*Updated at 7:48 a.m. on October 30*

In the highlight of a gala celebrating the opening of the Rafik B. Hariri Building, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.) was awarded the Dean’s Medal by McDonough School of Business Dean George Daly last night in the MSB’s new home.

Schwarzenegger addressed members of the Georgetown community and the D.C. business community in the Hariri Building’s Fisher Colloquium.

“Obviously, I have in my life gotten a lot of trophies and awards and medals, and without any doubt, this is the most recent,” Schwarzenegger said. He called the MSB “without any doubt, one of the greatest [business schools] in the world.”

[According to an MSB press release](https://msb.georgetown.edu/story/1242661243129), the Dean’s Medal has previously been awarded to Carlos Gutierrez, President Bush’s second secretary of commerce, and Ann Misiaszek Sarnoff, the chief operating officer of the WNBA, among others.

Schwarzenegger described his history in business, saying he had been interested in business since he sold ice cream while growing up in Austria.

“No matter what you do in life, I find that there is a business aspect,” he said.

Schwarzenegger said he first learned about business from marketing himself as a bodybuilder, actor and, eventually, politician.

“It all started with the `Pumping Iron’ book and the movie, `Pumping Iron,'” he said.

He said he first wanted to go into business when he realized that the organizers of bodybuilding competitions were making more money than he was.

“Yes, I got the trophy, but they got the money,” Schwarzenegger said. “While I was pumping my muscles, they were pumping their wallets.”

He said most of his success as an actor had come from a willingness to market himself overseas when other actors had been reluctant to do so.

Schwarzenegger also discussed his career in government and his political passions.

“I got into government,” he said. “I wish I could say that government was run like a business. I guess it is if you mean Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or AIG.”

He emphasized the importance of finding clean sources of energy in California and said the United States should take a leadership role in pioneering environmentally friendly practices.

“The country needs leadership [on the] environment,” Schwarzenegger said. “There’s no two ways about it, and I know that President Obama is marching in the right direction.

“There is a value in going first [in energy] and in being first. America has always gone first,” he said. “That is why we are the greatest country in the world.”

Schwarzenegger acknowledged the difficulty of asking Americans to give up comforts they are accustomed to in order to protect the environment.

“People don’t want to live like Buddhist monks and give up their big-screen plasma TVs or their Jacuzzis,” he said.

Instead, Schwarzenegger urged those present to look at environmental challenges as business opportunities, citing SunChips, which are now made in California with the help of solar energy.

“We have before us an incredible economic opportunity,” he said. “I’ve seen solar power making snack chips.”

Schwarzenegger said he was glad to speak at Georgetown for the first time since [April 2007, when he spoke at the Global Environment Leadership Conference]((https://explore.georgetown.edu/news/?ID=24454)) and told attendees, [“I’ll be back.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8I4zFSipKs)

“The Terminator keeps his promises,” he said last night. “