Forming a Private Company Board

Overview

Understanding how to effectively form a private company board is essential for the overall health and success of the organization. The board impacts the results, reputation, culture, and strategy. Join PDA Houston on January 25th for a discussion with expert panelists, Gary Justice, Rob Ferguson and Tom Knudson, and moderated by Kim Denney.

Registration

$35  Member and guests invited by a member
$45  Non-Member (Non-members may attend no more that two events in any twelve-month period)

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 Panelists

Gary Justice EVP & Regional Commercial Banking Manager Amegy Bank

Gary Justice joined Amegy Bank in April of 2003, and is a graduate of the Bank’s Officer Development Program. After the training program, he joined the Southwest Commercial Lending team and focused efforts on growing the C&I portfolio in the region. Served as a Relationship Manager, Team Lead, and then Commercial Lending Manager for the Southwest Region until 2016. Gary is currently Manager of Regional Commercial Banking for Amegy Bank. The group consists of 4 regional teams with specific geographic focus on Southwest, Northwest, North and South Houston.

He is a Native Houstonian and graduated from Kinkaid High School and attended Washington & Lee University in Virginia and holds a degree in Business Administration & Accounting.

Gary is responsible for managing Amegy Bank's Regional Commercial Lending Group, which focuses on companies with $10MM to $500MM in annual revenue across a broad range of industries, including: manufacturing, oilfield service, distribution, staffing and construction. His team of 30 bankers, which includes lenders and support staff across the Houston region, focus on working capital financing, equipment financing and leasing, owner-occupied real estate and acquisition financing. The Regional Commercial Banking group also works closely with product partners to deliver Amegy’s wide range of products and services, including: deposit/ cash management services, SBA financing, EXIM financing, factoring, foreign exchange, 401K/ retirement planning services and private banking/wealth management.

Thomas C. Knudson President Tom Knudson Interests

Thomas C. (Tom) Knudson is an experienced corporate director and executive who currently serves as a director of Ergon Inc.  He formerly served as Chairman of Bristow Group Inc., Midstates Petroleum Inc., lead director of Natco Group Inc., and as a director of Williams Partners Inc. and MDU Resources Inc.  He retired from Conoco Phillips on 

January 1, 2004. His diverse career included engineering, operations, business development and commercial assignments across a broad spectrum of Conoco’s businesses. Among his more significant assignments were managing director and CEO of DuPont Scandinavia in Stockholm, Sweden; and vice president and general manager for Conoco’s midstream natural gas business. In June 1997, he became chairman of Conoco Exploration Production Europe Limited, based in London accountable for Conoco’s upstream businesses in Europe and the Former Soviet Union. He returned to Houston in July 2000, to become senior vice president, human resources, IT, public and governmental affairs, and communications, serving prior to his retirement as a member of the management and executive committees of both Conoco and ConocoPhillips.

A native of Texas, Knudson received a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1967 and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1968. While at Annapolis, he captained the rowing team and was a member of the 1965 national champion varsity eight. Following graduation, he served as a naval aviator flying 170 missions in S.E. Asia and was selected two years early for Lieutenant Commander, his rank at the time of his discharge in 1974.

Knudson serves on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation, and the National Council of the Methodist Hospital Neurological Institute. He has held the designation of Board Leadership Fellow from the NACD since 2012. He was the founding chairman of the Business Council for Sustainable Development – USA as well as the BCSD - UK. He has served on the boards of a number of petroleum industry associations, Covenant House Texas, Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest, the NACD Texas Tri-Cities Chapter, and The Houston Museum of Natural Science. He has served as an adjunct professor of management at the Jones School at Rice University. He and his wife, Candy, have three grown children, six grandchildren, and have homes in Houston and Fredericksburg TX.

Rob Ferguson Ferguson Interests

Rob Ferguson grew up in a family of “business guys” – both his grandfathers owned businesses and his father was an executive. He caught the business bug early, spending most of his career in leadership roles at both public and private companies

When he started working for some large family businesses, Rob realized that these businesses had something uniquely different. They had an affinity towards their legacy and their businesses were deeply steeped in their family values – which translated into their business culture.

While researching this, Rob discovered that, while family businesses tend to last longer than non-family businesses, over the past 100 years they have declined in lifespan by over 30 years!

He saw that he had the experience and expertise to help these businesses overcome these issues so that they could survive from one generation to the next, to the next, and so on in perpetuity. Rob’s aspirational mission is to change the statistics so that family businesses live longer.

Moderator

Kim Denney Managing Director Newport LLC

Kimberly (Kim) Denney has served as a Director of two Air Liquide S.A. (AI: Euronext Paris) companies, as a Director of two privately held companies, and as a founding Partner of Newport LLC. She recently chaired the Board of Advisors for Joule Processing, shepherding their sale to Plug Power. Ms. Denney’s 40-year career has included executive positions in the chemical, petrochemical, energy, and manufacturing industries including President, and Chief Administrative Officer with Air Liquide USA (a subsidiary of Air Liquide S.A. based in Paris, France), and Energy Manager and Operations Superintendent at Quantum Chemical Company.

Her global perspective, engineering background, and financial acumen shaped a record of solving top-level problems as an executive with broad responsibilities in the Petrochemical, Energy, and Manufacturing industries. Her P&L experience included accelerating organic growth, successful acquisitions and achieving millions in savings through cost-cutting, divestitures, integrations, and efficiency projects. In over 20 years as a Director, Kim has developed a keen understanding of board governance and the unique role of a board member from both a fiduciary’s and a strategist’s perspective. Governance expertise, combined with previous Environment Health & Safety responsibility and decades of study/practice of the art of Servant Leadership, combine to create a strength in the specific ESG topics that many boards are focused on today. LinkedIn contact information

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