AUSTIN, Texas—National security and international affairs expert Admiral Bobby R. Inman will assume a permanent faculty position — the Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial Chair in National Policy — at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin beginning in August. The previous holder of the LBJ Centennial Chair was the late Barbara Jordan.
Inman will teach a core course on public policy and develop a new area of research focusing on the nexus between national security and international economic policy.
"I have had the incredible good fortune to have spent 31 years working from a military and political viewpoint and 19 years working in the private sector on local, state, national and international levels," said Inman. "I look forward to bringing together these arenas and developing their various policy intersections."
Inman has a long record of accomplishment as a public servant, entrepreneur, community leader and educator. A 1950 graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, he spent 31 years in the U.S. Navy and was the first naval intelligence officer to achieve a four-star rank. Between 1974 and 1982, he was director of naval intelligence, vice-director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, director of the National Security Agency and deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
In 1983, Inman moved to Austin to serve as chairman and chief executive officer of the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), a unique private partnership created to help the United States preserve its edge in computer technology. His success at MCC, combined with his membership on the board of a (then) small computer assembly company founded by Michael Dell, helped propel central Texas to prominence as a technology center. From 1987 to 1990, he was chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. He is managing director of Inman Ventures and director of a number of corporations, including SBC Communications, Fluor and Temple Inland.
"Admiral Inman brings an extraordinary wealth of experience in national security policy, business and high technology to the LBJ School," said Dr. Larry R. Faulkner, president of The University of Texas at Austin. "He affords an invaluable perspective on public policy for students and colleagues and is an outstanding addition to our faculty."
In addition to his business ventures, Inman has played a prominent role in a large number of voluntary organizations and educational institutions. He has maintained an active interest in The University of Texas at Austin, serving as chair of the University’s development board and president of the Texas Exes, the University’s alumni organization. For more than a decade, Inman has volunteered as an adjunct professor, teaching a graduate seminar on public policy to law, business and public affairs students.
"We are very fortunate to be welcoming someone of Bob Inman’s stature," said LBJ School Dean Edwin Dorn. "He brings up-to-date real-world experience into the classroom and provides our students with entrée to new arenas of research and career opportunities."
