Michael Punke offered UW students business, writing advice
Michael Punke, an executive for the online retail giant Amazon, visited campus Friday to discuss current business trends with University of Wyoming students as part of a speaker series held by the College of Business in conjunction with other UW departments.
Punke, who was raised in Torrington, Wyoming, discussed his experiences as Amazon’s web services vice president of global policy and as former U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization and answered audience questions about global trade.
“I’ve had a really circuitous path to where I am today, and my path isn’t a usual one among my peers,” said Punke. “I’d just really like to get across that there’s no one way to get to the top.”
Punke started his career by interning for Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson when he moved to Washington D.C. at age 18 to attend college.
“My first day in D.C. I went up to Capitol Hill and went to Alan Simpson’s offices and I asked for an internship,” Punke said. “He gave me one.”
From there Punke became an U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization, where he helped to broker economic deals between the U.S. and other countries. Punke explained that the biggest challenge of this job was communicating with people from other countries.
“When someone from America signs a contract, it’s unbreakable and enforceable, the whole government is behind that document,” said Punke. “We had signed a contract with some Chinese delegates and we felt we had reached the finish line. Come to find out, China doesn’t think about contracts in the same way we do, and it was just a starting point.”
Punke compared international trade to the Lewis and Clark expedition, saying that while he had access to the best translators in the world, every interaction felt like first contact with a new society.
His business acumen is not the only thing that Punke is known for — he is also a best-selling author. His 2002 book “The Revenant” made the New York Times Best-Seller List, and was later adapted into the 2015 movie of the same name, which won three Academy Awards.
Punke gave students an opportunity to ask questions and learn about his writing process. Starting writing in college based off his experiences working for Senator Simpson, he would show chapters to a few trusted friends.
“They told me that it was horrible and really boring, so I started over,” he said. “I had always had an interest in mountain men, and so the idea for ‘The Revenant’ grew from that.”
While Punke enjoyed the movie, noting that having the movie based on your book win three Oscars is very good for book sales, he had problems with some aspects of the production. A self-professed sticker for realism, he gave the producers a list of historical inaccuracies in the screenplay.
“They took this list, and they said ‘Thank you’, and they didn’t make any changes,” Punke said.
Despite his criticisms of “The Revenant,” it is one of many projects that stands as a testament to Punke’s work and success since his days growing up in Wyoming.
