Kevin Lacobie

My family is Cajun, but I was moved to Houston at a young age, part of the very-common 20th century migration of Cajun farmers to jobs in the big cities, spurred by the Oil. My dad was the first member of his family to get a college degree, and mom's family similarly had never gone to college - most Cajuns finished their education at 12th grade, if even that.

An accountant, my dad saw a need for a spreadsheet program, so he bought one of the first Apple IIs, with Visicalc. It was a game changer for his business. Lucky for me too, as I able to get access to a personal computer at a young age, and taught myself programming. My first complete program was a Lunar Lander game, imitating something I saw at a video arcade. It even had the correct math for gravity! I started college in the Civil Engineering school, but a first semester course in Fortran programming reminded me of my love of programming, so I soon switched degrees

I also loved reading, and as a challenge would often read the biggest books I could find in the local library. This lead me to economics books, most memorably many books by John Kenneth Galbriath and Ludwig von Mises (whatever was on the shelves at this small library!). This developed my second academic love, economics, so in college I minored in Economics, to supplement my bachelor's degree in Computer Science. This has become a common theme in my career, weaving between computer science (business programming, groupware, financial applications) and economics (as a Total Quality Management consultant, technology transfer consultant, writer on small satellites and space economics, etc.). Most recently I have found a happy intersection between the two in marketing technology - marketing being one of the pragmatic aspects of economics.

My personal interests include international affairs and culture, food, and cross-cultural concerns. And soccer - always soccer.

Kevin Lacobie

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