The annual H. K. Douglas Cotton Memorial Lecture, established by Baltimore businessman Henry Kyd Douglas Cotton, features business and career lectures for students of Gilman School. The program was created by an endowment that Mr. Cotton established shortly before his death in 1979. The program reflects Mr. Cotton's strong belief in education and business.

The objective of the H. K. Douglas Cotton Memorial Lecture is to create a stimulating program to acquaint Gilman students with the various careers that are available to them. Mr. Cotton, aware that there were no specific business courses offered at Gilman, felt that there was a need for a program to "… instill in our students a better understanding of the world of business and economics."

Gaurab Bansal ’96 acknowledged that he didn’t know what he wanted to be when he grew up.

As the accomplished Gilman alumnus delivered the 44th Cotton Lecture to Upper School students, faculty, and staff on February 24, 2026, he described his non-traditional career path — underscoring the importance of reinvention and healthy risk-taking.

Bansal captivated the audience with his six career pivots, outlining lessons learned from each chapter.

1. He started out as a public school teacher in Houston, Texas.
2. Next, Bansal went to law school and worked as an attorney for a Seattle law firm where he focused on emerging companies and venture capital. 
3. Then, he worked as corporate counsel on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
4. That experience led him to serve President Obama’s administration at the White House as Deputy Assistant.
5. Later, he worked with a private family, helping to guide their philanthropy efforts. This included an opportunity to help a major league baseball team remake its leadership team.
6. Today, he works with startup founders and investors, building artificial intelligence, trying to make sure emerging technologies “serve all of us, not just the few of us.”

“The reality is that I didn’t plan any of these things,” Bansal said. He never imagined “how much the world would reinvent itself over the years and without warning” or the paths he would take over the course of his career. He reflected on his time working in the White House, a place where “certainty is the currency.” But, he advised, “You can’t have all the answers and you shouldn’t pretend that you do.”

Another lesson came when he worked to develop new front-office leadership for the Seattle Mariners. He learned that to rebuild trust with the community, they first needed to listen.

He shared that in his current role working with young startup founders who are building emerging technology where business, technology, human impact, policy, and geopolitics all collide. “That is very profound.” He went on to explain how building AI means transforming how people live and work, how they get health care, how they fight wars. “Our job every day is to work with founders on what those consequences will be and how to mitigate them.”

He concluded with the following: “Your job is not to ace any tests. You have to figure out which problems you are here to solve, why you should be the one to solve them, and how you’re going to build and do it differently in a way that advances all of us.”

A more intimate gathering with interested students followed in the Gilman Room, where Bansal continued the conversation and answered questions about artificial intelligence, careers in entrepreneurship, learning by doing, following your passion, overcoming “imposter syndrome,” and more.

Watch the lecture