Interim President Jim Davis

Jim Davis is Interim President of The University of Texas at Austin. A resident of Austin since 1974, Jim has served the University since 2018 as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and as Vice President for Legal Affairs and Business Strategies. Across those roles, Jim’s leadership and impact has spanned a number of UT Austin’s transformational projects.

Jim has played central roles in development of a new academic medical center for the Dell Medical School and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the Texas Institute for Electronics semiconductor consortium, infrastructure planning for the redevelopment of I-35 adjacent to campus, the Tower restoration project, the East Mall Precursor Commemoration project and the development of Innovation Tower in the Austin Innovation District. Jim led plans to build new undergraduate and graduate housing to address affordability challenges, founded the University’s Discovery to Impact research commercialization program to support faculty innovation, established the University’s first commercial investment fund and proof of concept fund to provide critical resources to faculty entrepreneurs and managed the launch of the West Campus Ambassador program to improve safety and security for students, staff and faculty.

Prior to assuming a leadership role at UT, Jim served his country with distinction as a cryptologist in the United States Navy. Jim was awarded the National Defense Service Medal and Commanding Officer Commendation for Outstanding Service During the Gulf War.

After military service, Jim attended The University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in History with highest honors in 1996. He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and awarded the Ferguson Honors Thesis Prize for excellence in the study of history. In 1999, Jim earned his law degree from Harvard Law School and served as a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Texas.

Jim built a distinguished law practice as a partner in the Austin office of Locke Lord. He later served as a Texas Deputy Attorney General, where he led the civil litigation division and advised the leadership of state agencies, boards and commissions, including the University of Texas System and UT Austin. Jim has been a frequent continuing legal education lecturer with a focus on governmental regulatory issues and legal ethics.

Jim’s earliest memories of UT stem from when his father joined the UT Austin faculty as Chair of Radio, Television and Film. Jim and his wife of more than 35 years, Teresa, met while attending Austin High School. They have two adult children.