POWERS
STAFF REPORT
Pike Powers, the playmaking attorney who helped transform Austin from a sleepy college town to a technology hub, is going to work for the Greater San Marcos Partnership to recruit businesses.
Powers is credited with recruiting landmark employers like MCC, Sematech, Applied Materials, 3M and Samsung to the capitol city.
He specifically will be focused on bringing innovators to Texas State University’s Science, Technology and Advanced Research Park (STAR), under construction now on a 38-acre site on Hunter Road at Centerpoint Road in San Marcos.
“We needed to explore ways to capitalize on the economic engine that Texas State University provides for our area,” said Amy Madison, the partnership’s president and chief executive officer. “There is no better person to do this than Pike Powers.”
When complete, STAR One will be a 20,000-square-foot facility and serve as a technology accelerator for startup and early stage businesses. It will provide tenants access to secure wet labs, clean space and highly specialized equipment.
“For 25 years, I have watched Pike Powers, and I have concluded that no one gets the intersection between higher education and economic development and the impact that it can, does, and will have, better than Pike Powers,” said Brian McCall, the Texas State University System chancellor.
Texas State President Denise M. Trauth said, “Texas State University is committed to the economic development of Central Texas, particularly through our new research park. Hiring Pike Powers as a resource to be used by the university will help immeasurably in this enterprise.”
Powers was recruited to work for San Marcos by Hays County Pct. 3 Commissioner Will Conley, who said the region is on the cusp of harnessing Texas State’s assets significant economic development. Conley chairs the Greater San Marcos Partnerships’ board, which is the economic development arm of Hays and Caldwell counties.
“To have Pike Powers provide his level of knowledge regarding tech-driven economic development is an extraordinary opportunity. The value of his contributions to the Texas economy are vast, and we are very excited to have him advising our organization as we work to maximize our resources in the region,” Conley said.
Powers led creation of the Texas Techonology Initiative in 2002 that eventually yielded the $295 million enterprise fund, which later morphed into the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, which he served as vice chair. He is chair of the Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities whose efforts include the Texas Association of Research Parks and Incubators.
“Everybody’s excited about Pike Powers coming on board,” the Buda Economic Development Corp.’s then-executive director, Warren Ketteman, told EDC board members Monday. “He brings expertise — well, he brings Pike Powers to greater San Marcos, which is something in itself. This is nothing but a win-win for everybody.”
