‘Shark Tank’ inventor to give lecture

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Lori Greiner, one of the star investors on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” will give a lecture at 7 p.m. Oct. 26 in Stambaugh Auditorium.

Greiner’s presentation, which is the Youngstown State University Paul J. & Marguerite J. Thomas Colloquium, is free to the public, but tickets are required and can be obtained at the Stambaugh Auditorium box office and online at stambaughauditorium.com.

In addition to her role on “Shark Tank,” Greiner is the host of “Clever & Unique Creations by Lori Greiner” on cable channel QVC.

Greiner began with an idea for a plastic earring organizer and went on to patent the product and grow it into For Your Ease Only Inc., a multimillion-dollar international company of which she is president.

Since launching the company in 1996, Greiner has created more than 500 products, and holds 120 U.S. and international patents. She is regarded as one of the most prolific inventors of retail products.

Greiner appears each week on “Shark Tank” to help start, grow or save businesses and turn dreams into realities.

She has proved her ability to recognize if a product will be a success; as several of her “Shark Tank” investments are the highest success stories on the show.

The author of the national bestseller “Invent It, Sell It, Bank It!,” Greiner has been profiled in Financial Times and Forbes, and on CNBC and Bloomberg.

YSU, through an endowment established by Paul J. and Marguerite K. Thomas, began the annual Colloquium on Free Enterprise in 1981.

Reflecting the Thomases’ involvement in the business community and their interest in the community at large, the colloquium fosters ideas that are conducive to the growth of the free enterprise system.

It promotes free enterprise as a viable force in the U.S. economy.