John T. Steen, Jr.

John Steen of San Antonio is an attorney and investor who served as the 108th Texas secretary of state. He sits on the nine-member Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board where he chairs the Agency Operations Committee. He is a member and former vice chairman of the UTSA Development Board, an Executive Committee member of the Chancellor’s Council of the UT System, a trustee of both the Texas Department of Public Safety Foundation and the Texas Higher Education Foundation, a member of the Philosophical Society of Texas, and a director of the P16Plus Council of Greater Bexar County. He is a member of the Distinguished Leaders Council of the World Affairs Council of San Antonio. In 2016 he was selected and unanimously confirmed by the San Antonio City Council to serve on the five-member Board of Trustees that oversees CPS Energy, the nation’s largest municipally owned electric and gas utility.

A sixth-generation Texan born and raised in San Antonio, Mr. Steen received an A.B. cum laude from Princeton in 1971. At Princeton, he was selected as an undergraduate member of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from which he received an S.P.I.A. certificate. Following his graduation from Texas Law School where he was a member of the Texas Law Review as well as Phi Delta Phi, he returned to his hometown to practice. He has been president/chairman of over ten local nonprofits including the Fiesta San Antonio Commission, San Antonio Academy Board of Trustees, San Antonio Performing Arts Association, Coliseum Advisory Board (now Community Arenas Board), and World Affairs Council of San Antonio. He is a past trustee and vice chairman of the San Antonio Community College District (now Alamo Colleges) and a past trustee of Austin College. He has served the state as a member of the Texas Commission on Economy and Efficiency in State Government, commissioner and chair of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, and commissioner of the Texas Department of Public Safety. While secretary of state, he was the state’s border commerce coordinator and chaired the Border Trade Advisory Committee.

Formerly a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve, Mr. Steen is an honor graduate of the Army’s Military Police School. Twice he received the Commander’s Award for Public Service from the Department of the Army. He is a distinguished alumnus of San Antonio Academy, was honored two times for his philanthropy by the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, and received the Dream Maker Award from the Texas A&M San Antonio Foundation. He is an honorary Texas Ranger captain.