Houston-based veterans will lead the energy transition, says this expert

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Houston has the the second largest veteran community in America — and the energy industry is vets' top employer. Photo via Getty Images

Many people living in Houston don't realize that the veteran community is taking an increasing leadership role in the energy transition. The Greater Houston area is the second largest veteran community in America with over 5,500 new veterans and their families coming to Houston annually. We are the fastest growing city in America for veterans as well.

In Houston you'll find a community of veterans who create a workforce and culture of excellence -- no handouts needed here. Our city is home to innovation in many industrial sectors, and also in the veteran services market. Combined Arms is the premier technology partner for accelerating the connection of veterans to resources like employment.

Headquartered in Houston, the agency operates in a dozen states nationally with a co-working space of over 30 veteran serving nonprofits on site and 120 services online. The top employment organization for veteran employment in the country, NextOp, is also headquartered in Houston. NextOp is focused on developing a pipeline of talent directly from military installations to industrial craft trades. They have the best numbers for placement of veterans and speed to employment, perfect for accelerating the energy transition as companies are looking for talent to fill new industry roles.

The energy sector is already the largest employer of veterans in Houston. We are a vibrant community with weekly networking happy hours for white collar veterans working in the energy industry at the original Kirby Icehouse on Wednesdays, put on by Houston Veterans in Business.

With one of the highest concentrations of public companies in the country, we have over 85 public companies with employee resource groups for veterans. The leaders of these groups meet regularly to support and serve our community. We are a thriving community that has the depth of relationships and connections to foster the personal and professional growth of veterans new to Houston and those that have called Houston home their entire lives. The majority of these groups are within energy companies that are actively supporting the energy transition.

Some examples of veteran-led energy transition companies include:

Everpoint Services, founded by Tyler Goodell, is bringing an oilfield services model to the wind, solar, and energy storage industries along with wind blade and solar panel recycling.
FastGrid, founded by Eric Curry, is rapidly growing through the project engineering side of renewable energy project development across the country.
WindCom, led by CEO Tim Hertel, conducts wind blade repairs and servicing.
Blue Bear Capital, co-founded by Tim Kopra, invests in high-growth technology companies across the energy, infrastructure, and climate industries.
eRenewable, co-founded by Fred Davis, provides real-time online auctions for Power Purchasing Agreements (PPAs) and Virtual PPAs.
Last Dollar Trucking, co-founded by Nate Reeve, focused on the transport of the massive number of wind blades entering texas ports.
JAG Argueta, founded by Keith Argueta, provides accounting and fractional CFO services to cleantech startups.
Digital Wildcatters, co-founded by Jake Corley, building the "Barstool Sports of Energy"
Amberjack Capital, co-founded by Patrick Connelly, is a private equity investor in energy transition and infrastructure projects.
re:3D, co-founded by Samantha Snabes, pioneering new innovations to decimate the cost & scale barriers to 3D printing.
South Union CDC, founded by Efrem Jernigan, is developing the Sunnyside Solar project.
Fervo Energy, led by CFO David Ulrey, is developing next-generation geothermal projects to deliver 24x7 carbon-free energy.

One of the top chapters nationally for Bunker Labs is also here, with a veteran entrepreneur accelerator at WeWork downtown, the WeWork Veterans in Residence program. On top of that the largest veteran business plan competition is hosted by Rice University. The Veteran Business Battle is entering its 7th year with one of the finalists Parasanti pivoting their successful edge computing solutions into the energy transition for cleantech applications through their recent acceptance to Haliburton Labs.

Houston is also building a chapter of the Veterans Energy Project which is advocating for the Biden administration's infrastructure bill. Jon Powers with CleanCapital, a private equity investor focused on accelerating the flow of capital into distributed generation project, co-founded the Veterans Energy Project. Having served our country in a time of war, it is time again to place the country first and advocate for the infrastructure that supports all Americans.

The veterans of Houston can help make Houston not only the leader in the energy transition but also ensure that we are the energy capital of the future.

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Kevin Doffing is the president of Energy Capital of the Future.

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UTMB launches new department for space medicine, names inaugural leader

department launch

In space, no one can hear you scream—but they can hear you discuss your medical history and recent symptoms.

The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) announced last month that it would form a new Department of Aerospace and Exploration Medicine within its School of Public and Population Health under the leadership of Dr. Ronak V. Shah, who will serve as inaugural chair.

“Human exploration is changing rapidly, and the health challenges associated with distance, isolation, and limited resources are changing along with it,” Shah said in a news release. “Creating the Department of Aerospace and Exploration Medicine gives us an opportunity to build on decades of expertise at UTMB as we prepare for the future.”

The new department elevates UTMB’s existing Aerospace Medicine Division and provides "broader academic structure for expanding research, education, and collaboration across disciplines," according to the release. Shah was previously named director of the division in 2022 after serving as medical director of Johnson Space Center.

Space exploration in particular has a wide variety of highly specific medical side effects that are in need of the formalized study that the department will specialize in. For example, zero- and low-gravity environments cause everything from detached fingernails to flattened eyeballs. Even in modern, high-tech spacecraft, the human body feels the impacts of space.

It’s an area of medicine UTMB is uniquely suited for. Starting in the 1950s with NASA’s director of medical research Dr. Charles A. Berry, UTMB partnered with the blossoming era of exploration by monitoring astronauts. In 1993, UTMB and the NASA Johnson Space Center created the joint Aerospace Medicine Residency Program, which used bed facilities at the Galveston branch to simulate weightlessness. Wherever there has been a question about how flight and space affect health, odds are UTMB has been involved.

The Department of Aerospace and Exploration Medicine will launch several new initiatives soon. One planned for 2027 is an Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Fellowship that will allow scientists to study the physiology of high-pressure flight.

“In the era of a growing global space economy, we are revisiting questions such as who is flying, what is their destination, what vehicle will get them there?” Shah added in the release. “The answers to these questions will drive what research is needed and how we train the next generation.”

Energy AI company opens first U.S. office at Houston's the Ion

new to hou

Building on its partnership with Houston-based oilfield services provider Halliburton, energy-sector AI company Shape Digital recently opened an office at The Ion. It’s the company’s first U.S. location.

Shape Digital’s workforce in Houston includes employees specializing in tech support, business development and client services. The company’s local hiring projections and headcount weren’t available. The new office will be located within Industrious at the Ion, according to Rice Alliance.

A key driver of the new Houston office: The company forecasts North America will account for more than 20 percent of its business in 2027.

“North America is a critical market for industrial innovation, and Houston sits at the center of companies driving that progress,” Caio Sene, vice president of client services at Shape Digital, said in a release. “Growing our presence here allows us to work alongside operators as they look for practical ways to turn existing operational data into clear recommendations for what to do next.”

Shape Digital, which also has offices in Singapore and Brazil, develops decision-making platforms for the oil and gas sector.

The Ion District office gives Shape Digital a presence close to Halliburton’s headquarters. In May, the two companies forged a partnership to combine Halliburton’s Digital Field Solverdecision-making system with Shape Digital’s AI portfolio.

Shape Digital layers AI software atop existing operations data rather than replacing legacy systems or adding new software.

The company’s suite of AI agents draws on more than 200 operations-monitoring algorithms, continually learning from company and industry data. The suite comprises four products: Shape Aura, Shape Lighthouse, Shape Lumen and Shape Reef.

Shape Digital says that by working with a customer’s existing operations data, it can deliver ROI in less than two months without any additional investment in equipment or infrastructure.

The company is a 2021 spinoff of Japan-based Modec. Modec builds, owns, and operates floating offshore oil and gas production facilities. Its Modec America subsidiary is based in Houston.

Meet the esteemed judges for the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards

Meet The Judges

Editor's note: Judging is now underway for the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards, and it's time to meet the decision makers.

Our 2026 judging panel comprises past award winners who represent a variety of industries and areas of expertise. They are joined by InnovationMap's interim editor. All are deeply engaged in the Houston innovation ecosystem.

Our judging panel will review all nominee applications submitted across 10 prestigious categories. They will determine the 2026 finalists in all categories, and they will select the winners in all but one category — our people's choice award for Startup of the Year.

The sixth annual Houston Innovation Awards program will be presented in an all-digital format in 2026. We will announce this year's finalists and feature their stories throughout our special editorial series this fall. Then, stay tuned as we reveal the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards winners on InnovationMap.com in mid-November.

Sagar Dalal, Fervo Energy, 2025 Scaleup of the Year

Sagar Dalal serves as chief of staff at Fervo Energy, a company pioneering the commercialization of next-generation geothermal power. In this role, he helps translate the CEO’s vision and priorities into execution, leading cross-functional strategic initiatives that support the company’s growth and operations.

Dalal brings nearly eight years of experience in structural engineering and project management from his time at Thornton Tomasetti and Tesla, where he engineered and built a wide range of infrastructure projects ranging from stadiums to manufacturing facilities. He holds an MBA from Stanford University and an MS in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University. He is also a licensed professional engineer.

Aaron Fitzgerald, Mars Materials, 2025 Minority-founded Business of the Year

Aaron Fitzgerald is a three-time founder and carbon removal entrepreneur focused on reimagining how we make things. As the CEO of Mars Materials, he leads a team working to commercialize technologies that sequester captured carbon into industrial supply chains.

His vision for a defossilized future is shaped by a unique path through both policy, including a tenure in the United States Senate, and deep carbontech, with fellowships at The Lewis Latimer program, Breakthrough Energy, Prime Coalition, and Carbon 180.

Tatiana Fofanova, Koda Health, 2025 Health Tech Business of the Year

Tatiana Fofanova, PhD, is the co-founder and CEO of Koda Health, an AI-enhanced patient decision support platform designed to make advance care planning (ACP) scalable, accessible, and patient-centered for patients with serious illness.

After earning her PhD in Translational Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, she joined Texas Medical Center (TMC) as a Founder-in-Residence. It was there that she and her co-founders identified one of the most overlooked yet critical gaps in healthcare: the lack of meaningful, accessible advance care planning. Under her leadership, Koda Health now supports over 1 million patients through partnerships with organizations like Cigna, Privia, and Houston Methodist.

Lawson Gow, Greentown Labs, 2025 Incubator/Accelerator of the Year

Lawson Gow currently serves as chief strategy officer for Greentown Labs, which was named Incubator/Accelerator of the Year in the 2025 Houston Innovation Awards. Prior to joining Greentown Labs as Head of Houston in 2025, Gow was as a managing partner at Helium Capital, an investment and advisory firm that aims to support founders across the entire lifecycle of entrepreneurship.

He is also the founder of The Cannon, an innovation-infrastructure provider that operates a growing network of innovation hubs for its community of startups, entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate innovators.

Sarah Hein, March Biosciences, 2025 Female-founded Business of the Year

Sarah Hein is the founding CEO of March Biosciences, a clinical-stage cell-therapy company targeting challenging malignancies. Prior to cofounding March Biosciences, she was the founding Entrepreneur in Residence for the Texas Medical Center Innovation Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics (TMCi ACT).

Formerly, she was a cofounder and the vice president of operations at Courier Therapeutics, a cancer immunotherapy startup acquired by Valo Health. She was also director of research at Resonant Therapeutics, an antibody therapeutics platform technology company. She began at Mercury Fund as a Venture Fellow directly after graduating with her PhD in Molecular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine.

Tanu Jain, FlowCare, 2025 Startup of the Year

Tanu Jain is a product executive, entrepreneur, founder and CEO of FlowCare, and registered nurse with a track record of building products from zero to global scale. She previously led product at BioIQ before founding FlowCare, a Houston-based period care infrastructure platform making period care a standard in every restroom. In under 16 months, FlowCare has signed deployed across four enterprise customers and impacted more than 1.5 million women.

FlowCare was named Startup of the Year at the 2025 Houston Innovation Awards, and Jain has been recognized with additional honors including the SDG Super Changemaker – Pewter — at the Global Sustainability Awards 2026.

Prabhdeep "Prab" Sekhon, Eclipse Energy, 2025 Energy Transition Business of the Year

Prabhdeep Singh Sekhon is CEO of Eclipse Energy, an energy technology company transforming depleted oil fields into low-cost, sustainable hydrogen resources through subsurface biotechnology. He brings nearly two decades of global energy experience spanning climate technology, venture capital, private equity, and multi-billion-dollar energy projects across five continents.

Previously, he held leadership roles at NextEra Energy Resources and Hess Corporation. He is also a founder and managing director of GreenLite Resources and a founding member of Cotogna Sports Group. He holds an MBA from Wharton, a Masters in Engineering from Texas A&M, and a BS from the University of Calgary.

Wade Pinder, Product Houston, 2025 Trailblazer Award Winner

Wade Pinder thinks of himself as an "ecosystem wayseeker," helping founders and builders in and around Houston find their footing, understand the landscape, and move through uncertainty with more clarity. Through Product Houston, he works at the intersection of product strategy, founder support, ecosystem mapping, and community-building, with a particular focus on helping people show up in the right rooms before they feel fully ready.

His background includes years in product management at Blinds.com and Home Depot, along with founding and leading the Houston Product Community for six years. He was recognized by as Mentor of the Year in the 2023 Houston Innovation Awards and received the Trailblazer Award in 2025.

Laura Furr Mericas, Interim Editor, InnovationMap

Laura Furr Mericas is interim editor for InnovatonMap.com and EnergyCapitalHTX.com. She is a longtime contributor to both sites and has reported on Houston's innovation ecosystem for InnovationMap since 2020. Previously, she served as web editor and data reporter for Houston Business Journal.

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