Clayton Trier '73 Successful Entrepreneur and Business Executive turned Author and Mental Health Advocate

Clayton Trier completed his BBA-Accounting degree with a perfect grade point average in only three years at Lamar University in 1973. While on campus, Trier was active in Delta Sigma Pi Business Honor Society, Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, and Sigma Nu Fraternity where he was honored as Scholar of the Year in 1973 by the Sigma Nu Fraternity National Office. He credits Lamar University for the excellent technical foundation he received as a result of his studies in accounting, economics, and finance.

Trier was always good with numbers so he knew he would major in business when he enrolled at Lamar University, but it was not until his sophomore year, after taking his first accounting course from late Regents Professor H.A. Barlow, that he decided to specialize in accounting. Trier says that Barlow was one of the most influential people that he met on campus. “Professor Barlow was a very seasoned accounting professor who was tough, no nonsense, yet always fair. He had a passion for teaching and a way of explaining complex concepts and applications in a way that resonated with me,” said Trier. Barlow became a mentor and trusted advisor to him during his time at LU.

Trier began his accounting career in 1974 with the international accounting firm, Arthur Andersen & Co., in its audit division. He moved up the ranks, earning partner in 1983, and worked there until 1987 when he had the opportunity to become president/CEO of Allwaste Inc. Under his leadership, the company recorded phenomenal growth. In 1991, he left Allwaste and founded his own consulting business for a wide range of environmental companies, Trier & Partners Inc. In 1994, he co-founded U.S. Delivery Systems, the first national network for same-day delivery service. He served as chairman and CEO until 1997 when Corporate Express acquired the company. Trier has a reputation in the industry for being skilled at the corporate art of identifying, negotiating, and completing acquisitions, and for creating cohesive companies out of fragmented industries. He served as CEO of two different companies that made Forbes’ Top 10 list of America’s Best Small Companies, and he was named Houston’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 1995.

From 1997-2004, Trier was a private investor and entrepreneur. In 2004, he co-founded Digital Music Group which acquired digital rights to master music recordings, converted the master recordings to the new digital format, and then sold the music through online retailers. He served as chairman of Digital Music Group, and in 2008 the company was acquired by Orchard Inc. Since then, Trier has been a private investor mainly interested in healthcare. He served on the board of directors of the St. Luke Health System in Houston from 2008-2021 and Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston from 2013-2021. He has served on the U.S. Physical Therapy board of directors since 2005.

Trier has always had a natural talent in writing and enjoys reading. For the past 20 years, he has been driven and inspired by a strong inner, spiritual force to craft a story, The Outskirts of Redemption, and have it published. That story became a novel and was published in March 2023, quickly ascending to a number one new release on Amazon in multiple categories. One of his goals in authoring the fictional story was to shed light for adults on reasons why young adults may attempt suicide and the warning signs of a mental health issue or disorder. When his daughter was 12 years old, a friend and classmate of hers took his life. The young boy’s death came as a great shock to all who knew him. To help his daughter cope with her grief, Trier had to put himself in her shoes. He went to parents’ meetings at her school, listened closely to the counselors they brought in, and tried diligently to understand his daughter’s innermost emotions to feel her adolescent pain. This inspired his fictional story which is set in Southeast Texas in the 1960s and 1970s.

Trier met his wife Virginia while working at Arthur Andersen in Houston and they have two adult children, Kelley and John, who live in Houston and are both mathematics teachers.

When asked what advice he has for current students, Trier said “Learn how to shut out distractions, and be a good, effective listener. Hopefully, you can find a good mentor/advocate/role model in your college and early-career stages, and you will be like a sponge--listening, watching, soaking up the knowledge and advice. It will make you a more effective manager and leader when your time comes.”

Trier is proud of the many professional successes he has had while building and leading businesses, but the two accomplishments he is most proud of in his life are 1) graduating from Lamar University with a 4.0 GPA which he says made him the first ever College of Business student to achieve that at the time, and 2) writing his novel, having it published, and receiving such positive feedback, allowing him to achieve success in a completely different field from the business world.