Three young professionals have made the cut for this year's Forbes Under 30 list in the Energy and Green Tech list for 2025. Photos via Forbes

A handful of Houstonians have been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Energy and Green Tech list for 2025.

Kip Daujotas is an investment associate at Aramco Ventures, a $7.5 billion venture capital arm of the world's largest energy company. Houston is the Americas headquarters for Saudi Aramco. Since its inception in 2012, Aramco Ventures has invested in more than 100 tech startups. Daujotas joined the team over two years ago after studying for an MBA at Yale University. He led Aramco’s first direct air capture (DAC) investment — in Los Alamos, New Mexico-based Spiritus.

Also representing the corporate side of the industry, Wenting Gao immigrated from Beijing to obtain an economics degree from Harvard University, then got a job at consulting giant McKinsey, where she recently became the firm’s youngest partner. Gao works on bringing sustainability strategies to energy and materials companies as well as investors. Her areas of expertise include battery materials, waste, biofuels, and low-carbon products.

Last but not least, Houston entrepreneur Rawand Rasheed is co-founder and CEO of Houston-based Helix Earth. He co-founded the startup after earning a doctoral degree from Rice University and co-inventing Helix’s core technology while at NASA, first as a graduate research fellow and then as an engineer. The core technology, a space capsule air filtration system, has been applied to retrofitting HVAC systems for commercial buildings.

Each year, Forbes 30 Under 30 recognizes 600 honorees in 20 categories. The 2025 honorees were selected from more than 10,000 nominees by Forbes staff and a panel of independent judges based on factors such as funding, revenue, social impact, scale, inventiveness, and potential.

Specifically, the Energy & Green Tech category recognizes young entrepreneurs driving innovation that’s aimed at creating a cleaner, greener future.

“Gen Z is one of the fastest-growing groups of entrepreneurs and creators, who are reshaping the way the world conducts business, and our Under 30 class of 2025 proves that you can never begin your career journey too early,” says Alexandra York, editor of Forbes Under 30. “With the expansion across AI, technology, social media, and other industries, the honorees on this year’s list are pushing the boundaries and building their brands beyond traditional scopes.”

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This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

Houston adds yet another feather to its cap and has been recognized as the best place to be after graduating college. Photo via Getty Images

Houston ranks as top spot for young professionals based on standard of living

moving to Houston

Recruiting talent in the Houston area? Might want to share this tidbit of information.

A new study by two California researchers names Houston as the No. 1 place among the country’s 50 largest spots for college graduates to enjoy the highest standard of living. Why? Because, the study says, “local income is relatively high, cost of living is moderate, and there are no state taxes.”

Among places of all sizes, the study ranks Houston second in terms of the standard of living for college graduates. McAllen nabs the No. 1 spot, followed by Houston; Huntington, West Virginia; Beaumont; and Charleston, South Carolina.

In December, job website Indeed named Houston one of the 10 best cities in 2022 for recent college graduates. The 10 cities offer “many outstanding entry-level positions in a range of industries,” Indeed says.

More good news for Houston: The study ranks puts it at No. 2 (behind Buffalo, New York) among the 50 largest places in the U.S. for providing the highest standard of living for high school graduates.

According to the study, the five places with the highest standard of living for those with a high school diploma are Gallup, New Mexico; Summersville, West Virginia; Natchez, Mississippi; Graham, a town in North Texas; and Marquette, Michigan.

The study characterizes Houston and other regions as “commuter zones.” Each zone encompasses urban, suburban, and rural areas that feed into a single labor market.

As NPR explains, the researchers — Stanford University economist Rebecca Diamond and University of California, Berkeley economist Enrico Moretti — spent four years assembling and crunching data about the finances of 3 million U.S. households to come up with their findings.

“With their treasure trove of data, Diamond and Moretti constructed a cost-of-living index that paints a vivid picture of prices and typical consumption patterns throughout the United States,” NPR says.

That index puts Houston in a good light when it comes to the standard of living for both high school and college graduates.

“When we look at the factors that go into where a person chooses to live and work, overall standard of living and quality of life are critical components,” says Susan Davenport, chief economic development officer at the Greater Houston Partnership. “Houston today offers abundant parks and green spaces with millions of dollars in new investments, a world-class arts and culinary scene that continues to grow in global awareness, and the lowest cost of living among major cities.”

These combined attributes create a quality of life that enables Houston employers to attract and retain a highly skilled workforce, Davenport says. This, in turn, helps Houston woo employers seeking access to that workforce.

“It’s a robust and thriving ecosystem,” she says, “and it continues to work to our advantage.”

Houston entrepreneur, Allie Danziger, wanted to create a program for young professionals looking to gain experience in unprecedented times. Photo courtesy of Ampersand

New Houston career training program is helping young professionals and businesses amid pandemic

a new option

Last March, school districts abruptly closed as the threat of the coronavirus grew. In-person classes were cancelled, graduation ceremonies were held virtually, and the future career plans of new graduates were suspended in uncertainty. Through the incertitude, a Houston-based company formed to offer a path forward for young professionals impacted by a newly changed world.

In the early weeks of the pandemic, Allie Danziger sat down with her husband and tried to imagine what she would tell her children to do if they were graduating college. The University of Texas graduate relished her college experience before founding Integrate, an award-winning marketing firm in Houston.

"I wouldn't want them to go to virtual college and not have the same type of experience we were all fortunate to have," she explains.

Simultaneously, Danziger's email began to overflow with young people looking for advice on how to move forward or questioning a gap year. "I've always loved coaching and mentoring young professionals right out of college," she says.

In her 11 years at Integrate, she had mentored more than 100 interns and first-year employees. After researching gap year programs, Danziger launched a new career training program, Ampersand.

Danziger and her co-founder Scott Greenberg created Ampersand with a mission to democratize access to career-building opportunities by providing mentorship and three one-month internships to young professionals. (Disclaimer: InnovationMap is a part of the Spring 2021 Ampersand program.) The curriculum includes personality assessments, career mapping, one-on-one training, and basic career skills to know as an entry-level employee.

The flexible program includes five hours of curriculum-focused learning and 15 hours of interning, allowing participants with outside engagements and college classes to also participate.

"When I speak to universities all over the country, I always tell them that while I valued my college undergraduate experience, I got so much more out of my internships," she says.

The beta launched in August with a group of ten professionals and ten businesses. Each month, the participants rotate to a position at a different business, allowing them to be exposed to new industries and departments. The program is a flexible 20-hour commitment — five hours of curriculum-based learning and 15 hours of interning — done remotely. While Danziger created the program to serve as a way to be productive during a "gap year" or "gap semester," Ampersand can be balanced with outside activities or college classes.

During Brené Brown's 2020 commencement speech for the University of Texas graduation, she predicted that interviewers would soon tell them, "I see you're a 2020 graduate. That was tough. How did you handle it?"

The quote struck Danziger and "was probably the overall inspiration for this business," she reflects. She feels Ampersand is "a way to put that anxiety into a productive place and actually use the downtime, or use the time that you're considering your options, really mindfully."

"I really believe that it scales way beyond this pandemic," says Danziger. In her research, she saw a lack of career-focused gap curriculums and resources available. "There are no programs that help you determine what the right path for you is—to really do that self-exploration and then apply it to your career path," she explains.

Textbooks and classroom learning are important, but to Danziger, "real-world experience is invaluable." In her research and through first-hand experience, she notes there are "big issues with the higher education industry as a whole not really preparing their students for careers."

At Integrate, Danziger noticed newly-hired graduates would sometimes struggle with "basic things to know for day one," like how to ask for time-off or schedule a calendar invitation. "It ends up frustrating managers while also frustrating the entry-level employees because they're not able to succeed at the pace that they expected to," she says. "These students are graduating with tons of student debt, great skills focused in the major that they chose, but very few of the soft skills that they need in order to be successful professionally," she continues.

Student loan debt in the United States reached $1.7 trillion last year with more than 44 million borrowers; the crisis has exceeded the nation's credit card debt by more than $900 billion. A 2015 study from the University of South Carolina linked student loan debt to poor psychological functioning and stress.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, one in 10 students have changed their major more than once—a figure that can be correlated to the increasing student loan crisis.

"People are taking fifth and sixth years because they had to change their major, or they move careers after a year of their first job, which then costs them and the company significant dollars in lost wages," says Danziger.

Danziger feels Ampersand also answers the prominent issue of diversity in the workplace.

"If businesses get a more diverse workforce at that very entry-level space, who are prepared and ready to take on the jobs just like anyone else, these interns will grow through the ranks and have significantly more opportunities in management and in the boardrooms," she says.

Young professionals aren't the only beneficiaries of Ampersand. Businesses, too, have reaped the perks of interns hungry for new experiences and a resume boost. From competitive analyses to marketing plans, interns are contributing tasks companies "didn't have time to make it a priority, especially amid the pandemic," says Danziger.

Through weekly one-on-one virtual sessions, the Ampersand team works with the professionals to go over their to-do lists and act as their project managers.

"We do all the mentorship and coaching, so that the business just has to receive the end product," she explains.

"This definitely beats the option of a career day and sets them up to make more informed career choices," Liz Cordell, co-founder and COO at Mak Studio. Cordell, who participated in the first cohort, assigned interns to social media marketing projects her company didn't have the capacity to work on. Knowing the Gen Z and millennial-aged professionals excel social media, she has enjoyed working with interns who've "become a part of the team," despite a remote work environment.

"The training the interns receive with Ampersand prior to joining your team gives them access to fundamental skills, concepts, and tools used in business today. This levels up your interns to be able to meaningfully contribute to your company from day one," says Cordell. As a business owner, she feels the program provides "a unique opportunity to have an intern with professional support."

One Louisiana State University student used Ampersand to discover his creative strengths and land a job offer from one of his internships. At the beginning of the program, he confided in Danziger that he "wasn't feeling motivated to pursue this career accounting," and didn't find enjoyment in his classes.

The student's Ampersand personality assessment identified his inclination to creativity; he participated in a series of internships that included an architecture firm, furniture company, and a finance startup. "He's able to really see how he can keep his accounting degree and apply it to these other career paths. It's just amazing to see how he's blossomed from this," says Danziger.

While the nation prepares for a shift in power, the incoming president has outlined support for workforce training programs that aligns with Ampersand's mission. President-elect Joe Biden plans to make a $50 billion investment into workforce training programs when he takes office. The proposal announces that money will fund partnerships between community colleges, businesses, unions, state, local, and tribal governments, universities, and high schools to identify in-demand skills in and modernize training programs.

Ampersand kicked off its second cohort with 30 professionals and 30 participating businesses from around the country on Jan. 5, and is currently accepting applications for its summer program. She anticipates the growing startup will begin raising a seed round during the first quarter. While Danziger emanates with excitement about the launch and balances her role as President of Integrate, she has big plans for the future of Ampersand.

Danziger dreams of scaling Ampersand to serve as many young professionals and businesses who are interested in participating.

"With that, I really want to be able to bring this to the low-income community so we can fulfill the mission of democratizing access to internships and professional development to everyone," she says.


Ampersand // Professional Development & Internship Programwww.youtube.com

Young professionals can dive into fun travel with this Houston-based company. Photo courtesy of Here and Now Travel

New travel startup plans the perfect vacations for Houston's busy young professionals

GET THERE NOW

Work-life balance for a young professional is hard. There's the dream of travel but the nightmare of planning. Then there's the challenge of working with limited vacation days and finding a friend whose schedule lines up.

To the rescue comes Houston-based Here & Now Travel, which aims to create a vacation free of stress and full of memorable experiences and offers adventurous group travel specifically for young professionals.

When discussing the inspiration for starting their company, cofounder Alex Coleman tells CultureMap that he and his wife and fellow cofounder, Elise, were caught between the benefits and drawbacks of individual versus group travel.

They loved the freedom of solo traveling but not the potential feelings of isolation and vulnerability. When it came to traveling with friends, they enjoyed the bonding and security in a group but not all the work involved with navigating everyone's schedules and preferences during planning.

"We decided to create a travel company that combined the best of both worlds," Coleman says. "A company that gave people the flexibility of going to their desired destinations at their desired time, without losing the experience of traveling with a group of awesome people."

As young professionals themselves, the Colemans also wanted their company to consider the typically low number of vacation days their target clients have. That's why Here & Now trips take advantage of weekends and holidays so participants only have to take a maximum of three days off from work.

Here & Now Travel currently has six trips planned for 2020: two to Costa Rica, two to Colombia, and two to Mexico. On these trips, the itineraries lean towards adventure activities and cultural experiences.

For example, their next trip scheduled for January 9 to January 13 to Costa Rica includes exploring Juan Castro Blanco National Park, zip lining through the rainforest, learning how to make tortillas with a local family, and more.

"We shy away from crowded tourist attractions. We pride ourselves on showing travelers hidden gems of our destinations, be it the hidden Mayan cenote in Tulum where we have to be blessed by the community's Mayan Shaman before entering, or one of the region's largest waterfall in Costa Rica which sits on the land of a small farming family," says Coleman. "Through these tucked away, amazing places, we get to see things others typically don't, and have true interaction with the communities we are visiting.

Each Here & Now package includes private transportation to and from the airport and for the duration of the trip, shared three or four-star accommodation, all breakfasts and lunches, and all entrance fees and itinerary activity costs. Flights, dinners, and the required travel insurance are not included.

If you decide to join one of their trips, you can expect to be in a group of between six and 14 young professionals — with 14 being the absolute max as Here & Now Travel doesn't want to overrun the visited communities or contribute to the overuse of their resources.

"Large groups in charter buses feel clunky and seem like you are trampling or disrupting the destinations you are visiting," says Coleman. "We cap our trips at 14 people, allowing us to be good stewards of the communities we visit, and maintain our feel as a small group of travelers...and not tourists."

Each travel group is also accompanied by a Here & Now host who handles all the logistics as well as a local guide, which is a feature that Coleman believes sets their company apart from others.

"Travelers on Here & Now trips are always led by someone who calls that destination home," he explains. "Our guides have an emotional bond to the places we explore. Their passion and connection to their homes is something that can't be replicated."

Along with employing these local guides, Here & Now Travel works with local drivers, restaurants, and lodging as a way to ensure the money they spend in each community stays in that community.

As a further testament to their commitment to sustainable tourism, Here & Now Travel plans to offset their carbon footprint, which is mainly caused by airline travel, by donating to the nonprofit Trees for Houston in 2020.

The company also has plans to increase their number of trips to once per month and to eventually include European destinations.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Three Houston companies made Fortune's list of best places for millennials. Photo by Katya Horner

Houston energy company with big perks named among best workplaces for millennials

Young life

When it comes to keeping young professionals happy in the workplace, Houston is doing a bang-up job — some companies more than others. A new report released by Fortune magazine and Great Place to Work finds three Houston companies, and a total of 11 Texas companies, among the top 100 Best Workplaces for Millennials 2018.

Making the national list is Hilcorp Energy Company, an organization known for giving its employees huge bonuses, such as $100,000 in 2015 and $50,000 toward a new car in 2010. The Houston-based company has 93 percent of employees saying their workplace is great, likely because of these aggressive financial incentives, which include a revenue sharing program, a bonus program, "helping hands" community assistance programs, and a generous referral incentive, according to the Fortune piece.

Hilcorp, even with its big perks, isn't actually the top Houston company on the national list. That distinction goes to Houston-based David Weekley Homes. The construction and real estate powerhouse, leads the Texas pack at No. 19. Houston's construction/real estate company Camden Property Trust comes in at No. 94, and manufacturing/production firm Hilcorp appears at No. 95.

More than 434,000 survey respondents from Great Place to Work-Certified companies provided input into this annual list. The study analyzed how millennials rated their organizations on more than 50 different metrics defining great workplaces, such as managers' competence, respect and fairness in the workplace, opportunities for meaningful work, executive leadership, and opportunities to innovate and contribute to the organization's success.

The report also analyzed an index of factors where millennials often lag behind other workers, such as access to meaningful work, fair pay, and plans for a future with their organizations. Companies were evaluated as to whether they were creating great workplaces for all millennials — regardless of who they are or what they do for the organization.

Surveys were anonymous, and companies needed to employ at least 50 millennials to be considered. Employees rated the companies on challenges, atmosphere, rewards, pride, communication, and bosses with a numerical ranking. Here's what made the other Houston companies shine:

David Weekley Homes, where 96 percent of employees say their workplace is great, was lauded for offering an employee's children's scholarship program, product discounts, profit sharing, sabbaticals, and even spiritual assistance.

At Camden, where 92 percent of employees say their workplace is great, employees are given apartment discounts, holiday suites, scholarships, tuition assistance, an aggressive stock purchase plan, and even tickets to hot sporting events.

Elsewhere In Texas, familiar San Antonio insurance/financial service brand USAA (United Services Automobile Association) comes in at No. 40, followed by Dallas professional services firm Ryan, Inc. at No. 44 and Dallas' Prime Lending at No. 58.

Austin is represented by tech firm WP Engine, Inc. at No. 61. Dallas' Encompass Home Health checks in at No. 66, while San Antonio transportation company NuStar Energy L.P. follows at No. 69. Abilene makes an appearance with Funeral Directors Life Insurance Company at No. 92, and rounding out the Texas representation is Arlington's Texas Health Resources, Inc. at No. 96.

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This story originally appeared on CultureMap.

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2 Houston startups win big at SXSW 2025 pitch competition

winner, winner

Houston had a strong showing at this week's SXSW Pitch showcase in Austin, with two local startups claiming top prizes in their respective categories.

Little Place Labs, a Houston space data startup, won the Security, GovTech & Space competition. Clean-tech company Helix Earth, which spun out of Rice University and was incubated at Greentown Labs, won in the Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability contest.

As one of SWSX's marquee events, held March 8-10, the pitch competition featured 45 finalists, selected from 589 applicants, in nine categories.

"We faced impressive competition from a well-chosen set of finalists, and we're honored to be chosen as the winners. One of the judges even commented, ‘Who knew you could make air conditioning sexy,’” Brad Husick, Helix's co-founder and chief business officer, said in a release.

Helix Earth was launched in 2022 and is known for its space capsule air filtration system that was co-developed for NASA. The commercial air conditioner add-on technology, now in a pilot phase, has been used to retrofit HVAC systems for commercial buildings and can save up to 50 percent of the net energy, cutting down on emissions and operating costs, according to the company. Its co-founder and CEO Rawand Rasheed was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Energy and Green Tech list for 2025.

“This win validates our mission to drive sustainable innovation in commercial air conditioning and beyond. We are excited about the future of Helix Earth and the impact we will have in reducing energy consumption and emissions," Rasheed said in a statement.

Little Place Labs echoed that sentiment with a post on LinkedIn celebrating the win.

"This all started with a simple mission: To deliver real-time space insights to help first responders, mission planners, and decision-makers act before problems arise,” the post read. "Today, that mission feels even stronger."

The company uses advanced AI and machine learning to deliver near-real-time space analytics for both ground and space-based applications. Its software aims to help first responders, mission planners and decision-makers detect anomalies and make informed decisions quickly. It was co-founded in 2020 at Oxford by Houstonian and CEO Bosco Lai and Gaurav Bajaj and participated in the 2023 AWS Space Accelerator.

Two other Houston companies were selected as finalists:

  • Trez, a Latino-focused fintech company that uses AI and voice-command payroll through WhatsApp to provide culturally relevant payroll and streamline financial operations for Latino business owners.
  • Tempesst Droneworx, a veteran-owned software company that's Harbinger software providing real-time contextual intelligence for early warning detection, reducing time to decision and speeding time to action.

Jesse Martinez, founder of invincible, and Anu Puvvada of KPMG were two judges representing Houston.

According to SXSW, 647 companies have participated in SXSW Pitch over the years, with over 93 percent receiving funding and acquisitions totaling nearly $23.2 billion. See the full list of 2025 winners here.

A legacy of industrial technology excellence: UTSI International turns 40

Cheers to 40 Years

As UTSI International celebrates its 40th anniversary, president and CEO Shaun Six reflects on the company's history, achievements, and exciting future.

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In March 1985, Dan Nagala and a few friends took a risk, leaving their full-time jobs to pursue their passion and start their own company.

They founded UTSI Internationalamidst groundbreaking advancements in Industrial Control Systems and SCADA technology, revolutionizing remote operations for critical infrastructure. From the start, UTSI has been at the forefront of OT innovation and integration — a legacy we proudly carry forward today.

The legacy of Dan Nagala

Dan Nagala’s 50-plus-year career is too vast to cover every accomplishment, but if you’ve ever heard the phrase “Houston, we have a problem” in a movie, those screens in the control room and the logic causing the “blinky lights” to alert the operators, you’ve seen some of his work. Dan and his team ultimately paved the way for field communications to detect and communicate leaks on pipelines and give operators in remote locations situational awareness, expanding their ability to safely monitor and control their operations.

This capability was requested early on in the first pipeline control rooms, leading to UTSI’s first check-in 1985 (which I proudly have framed on my bookshelf). The protocols to communicate and do advanced calculations — which many would be tempted to call AI today — for the purpose of monitoring and control, was created from this group of enthusiasts who open sourced it and allowed it to proliferate, leading to over 80 percent of all critical infrastructure in the world now utilizing a variant thereof.

Given the novelty of the technology and the experience of UTSI, having implemented control systems and automation for pipelines in over 22 countries, Dan was asked to collaborate with industry experts, creating the first API leak detection and control room management standards for the American Petroleum Institute. These would later become regulation under PHMSA, DoT, and TSA, placing UTSI as the go-to experts in compliance in addition to their traditional expertise.

UTSI has delivered for the world’s largest infrastructure owners in multiple critical infrastructure sectors, like mining, water/wastewater, oil and gas, green energy, transportation authorities, etc. We have also done AI and cybersecurity, in addition to SCADA and ICS work for the DoD and DoE.

Strength in partners

I joined UTSI in 2022 as vice president, working under Dan, with the goal of gradually stepping into leadership. In 2023, I became CEO, president, and majority shareholder. While no one can truly fill Dan’s shoes alone, we’ve focused on strengthening our team, partnerships, and capabilities to continue UTSI’s legacy of excellence.

One of our first strategic partnerships was with Tory Tech, a leading API-compliant Control Room Management tool. UTSI has worked as integrators with Tory Tech for years and Dan worked as a CRM compliance advisor for them in the U.S. while they were setting up their headquarters in Houston. In 2024 we made it an official partnership, becoming a preferred integrator and focusing our team on training and development in the MaCRoM (Master Control Room Management) tool.

We've also made significant investments in our OT cybersecurity capabilities, expanding our team and partnering with industry leaders like Dennis Parker, Derrik Oates, Nozomi Networks, Fortinet, and Schneider Electric. These strategic moves ensure we deliver top-tier expertise, products, and solutions to better serve our customers.

Our partnership with ThreatGEN and the utilization of their AI-driven “AutoTableTop” tool not only utilizes our experience with TSA guidelines, but adds an element of reality that the traditional methods are lacking, making these engagements more interactive and beneficial for operators who are required to participate annually.

In 2024, UTSI also invested heavily in AI and Data Science by acquiring Houston-based AI company Pandata Tech and leveraging their Data-Quality-Methodology (DQM), Leak Geek, and time-series data science expertise to solve industry specific problems.

Moving up – in and around Houston

Building on our recent successes, we strategically relocated our office to the Netrality building (1301 Fannin St.), bringing us closer to clients and partners, while getting access to a Tier 3 Data Center with an uninterrupted 40-year power record.

Netrality is a SOC2-compliant facility with seven points of detection from the street to our server, including biometric screening. Our very own Roberto deLeon has architected our upgraded servers using the Purdue model as a basis of design while leveraging our relationship with Fortinet to standardize our hardware and software to the highest standards. We practice what we preach — every architecture, framework, and hardware recommendation we make is not just advised but actively implemented within our own operations.

Our investment in this space includes increasing our “SCADA R&D Lab” to play with toys from vendors, testing them out in our environment before we recommend and advise them to our clients and partners. Currently we’re working on LLMs for OT, building our own “DANN2.0” for use in-house. DANN is an homage to Dan Nagala (and, for the nerds, stands for Dan Artificial Neural Network), which we started in 2022 when I realized that knowledge capture is an industry wide epidemic and we need to be ready to integrate for our clients in a safe and local way at scale, in the OT environment.

Additionally, having come from a startup before joining UTSI, I wanted to get us closer to the heart of innovation, so we’ve added additional office space at The Cannon downtown. While there are many tech hubs around Houston, and we are proud to work with and partner with companies from Greentown Labs and the Ion, to name a few, we’ve found that The Cannon community is incredibly active and innovative, with experience in industrial use-cases.

Houston is set to become the Energy Transition capital, leading in hydrogen, carbon capture, and repurposing. With a 5:1 ratio of engineers leaving the industry and an average age over 60, we must innovate. The solution lies in combining a secure, cloud-free "ChatGPT for OT" with digital twins. Bringing the field to engineers is essential. We've partnered with a satellite constellation for asset imaging and U.K.-based Mods Solutions to leverage their CFIHOS-driven platform for intelligent digital twins — more on that partnership soon!

And we will need to leverage enhanced automation tools and actively monitor control networks to ensure security and respond quickly to issues, which is why we’ve partnered with Nozomi Networks.

Shaping the future

Although Dan has semi-retired to his cabin in Montana, he continues to do “the fun stuff” that brings him joy, such as conducting research for PRCI and assisting long-time clients. He also has been a mentor and advisor to me since I started at UTSI three years ago. I’m grateful for him and the group of industry experts he gathered around him to make UTSI such a well-known systems integrator and OT advisor for the world’s largest asset owners.

Our group of experts are active in the industry and will be speaking at events throughout the year, with a presence at Entellec, Level Zero, and participating at this year's API Cybernetics and PSIGs biannual conferences. We proudly serve on the BCarbon advisory board and GHPs Energy Committee.

Lastly, we have one request: We see a critical need for H2 and supercritical CO2 studies to develop simulation models, response plans, and leak detection best practices. These gases differ from those covered in existing standards. If you know anyone interested in funding or contributing, we’re collaborating with industry partners to secure support.

Houston named No. 2 most diverse major U.S. city for 2025

Ranking It

Houston has always been a diverse place, embracing people of many different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. And the city is earning new recognition in WalletHub's rankings of the most diverse large American cities for 2025.

The 2025 edition is the final installment in WalletHub's diversity study series, which annually compared 501 U.S. cities across 13 metrics in five categories that encompass "diversity" across socioeconomic, cultural, economic, household, and religious factors.

Cities were also ranked by population, with large cities defined as those with over 300,000 residents, midsize cities with 100,000 to 300,000 residents, and small cities with fewer than 100,000 residents.

Houston nearly topped the list of large U.S. cities, coming in at No. 2, and ranked at No. 5 in the overall national comparison.

The top three most diverse American cities, which have held their positions for the second consecutive year, are all located in Maryland: Gaithersburg (No. 1), Silver Spring (No. 2), and Germantown (No. 3).

Houston performed spectacularly in the study's overall rankings for socioeconomic (No. 14), cultural (No. 32), and religious diversity (No. 63), but fell behind in the categories for household (No. 129) and economic diversity (No. 165).

In the more detailed comparisons across educational-attainment, linguistic, and industry diversity, Houston ranked among the top 30 in all three categories out of the 501 cities included in the report.

Here's how Houston performed across the remaining eight categories in the study:

  • No. 44 – Racial and ethnic diversity
  • No. 129 – Household type diversity
  • No. 200 – Household size diversity
  • No. 201 – Income diversity
  • No. 207 – Occupational diversity
  • No. 239 – Birthplace diversity
  • No. 284 – Age diversity
  • No. 343 – Worker-class diversity

Embracing diversity is not only good for local communities, it's also beneficial for the economy, the report says.

"Not only have waves of immigration changed the face of the nation, they’ve also brought in fresh perspectives, skills, and technologies to help the U.S. develop a strong adaptability to change," the report's author wrote. "Economies generally fare better when they openly embrace and capitalize on new ideas. Conversely, those relying on old ways and specialized industries tend to be hurt more by changes in the market."

Houston is a repeat performer: It slipped one spot from its 2024 ranking, and previously topped the overall list in 2021 — showing that the city has consistently maintained in diversity over the years.

Other diverse Texas cities
Elsewhere in Texas, Arlington surpassed Houston as the No. 4 overall most diverse city, and took the No. 1 spot in the "large city" category.

Dallas ranked just outside the top 10 this year, landing in 11th place after previously ranking eighth overall in 2024. Dallas also appeared in sixth place in the national rankings for the most diverse large cities, so the city still has some catching up to do.

Fort Worth fell into No. 25 overall this year, in a three-place slip from last year's ranking. The city performed the best in the overall categories for socioeconomic and cultural diversity, earning a respective No. 58 and No. 61.

The top 10 most diverse cities in America in 2025 are:

  • No. 1 – Gaithersburg, Maryland
  • No. 2 – Silver Spring, Maryland
  • No. 3 – Germantown, Maryland
  • No. 4 – Arlington, Texas
  • No. 5 – Houston, Texas
  • No. 6 – New York, New York
  • No. 7 – Charlotte, North Carolina
  • No. 8 – Jersey City, New Jersey
  • No. 9 – Danbury, Connecticut
  • No. 10 – Los Angeles, California
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A version of this story originally appeared on our sister site, CultureMap.com.