Board of Directors

Pike Powers is the Chairman of the Board of the Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities and the chairman of the Texas Technology Initiative – a culmination of activities beginning with his role in bringing both MCC and Sematech to Texas in the 1980′s. As the former partner-in-charge of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P.’s Austin office, Pike has provided unique civic, political, and technical leadership to several statewide projects, institutions and entrepreneurial firms. It was during his tenure as executive assistant to Governor Mark White in 1983 that Pike began the planning and organizational tactics for attracting two of the nations’s most ambitious projects around global competitiveness in electronics. Pike has chaired or served on the board of numerous civic and economic development initiatives in Austin and the State including as Vice Chairman of the Governor’s Science and Biotechnology Council in 2002. He is widely viewed as one of the senior voices on technology development and as the designer of important legislative and public policy solutions resulting in new enterprise and corporate models for attracting and retaining technology-based activities.

Dr. BJ Stanbery has a career spanning more than 30 years in solar, HelioVolt Corporation’s Founder and Chairman of the Board is an expert in the business and science of photovoltaics. His latest innovation, inkjet printing of CIGS, won a 2008 R&D 100 Award, often called the “Oscars” of technology commercialization. Dr. Stanbery won widespread recognition in 2005 for his groundbreaking theoretical model of CIGS materials science and device physics. He founded Heliovolt to develop and commercialize his revolutionary FASST process for applying CIGS thin-film photovoltaics directly onto conventional construction materials that is now covered by sixteen issued patents globally.

Mike Burke is President of MDB Capital Ventures, a private equity investment and management consulting firm. In March 2008 Mike founded The San Antonio Clean Technology Forum with six members. Mr. Burke chairs this organization that now has 265 energetic and enthusiastic participants. SACTF will serve as a catalyst to significantly contribute to the region’s economic development and quality of life via the advancement of sustainability practices and clean energy investments. Mike also chairs a 20 member Alamo Colleges Clean Technology Task Force to develop a world-class Technology Showcase and Learning Center.

Tim Costello is Chairman and CEO of Builder Homesite, Inc., and New Home Technologies, LLC. Prior to BHI, Tim worked for Applied Materials as Vice President, Global Operations. Prior to this position, he served as the Vice President of Strategic & Technical programs for the World Wide Manufacturing Organization, Vice President of Production Engineering, Managing Director for the Common Module Manufacturing & Engineering (CMM&E) organization, and the Director of Engineering for the mainframe group in Austin, Texas. In addition Tim has consulted internationally on the development & implementation of world-class manufacturing, engineering and quality systems. In 2003 Mr. Costello was inducted as a lifetime member to the Shingo Prize Manufacturing Academy. Mr. Costello received his BSME from Cornell University in 1981.

Bill Stanberry, President and CEO of Stanberry & Associates, Inc., served 28 years in the U. S. Army beginning in 1952 progressing in rank from Private to Colonel in Airborne, Ranger and Special Forces Commands with assignments in Europe, Asia, Okinawa, Iceland and the Philippines, and Vietnam where he had assignments as a Province Senior Advisor, Special Assistant to the U. S. Ambassador, and with the Special Forces Command. He earned over two dozen awards and decorations including two Legion of Merit awards and is a member of the Infantry Officers Hall of Fame. In 1982 he founded Stanberry and Associates, Inc., now with offices in Austin’s Westlake, Cedar Park, Dripping Springs, Bastrop and Elgin. Bill is a graduate of the University of Nebraska and the U. S. Army War College. He founded the Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities with Stan Starrett in 2006.

Stan Starrett, owner of Starrett Development, came to Texas via Houston in 1959 on an athletic scholarship. He graduated from the University of Houston in 1963 and went on to get a degree in Finance from the New York Institute of Finance in 1967. He started his real estate development career while a college student in 1962, when he was employed by the Houston Sports Association under the direction of Roy Hofheinz. Stan has acted as a consultant and developer for his own account, specializing in waterfront projects all over the world. Stan has received several awards, including one from the State of Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission for environmental excellence for his development Beachwalk ‘For taking care of Texas through outstanding efforts in environmental protection and pollution prevention’. Stan has been married to Elizabeth Hiller Starrett for over 46 years and has three sons.

John H. Baker Jr. is Chief Strategy Officer for Austin Energy, the community-owned electric utility of Austin. His responsibilities include strategic planning, business intelligence, business model analysis, and emerging clean energy technology development. Since creating Austin Energy’s strategic planning function in 2002, Mr. Baker has helped set Austin Energy’s sustainable energy direction by leading the development of Austin Energy’s 2003 Strategic Plan; implementing an agreement with the University of Texas’ Clean Energy Incubator for clean technology development; developing renewable energy options that led to a 30MW solar plant; and by serving in key leadership positions in the Pecan Street Project.