Cappy McGarr

Cappy McGarr is president of MCM Interests and managing partner of United States Renewal Energy Group. He has been involved in the hedge fund and private equity business for the last 30 years.

McGarr serves on the boards of The Foundation for the National Archives and The Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He serves on The Better Angels Board of Directors, filmmaker Ken Burns’ advisory board. McGarr has chaired a White House Fellows Regional Panel in 2012 and 2013 and has served as a panelist from 2009 to 2013.

McGarr was appointed by President Barack Obama to the board of trustees of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2011, and was previously appointed to the same post by President Bill Clinton, serving from 1996 to 2002. He is only one of two people that have been appointed to The Kennedy Center by two different presidents. He is an executive producer and creator of The Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize, the nation’s highest honor for humor, now in its 16th year, which has been awarded to Billy Crystal, Will Ferrell, Steve Martin, and Richard Pryor, among others. He also is an executive producer and creator of The Library of Congress' George Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the nation’s highest honor for popular song that is held each year, in the East Room of the White House which has been awarded to Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, and in 2013 Carole King. McGarr was nominated for a 2008-2009 Prime Time Emmy for The Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize Honoring George Carlin and nominated for a 2010 NAACP Image Award for The Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize Honoring Bill Cosby.

McGarr has published op-eds in The New York Times (Oct. 6, 2009, "A Texas-Size Health Care Failure") and Politico (Oct. 23, 2011, "Why Washington Needs A Laugh").

McGarr is a past chairman of the Development Board of The University of Texas. He was Chair of the Commission of 125 of the Undergraduate Experience Committee which recommendation lead to the creation of The School of Undergraduate Studies. He was the founding chair of the School of Undergraduate Studies Advisory Council. He is the founder of The Sports Journalism Program in the College of Communications at The University of Texas at Austin and the annual McGarr Symposium in Sports Journalism. He is the founding co-chair of The Texas Program in Sports and Media, and continues to serve as chair. He was a recipient of one of the College of Communication's highest award, the DeWitt Carter Reddick Award. McGarr also is the founding co-chair of the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation Advisory Council. He is a life member of the President's Associates and a Life Member of the Texas Exes.

McGarr received three degrees from The University of Texas: a Bachelor of Arts in 1973, Bachelor of Journalism in 1975, and a Master of Business Administration in 1977.

McGarr is married to Janie Strauss McGarr for 35 years, and has two daughters, Elizabeth McGarr McCue and Kathryn McGarr.