$25/ticket
Public event
Guests welcomed
August Petersen, President of August Petersen Consulting, has been a senior officer, board member, investor and consultant to private and publicly-held business ventures for over 25 years. In addition, he has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas, where he has taught more than one hundred & sixty undergraduate and MBA courses in Accounting, Finance, Real Estate and Strategic Management. He has also served on the faculties of UT’s Institute of Commercial Capitalism and the UT School of Engineering where he has developed and taught courses on Entrepreneurship, Technology Commercialization and Financial Management.
Raised in New Jersey, August attended East Central University in Oklahoma on an athletic scholarship. After taking an active role in several student organizations, he was twice-elected ECU’s Student Senate President. Majoring in Accounting and Business Administration, he graduated with honors after being selected the University's Outstanding Student and the Business School's Most Distinguished Graduate. He has served ECU as a guest lecturer and Foundation Trustee. In 2010, East Central recognized August as their Distinguished Alumnus and invited him to serve as their spring commencement speaker.
August’s first professional position was with the international public accounting firm, Arthur Andersen in Hartford. August moved to Austin to attend the University of Texas and earned his Master of Professional Accountancy degree with highest honors. Upon completing his Masters, he joined the Austin office of the international accounting firm, Touche Ross. In addition to his client responsibilities, he served as a coordinator of professional staff recruitment and participated in the firm's successful business development efforts. He left public accounting to become a founding partner of The Watson Group, a Texas partnership that became the largest diversified real estate firm in Austin. Over a ten year period, Mr. Petersen had senior management responsibilities for over fifty real estate business entities, development projects and investment properties, the scope of which exceeded a half billion dollars. These projects included one of the nation's largest historical rehabilitations, Central Texas' largest new constructions of commercial, retail and industrial office space, as well as several thousand acres of land developments. The Watson Group partners also served as the primary advisors for two of Austin's most successful economic development efforts: the MCC Research Consortium and the Austin Division of 3M Corporation. Mr. Petersen later became the Managing Partner of Petersen-Watson Interests to focus on long-term land investment and development opportunities. He remains an active real estate and technology investor while serving on several corporate advisory and governing boards.
A licensed CPA and commercial real estate broker, August has lectured at state, national and international professional conferences and is a nationally recognized speaker on financial reporting, strategic management and business leadership topics. For ten years August served as the National Chairman and featured speaker for a series of financial reporting conferences for technology companies. He also created and has taught a series of highly successful executive development courses showing executives and owners how to strategically manage their organizations in today’s uncertain times and increasingly global economy. Most recently August toured the major port cities of Europe for two months as a featured speaker and faculty member for the University of Virginia’s life-time learning program, which was held aboard a private cruise ship.
Civically, August was a founding officer and a contributing editor for the Austin Business Journal. He has served as an officer and board member for the Better Business Bureau, the Urban League, United Way, the American Cancer Society, the Volunteer Center and Leadership Austin. As the founder and director of a youth sports organization, Westlake Stars, August ran sports training camps, competition and performance teams that benefited many thousands of Austin children over a fifteen year period. He was also a founding member of St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Austin and chaired their formation and building committees for many years. His professional and civic involvement led to his selection as a National Finalist in the White House Fellowship program. He has been named as one of the Outstanding Young Men of America, selected to Who's Who in American Finance and Emerging Leaders of America.
