IMPACT COMES FIRST, Commencement Speaker Matt Dalio ’99

Matt Dalio ’99 returned to the Greenwich Country Day School campus to address the Class of 2023, and continued a time-honored Country Day tradition of selecting a member of the alumni community to share their life experience with graduates.

I went to GCDS for pretty much my entire memorable childhood. Somewhere between my parents and GCDS and a trip to China, I became the person that I am today,” said Dalio, who has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of people around the world through better access to healthcare and technology. 

Mr. Dalio, who was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus in 2014, shared the three most important things that he has learned on his journey from his own graduation to the present.

First, he said, is what you do.

At the age of 11, Matt Dalio spent a year in China where I fell in love with the people and the culture. Five years later, at the age of 16, Dalio personally witnessed the living conditions of orphans with special needs in China and was desperate to do something to give them hope. He founded the China Care Foundation to support orphaned children with medical treatment, as well as pre- and post-operative care.

“There, I saw a little girl on the verge of dying. I was able to get her on a train from inner Mongolia to a hospital in Beijing, saving her life. As time passed, my ideas grew and I saw the impact grow along with them. With that impact, I raised more money. With that money, we had more impact. Eventually, we had half a dozen children’s homes throughout China, providing thousands of surgeries and placing hundreds of kids in foster families.”

Until that point, Dalio had struggled to find his passion. “Let there be no mistake: The impact came first, then the passion. The experience taught me what I loved doing. And with that I was hooked.” 

In 2012, Matt founded Endless, bringing connectivity to places in the developing world through inexpensive computers and operating systems. His newest venture, Endless Studios, is a highly-distributed, youth-centered game making studio where teens and young adults apprentice with game industry pros and other aspiring game makers all while acquiring and practicing 21st-century skills.

“I went to India and saw that smartphones were about to sweep across emerging markets. I had a simple idea: I could use the smartphone supply chain to make computers more afford-able to billions of people. That little discovery has sent me on a decade of passion. I’ve been chasing a dream to help every kid in the world have the tools and skills to live an empowered life ever since.”

Head of School Adam Rohdie described Dalio as an alumnus who cares deeply about our school and our global community. “It was thanks to his inspiration and generosity that GCDS has a Mandarin language program, and he recently teamed up with our Upper School computer science teachers to work with students on some amazing projects.”

Through China Cares and Endless, Dalio said he found passion and purpose by leaving home—“by going beyond the rutted roads.” 

“If you spend your 20s encountering people whom you can help by applying your strengths, you will discover meaning. If you are ever wondering how to find your passion, try my path: find someone else’s brokenness and find your way to heal it.”

The second most important aspect of life is finding a partner. While chasing his dreams, Dalio felt a “desperate loneliness.”

“I had not realized how important, amidst the wind and the waves, it is to have someone there with you. It is also about having someone there on those sunny days when the wind has died and all you have is them by your side,” he said, referencing the poem Ithaka, by C.P. Cavafy that he read in Mr. Griswold’s eighth-grade English class. 

Finally, he spoke about the importance of having “lifeline friends.” Every year he hosts an annual gathering to maintain his friendships over time, especially his childhood buddies. 

“Remember that most people will disappear unless you hold onto them,” he said. “But over a long enough period of time, those friends become treasures.”