Fred R. Lummis, a Houston businessman and entrepreneur, has been elected a Trustee of HHMI. He becomes one of 11 Trustees of the Institute.

Lummis, 56, is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Platform Partners LLC, a Houston, Texas-based investment company that he cofounded in 2006. Before founding Platform Partners, he managed private equity investments for two successor firms, The CapStreet Group and Summit Capital.

Lummis began his business career at Texas Commerce Bank in 1978 and ultimately managed a venture capital portfolio for the bank before becoming senior vice president of the private investment firm of Duncan, Cook & Co. in 1986. From 1994 to 1998, Lummis served as Chairman, President, Chief Executive Officer, and a director, until 2008, for American Tower Corporation—today the largest independent operator and owner of telecommunications towers in the world. In 1998, he took over Advantage Outdoor Co. and managed its operations until it merged with Lamar Advertising Co. in 2000.

A trustee of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston since 1996, Lummis also serves as Chairman of Cardtronics and a director of Landmark FBO, TRE Financial Services, Avalon Advisors, and Amegy Bancorporation. He is a cum laude graduate of Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tennessee, where he captained the men's tennis team. He received his M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. He and Claudia, his wife of 33 years, have three grown sons.

Lummis and his family have a long association with HHMI. His father, William R. Lummis, served as a charter Trustee of the Institute for more than two decades, until he retired in 2007. The elder Lummis played a critical role in reorganizing the Institute following the death of Howard R. Hughes, Jr., the Institute's founder and Lummis's cousin.

Photo: Courtesy of Fred Lummis