As the Covid-19 pandemic rolled into the summer months of 2020, San Antonio community leaders were looking for solutions that would allow the city’s children to return to in-person classroom learning.
BioBridge Global General Counsel Richey Wyatt was walking into his gym that June when he received a text message from San Antonio entrepreneur Graham Weston, who was seeking solutions. Minutes later, the two men were on the phone.
“Remote schooling was simply failing the children of San Antonio,” Wyatt told The Texas Lawbook. “Everyone recognized that something needed to be done.”
Weston had read a report from the Broad Institute, a joint venture creation of Harvard and MIT, and wanted to know if BioBridge Global, a San Antonio-based nonprofit healthcare company, could develop and operate a “high through put” PCR Covid-19 testing lab that processed large volumes of Covid-19 tests and results in a short time period to provide to San Antonio schools.
“The phone call lasted about 10 minutes, and it left my head spinning,” Wyatt said. “I didn’t even know what rapid PCR testing was.”
The next morning, Wyatt met with BBG’s CEO, chief medical officer and other organization leaders about the initiative.
Over the next few weeks, Wyatt worked with outside counsel to create a nonprofit subsidiary called Community Labs, and developed a unique governance structure.
“We went from zero to 180 miles per hour really frickin’ fast,” he said. “It was a wild ride that we knew would have a big impact on our community.”
Working with other philanthropic partners, BioBridge converted one of its laboratories from testing only blood and plasma donations to being able to accommodate rapid Covid-19 testing. The week after Labor Day, Community Labs was operating in San Antonio schools, testing children, teachers and staff weekly.
“It became a highly impactful collaboration,” Wyatt said. “We had the new lab validated and launched by September, initially with one pilot school district. Eventually we were running over 18,000 tests per day, serving the majority of school districts in the area, as well as the broader community through collaborations with the city and the county. Because of Community Labs, San Antonio had significantly stronger educational results — and a healthier community — during the pandemic than it otherwise would have had.”
Even though the Community Labs initiative has now sunsetted, those close to Wyatt say the effort demonstrates his passion to make the world a better place — a fact that has repeated itself time and time again in various efforts Wyatt has led or supported during the past few years.
Citing his extraordinary legal and community achievements, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s San Antonio Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring Wyatt with the 2025 San Antonio Corporate Counsel Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Wyatt and 11 other San Antonio corporate general counsel will be recognized on Nov. 6 at the first-ever San Antonio Corporate Counsel Awards ceremony.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Wyatt discusses navigating “regulatory fluidity” and reflects on whether or not the GC should be the conscience of a corporation.
BioBridge Global Deputy General Counsel Brenna Nava, who nominated Wyatt for the award, said the Community Lab project is a demonstration of his “legal excellence, visionary leadership and a steadfast commitment to ethical and inclusive practices.”
“This initiative was motivated, in part, by a desire to offer these services to individuals to help us return safely to normal ways of working and learning,” Nava said. “Richey is always looking for new ways to help our community and honor the company’s mission of saving and enhancing lives through the healing power of cells and human tissue.”
“Richey’s legal efforts don’t apply solely to helping the company succeed, but they help our community succeed,” she said. “His multifaceted contributions have not only fortified BioBridge Global’s legal and compliance frameworks but have also cultivated a resilient, compassionate organizational culture and expanded access to transformative medical therapies.”
Kreager Mitchell partner Bruce Mitchell said “passion is what makes Richey a great lawyer, a strong leader and a fine person.”
“Richey has always been passionate about his legal career, from a young lawyer to a seasoned partner — and now as general counsel,” Mitchell said. “He has been driven to succeed for the benefit of the client, the company and the legal team, not in pursuit of personal accolades. His relentless support of his team has always been a hallmark of his legal career and is one of the attributes that makes him a great leader.
“Richey is a problem solver. He approaches each difficulty as an intellectual challenge to be resolved in the most effective manner possible,” he said. “He is open and approachable, which frees his team to seek his advice and support without fear of criticism. He values collaboration, and his team approach to solving both legal and business issues sets him apart from other general counsel.”
Wyatt joined BioBridge Global eight years ago as the nonprofit’s general counsel, where he oversees the 90 members of its legal, human resources and compliance departments.
BioBridge Global is the nonprofit parent company of three nonprofit operating subsidiaries, which are fully integrated entities: South Texas Blood & Tissue, QualTex Laboratories and BBG Advanced Therapies. Together, they have one mission: To save and enhance lives through the healing power of human cells and tissue.
With about 800 employees, BioBridge Global has an annual operating budget of about $225 million.
“We are a dynamic organization with lots of moving parts, including some really cool R&D work, out of which we are starting to build a meaningful patent portfolio,” Wyatt said. “I have enjoyed being BBG’s lead attorney handling myriad legal issues, most especially some of our more complex negotiations, as BBG is a highly collaborative organization.”
Wyatt was born and raised in San Antonio. He describes his parents as “colorful characters and generous of spirit.”
His mother was deeply engaged in civic life, serving on various nonprofit boards.
“As an adult, I realize how much she inspired me to be engaged in our community,” he said. “She had a wide, loving and interesting social network throughout Texas and beyond. She was a tireless supporter for the educations of me and [brother] John. In grade school and middle school, she would always advocate to get us in classes with the best teachers. She could be a bit pushy.”
His mother “encouraged” her sons to go to Deerfield Academy boarding school in Massachusetts.
“My father had a warm and infectious personality [and] loved a good glass of wine and sharing stories,” Wyatt said. “He had a broad swath of diverse and loyal friendships. He was always involved in the business community, with a few career changes eventually settling into a fun and distinguished career as a stockbroker. He loved to hunt and fish. Along with our mother, he instilled in me a great love of the outdoors.”
Wyatt’s first thoughts about being a lawyer started in high school where he says he “always enjoyed a good debate.”
After earning his bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy from Vanderbilt University, he graduated with honors from the University of Houston Law Center in 1996.
Wyatt practiced law at Oppenheimer, Blend, Harrison & Tate, which later merged with Strasburger & Price, which is now Clark Hill.
“A great thing about working in a law firm was having a front row seat — and participating in — rich human drama [and] being involved in high-level opportunities and conflicts was certainly stressful and often not much fun, but it was a rich education, which I would not trade for anything,” he said. “You see people at their best and their worst. Lots of greed, pride and ego, but also collaboration, creativity, problem solving, relationship building and generosity.”
“The most impactful aspect of my 18-year law firm career was the mentoring I received from outstanding folks in my firm, especially David Oppenheimer, Stanley Blend and Bruce Mitchell, as well as at other firms, especially Dan Webster and Mike Kreager,” he said. “These fine attorneys did not just teach practical skills, they were models of true professionalism.”
Wyatt said these lawyers taught him “how to approach conflict respectfully and ethically [and] how to make difficult decisions that go against the current of significant pressure where easier decisions may be conveniently available.”
Oppenheimer, who is a partner at Clark Hill, said a long-time law firm client still mentions Wyatt’s role in one M&A transaction he handled more than a decade ago.
“The client was in multiple states with different minority partners in each state,” Oppenheimer said. “As an M&A lawyer, Richey knew the importance of team building, including tax lawyers, labor and employment lawyers and real estate lawyers. He recognized the need for effective coordination and efficiency. He didn’t bring ego to the table. He always was client-centric. I’m sure these are some of the reasons he is an effective general counsel. Some of Richey’s personal characteristics also made him a valued lawyer and friend. I always admired his good humor, moral compass and strong ethics.”
As Wyatt started transitioning from a senior associate to partner, he also began his move towards being an in-house counsel.
“I thought I would leave the firm life earlier than I did. I was always more of generalist than a specialist,” he said. “While I did M&A, private placements and lots and lots of partnerships and joint ventures, my real ‘specialty’ became serving as outside GC to entrepreneurs and private, usually family-owned, companies.”
“I found that I was pretty good at reading rooms and facilitating effective communication,” he said. “With experience and training, I became a decent negotiator, especially involving complex situations and interesting personalities. I had strengths in identifying issues and motivations, thinking broadly in finding solutions and facilitating collective brainstorming.”
In 2002, the same year he made partner, he started serving as outside GC for a uniquely dynamic San Antonio technology company called Rackspace Technology.
“That experience broadened my professional horizons significantly,” he said. “It afforded me significant boardroom experience, opportunities to collaborate with a broad array of outstanding executives and professionals and, most importantly, embedded me in a thriving and evolving corporate culture. My time at Rackspace gave me hands on experience with the importance of culture within a dynamic organization.”
Between 2014 and 2017, he served as general counsel for Axis Diagnostics, Sky Toxicology and a handful of other healthcare-related businesses.
In 2017, Wyatt received a call from his friend Mike Kreager, who had been across the table on deals from their law firm days. Kreager had been the long-time board chair of BioBridge Global, and he wanted to introduce Wyatt to BBG’s relatively new CEO, Marty Landon, who was looking to hire a GC.
Kreager, in an interview with The Lawbook, said Wyatt’s “depth of wide legal experience which he pairs with looking for solutions” make him a great general counsel.
“Richey is that rare general counsel who looks at company issues and future plans through the combined lens of business acumen and law,” Kreager said. “Richey listens and leads by example, staying true to the company’s mission and personal values.”
Wyatt said one of his biggest accomplishments at BioBridge Global has been to help lead efforts to “build, sustain and evolve a corporate culture where our people and our mission thrive.”
“Building on a strong mission and core values, we have established what we call our ‘Six Pillars of Love and Respect.’ These are not just words on posters,” he said. “At all levels of the organization, we are quite intentional on using various tools to build trust and empower our people. For many years our voluntary turnover rate was about 25 percent, which was slightly better than benchmarks in our industry. For three or four years running, we have had a sustained voluntary turnover rate of lower than 15 percent.”
Wyatt said there is “too much made of the distinction” between being the GC of a nonprofit organization and a for-profit company.
“Organizations come in all shapes and sizes, with tax status often being only a small differentiator,” he said. “Some nonprofits by their nature need to focus significant attention on fundraising, but so do many for-profits. Catering to VC’s or the philanthropic community or to Wall Street takes time and effort. But at the core, all dynamic organizations require focus on people, processes, budgets, culture, strategy and execution, and all are anchored by some sort of mission.”
“And I must say, it is a hugely invigorating boost for me and my colleagues that our mission is so impactful.” Wyatt said. “As our CEO often says, what is more important than saving lives?”
Fun Facts: Richey Wyatt
- Favorite book: Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina for its sweeping human drama and its uniquely rich characters, especially Konstantin Levin, who was a deep inspiration on my own character development when I first met him on the page one summer during my college years. And Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. The greatest book on leadership that I have ever read.
- Favorite movie: The Godfather. Another sweeping human drama, such a uniquely American immigrant story and the greatest acting ensemble ever assembled.
- Favorite vacation: My wonderful father-in-law took our young family to Ketchum, Idaho, over 20 years ago, inspiring a long-term love with the community; we spend time there as often as possible.
- Favorite restaurant: Pharm Table
- Hero in life: Abraham Lincoln. His towering leadership was grounded in an amazing secret sauce of empathy and extraordinary humility. He was a legendary storyteller as well! And my wife Joan, who embodies a uniquely wonderful combination of grace and vitality.
Six Pillars of Love and Respect
Cultivating a Culture of Empathy and Inclusion — Recognizing the intrinsic link between organizational culture and employee retention, Richey, working with Houston based consultants Culture +, spearheaded initiatives to embed empathy, inclusion, and trust into the fabric of BioBridge Global. He introduced the “Love as a Business Strategy” framework, developed by the Culture + team, to guide this cultural transformation. This initiative led to the establishment of the Culture+ program, comprising:
- An onboarding program introducing new employees to the six pillars of love and respect—Inclusion, Empathy, Vulnerability, Trust, Empowerment, and Forgiveness.
- A leadership development program focusing on servant leadership principles to foster a healthy organizational culture.
- A survey tool measuring the organization’s cultural health and guiding continuous improvement. These programs have been pivotal in reducing attrition rates and enhancing employee engagement, creating a workplace where individuals feel valued and empowered.
Additional Initiatives
Establishing the Helping Hearts Fund — Demonstrating a profound commitment to employee well-being, Richey established the Helping Hearts Fund—a financial assistance program for employees facing unforeseen hardships such as medical emergencies or natural disasters. Funded through voluntary payroll contributions, this initiative embodies the organization’s values of compassion and solidarity, providing a safety net for team members in times of need.
Driving Operational Excellence through Contract Management Innovation —With a small legal team serving a highly regulated and mission-driven organization, Richey has also championed the need for operational agility. To that end, with strong implementation by Deputy GC Brenna Nava, he initiated efforts to implement a contract lifecycle management (CLM) tool that will streamline the contract negotiation, review, and approval process. This strategic move is designed to alleviate administrative burdens, reduce risk, and empower business units to operate more efficiently. By modernizing BioBridge Global’s contract infrastructure, Richey is equipping his lean legal department with the tools needed to be more responsive, collaborative, and focused on higher-value legal work. His foresight in adopting scalable legal technologies ensures that the legal function remains a proactive partner in advancing BioBridge’s mission.
Advancing Access to Life-Saving Therapies —Richey’s legal and organizational acumen has been instrumental in expanding access to advanced medical therapies. Under his guidance, BioBridge Global launched BBG Advanced Therapies, a subsidiary dedicated to accelerating the development and delivery of cell and gene therapies. Notably, the organization introduced the nation’s first mobile leukapheresis center—a self-contained unit designed to collect immune cells from patients and donors in underserved regions, thereby overcoming geographical barriers to treatment. This innovative approach reflects Richey’s and BBG’s strategic foresight and commitment to health equity, ensuring that cutting-edge therapies are accessible to diverse populations across South Texas and beyond.
Conclusion — Richey Wyatt exemplifies the qualities celebrated by the this award—legal excellence, visionary leadership, and a steadfast commitment to ethical and inclusive practices. His multifaceted contributions have not only fortified BioBridge Global’s legal and compliance frameworks but have also cultivated a resilient, compassionate organizational culture and expanded access to transformative medical therapies.