An outdoor recreation entrepreneur and disability advocate, Greg Lais founded Wilderness Inquiry, Inc., in 1978 and has served as its executive director ever since. Through the years, Wilderness Inquiry has sought to enact social change by providing outdoor experiences to more than 350,000 people, many of whom have physical disabilities or live in poverty. To do this, Greg Lais has raised more than $50 million and secured major grants from the US Department of Education, the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources, among other agencies.

In addition to guiding Wilderness Inquiry, Greg Lais is an adjunct faculty member in the University of Minnesota's Department of Kinesiology and Leisure Studies. He previously spent 4 years as administrator at Camp New Hope for Developmentally Disabled Citizens, and has also served on many nonprofit boards, including Minnesota Environmental Partnership, Friends of the Boundary Waters, and Disability Funders Network.

Among other awards and accolades, Mr. Lais earned the Paul Petzold Wilderness Educator Award, Disability Rights Advocates Eagle Award, and Boggs-Mitchell Award for Integrated Recreation Programs. He holds an MBA in marketing from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor's degree in psychology from St. John's University.