Originally posted by Dean Thomas Gilligan in McCombs Today.
For the third year in a row, Austin is No. 1 on Forbes’ list of America’s 20 fastest-growing cities in terms of population and economy, thanks in part, say the ranking authors, “to the 51,000-student University of Texas at Austin.”
Diving deeper into that news, one discovers the McCombs School of Business is generating more than its fair share of Austin’s entrepreneurial spark.
Professor John Sibley Butler has been called one of the 20 Austinites you simply must know if you intend to be influential in the region’s business scene. Butler could accurately be termed a force of nature, and his impact on students is legendary across campus. He directs the university’s IC2 Institute, and the Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship, which he unabashedly boasts is the best in the U.S.
Butler told me, “In Texas we’ve made entrepreneurs the heroes, and that’s why we’ve created four times as many jobs as any other state. People who do great things are our heroes, and our students get to learn directly from them.”
