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Morton Herbert Meyerson is an American computer industry executive who held positions in the Ross Perot-founded Electronic Data Systems and subsequently at Perot Systems and General Motors.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Ross Perot [4][1][7] paid $10 million for naming rights to Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center,[8][9] home to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.[10]
Meyerson was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1938.[11] His mother was a pianist and actively volunteered at the Fort Worth VA Hospital.[9][8] His father owned Meyerson insurance agency. When he was 10, Morton's brother Sandy died from cancer.[3]
Meyerson attended Paschal High School, where he played football, sang in the choir, and was senior class president.[12] He then graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and philosophy.[11] At UT, he was a member of Sigma Alpha Mu, Texas Cowboys, the UT chorus, and student government.[13] In 1991, he was a recipient of the Pro Bene Meritus Award presented by the UT College of Liberal Arts and in 2005 he was a recipient of The University of Texas Distinguished Alumnus Award.[14][15] [16] After college, Meyerson served as an officer in the United States Army with an occupational specialty involving automatic data processing.[17][18] Meyerson served in the active reserves from 1963 through 1969.[19]
Meyerson began working for Bell Helicopter in 1963. He then worked at Electronic Data Systems, Inc. from 1966 to 1971, leaving the company as President and Vice Chair leading over 50,000 employees.[11][20] During Meyerson's CEO tenure, EDS grew from a $200 million consulting business into a $4.7 billion large-scale systems consulting enterprise generating over $190 million in earnings.[17][21] In 1967, Morton H. Meyerson proposed a business model that would later become known as “outsourcing,” which led to major business growth for EDS. In 2013 Morton was inducted into The Outsourcing Hall of Fame of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals.[15]
He was CEO of duPont Glore Forgan, a Wall Street brokerage firm, from 1971 through 1974.[19][22]
In 1984, he became the chief technology officer at General Motors. He retired in 1986 to pursue foundation work and mentoring entrepreneurs.[11] During this period, Meyerson mentored Michael Dell during the early years of Dell Computer.[11][20] He also mentored Mark Cuban as a principal investor in Broadcast.com.[18][23]
In 1992, Morton re-joined the corporate world as Chair and CEO of Perot Systems. He retired from Perot Systems in 1998.[22] He has since been chairman of 2M Companies, Inc. and of The Morton H. Meyerson Family Foundation.[11][20]
He serves on the board of the Dallas Symphony Association and is Vice Chairman Emeritus of the National Park Foundation. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and over his career he has served on many governing boards, including as chairman of the Texas Super Conducting Super Collider Project.[20][15][24] In 2021, he was inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame.[25][26][27]
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