Lorenzo Gomez, the former Rackspace executive who built Geekdom into a world class tech incubator, is stepping away from his role as CEO of Geekdom at the end of this month, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Gomez, a San Antonio native who is known for his 24/7 casual attire, will become Chairman of the 80-20 Foundation, which was founded by Rackspace co-founder Graham Weston to boost tech education and 'urban systems' in San Antonio.
He will also be Chairman of Geekdom, but day to day operations will pass to David Garcia, Jr, whose tech background stretches back to Gateway Computers in the late 1990s.
Geekdom, which is an entrepreneurial space in the Rand Building downtown, is a unique environment where budding tech companies can flourish in an atmosphere rich with other start ups and nurtured by supportive mentors. The Geekdom concept is being copied in cities around the country, including in Silicon Valley.
Gomez says Geekdom now has more than 1600 members, and is in the process of expanding into the Savoy Building next door.
Bexar County recently approved a grant to attract and nurture new tech talent. Budding local tech companies say their biggest challenge to growth is finding enough qualified tech employees to staff their operations. To that end, Geekdom has worked closely with the training fire CodeUp and with the new CAST Tech High School in the downtown tech district.