Former Mayor of Austin
Lee Cooke has 39 years of executive and leadership experience in the public and private sectors. He has spent 22 years as Founder/CEO of Habitek International, Inc., a private holding company providing strategic policy counsel to emerging companies. As CEO of U.S. Medical Systems, Inc., a bio-medical subsidiary of Habitek, Cooke assisted the company in raising $6.5 million in private equity funding and going public on the NASD Bulletin Board.
It was sold to Sharps Compliance, Inc in 1998. Habitek purchased U.S. Medical Systems, Inc. from Sharps, and became a provider of patented FDA authorized Class 1 medical device polymer products to Dentsply International. In 1999, Cooke served as President/CEO of good2CU.com, a business-to-business Internet destination site for credit unions and led the sale of the technology to FundsXpress in 2000. In 2002, Cooke served as Chairman/President/CEO of Tanisys Technology, Inc., a publicly traded automatic test equipment company (ATE). Cooke played a pivot role in restructuring the company, promoting the entry into the flash market and assisting management in a LBO from major stockholders. Tanisys was sold in 2003 to Spirox/ATE Worldwide LLP-Taiwan. Additionally, Cooke has been involved in a number of real estate projects including the Y at Oakhill, a $5,000,000 commercial land development located at the intersection of US 290 and Highway 71 in Southwest Austin Texas and Cooke serves as a Managing Partner of the entity that acquired two apartment complexes in the West Campus of the University of Texas. He has consulted with numerous companies in real estate, insurance, medical, architectural, financial, technology, and telecommunications.
Prior to his recent activities in the private sector, Cooke spearheaded Austin’s efforts to become one of the nation’s premier high tech and music centers. Cooke served as President/CEO of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce from 1983-1987, and Mayor, Mayor-protem and Council Member of the City of Austin from 1977-1991. During his tenure as Austin’s 53rd Mayor, Cooke oversaw the investment of $3.5+ billion in new private capital into Austin. Achievements included construction of a new convention center, company expansion by Motorola (FreeScale), IBM, AMD, 3M and location of Applied Materials, Inc to Austin., approval of 44 miles of freeway construction (183 and Ben White), relocation of the new airport to Bergstrom Air Force Base, creation of the Austin Technology Incubator and the vision to aggressive support the Balcones Canyonland Preserve of 35,000 acres to remain in a natural state in Austin and western Travis County.
Before entering public service, Cooke served in manufacturing, human resources and engineering management positions, during his career at Texas Instruments (1972-83). From 1991 to 2008, he served on seven publicly traded corporate boards. Cooke completed graduate work toward an MBA (did not complete) at the University of Texas in 1970-1 and received his BA from Louisiana Tech University in 1966. He served five years in the United States Air Force as an intelligence officer including a tour of duty in Vietnam where he was awarded the Bronze Star. He has lived in Austin with his extended family for 42 years.