Tech center leader to call it a decade
Walter Ulrich, the president and CEO of the Houston Technology Center, estimates the nonprofit has helped companies create roughly 5,000 jobs and raise about $2 billion since he began working there in February 2007. Now, he said, it’s time to let someone else help develop emerging technology companies.
“For me to know that HTC had a small role in their success is just so satisfying,” Ulrich said, with enthusiasm creeping into his voice. “I mean, I’m a techy and I’m a businessman both. And where could you do both techy and business stuff but here? At the same time, wow!”
Ulrich plans to retire Feb. 1, 2017, precisely 10
years after he began his foray into the nonprofit world. He told boardmembers of his plans Wednesday afternoon.
“Typically, after that 10 years, the person who runs the business is not going to do very much that’s new,” Ulrich said Tuesday in an interview with the Chronicle. “So I think you actually do your organization a real benefit if after 10 years you give someone else the opportunity to take it to the next level.”
His tenure at the incubator and accelerator for technology companies has been a time of growth. HTC has become more financially sound and has opened locations in The Woodlands and Johnson Space Center. It’s gaining international recognition through its for-profit sister company, HTC-Asia + Middle East, and a separate initiative targeting Russia and China, called Global Relationship Outreach Houston.
In 2010, Forbes named HTC among the top 10 technology incubators changing the world. The McNair Group made a multimillion-dollar commitment in December 2014, agreeing to invest $1 million annually to help emerging technology companies over three years. Twenty companies have received $25,000 each as seed investment from The McNair Group.
Ellen Ochoa, director of the Johnson Space Center, also recognized HT C’ s work by giving Ulrich the NASA Silver Achievement Medal.
“We wanted to help the NASA Clear Lake community when the shuttle program was canceled, Constellation was canceled and there was going to be 6,000 to 7,000 people out of work,” Ulrich said. “And so what we wanted to do was establish a presence at Johnson Space Center, and we wanted to help people take the technology expertise they had and create new businesses so they wouldn’t be out of work.”
Ulrich, initially a volunteer with HTC, got the top position after helping founding CEO Paul Frison create a strategic plan. A little hesitant at first because his experience was in the for-profit sector, Ulrich agreed to take the reins after receiving permission from his wife, Beth, to turn downa lucrative offer with a venture capital firm.
Frison, now executive vice chairman, praised Ulrich for setting tougher goals than others and for his great workethic. Ulrich is also active in the community, and a lot of people respect him.
“We will miss him as a person as well as missing a lot of his great traits,” Frison said.
Before HTC, Ulrich helped turn around struggling businesses. Read Boles was chairman at M inc ron Software Systems when Ulrich was brought in. He said Ulrich sold the company in away that benefited everyone: Investors received a profit and employees kept their jobs.
“The greatest strength of Walter is his ethics and the straightforward nature when he deals with challenges,” he said.
Ulrich also has years of experience as a business consultant, which is what brought him to Houston. Among his highlights was helping develop one of the first commercially successful email services.
Born in Englewood, N.J., and growing up in R ah way, N.J., Ulrich fostered his love for computers at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. He received his undergraduate degree in mathematics in 1968 and later earned his master’s in management science in 1977.
While always good at school, his younger self lacked real-world knowledge, Ulrich said. He credits the Marine Corps, which he was drafted into during the Vietnam War, for making him more practical and realistic.
“There’s no nonsense, but it’s done with a smile,” Frison said.
Chris Melson, who has brought two companies through HTC for mentoring and funding assistance, said Ulrich has done an excellent job raising money for HTC and keeping the nonprofit moving forward. He’s also assembled a toprate staff.
“He should feel really good about his contribution,” said Melson, president of Houston-based Internet security company Netsurion.
And don’t expect Ulrich, who instead of giving his age insisted hewas “old enough to be retired,” to suddenly start watching from the sidelines. He will continue working, potentially helping struggling for-profit or nonprofit organizations.
His biggest retirement-type goal is to simply sleep in past 5 a.m., at least to 6:30 a.m.
“I have no intention to stop working,” Ulrich said. “I love towork. I’m perhaps even addicted towork.”
The board is expected to hire an executive search firm to find his replacement. In addition to working with emerging technology companies, Ulrich hopes his successor will continue collaborating with other technology incubators, accelerators and co-working spaces to promote the sector in Houston.