Who is Austin PRT?

Richard Garriott

Richard Garriott flew to the International Space Station for 10 days in October 2008 aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. In doing so he became the first second generation American astronaut in space, following in the footsteps of his father Owen Garriott who flew on Skylab and the space shuttle. Richard currently is the chairman of Space Adventures, Ltd., the world’s premier private space exploration company. In that role, he’s become one of the world’s leading advocates for the commercialization and privatization of space travel. Richard is perhaps best known as a pioneer in the computer games industry. He and his brother Robert founded Origin Systems and grew it to become one of the world’s leading developers and publishers of interactive entertainment. In 1992, Inc. Magazine named Richard and Robert, Entrepreneur of the Year.

David Swofford

David Swofford has more than 30 years of experience in journalism, public relations and media consulting. David came from a television news background where he won several awards for reporting while covering city hall, politics and the state capitol. In the field of public relations, David has worked for Origin Systems, Electronic Arts and NCsoft where he generated national and global PR campaigns in the interactive entertainment industry. He and Cathy Conley own CS Media. David can be reached at dswofford()austinprt.com.

Cathy Conley

A veteran of the news business, Cathy started her career as a newspaper reporter. As a radio and television reporter, she covered Austin City Hall and the Travis county courts before becoming a syndicated environmental reporter. Cathy served as a press secretary to a state senator who went on to become a US Congressman. She now works on local and national public relations projects. Cathy can be reached at cconley()austinprt.com.

Victor Meinert

Victor’s background began in architecture and evolved into art and design within the interactive entertainment industry. His projects at Origin Systems and later NCsoft have been award-winning and ground-breaking. As an art director and producer he led large teams of engineers, artists, and game designers that created some of the leading designs in computer gaming today. Victor owns AgileCurve, an agile business consultancy focused on guiding teams and leaders to more value-driven cultures.

Hull Youngblood

For 33 years, Hull Youngblood has represented the private sector in government contracting and infrastructure projects. Hull has advised his clients on the complex and often contradicting statutory and regulatory requirements of contracting with city, county, state and federal government agencies, as well as the development, financing, and contracting required for public infrastructure projects. He has advised his clients on public contracts and infrastructure projects valued at over $5 Billion in more than a dozen states, Japan, Costa Rica and the United Kingdom. Hull is a partner in the global law firm of K&L Gates, with 1800 lawyers in 33 offices on three continents. The members of the K&L Gates Transportation Group have extensive experience in the representation of both public and private interests in literally every aspect of intercity, commuter rail and other rail transportation projects in the United States, the United Kingdom and Continental Europe, including development, contracting, right-of-way acquisition and use, financing, environmental compliance, and dispute resolution.