AMOCO Federal Credit Union
Shawn Bailey
President & CEO
Shawn Bailey serves as president and chief executive officer of AMOCO Federal Credit Union. With over $580 million in assets, AMOCO is in the Top 25 in Texas and Top 5 in the Houston Metroplex in terms of asset size for credit unions. AMOCO recently was recognized by the Houston Chronicle as one of the Top 100 companies to work for in the Houston area. Bailey has over 15 years of credit union experience and holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from New Mexico State University and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Texas A&M University. He currently serves on the board of directors for Communities in School-Bay Area, Perry YMCA, Salvation Army, and Texas City-La Marque Chamber of Commerce.
Landry’s, Inc.
Tilman J. Fertitta
Sole Owner, Chairman & CEO
Tilman Fertitta is the sole owner, chairman and CEO of Landry’s, Inc., one of America’s leading casual dining, entertainment, gaming and hospitality companies. Landry’s is the nation’s largest privately held restaurant, entertainment and gaming company owned by one individual and has combined revenues and assets of over $4 billion. The company operates over 400 properties in 34 states and a number of international properties. Landry’s is also one of the country’s largest employers with over 50,000 active employees. Landry’s owns and operates several notable restaurant chains, including McCormick & Schmick’s, Chart House, Landry’s Seafood House, Rainforest Café, Saltgrass Steakhouse, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Claim Jumper as well as the Signature Series: Morton’s Steakhouse, Oceanaire, Vic & Anthony’s, Brenner’s Steakhouse, Grotto, La Griglia and Willie G’s. Landry’s also operates numerous gaming, hospitality and entertainment venues, including the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nevada and Atlantic City, the San Luis Resort, Inn at the Ball Park, Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier, the Kemah Boardwalk, Downtown Aquarium Denver and Houston and the Towers of Americas in San Antonio, just to name a few of Landry’s projects.
Fertitta and Landry’s have been featured in every financial and industry publication, from The Wall Street Journal to Forbes to Nation’s Restaurant News. Fertitta has appeared on numerous national business programs and has been a featured speaker at many hospitality conferences and seminars and is one of the foremost authorities in the restaurant, entertainment and hospitality fields. Fertitta’s many personal honors include the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Ernst & Young and he was the second-youngest inductee into the Texas Business Hall of Fame.
Fertitta devotes a substantial amount of time to civic service and currently serves as chairman of the Houston Children’s Charity, the Houston Police Foundation and is on the Executive Committee of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. He also serves on the following boards: Texas Heart Institute, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Greater Houston Partnership and the University of Houston Board of Regents. He and his wife, Paige, live in Houston with their four children.
Mitchell Historic Properties
Bill Ross
Senior Vice President Bill Ross, senior vice president and general manager of Mitchell Historic Properties (MHP), manages the operation of multiple historic buildings and projects owned by Galveston preservationists Cynthia and George Mitchell. MHP owns more than 20 historic buildings in downtown Galveston and three hotels: Hotel Galvez & Spa, The Tremont House and Harbor House.
Bill began working for George Mitchell in 1992 as vice president of the Woodlands Corporation, a subsidiary of Mitchell Energy; he was responsible for all of the Mitchell Resort Properties and Timberlands. In 1998, he began managing all of Mr. Mitchell’s personal properties on Galveston Island, which now operate under Mitchell Historic Properties. Bill was responsible for the development of Pirates Beach West and Laffite’s Cove on Galveston’s west end. The undeveloped portions of Pirates Beach and Lafitte’s Cove have since been sold. He was involved with the development of the Strand Harborside project, now known as Pier 21 and home to Harbor House Hotel, Olympia Grill, Willie G’s and Fisherman’s Wharf.
Prior to working for Mr. Mitchell, Bill served as vice president of ARVIDA Corporation in Punta Vedra Beach, Florida, developing Sawgrass, a gated, planned-unit Village comprising 1,200 acres and several golf courses, including the Oak Bridge Club, Sawgrass Country Club, the Valley Course, the Tournament Players Course, and Jacksonville Golf and Country Club.
He sits on the board of the Galveston Chamber of Commerce and executive committee of the Galveston Economic Development Partnership. Bill is a member of Edgewater Retirement Committee, Historic Downtown Strand Seaport Partnership and UTMB Community Service Excellence Committee. He serves as chair of the UTMB School of Nursing Advisory Committee and of the Rudy and Sophie Tomjanovich Golf Tournament. The golf tournament has raised more than $1 million toward scholarships to Texas A&M University at Galveston and Galveston College. He is also a member of UTMB President’s Council, International Council of Shopping Centers, National Association of Homebuilders and Urban Land Institute, and Galveston’s Sunday Morning Coffee Club.
The Galveston Chamber of Commerce named him as a person of the year with its Christy Mitchell Beachcomber Award, and the mayor of the City of Galveston proclaimed February 17, 2005, as Bill Ross Day in his honor. Additionally, the Downtown Partnership presented him with the Edward J. Weiss Spirit Award, and he is an inductee of the Downtown Renaissance Hall of Fame.
Bill is an avid golfer and has served on the board of the Galveston Country Club – Texas’ oldest country club. He and his wife, Penny, love to travel and enjoy being a part of the social scene in Galveston. Penny is actively involved in women’s issues and hospice.
Moody National Bank
Victor Pierson
President
Victor Pierson is president of Moody National Bank, mayor of the City of Jamaica Beach and a past chairman of the Texas Bankers Association.
He serves on the Boards of Directors of Moody National Bank, Moody Bank Holding Company, Moody Bancshares, Inc. and Gal-Tex Hotel Corporation, and he is chairman of the United Way of Galveston, chairman of the Galveston Chamber of Commerce, a board member of the
Galveston Central Appraisal District and president-elect of Galveston’s 1894 Grand Opera House. He is also a member of the Texas A&M University at Galveston Board of Visitors and previously taught accounting at Galveston College for over 16 years.
President of Moody National Bank since November 2001, Pierson has been with the bank since moving to Galveston in 1985 from Wichita Falls, where he began his banking career after graduation from Midwestern State University with an undergraduate degree in economics and a graduate emphasis in finance. He was a student government and fraternity leader in college, and was named one of the Outstanding Young Men in America
in 1980.
Pierson has served as mayor of the City of Jamaica Beach since 1999 and as a gubernatorial appointee to the Coastal Coordination Council from 2003 until his presidential appointment for the Environmental Protection Agency to the Gulf of Mexico Commission in 2008. He is also a former president of the Galveston County Mayors and Council members Association.
He is a member of the Galveston Economic Development Partnership Board of Directors, treasurer of the Galveston County Economic Alliance Board of Directors and president of the Galveston County Economic Alliance Foundation.
Pierson is also a past campaign chairman of the United Way of Galveston, a past president of the Galveston Artillery Club, past president of The 50 Club of Galveston County, past president of Prevent Blindness of Texas, past treasurer of the Galveston Historical Foundation, former treasurer of the Historic Downtown Galveston Partnership, and past president of the Galveston Island Rotary Club.
University of Texas Medical Branch
David L. Callender
President
In 2007, Dr. David L. Callender, MD, MBA, FACS, was appointed president of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, a $1.7 billion health sciences center with more than 12,000 employees statewide, 3,000 students in four schools, a comprehensive Health System and Level I trauma center, world-renowned research programs, and one of only two national laboratories dedicated to the safe study of infectious diseases. Under his leadership, UTMB has made an unprecedented recovery from Hurricane Ike, has expanded clinical offerings to meet growing demand for advanced health care services in mainland Galveston County, and is undertaking a $1.7 billion revitalization of its Galveston Island campus.
Dr. Callender is a board-certified head and neck surgeon with a special interest in head and neck cancer. A 1984 graduate of Baylor College of Medicine, he completed his residency training in general surgery and otolaryngology at his alma mater in 1990. He went on to complete a fellowship in head and neck surgical oncology at UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He was appointed to the M.D. Anderson faculty in 1992 after completing his fellowship, and earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Houston in 1995. He held a number of administrative posts at M.D. Anderson before being appointed as executive vice president and chief operating officer in 2001. Before joining UTMB, Dr. Callender served as the associate vice chancellor and chief executive officer for the UCLA Hospital System (2004-2007).
In 2012, Dr. Callender was named a Distinguished Medical School Alumnus by Baylor College of Medicine. He and his wife, Tonya, live in Galveston and are actively involved with the community. Dr. Callender serves on the Board of Directors of the Galveston Chamber of Commerce, and the Galveston Economic Development Partnership.
