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This is Fred Ball for Zions Bank, speaking on business.
Utah-based Overstock.com today stands as one of the only successful dot.com companies. The company just went public a few months ago. And if you're not familiar with Overstock.com, it sells all sorts of merchandise, ranging from jewelry to home electronics to books to sporting goods to home decor at highly discounted prices.
In October, Overstock.com will celebrate the first anniversary of its Worldstock program. Simply stated, Worldstock is the company's "Socially Responsible Goods" department that sells handcrafted products from developing countries (and, in some instances, even from underprivileged artisans in the U.S.) at extremely low prices. And the artisans who create these products are paid a high percentage of the money collected by Overstock.
When Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne decided to create Worldstock last year, it was his hope that the program would help eliminate poverty throughout the world while giving disadvantaged artisans work and self-respect. For example, the program has included silks woven by Cambodian land mine survivors, mango wood vessels from Mexican artisans and even goods produced by Native Americans. But the other great thing about Overstock is Patrick himself. He has accomplished more and endured more in his 39 years than most people could ever expect in an entire lifetime. Among his accomplishments, Patrick earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford and black belts in hapkido and tae kwon do. He speaks Mandarin--not to mention four other foreign languages--and during his senior year at Dartmouth, he translated Lao Tse's Way of Virtue.
As a three-time cancer survivor, Patrick Byrne recently completed a fourth cross-country bicycle ride to raise awareness for cancer research. At the conclusion of the ride, Byrne donated $1 million to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Massachusetts.
So it is with pleasure that we recognize Patrick Byrne and wish him continued success with Overstock.com.
For Zions Bank, I'm Fred Ball. I'm speaking on business.
