McCombs TODAY

John Sibley Butler, McCombs management professor, director of the Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship and director of the IC² Institute, recently received the Special Achievement Award at the 2009 Tech Innovation Awards, sponsored by the Austin Business Journal.

In honoring Butler, the Austin Business Journal described his journey: “Butler returned from Vietnam with medals and memories, and went on to earn a doctorate in sociology and organizational science from Northwestern University. Butler joined the University of Texas faculty in 1974 as a sociology professor, but his roles soon changed. At UT, Butler befriended business school Dean George Kozmetsky, who was a decorated World War II Army medic. The two men shared a belief that successful organizations came from the collaboration of ideas from science and the humanities. Butler eventually accepted a joint appointment in management and sociology and then joined the IC² Institute.

“Wealth creation is about going to the laboratories and building a company around a patent for something that solves a pain,” Butler said. “Austin is the best place to be. Dallas and Houston have all kinds of big companies, but Austin is a startup town. I’ve seen this city go from a town where Tex-Mex was considered a growth industry to a place where people can get good jobs and create real companies around forward-thinking ideas.” Read more.