Austin Baidas

Austin Baidas is a Chicago-based business executive with extensive experience in both manufacturing and technology and has a strong background in public policy and political activism. In 1992, Austin graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Economics and Management from the Gerstacker Institute of Professional Management at Albion College and then began his career as an Assistant Credit Officer at NBD Bank in Detroit. Austin currently serves as Chairman of TriMatrix Laboratories, Inc., an environmental testing laboratory in Grand Rapids, Mich. Austin joined TriMatrix as CEO in 1996 and within two years, he repositioned the company to bring it back to profitability. Austin remains on the Board of Directors and has been able to direct the company's growth strategy and today the company ranks amongst the highest-quality laboratories in the United States. Austin has served in varying executive positions, including CEO and Chairman, at Four Seasons Housing, a modular home builder, and as vice president of General RV Center, a family-owned recreational vehicle dealership. During his tenure with Four Seasons Housing, he restructured the company, improving its product lines, updating its sales and marketing program, refocusing customer service and instituting new accounting measurements. Austin worked to promote the factory-built housing industry nationwide by serving on the Board of Directors for the Manufactured Housing Institute in Arlington, Va. and by lobbying at the federal level to adopt uniform laws around the production of safe, affordable manufactured homes. Austin's has served on the Board of Directors for the Richard A. Baidas Scholarship Fund and was also a Senior Executive Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Austin was a key member of Governor Pat Quinn's political staff, helping lead the campaign to an electoral win. He was also responsible for statewide Outreach to Progressive Groups including the pro-choice and LGBT communities which have been acknowledged to have provided the victory margin. In 2011, Austin was appointed to serve as the Associate Director of the Governor's Office of Management and Budget for the State of Illinois. Austin has been a resident of the Lakeview neighborhood since 2002 and has been active in the Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association.