Jim Porter

Award citation

"for their long time support of the Department of Engineering and Physics at ACU. Mr. Porter helps build relationships and has focused on helping stimulate entrepreneurship among our students, faculty, and staff.  Mr. Porter has supported faculty members during their sabbaticals, contributed to our capital campaign for new science buildings, and he helped launch the Nuclear Energy eXperimental Testing (NEXT) lab.”

Biography

Jim Porter graduated with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Texas A&M University, then earned an MBA from Harvard University. Later, he attended Stanford University’s Advanced Management Program and Babson College’s Entrepreneurial Education Program. Porter has always maintained a healthy mix of commercial business and “give back” activities. He was a principal participant in two early stage companies and direct Wall Street public company fundraising of  bout $500 million. His extensive merger and acquisition experience is a result of his role as direct principal in 34 mergers. He served for five years as entrepreneur-in-residence on the College of Business Administration faculty at Abilene Christian  niversity, and participates in the McFerrin Entrepreneurship Program at Texas A&M. A former Air Force captain and trustee of ACU, he manages a portfolio of investments in early stage companies comprised mainly of technology firms and commercial banks. He is the principal and owner of Porter Capital Partners and serves as a member of the NEXT Lab Oversight Committee.