DARREN LEWIS

The “Jersey Shore”. Growing up outside of Philadelphia, it was a standard tradition to make a quick trip to the shore in the summer for a vacation. Two things to note: 1) in New Jersey you don’t call it the ‘Coast’ or the ‘Beach’… it’s just the ‘The Shore’. 2) Do not automatically assume any connection to the TV show. Every town on the Jersey Shore has its own character and I much prefer the South Jersey Shore that is more Philly based, as opposed to the NY influenced North Jersey! Now that I have my own family in Teas, we have continued he tradition of summer trips to the Shore, to visit friends and family… the summertime beaches, boardwalk, ice cream, pizza, seafood will always have a place in my heart.

Ever since the kids were little, Kerbey Lane has been the spot we land on when we get to go eat out as a family. It is an Austin favorite, and they have something for everyone, anytime of the day, at Kerbey. Also note, our pantry is always stocked with Kerbey Lane pancake mix – a great weekend morning tradition!

Philly teams are in the blood… Once a Philly Fan, always a Philly Fan. It would be blasphemy to move one of them away from Philadelphia, so I wouldn’t even suggest that! However, I am extremely excited to see the Austin FC team take hold here in town with a great stadium and the following has been tremendous. I hope this sets the stage for more professional teams and markets to move to this growing city.

The Monday commute is a balance of BBC news to catch up on world updates and then Sports talk radio as soon as I reach my limit with the news media! Austin traffic continues to be a major challenge in the city, but I am lucky enough that my current commute has become very reasonable with the recent improvements of the 183-toll road.

As with many others in the industry, in my 22 years of working in semiconductors, I have never seen an environment quite like this. Working in both Supply Chain and Fab Manufacturing (currently), I have been directly engaged in both the challenges the supply chain is having on our customers and the economy, as well as the struggles manufacturers are facing in order to increase output as fast as physically possible. Companies are putting out more chips than ever, but the demand continues to outpace supply making for a very dynamic and intense situation for the industry. In addition, the tragic conflict in Ukraine is developing quite an extraordinary challenge for all economic sectors. We can only hope that conflict is resolved quickly, and that those challenges are short-term.

While Mr. Musk certainly seems to be embracing Texas in recent times, this development with Twitter leaves all of us with a very unpredictable outlook! That being said, I will go with a “no” on this one. Texas has its hands full already with new and growing tech companies/industries moving in.