Robert Eckels

Robert is an attorney at the law firm of Husch Blackwell, LLP.

He has many years of executive and board experience with both publicly traded and private companies as well as government at the local, state and federal levels. Robert is recognized as a Board Leadership Fellow in the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). He is chairman of the Texas County & District Retirement System, at $34 billion, one of America’s most actuarially sound pension funds.

Robert had a decades-long career in public service and leadership in the Texas Legislature and as County Judge (county executive) of Harris County, Texas, with 4 million residents, the nation’s third largest county. There he established the County Office of Emergency Management and served on the President’s, and later US Department of Homeland Security, Senior Advisory Council – State & Local Committee. In 2002 he earned national recognition when he opened Harris County’s Astrodome and led what became the largest shelter operation in US history as residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast fled Hurricane Katrina. Robert established global models of interagency cooperation in health care, transportation and emergency management still in use today.