Austin Joins Texas Transportation Commission

AUSTIN – Governor Rick Perry has named a Smith County man to the Texas Transportation Commission. Jeff Austin III was named to the post for a term to expire February 1, 2013. The commission oversees the Texas Department of Transportation.

Austin is vice chairman of Austin Bank and Texas NA. He is a board member of First State Bank in Athens and Capital Bank in Houston, and past president of First State Bank Frankston. He is a board member and past chair of the Texas Bankers Association, a member of the American Bankers Association Government Relations Committee and the Bank CEO Network, and an executive committee member and past director of the Texas Lyceum. He is a board member of the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum, past presiding officer of the North East Texas Regional Mobility Authority, past board chair of the Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce. He is also a past board member of the Tyler Economic Development Corporation, Better Business Bureau of East Texas, University of Texas Tyler Business School Advisory Board, UT Tyler Health Center Development Board and Trinity Mother Frances Hospital Foundation.

Austin received a bachelor’s degree and Master of Business Administration from the University of Texas at Tyler, and is a graduate of the Southern Methodist University Southwestern Graduate and Intermediate schools of Banking, and the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program.