Senator John Whitmire represents the 15th Senatorial District comprised of north Houston and parts of Harris County. He was elected to the Texas Senate in 1982 after serving 10 years in the Texas House of Representatives. With over 38 years of service in the Texas Senate, Senator Whitmire ranks first in seniority and is the "Dean of the Texas Senate."

Originally from Hillsboro, Texas, Senator Whitmire moved to Houston where he graduated from Waltrip High School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Houston and attended the Bates College of Law. Senator Whitmire is an attorney of counsel to the law firm Locke Lord LLP. Senator Whitmire is the proud father of two daughters and two grandsons

Rebecca Hofmann is an accomplished finance and compliance leader with over 20 years of experience in the energy industry. Her past operational assignments have covered the development and improvement of processes over governance and compliance to support onshore and offshore operations. She is the founder and visionary behind the Blockchain for Energy consortium — where she is the standing CEO and served as chairman of the board two years prior. Hofmann’s many industry awards and accolades include the 2018 GRIT Award for Creativity and Innovation, the 2019 GRIT Award for her team’s work in emerging technologies, and the 2021 Global Supply Chain Leaders Blockchain CEO of the Year Award.   She has also authored several thought leadership articles related to blockchain technology. https://www.blockchainforenergy.net/

Deane Ilukowicz has recently been promoted to the role of Chief People Officer. Ms. Ilukowicz previously held the position of Senior Vice President – Global Human Resources and prior to that, joined TPI as our Vice President of Global Human Resources in 2016. Prior to joining TPI, she was the Vice President of Organizational Effectiveness at TransUnion, Chief Human Resources Officer for Hypertherm, and held senior level roles at other financial services and manufacturing companies. Ms. Ilukowicz has an MBA from Wake Forest University and her bachelor’s degree in Social and Behavioral Science from The Johns Hopkins University. She also served as a Trustee for the Community College System of New Hampshire and provides free HR Consulting to nonprofit organizations.

The modern architect of the energy workforce, Katie Mehnert is the Founder and CEO of ALLY Energy™ the community accelerating connections, jobs, and skills to drive an equitable energy transition. ALLY Energy is an inaugural member of Greentown Labs Houston, the top climate tech incubator in North America.

 Ms. Mehnert has held global leadership roles with BP and Shell in safety and environment during periods of financial crisis, spills, divestment, and globalization. Her early career included assignments with Duke Energy, Entergy, and Enron. Her corporate path drove her to entrepreneurship to help energy companies prepare for the looming talent shortage and workforce diversity needs to address energy poverty and climate change.

She was appointed Ambassador to the United States Department of Energy in 2020 during the Trump Administration and has testified before Congress on the clean energy workforce of the future. She was most recently appointed by the Biden Administration to the National Petroleum Council. She’s also an Energy Institute Fellow and an advisor to Clean Energy for America.  

Ms. Mehnert is a speaker, author, and trusted source in the energy industry. She has been published in Scientific American, Forbes, The Hill, CNBC, and CNN. Her first book, Grow with the Flow, was published in 2020. She most recently co-authored Everyday Superheroes: Women in Energy, a children’s book focused on energy careers. Mrs. Mehnert also has appeared in Hot Money, a documentary produced by Academy Award-winning actor, Jeff Bridges and Retired NATO General Wesley Clark on the financial complexities of climate change and finance.

Katie is a four-time World Major marathoner having completed London, Chicago, New York, and Berlin. Her husband is Vice President of Legal with Baker Hughes. They live with their 11-year-old daughter, Ally, in Houston.  Bio Download | Photo Download

Cynthia Mabry is a partner in the Houston office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Ms. Mabry concentrates her practice on capital markets, securities, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and general corporate matters. She represents public and private entities, investors and underwriters in capital markets and finance transactions, including offerings of equity and debt securities. Ms. Mabry also provides counsel on joint ventures, corporate governance and compliance matters. She is particularly experienced with clients engaged in the energy industry, including utilities, oil and gas exploration and production, midstream, oilfield services and other related sectors. Ms. Mabry advises clients on governance structures and rapidly evolving legal issues related to climate change and environmental, social and corporate governance  (ESG). She frequently writes and speaks about matters of climate change and ESG. Prior to practicing law, Ms. Mabry worked as a senior associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Houston.

Richard Dwelle is the president and co-founder of Rearden Digital Assets. Before this, he was the COO of Arkose Energy Corp. Richard served as the Country Manager and Chairman of oil and gas services company Wood International, FZE, based in Cairo, Egypt, from 2016 to 2022. From 2009 to 2015, he was Vice President of Business Development at Wood, and prior to that, he held executive positions at National Petroleum and Energy, including Senior Vice President. Earlier in his career, Richard helped to pioneer the Mesh Networking industry as President of NexGen City. Richard graduated from Texas Christian University with a BA in business administration.

Fredrick "Fred" Navarre is the Director of Marketing, Communications & Engagement for ALLY Energy.  Fred was formerly Deputy Assistant Director for the Houston Mayor’s Office of Complete Communities responsible for communications and external affairs.  Fred is enthusiastic to deploy his experience and credentials in this role. In addition to an MBA in Energy Finance and a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership, he’s an entrepreneur, veteran educator, experienced nonprofit board leader, and philanthropist. He loves to interact with people and organize positive experiences to move companies and causes forward. His strategies foster diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging.

He’s currently a board member of the American Cancer Society of Greater Houston. His extensive record of public service includes local, national, and regional positions in Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. In addition, Fred has been a review panelist for the National Science Foundation and serves on the Delta Research and Educational Foundation (DREF), a national nonprofit.  As a native Louisianan, he’s quite comfortable using great food and good times to bring people together — sometimes with the flourish of his own creole culinary skills!

Laura Aiken founded Thrive Leadership after a ten-year career in engineering and construction to help companies help their people thrive.  She’s worked and led teams on several multibillion-dollar engineering and construction projects in the energy industry has led DEI programming including strategic planning, inclusive leadership, ally engagement, and business resource groups for over 50,000 employees, and has facilitated resiliency training for a construction workforce of over 6,000 people. Laura is a part of the team delivering our member programming. She graduated from the University of Bath in Chemical Engineering, Biochemical Engineering, Materials and Biomedical Engineering.