Moments, after I was born in San Antonio, Texas, my Dad and my Godfather, were so overcome with excitement when they saw me through the window of the newborn viewing room that they accidentally threw a rare bottle of champagne up into the air and then watched it crash to the floor shattering into a thousand pieces. From those first moments, life has never been dull. Not for one moment.
A seventh generation Texan, I am proud to be a descendant of the pioneering Austin family, the first family of Texas. My parents loved to travel, and even better, they loved taking me with them. So I didn’t get behind at school, they made a deal with my teachers to allow me to take my books with me on all the trips they planned. Testing happened when I got home. Ugh. At twelve, my parents wanted to continue traveling, but I needed more stability, so I went to boarding school right on the lake in Austin, Texas, and later graduated in Washington, D.C.
By the time I was an adult, I’d traveled extensively and met many interesting people. After my Freshman year in college, my parents offered me another year of travel. How could I say no? One entire year. All over the place. I became even more immersed in India, Asia, Africa, and South America than I had before. It was an exciting and tumultuous time in history, and we were in the middle of it. Some of the highlights were when we were evacuated in darkness from a hotel in Bombay (now Mumbai) in a car with no headlights and again from a tea plantation in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) due to uprisings and insurgency. Always drama…
I returned home with a thirst to learn more about the world and it’s people…and ultimately what makes it all tick. Luckily, my parents agreed, and I was able to go back to London to study at the London School of Economics through a program at Trinity University. There I learned more about international economic and legal systems from the esteemed professors who wrote the books I read in class.
Eventually, I found marketing and then technology, fell in love with both and became addicted to the Internet. The rest is history. My passion is to push the boundaries on how technology will affect our everyday life today and in the future.
Still a world traveler, technologist, humanitarian, chef, and writer . . . I have now added oil painting to my repertoire.