Chief Les Bunte began his career with the Austin (Texas) Fire Department in 1973 as a firefighter.  Quickly rising through the ranks, Bunte was promoted to Assistant Fire Chief in 1994 and served in that position until his retirement in 2002.  Now serving as the Director of the Emergency Services Institute, a division of the Texas Engineering Extension Service of the Texas A&M System, Bunte now administers an operation that delivers firefighting and rescue training to over 50,000 emergency services personnel each year throughout the world.  He holds an associate degree in Fire Protection Technology, a  bachelor's degree in Occupational Education from Texas State University and a master degree from he LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.  He is also a graduate of the Harvard University Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government and the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer Program. As partial fulfillment of the requirements for his master's degree,  Chief Bunte researched and authored his masters thesis, "Traffic Calming and Emergency Response:  A Competition of two Public Goods" in 2000.