Jack Martin

Jack Martin is an entrepreneur, businessman, and rancher. He previously served as the global executive chairman and chief executive officer of Hill+Knowlton Strategies, a global public relations consultancy, and as a Democratic consultant.

Martin is a former chairman of the Texas State University System Board of Regents and has served on the LBJ Foundation's board of trustees. The foundation supports the LBJ Presidential Library and LBJ School of Public Affairs. Jack Martin also served as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Baylor Scott and White hospital system. Martin is also a member of the Texas Business Hall of Fame. He attended Texas State University (then known as Southwest Texas State University), where he studied political science.

Career Martin began serving as an assistant sergeant at arms at the Texas Capitol while studying at Southwest Texas State. Shortly thereafter, two years following his meeting Johnson, a Johnson aide introduced Martin to then-United States Senator Lloyd Bentsen. John Hill beat incumbent Governor Dolph Briscoe in the Democratic primary by running a progressive campaign, The 1978 election was the first time since Reconstruction that a Republican won the governorship of Texas. Other Democrats who won office that year include Jim Mattox for attorney general, Ann Richards for state treasurer, Garry Mauro for land commissioner, and Jim Hightower for agriculture commissioner. The board of regents oversaw the system's member institutions, which at the time were Angelo State University, Sam Houston State University, Sul Ross State University, and Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University), Martin's alma mater. Martin became chairman of the board in 1988 and served on the board in that capacity until his term expired in 1991. The firm was financed with a small loan Martin secured on farmland that he had inherited from his father. He purchased the name Public Strategies from James Johnson and Richard Holbrooke for $1. Johnson and Holbrooke had previously owned a consultancy of the same name, which they sold to Lehman Brothers in the early 1980s. The firm also advised national Democratic leadership, with Martin serving as an adviser to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Four years later, in November 2010, WPP Group merged Public Strategies with Hill & Knowlton, another communications firm it owned. Martin became global chairman of the newly merged Hill & Knowlton and was appointed global chief executive officer of the firm in January 2011. Hill & Knowlton was renamed Hill+Knowlton Strategies in December 2011.

Personal life Martin is married to Patsy Woods Martin, a former regent of Texas Tech University.