Walt Downing is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas. He joined SwRI in 1979 as an engineer in the field of automated testing. He established and led the Aerospace and Training Systems Division before moving into executive management in 1998. He serves on the SwRI Board of Directors, the Board of Signature Science, LLC (SwRI’s wholly owned subsidiary in Austin, Texas) and the Board of SwARC Automotive Research Lab (SwRI’s joint venture in Tianjin, China).

Walt graduated from Southern Methodist University with a BSEE and the University of Texas at San Antonio with an MBA. He has executive certificates in management and leadership from the University of Texas at Austin and MIT Sloan School of Management. He is a licensed professional engineer in the states of Texas and Florida.

Walt is the past chair of BioMed SA. He is a member of the University of Texas at San Antonio advisory councils for the College of Engineering and Integrated Design, the College of Business, and Office of the Vice President for Research, Economic Development, and Knowledge Enterprise. As a Life Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Walt participates in educational activities as an IEEE STEM Champion and ABET Program Evaluator.