Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments was founded by Cecil H. Green, J. Erik Jonsson, Eugene McDermott, and Patrick E. Haggerty in 1951. McDermott was one of the original founders of Geophysical Service Inc. (GSI) in 1930. McDermott, Green, and Jonsson were GSI employees who purchased the company in 1941. In November, 1945, Patrick Haggerty was hired as general manager of the Laboratory and Manufacturing (L&M) division, which focused on electronic equipment. By 1951, the L&M division, with its defense contracts, was growing faster than GSI's Geophysical division. The company was reorganized and initially renamed General Instruments Inc. Because there already existed a firm named General Instrument, the company was renamed Texas Instruments that same year. From 1956 to 1961, Fred Agnich of Dallas, later a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives, was the Texas Instruments president. Geophysical Service, Inc. became a subsidiary of Texas Instruments. Early in 1988 most of GSI was sold to the Halliburton Company.
James R. Biard
In the summer of 1958, Texas Instruments hired Jack Kilby (the inventor of the integrated circuit). According to Dr. Biard, during TI’s annual two-week summer shutdown, "At the time we were new, so we had to work while the others were on vacation. He would often come by and talk to us." Kilby held more than 60 U.S. patents, including two with Dr. Biard. Biard later stated, "I had the pleasure of being the co-inventor on two of his 60 patents. It was an honor to have my name with his." 
In 1959-60, Dr. Biard collaborated with other engineers at Texas Instruments on the design, construction, and patent of one of the first completely automatic transistor testing facilities known as SMART, the Sequential Mechanism for Automatic Recording and Testing. He also developed, and later patented, a low-frequency reactance amplifier with undetectable "flicker" noise for seismic applications.