This is the first in a series of articles looking at industrial and academic innovation in greater San Marcos and Central Texas. Some of the forthcoming articles will focus on new companies including Noveon and the Texas State University Science, Technology and Advanced Research Park that is facilitating cutting edge business concepts and academic research.
A high level of entrepreneurship and commercial innovation is underway in Central Texas–the kind that is garnering national and international attention. It was a point brought keenly home during the recent 2023 Innovation Summit presented by the Greater San Marcos Partnership.
GSMP Interim Executive Director Will Conley welcomed approximately 200 guests to the summit held Wednesday at the City of San Marcos Conference Center.
Conley said this region is the “epicenter of innovation in the United States,” citing government data for the voluminous number of utility patents coming from business development and research underway here in comparison to other regions in Texas.
A focal point of the GSMP’s efforts to illuminate development that stands above the rest is the annual announcement of the winner of the Dick Burdick Award. This award recognizes a Hays County or Caldwell County business that exemplifies the use of innovation strategies that work toward identifying solutions to some of the world’s more complex industrial problems. These problems in 2023 may now include transportation and supply chain issues, scarcity of certain resources and how to manage and incorporate artificial intelligence into business plans and models.
The Dick Burdick Award also uniquely singles out a nominated company that demonstrates an approach that incorporates ideas, products, methods and processes that are growth-centered, economically sustaining and ultimately may provide long term benefits to the community, both in terms of contributing to employment and internship opportunities.
Historically, the award commemorates the legacy and contributions of the late Richard “Dick” Burdick who brought his own brand of insightful creativity to the development of what is called heat transfer cement in the 1950s. He established his own company, Thermon Manufacturing, in Houston in 1954. The company relocated to San Marcos in the 1970s. Also known for his contributions to the Boy Scouts of America, Burdick died in 2018 at age 89.
It was near the close of the summit that Conley called on the 2022 winner, BVRT Utility Holding Company, represented by Director of Business Development Kristi Hester, to announce the newest member of the elite group.
Hester had the attention of the audience when she announced that X-Bow Systems [pronounced Cross Bow] was the newest Burdick award recipient.
Speaking on behalf of the company that is headquartered in New Mexico, CEO Jason Hundley, a co-founder and self-proclaimed entrepreneurial engineer, thanked the GSMP and others for the honor.
He said the company is the “first of its kind in the world for advanced manufacturing of solid rocket motors,” and the associated functions of this type of technology. Hundley explained that the different types of chemistry technology behind the manufacture of these rocket motors is of vital importance to the United States for its defense systems. Unlike liquid fuel rockets that send mankind traveling into space, solid fuel technology is the kind that propels missiles, he said. It is needed and in short supply as seen by recent events in Ukraine and North Korea.
The company in February officially opened its manufacturing campus in Luling, after what Hundley described was a search that included 10 states and 15 different site locations.
Hundley said the secret innovation that brings companies to this area “is the local community support and the people.”
Hester said she was impressed by the innovative and creative solutions offered during the earlier portions of the summit’s agenda that included keynote speaker, Peter Afiuny, co-founder and chief commercial officer for Noveon Magnetics, a San Marcos company that is at present the sole U.S.-based manufacturer of high-performance neodymium sustainable rare earth magnets. The company is a leading provider of critical rare earth magnets used in the automotive, defense, energy production and medical industries. In addition to the keynote address, Texas State University Interim Executive Director of the Science, Technology, and Advanced Research Park Dr. Jennifer Irwin had shared her thoughts about the progress being made both by the university and the companies it is empowering, prior to the introduction of a panel made up of current and former residents of the STAR Park, a 58-acre site that hosts STAR One, Texas State’s first technology incubator dedicated to research and commercialization efforts, where business after business has grown its footprint from a relationship with STAR Park.
Following a series of informative videos, Conley had introduced a panel made up of current and former STAR Park residents: Tim Burbey, founder and president of Blueshift International Materials; Dr. Stephen Drake, chief executive officer of IceWind and Pravin Shrestha, Ph.D. with Direct Diagnostics LLC.
In addition to BVRT and X-Bow Systems, previous Burdick Award winners include Veritacor, Visionary Fiber Technologies, Bautex Systems, Paratus Diagnostics, MicroPower Global, Quantum Mechanics and Thermon.
