3 powerhouse Houstonians named to the state's economic development board

Three's company

A oil and gas CEO, a serial entrepreneur, and a retail energy exec walk into the state capital. Getty Images

The Bayou City now wields some high-profile power in the state's economic development efforts.

The Texas Senate recently endorsed Gov. Greg Abbott's appointment of three business leaders with strong ties to Houston to the board of the Texas Economic Development Corp. — including the organization's new chair and vice chair.

Robert Allen, president and CEO of Texas' nonprofit economic development arm, says the Bayou City should feel well-represented on the board with former Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane as the new chair, Houston energy executive Vicki Hollub as the new vice chair, and Houston energy executive Scott Prochazka as a new member. That means Houston-connected business leaders hold three of the board's eight seats.

Allen calls McLane "the perfect Texas ambassador."

McLane, who lives in Temple, sold the Astros to Houston businessman Jim Crane in 2011 for $680 million. Forbes estimates McLane's net worth at $2.4 billion.

Today, McLane controls a Temple-based holding company with business interests such as food distribution, car dealerships and sports marketing. In 1991, he sold grocery distributor McLane Co. to Walmart, which later sold it to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

"I can think of no one better to lead our efforts to market the state of Texas as the best state for business than Drayton McLane. He has achieved tremendous success in several areas of business, all while calling Texas home," Allen tells InnovationMap.

McLane also chairs the board of Texas Central Partners, the Dallas company developing high-speed rail service between Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth. In addition, he serves on the boards of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation, Baylor Scott & White Healthcare, and the Cooper Institute.

"I am privileged to be able to give service to our great state of Texas and honored by Gov. Abbott's appointment as chair of the Texas Economic Development Corporation," McLane says in a statement provided to InnovationMap.

"The goal of the corporation is to help market Texas as a place for businesses to grow and prosper," he adds. "Texas is a great state, and we have much to offer businesses in many sectors. I care deeply for Texas and improving the economy that will carry us into the future."

Hollub, president and CEO of Houston-based oil and gas company Occidental Petroleum, is the new vice chair of the Texas Economic Development Corp. She's spent 35 years at Occidental, which just hammered out a $57 billion deal to take over Anadarko Petroleum, an oil and gas company based in The Woodlands.

In addition to the board of the Texas Economic Development Corp., Hollub sits on the boards of Lockheed Martin and the American Petroleum Institute, and she is U.S. chair of the U.S.-Colombia Business Council.

"As the first female to head a major oil and gas company in the world, Vicki defines what it means to be a Texan — hardworking, determined, and incredibly smart," Allen says.

Prochazka, president and CEO of CenterPoint Energy, a Houston-based provider of electric and natural gas service, joins McLane and Hollub on the board of the Texas Economic Development Corp. Aside from his duties at CenterPoint, Prochazka is incoming chairman of the American Gas Association, chairman of Central Houston Inc., and a board member of the Greater Houston Partnership.

Given his roles with Central Houston Inc. and the Greater Houston Partnership, Prochazka knows Houston "intimately well," Allen says.

The Texas Economic Development Corp. is an independently funded and operated nonprofit that promotes economic development, business recruitment, and job creation in Texas. For instance, the nonprofit helped pave the way for a $15 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in Corpus Christi that recently made its first cargo shipment. Houston-based Cheniere Energy owns the facility.

With Abbott's appointment of eight members, the makeup of the economic development organization's eight-member board is entirely new. The governor appointed them in April, but the state Senate had to give its final approval, which came earlier this month.

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New UH survey reveals concerns over AI data center growth in Houston

data findings

A new report out of the University of Houston shows that area residents remain wary of the long-term effects of operating data centers.

The recent survey from the University of Houston’s latest SPACE City Panel, conducted by the Center for Public Policy at the Hobby School of Public Affairs, shows that while 85 percent of Houston-area residents use AI, nearly 63 percent oppose the construction of AI data centers within 1 mile of their homes.

Respondents’ concerns centered around data centers’ high energy demand and the area’s power grid reliability. According to the survey, 32 percent of residents who oppose local data center projects would be more likely to support the centers if they relied on renewable energy over fossil fuels.

“Respondents understand that AI can bring economic and educational benefits, but they are also concerned about the physical infrastructure needed to fuel AI, especially data centers,” Soran Mohtadi, post-doctoral fellow at the Hobby School and a researcher on the report, said in a news release. “This physical infrastructure demands more electricity and water, leading to environmental impacts.”

Experts estimate that 6.5 gigawatts of data center capacity will be added to the Texas grid by 2030. And Houston’s data center capacity is predicted to more than double by 2028.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas also projects electricity demand could reach 218 gigawatts by 2031, which would be more than double the record peak set in August 2023. Data centers are expected to account for 86 gigawatts of that new demand.

Survey respondents also said they are concerned about the state's future water supply, given the large amounts of water that data centers need to stay cool.

In terms of who’s responsible for that issue, 57.6 percent of respondents said they put the onus on Texas lawmakers, while 31.5 percent say tech companies should be responsible.

Additionally, more than 75 percent of respondents believed that data center developers and technology companies—not residents—should bear the cost of infrastructure upgrades to support data centers.

“Every decision legislators make has implications on residents’ everyday lives and local infrastructure now and in the future,” Maria P. Perez Arguelles, lead researcher on the report and research assistant professor at the Hobby School, added in the news release. “This issue is going to become more important in years to come, so this is just the beginning.”

Read the full report here.

Houston-born Cemvita makes breakthrough in sustainable fuel production

clean fuels

Houston-based biotech company Cemvita announced that it recently reached a critical milestone in the development of its FermOil product, which can be used to create Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and other renewable fuels at industrial scale.

The company shared in a news release that it completed a 75,000-liter industrial fermentation run at Belgium's Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant.

The campaign achieved target technical metrics for the production of FermOil, Cemvita’s renewable natural oil (RNO). FermOil is produced from industrial crude glycerin, an industrial byproduct, as opposed to traditional sugar-based feedstocks used in many bio-oil fermentation processes. It's designed to be a drop-in feedstock for creating SAFs.

Cemvita had previously advanced its FermOil production process through multiple scale-up stages before successfully reaching the 75,000-liter demonstration campaign, according to the company.

“This is not just a fermentation milestone,” Moji Karimi, CEO at Cemvita, said in the release. “It is a blueprint for how existing industrial infrastructure can evolve into circular bioeconomy infrastructure. Every biodiesel plant generating crude glycerin is a potential platform for renewable natural oil production.”

The milestone also supports the deployment of Cemvita’s industrial biomanufacturing platform, FermWorks, which integrates with existing energy and industrial infrastructure to turn waste carbon streams into SAFs and other materials. According to the release, Cemvita plans to move forward with commercial deployment discussions with partners in Brazil, Europe and in the UK. Cemvita already has a partnership with the Brazilian sustainable research institution REMA.

“We are proud to support innovative companies like Cemvita in scaling breakthrough industrial biotechnology solutions,” Hendrik Waegeman, head of business operations at Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant, added in the release. “Successfully operating at the 75,000-liter scale using a feedstock such as crude glycerin highlights both the maturity of the technology and the quality of the scale-up execution achieved by the Cemvita team.”

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This article originally appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

Eli Lilly scoops up Houston biotech startup in $300 million deal

big pharma deal

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly has acquired Houston biotech startup CrossBridge Bio, which develops antibody-drug conjugates for cancer, in a deal worth up to $300 million. The deal was celebrated by TMC Venture Fund and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston last week.

CrossBridge, founded in 2023, is developing ADCs based on research by Kyoji Tsuchikama and Zhiqiang An, both of UT Health Houston. Tsuchikama is an associate professor of medicinal chemistry and a globally recognized ADC pioneer, and An is a professor of molecular science and vice president of drug discovery.

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are a potent combination of targeted therapy and chemotherapy that kills cancer cells while saving healthy tissue.

Clinical trials for CrossBridge’s primary ADC candidate, CBB-120, are expected to start this year, pending approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“I’m proud of how well our team has executed and advanced our platform in such a short time since the company’s founding,” Michael Torres, co-founder and CEO of CrossBridge, said in a news release. “By becoming a part of Lilly, a leader in patient-focused therapeutic development, we are well-positioned to further accelerate the clinical potential of this approach.”

Under the Lilly deal, CrossBridge shareholders were expected to receive an upfront payment along with a follow-up payment based on the achievement of certain milestones.

In 2024, CrossBridge closed a $10 million seed round. Among the investors in CrossBridge are the Texas Medical Center Venture Fund, CE-Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, Portal Innovations, Linden Lake Labs, and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). It was formed in TMC Innovation’s Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics program."Built within the TMC ecosystem, CrossBridge Bio grew with the support, funding, and resources that helped shape its trajectory. TMC led the company's early financing and watched it evolve from its earliest days to its acquisition by Eli Lilly," William McKeon, president and CEO of the Texas Medical Center, shared in a LinkedIn post. "[This is a] strong reminder that breakthrough science and the right early backing can change what’s possible."
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