Rene Fomby, Man of Mysteries
Rene Fomby brings decades of experience in business and law to his writing career. After earning an MBA from the University of Texas Graduate School of Business, Rene held a number of senior management positions in high tech and pharmaceuticals. At Xerox Office Systems / Palo Alto Research Center, he was a key member of the design team for the stand-alone graphical computer that later became the Macintosh. After Xerox, Rene pioneered the use of marketing analytics in the pharmaceutical industry, heading up global planning for one of the world’s largest drug companies and driving the biggest product launch in biotech history, a protease inhibitor that transformed HIV from a killer to a chronic disease. Along the way he also created the world’s first handheld computer for doctors, served as Director of the National Healthcare Database under the direction of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and founded a consulting company that created the software driving many of the country’s most critical weapons systems.

More recently, Rene has enjoyed the practice of pro bono criminal and civil rights law. Entering the University of Texas School of Law at the tender age of 50, he was recipient of the Oscar and Ethel Schwartz Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Law and the Thomas C. Clark Academic Scholarship in Law, as well as the Patton and Boggs Fellowship in Humanitarian Law. In addition, he was the recipient of the Dean’s Awards for Highest Achievement in Telecommunications Law, Healthcare Law and Advanced Criminal Law, and was honored as the law school’s Best Litigator. His very first law suit, filed on the day he was sworn in as an attorney, is now enshrined as a key case in consumer law lawbooks. Finally, just last year he partnered with his son in taking a Fourth Amendment case involving the fatal police shooting of an innocent young black man to the U.S. Supreme Court, winning 9-0. The New York Times named Barnes v. Felix one of the three most important cases before the court that year.

Rene’s career as a writer began at McCallum High School in Austin, where the paper and yearbook he edited and served as head photographer won numerous national awards. He went on to serve as head photographer, graphics editor and city editor for The Daily Texan, the University of Texas’ student newspaper, which itself was awarded numerous national awards as the top college paper in the country. After graduation from law school, Rene finally tried his hand at fiction, and his first novel, Resumed Innocent, won several prestigious awards and was cited by the prestigious Kirkus Reviews as “a scathing indictment of the Texas criminal justice system.” His satirical series featuring a bumbling ten-pound Australian Terrier who manages somehow to save the world, one book at a time, was recently named the CIBA 2025 First Place award winner for Best Series.

Rene has dedicated his life to helping people in need. In addition to his work defending the rights of those in need and in trouble, he founded a number of non-profit companies providing healthcare and basic communications services to the poorest members of our society. While still in law school, Rene co-founded USFon, Inc., a non-profit project of the University of Texas Schools of Law and Engineering that provides telephone and Internet service to those who otherwise couldn’t afford it.

But, most importantly, Rene enjoys making and drinking wine, being a grandpa to two lovely young girls, cooking outlandish dishes from around the world, and chasing after his two crazy Corgis and a wife who somehow manages to get even lovelier after 45 magical years of marriage to a man who would clearly age just about anyone else.