The UT Tower will shine with burnt orange lights Friday, February 21 in honor of this year’s recipients of the Presidential Citation Awards.
Four members of The University of Texas at Austin community have been recognized with the Presidential Citation Award — the highest honor bestowed by UT — for their dedication and support of the University:
To honor the recipients, UT will grant Presidential Citation Scholarships to students in each of the honorees’ names, extending their impact on the University in arts, academics, athletics and health care.
Created in 1979, the Presidential Citation annually honors the extraordinary contributions of people who personify the University’s commitment to transforming lives.
About the 2025 honorees:
John L. Adams
John Adams is a Dallas businessman involved in numerous civic and charitable organizations. He is the former chairman and CEO of Chase Bank of Texas and former vice chairman of Trinity Industries, Inc. He has served on the boards of Group 1 Automotive, Trinity Industries, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and several private equity-owned companies.
In addition to supporting faculty, building initiatives and helping to start the McCombs Scholars Program at UT’s McCombs School of Business, Adams and his wife, Susie, have also supported scholars and faculty members in the College of Education and the Priscilla Pond Flawn Child and Family Laboratory in College of Natural Sciences’ School of Human Ecology. He has chaired UT’s Development Board and is on the steering committee of the University’s What Starts Here Campaign.
Adams earned his B.B.A. in finance and J.D. in law from UT. Susie, with whom he has two children and five grandchildren, earned her bachelor’s degree in education from UT.
He has won the Outstanding Dallas Texas Ex Award and the UT Distinguished Alumnus Award and is in the McCombs School of Business Hall of Fame. He has won the Institute of Human Relations Award from the American Jewish Committee and the Dallas/Fort Worth Father of the Year Award.
Adams has chaired many organizations including Children’s Medical Hospital, Dallas; Methodist Medical Center, Dallas; Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce; The Dallas Plan; Central Dallas Association; and Willis M. Tate Distinguished Lecture Series at Southern Methodist University. He and his wife, Susie, have chaired or co-chaired fundraising campaigns for the American Heart Association, YMCA, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Boys and Girls Club, Senior Citizens of Greater Dallas, and Highland Park United Methodist Church.
Amir Husain
Amir Husain is a serial entrepreneur, AI technologist and author based in Austin. He is a recipient of Austin’s Top Entrepreneur award and is in UT’s College of Natural Sciences Hall of Honor, as well as Austin’s 40 Under 40. His ventures have made CNBC’s Fastest-Growing Companies list and the World Economic Forum’s Unicorns community.
At UT, Husain serves on the President’s Austin Innovation Board and the advisory board of the Department of Computer Science.
Husain founded SparkCognition and the defense technology company SGS (now Avathon Government). Under his leadership, SparkCognition (now Avathon) achieved a $1.4 billion valuation. Husain led the firm until 2023 and remains on its board of directors. He also was founder, CEO and board director of SkyGrid, a joint venture with Boeing.
He currently serves as chairman of WorldQuant Foundry, a venture incubator; SpecFive, a mesh networking company; Argon, a humanoid robotics company focused on manufacturing applications; and Navigate, a decentralized data platform.
Husain has been awarded over 30 patents in AI and distributed systems. He has served on NATO’s Innovation Advisory Board, and his work has been featured in publications such as Fortune, Forbes and Proceedings from the U.S. Naval Institute.
He is the author of several books: “The Sentient Machine,” “Generative Art,” “Generative AI for Leaders” and “Hyperwar: Conflict and Competition in the AI Century.” He is also a regular contributor to Forbes.
The Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison
From 2017 to 2021, Kay Bailey Hutchison served as the United States Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in Brussels, Belgium. During her term, she focused on the importance of U.S. leadership in the alliance and strengthening of the transatlantic bond that provides the security umbrella for Europe and North America.
Hutchison earned her bachelor’s and law degrees from UT and is a Distinguished Alumna of the University. Named in her honor, UT’s Kay Bailey Hutchison Energy Center is a collaboration between the McCombs School of Business, the School of Law, the Cockrell School of Engineering and the Jackson School of Geosciences.
From 1993 to 2013, Hutchison represented Texas in the U.S. Senate. She was elected by her peers to the five-member Republican State Leadership Committee in the U.S. Senate, was the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and chaired the Military Construction Subcommittee on Appropriations. She also served as chair of the Board of Visitors at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
From 1991 to 1993, Hutchison was Texas State Treasurer and proposed limits on state debt, which the legislature adopted. She is the author of three books, including the bestseller “American Heroines: The Spirited Women Who Shaped Our Country.” In 2013, the Dallas City Council named the city’s convention center in her honor.
Sam L. Susser
Sam Susser is chairman and CEO of Susser Bank, president of Susser Holdings II, L.P., a private investment company, and a member of the Texas Business Hall of Fame. He earned his B.B.A. in finance from UT and started his career in the corporate finance division and in the mergers and acquisitions group of Salomon Brothers in New York in 1985 before returning to Texas in 1988 to help with the family business. From 1988 to 2014, Susser Holdings Corporation grew from a five-store operation to a $6.7 billion Fortune 500 company employing 12,000 people.
At UT, Susser has chaired UT’s Development Board and is vice chair of the McCombs School of Business Advisory Board, the UT System Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee, the Dell Medical School’s Strategic Advisory Board and the University’s Schusterman Center for Judaic Studies. He is also a member of the McCombs School of Business Hall of Fame.
In addition to serving as chairman and CEO of Susser Bank, Susser is also chairman and CEO of the Corpus Christi Athletic Club, chair of the advisory board of Advisory Research Partners Fund, senior advisor to Citation Capital, vice chair of the MD Anderson Board of Visitors and a director of the board of Southwestern Medical Foundation. He also serves as chairman of the Governor’s University Research Initiative, secretary of Texas 2036, board member of the Dallas Citizens Council, the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum Board, and the Edwin L. Cox School of Business Executive Board. He is a past chair of the Driscoll Children’s Hospital System in South Texas, where he served for 22 years. His other honors include Border Texan of the Year and CSP’s Retailer of the Year. Susser and his wife, Catherine (also a graduate of the University), have three grown children.
View a list of all prior recipients of the Presidential Citation Awards
