an Illinois native who heard about Orr from a friend at DePauw University. Langellier did his Orr stint with Baker Hill from 2004 to 2006 and stayed on with the company until launching his own startup, MyJibe, in 2010, which he sold about 18 months later. He was asked to lead TechPoint, a tech advocacy not-for-profit, in 2012.

Langellier (pictured at left) tells IBJ that his experience as an Orr Fellow "surrounded me with, and gave me access to, this really special group of accomplished executives that had already been there, done that."