Grow Your Business!

Jack McDonald is currently the Chairman and CEO of Perficient, a publicly-traded company headquartered in Austin that is one of the nation's top information technology consulting firms. Jack became the company's CEO in 1999 when it was a fledgling start-up with eight employees. Under his leadership, Perficient grew from a start-up to a publicly-traded company with more than 1,200 employees, offices throughout Texas, the United States and the world and more than $200 million in sales. In recognition of his leadership, Jack was honored with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Perficient is Jack's third successful business venture. Prior to his business career, Jack was a business lawyer at Skadden, Arps, one of the nation's top 10 law firms.

As a successful Texas business and civic leader, McDonald has been encouraged to run for U.S. Congress, representing Texas Congressional District 10, which stretches from Austin to Houston and is home to more than 800,000 Texans. Regarded statewide for his pragmatic, real-world-based and centrist approach to problem solving, Jack has already secured the enthusiastic support of Republicans and Independents as well as Democrats.

Pike Powers is a super-lawyer-turned-entrepreneur whose leadership helped turn Austin from a university town into a high-tech powerhouse. Powers, a 1962 Lamar University graduate honored in 1978 as a Lamar Distinguished Alumnus, was partner-in-charge of the Austin office of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P, from 1978 through 2004.

His leadership promoted a new creative spirit in the capital city - one that seized on global opportunities for economic development. That effort began in the governor's office where Powers led in rallying the community toward the goal of landing the most prestigious economic development prize of the early 1980s - the Microelectronics Computer Technology Consortium (MCC).

Janet Trautwein is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Health Underwriters in Arlington, Virginia. The National Association of Health Underwriters represents more than 100,000 employee benefits professionals involved in the design, sale implementation and management of health plans all over the United States. Her responsibilities include oversight of all NAHU activities and primary representation of the association to the media, government agencies and elected officials at all levels. Prior to becoming the CEO of NAHU in 2005, Janet served for many years as the head of NAHU's government affairs department, working with members of Congress on Capitol Hill and agencies of the Executive branch, and directing the government and political affairs of the organization. She is considered an expert in health insurance markets and health plans of all sizes and has a particular interest and expertise in issues related to the uninsured, health insurance pools, health related tax issues, and both national and global health reform. In 2004, Janet received the Harold R. Gordon Memorial Award, which honors the “Health Insurance Person of the Year” and is considered to be the most prestigious award in the health insurance industry. In 2006, Janet was named one of the 100 most powerful people in the insurance industry.