President's Report

FEI Houston Chapter
Presidents Letter – February 2024
To Members and Strategic Partners 

Welcome to the February President’s Letter. It’s been a while since you have received a letter from the Chapter President and I’m resurrecting this letter to help improve communication and provide Chapter updates with our membership.

Allen D Gibson
FEI Houston Chapter
President 2023-2024

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Calendar of Events

We had a great January chapter event which included a CPE session as well as dinner. The dinner event featured our guest speaker Mr. William Harris who made a terrific presentation on the Houston Space Center. Mr. Harris provided great insight into the workings of the Space Center and their support of the community. I would like to thank Mr. Harris and his senior staff for this presentation. I would also like to thank our Strategic Platinum partner Moss Adams for sponsoring this event as well as their CPE presentation

February 20 is the next Chapter dinner meeting which is also our Academic Honors day event that recognizes the twelve recipients of the FEI Houston Scholarship Foundation scholarship awards. Dr. Jack Gill will be our featured dinner guest speaker for this event. Dr. Gill is a founder and Managing Member (retired) of Vanguard Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in high technology start-ups, with offices in Palo Alto, California and Houston, Texas. Vanguard managed over $500 million capital and was the lead investor in numerous highly successful companies. He holds the position of Professor in the Practice of Entrepreneurship at Rice University and the Texas Medical Center (ret.). He was formerly a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty, a senior advisor to the Harvard-MIT CIMIT program, a professor at HMS and MIT (2000-2010), and previously an adjunct professor at Stanford.

BE SURE TO NOTE THE FEBRUARY DINNER IS AT THE JUNIOR LEAGUE!  Vaco is our Strategic Platinum partner who will sponsor both the professional development session as well as Academic Honors Day dinner.

The remaining FY 2024 dinner meeting schedule is below, and registration for all dinner meetings are open on FEIHouston.org.  We almost have all the remaining dinner speakers booked through May and we will update the website as they are locked in.

·         March 19, 2024 @ Junior League (Platinum Strategic Partner – Ledgent)

·         April 11, 2024 @ Junior League (Platinum Strategic Partner – Robert Half)

·         May 14, 2024 @ Junior League (Platinum Strategic Partner – Marsh McLennan)

I hope you have registered for the February 8 Catch Up and Meet networking event.  Our Platinum Strategic Partner PKF will host this event at their offices with Danielle Supkis Cheek as the featured guest speaker. Linda will discuss the current trends in the digitization of the finance function, how these technologies are affecting business and financial operations and lastly about the various roles AI is expected play in the near and intermediate future.

As you know, all events are free to members and you can earn over 40 hours of CPE with our events and there are additional free webinars from FEI National as well.  Click here to see the full FEI events calendar. 

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Membership

National has once again offered its “Gift of Membership” program for eligible new members sponsored by a Chapter Strategic Partner. Below is information regarding this National initiative

These memberships are good for the current fiscal year which ends June 30, 2024. Our Strategic Partners have sponsored six new members for this year so far leaving four complementary memberships left to give out. 

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Welcome New Members

Speaking of membership, I would like to offer the Chapter’s welcome to our new members who have joined the Chapter from January 1 to December 31, 2023.

I encourage our new members to participate in the various Chapter committees. Committees include membership, Strategic Partners, CFO U, and Academic Honors Day. We are also looking at adding/updating our committee structure to encourage more Chapter participation. Committee participation is a great way to get involved with the chapter and to form quicker networks.

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Special Events

Golf Tournament

The Chapter’s third annual FEI Houston Charity Golf Classic is happening Monday, April 22 at Pecan Grove Country Club with a 10:00 AM shotgun start. This event promises to be an exciting opportunity for networking, friendly competition, and most importantly, it is our largest fundraiser in support of our FEI Houston Scholarship Foundation. Net proceeds are used to help fund the twelve scholarships we offer to university students. Golf tournament registration and sponsorship opportunities are here: FEI Houston Charity Golf Classic. We are also looking for volunteers on the day before and the day of the tournament (please email [email protected]) and for corporate logo items to add to our goody bag (please email [email protected])

CFO University

The planning committee for CFO U is hard at work for the June 6, 2024 event at the University of Houston Downtown campus so mark your calendar.  The topics and speakers are in the process of being booked, and we will start actively marketing the event in February all the way up the event.  We expect a great turnout for this event just like last year, so be sure to register (the event is free to members) and also pass along the info to non-members.  This is the only FEI Houston event that we open up to non-members. Non-member fees are still to be determined for this all-day event. The event is again at the University of Houston Downtown campus. Siegfried is our Strategic Platinum partner for this event.

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National Topics

FEI National along with the Behavioral Forensics Group, LLC and the University of Dayton Center for Cyber Security and Data Intelligence will host “Power in the C-Suite Workshop Series”. This series consists of four workshops and will be held on February 22, March 21, April 18, and May 8. You can sign up for individual sessions or all four. 

There is also an ESG Updates Conference virtual event being held March 26 – 27 for those interested in attending. Also, the annual Leadership Conference is in Orlando May 19 – 21 with great speakers and networking with peers across the US.  You can find all of the National in-person programs and webinars by following this link. 

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Board Elections

We will be holding Board elections in April and are currently looking for members who would have an interest in serving on the Board. Open positions for next year’s Board include President-Elect, Treasurer, Secretary, and three Board Directors. Please contact Mark Petersen at [email protected] or Andrew Nat at [email protected] if you have an interest in serving.

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Social Media

Follow us on LinkedIn

We are just about to break the 459 followers level on LinkedIn and we receive over 110,000 LinkedIn views of FEI Houston content and events.  When you follow the Chapter LinkedIn page you have a connection with other members through this important networking tool.  You can follow the Chapter LinkedIn page here.  Be sure to share or comment on a LinkedIn post and help spread the word about FEI Houston.

On behalf of your Chapter leadership team, I thank you for your support and participation in our Chapter. I look forward to a great lineup of events for the remainder of FY 2024 and hope to see everyone at an event soon.  If you have any suggestions, comments or just want to get together, don’t hesitate to reach out to myself at [email protected], Mark Petersen at [email protected], and/or Rex Holmes at [email protected].

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