The Honorable Cyndi Taylor Krier

CYNDI TAYLOR KRIER was appointed to a six-year term on The University of Texas System Board of Regents by Governor Rick Perry in March 2001. Regent Krier is a Vice-Chairman of the Board and serves as Chairman of the Academic Affairs Committee; is a member of the Audit, Compliance, and Management Review Committee; the Finance and Planning Committee; and the Health Affairs Committee and is a Regental representative to the Board for Lease of University Lands which oversees the terms of lease of University lands for oil and gas exploration and development. Vice-Chairman Krier is Co-Chairman of the Task Force on Planning and also led the Accountability, Collaboration, and Deregulation Task Force.

She is the Vice President of Texas Government Relations with USAA, a leading financial services company. As Vice President, she is responsible for leading USAA's involvement in legislative and public policy issues in Texas at the State and local levels.

In 1992, Krier became the first woman and first Republican ever elected as Bexar County Judge where she represented 1.4 million people in the San Antonio metropolitan area. She was reelected as County Judge in 1994 and 1998 without opposition. Prior to that, Krier represented Bexar County in the Texas Senate for two terms from 1984 through 1992.

As Bexar County Judge, Krier worked to "Build a Better Bexar County" by focusing on youth and education programs, enacting a broad-based ethics measure, reforming the appointment process for County boards and commissions, telecasting Commissioner's Court meetings on cable and the Internet, promoting recycling and energy conservation programs, promoting the use of competitive bids and proposals for all County contracts, and controlling government spending.

While serving in the Texas Senate, she received the Texas Bar Foundation award for her passage of the Texas Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, which has led to the resolution of hundreds of thousands of lawsuits in less time and at less cost to both litigants and taxpayers through arbitration and mediation. Krier served as a member of both the Senate Finance Committee and Education Committee and chaired the Higher Education Subcommittee for Senate Finance and an Interim Committee on Medical, Dental, and Allied Health Centers.

Krier works closely with the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County. For three years, she mentored a class at Ridgeview Elementary School in San Antonio. Regent Krier received her undergraduate journalism degree from U. T. Austin in 1971, and she graduated in 1975 from U. T. Austin School of Law. As a U. T. student, she was active on The Daily Texan newspaper staff, in student government, as a dorm resident assistant, and played on the U. T. Lady Longhorns basketball team before Title IX.

Krier has served as Chairman of the U. T. Austin Ex-Students' Association and as a member of the Supreme Court's Commission on Judicial Efficiency. She recently served on three important Statewide task forces helping to plan for the future of Texas: the Governor's Task Force on Conservation, the Comptroller's e-Texas Task Force, and The Texas A&M University System Agriculture Program 21 Leaders Panel.

Her husband, Joseph R. Krier, is president of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

last updated in 2005