Richard Amato is a lecturer and the director of strategic and global initiatives at The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs Schools of Business. The strategic and global initiatives program is a part of the Austin Technology Incubator, a premier business incubator of UT Austin. Alpert also teaches Global Connection classes around entrepreneurship and sustainability, leveraging his prior work with the Global Innovation Lab and the World Bank. The class supports entrepreneurs at Climate Innovation Centers in Africa and around the world as they work to drive their ventures forward.

Prior to joining McCombs, Amato served as the manager of business development for Navion Inc. and as the president and CEO of Venti Energy, a renewable development company dedicated to increasing the supply of clean, reliable, and affordable energy. He began his career interest in clean energy as an engineer for Conoco Natural Gas Products, and his work centers around his goal to leave the world a better place for future generations. For his work on sustainability and developing markets, Amato has been featured at several global conferences on clean energy business development.

Amato earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University in 1987 and an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin School of Business in 1998.