Name: Weston, Graham
Title: Chairman of Rackspace.com
Texas A&M Class: 1986
Inducted: 2008
A highly successful entrepreneur, Graham Weston graduated with a bachelor of science degree from the Department of Agricultural Economics in 1986. Born to a ranching family in the San Antonio area, he saw entrepreneurial opportunities in everything around him. He launched his first business venture as a seventh-grader, marketing organic pork in newspaper ads that read “Go Hog Wild!” In high school, he built another business that took photos at livestock shows and sold them to the contestants.
While still a student at A&M, he founded Assessment Technologies, a business inspired by the successful appeal of his father’s property tax bills. After graduating from A&M, Graham went into the real estate business and led his family to buy and develop the Weston Centre in downtown San Antonio. At the same time, he developed a keen interest in the possibilities of the Internet. In 1998, he and a partner provided the original capital for a business idea pitched by three local college students. It was called “Rackspace.com.” After six months, Graham joined the enterprise as CEO and remained in that position until 2006. While serving as CEO, Graham was named a 2006 “Best Boss” by Fortune Small Business magazine and was recognized as a regional Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young.
Over the past decade, Rackspace Hosting has achieved double-digit revenue growth and currently boasts a market capitalization of $2 billion. Today, Rackspace is the World’s Leading Specialist in Hosting. Rackspace’s 3,000 employees serve about 100,000 customers of all sizes with their unique brand of service known as Fanatical Support®. Rackspace also manages more than 60,000 servers at data centers in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
Graham currently serves as the Chairman of Rackspace, which has been recognized as a winning workplace and best place to work by several organizations, including Fortune magazine and the Financial Times.
In 2005, Graham was honored by the City of San Antonio for converting one of his vacant properties into a temporary shelter for victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Nicknamed the “Hilton of Shelters,” by the Denver Post, it housed more than 2,500 refugees.
Graham Weston is a committed supporter of higher education with frequent appearances as a “Prof-for-a-Day” in Agricultural Economics classes. He is a devoted financial supporter of numerous activities for the department’s faculty and students, including agricultural and food sales, agribusiness management, the Academic Quiz Bowl, and the National Agricultural Marketing Association team, among others.
Mr. Weston, his wife Elizabeth, and their children reside in New Braunfels, Texas.
