Jerry Paterson
Commissioner
General Land Office Commissioner

AUSTIN, TX, February 9, 2010­ — The Texas-Israel Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce the addition of Texas General Land Office Commissioner Jerry Patterson as the lunchtime keynote speaker for the upcoming Cleanovation Conference scheduled for February 22, 2010 at the Austin Hilton Hotel.

Commissioner Patterson, a native of Houston and local Austin resident, is working to make sure that Texas builds on its century of energy leadership to remain the No. 1 state in all aspects of energy development including research, manufacturing, and innovation. He leads Renewable Energy programs at the agency that include wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, ocean, and alternative transportation fuels initiatives.

“We are thrilled Commissioner Patterson has agreed to participate in our conference“, states Texas-Israel Chamber of Commerce President, Greg Yavner. “With an Israeli delegation of over 25 companies (headed by Israel’s Chief Scientist and UT graduate Chief Scientist Eli Opper), we’re very happy they will hear directly from a local Texas government official involved in cleantech“, he continues. “Texas has a lot to offer Israeli-based organizations from a strategic perspective, and the Commissioners participation will help reinforce the government’s committment to cleantech and commerce.”

As State Senator for District 11 (Harris, Galveston, Brazoria), Patterson’s major legislative successes include passage of the historic concealed handgun law, a constitutional amendment allowing home equity lending, the state coastal management plan and the creation of the Texas State Veterans Home Program. A tireless advocate for his fellow veterans, he chaired the first Veterans Affairs committee in the Texas Senate of war.

Mark Armentrout
CEO
Texas Technology Partners

Mark is currently a Board Member of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), a position he has held since 2003. From 2005 through 2008, Mark served as Board Chair of ERCOT.

From 2000 through 2006 he was an information technology executive vice president for MBNA, the world’s largest independent credit card company, which is now part of Bank of America.

Prior to joining MBNA, Mr. Armentrout spent 24 years with Atlantic Richfield Company, ARCO, the nation’s sixth largest integrated oil and gas company that was acquired by British Petroleum in 2000. In his last position with ARCO, he was CIO, manager of information technology services for exploration and production, responsible for ARCO’s exploration and production information technology staffs in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. Earlier in his career, he held regional CIO positions with ARCO in Anchorage, Houston, and Plano, TX. He also managed an information technology research department in ARCO’s research lab specializing in advanced computing, visualization and artificial intelligence.

He began his career as a technical programmer working on systems for the Prudhoe Bay field on the North Slope of Alaska in 1976.

He also serves the community on a number of boards including Big Brothers Big Sisters of Collin County and the University of North Texas Information Technology and Decision Sciences Department. He is also Board Chair of Serenity High School, a school devoted to students recovering from substance abuse. He is a former Board Member and Executive Director of the Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary.

While in Alaska in the 1990s, Mr. Armentrout was instrumental in working with government, native, and industrial groups to bring the Internet to education in the Alaskan bush, primarily through the Alaska Education Summit. He is a member of IEEE and the IEEE Computer Society.

Mr. Armentrout has a bachelor’s degree in computer science, summa cum laude, and a master’s degree in political science with a major in philosophy from Texas A&M University at Commerce.