Board Of Visitors
 | Pike Powers Attorney at Law |
Pike Powers is a super-lawyer-turned-entrepreneur whose leadership helped turn Austin from a university town into a high-tech powerhouse. Powers, a 1962 Lamar University graduate honored in 1978 as the Lamar Distinguished Alumnus, was partner-in-charge of the Austin office of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., from 1978 through 2004. He is of counsel to the firm.
His leadership promoted a new creative spirit in the capital city - one that seized on global opportunities for economic development. That effort began in the governor's office where Powers led in rallying the community toward the goal of landing the most prestigious economic development prizes of the 1980s - the Microelectronics Computer Technology Consortium (MCC) and Sematech.
For the past 30 years, Powers has played an integral role in developing the Austin regional technology economy. Through his leadership in attracting landmark research and development operations in the 1980s (MCC and Sematech) and employers (Applied Materials, 3M, Samsung, among others), Powers has helped advance the region's high-tech, information and entrepreneurial economy. He has been a principal participant in mobilizing Austin's ever-growing high-tech community to create a business/civic/philanthropic network.
As a board member of virtually all of the Texas technology groups, Powers is a civic entrepreneur who advises Austin's emerging technology leaders on creating new companies and shaping the region's collaborative future. From his days on Gov. Mark White's Science and Technology Council from 1983-1986 to Gov. Rick Perry's Science and bio-Technology Council from 2002-2003, he has been active in the business community and in legal and charitable organizations at the national, state and local levels. Powers was and is a leader in creating the Texas Technology initiative, established in 2002 to redefine and reinvigorate the collaboration between government, academia and private industry. In response to this strategy and the need to stay globally competitive with incentive programs, the State of Texas created a $295 million Enterprise Fund in 2003 and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund in 2005. He was vice-chair of the $200 million ETF Fund and remains active as chair of the Energy Initiatives Committee of Innovate Texas, a state wide non-profit aimed at encouraging new companies to apply to the emerging Technology Fund for start-up funds. It works with all six Texas University Systems.
Powers was listed (National Law Journal) as one of the 100 most influential attorneys in the country on 4 successive listings. He was chair of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce in 1989 and was selected by the Chamber to be Austinite of the year in 2005. He received the Texas Legend Award from American Electronics Association in 2007. He helped start the Austin Technology Incubator in 1989 and has long served on the Board of IC2 with Dr. George Kozmetsky. He is currently a frequent speaker/commentator on clean fuel/renewable energy/green issues.
Powers received his law degree from the University of Texas in 1965. He and his wife, the former Pamela Ann Honea, have a daughter, Shannon and a son, Pike and 3 grandchildren, all living in Austin, TX.