M.S. Engineering, Iowa State University
B.S. Engineering, Iowa State University

Jim Watson has a long history of business development. He was with Texas Instruments for 34 years, serving as a vice president for nearly half of that time. In addition to his operations responsibilities, he was world-wide manager of supply and logistics for TI, overseeing more than $3B of annual expenditures for materials, services and equipment.

Mr. Watson retired from TI in 1994 to become president of TwinStar Semiconductor, a memory chip manufacturing joint venture of TI and Hitachi. There, he led the design and construction of a $500M manufacturing facility in Richardson. TwinStar was sold to Micron Semiconductor Inc. in 1998.

Before joining UT Southwestern, Mr. Watson was chairman of STARTech Early Ventures, a for-profit high-tech incubator/accelerator. He has also served as interim chairman/CEO of several of STARTech’s portfolio companies as they sought venture capital. He currently is an advisor to the Board of Reata Pharmaceutical Inc., a unique biotech company.

In addition to these business responsibilities, he serves on numerous boards and committees in the Plano and North Dallas area. He is also on the advisory boards for the Colleges and Schools of Engineering at UT Dallas, the University of North Texas and Southern Methodist University.