Terry Leeper, a former student of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, was selected to lead the new Amazon corporate office in Austin, Texas.
The office currently employs more than 165 full-time people with plans for expansion in the near future. In addition to leading the new office, Leeper also serves as the chief technology officer for Business-to-Business at Amazon.
“I’m excited to be back in Texas leading the Austin office,” Leeper said. “There is a great deal of potential for growth in the Texas market. Through this office, we are able to offer Amazon services such as PrimeNow and AWS and create a development center in Texas for full-time developers and interns."
Leeper graduated from Texas A&M in 1986 with degrees in computer science and electrical engineering. Prior to his current role, he was in charge of Amazon’s vendor facing software and business software for MyHabit.com.
Before moving to Amazon, Leeper worked at Microsoft for 12 years in Visual Studio. While at Microsoft, Leeper moved to England where he led developer tool sales and marketing in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Leeper currently serves as a member of the Computer Science and Engineering Advisory Council. He and the other council members work with Dr. Dilma Da Silva, department head and holder of the Ford Motor Company Design Professorship II.
“Terry brings our council extensive understanding of opportunities for our students in e-commerce,” Da Silva said. “It’s great to hear about the demand for our students and real-world challenges they can tackle through internships and software development jobs at Amazon.”
In 2014, Leeper and his wife established the Jana and Terry Leeper ’86 Scholarship for freshmen in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
“Establishing the scholarship was incredibly easy,” Leeper said. “Helping a student pay for school is our way to give back to the program that helped me so much. It’s about Aggies helping Aggies.”
For more information about the Jana and Terry Leeper ’86 Scholarship or other gift information, visit the giving page.