Executive Director, Austin Technology Incubator
Richard Amato serves as the Executive Director for the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), the business incubator for The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), where he is leading ATI in its next stage of growth as part of the Discovery to Impact team. Richard has a long-standing history with ATI, having first joined in 2001 to found the Clean Energy Incubator (CEI), the first incubator of its kind dedicated to supporting sustainable ventures.
Prior to rejoining ATI, Richard led the Global Programs & Innovation (GPI) team at Texas Global, the international office for UT Austin. Through the Global Innovation Lab and Global Customized Programs groups, GPI works with governments, universities, and industry around the world to train emerging leaders, professionals, and entrepreneurs.
Richard serves as faculty for the McCombs School of Business at UT Austin, leading Global Connection classes around entrepreneurship and sustainability. Leveraging his prior efforts with the World Bank, the class supports entrepreneurs at Climate Innovation Centers (CICs) in Africa and around the world in real time as they work to drive their ventures forward.
Richard also serves as the Managing Director of Carpe Aestus, a consultancy building off his extensive experience supporting hundreds of companies and organizations around the world with a focus on sustainability and developing markets as they look to commercialize their technologies.
Holding worldwide acclaim for his groundbreaking involvement in clean energy business development, Richard has been featured as a keynote and panelist at conferences throughout the world: Austria, Denmark, Ghana, India, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Malaysia, Norway, South Africa, and Vietnam. He also founded and served as President and CEO of Venti Energy, a renewable development company dedicated to increasing the supply of clean, reliable, and affordable energy.
Never standing still, Amato wants to ensure he does his part in leaving the world a better place for what's most important to him—his children.