KURTH ANDERSON
President

Photo coming soon!

Kurth Anderson – Biography

Kurth is a Strategy and Transformation leader with over 25 years experience as both a consultant (Alvarez & Marsal, Marakon Associates) and as an operator (Xerox and Pitney Bowes) helping drive margin improvement and sustained profitable growth. Kurth’s experiences span a range of industries, including Print/Document Hardware and Services, Energy, Petrochemicals, Manufacturing, Restaurants, and Transportation

Kurth holds a dual MBA from the Wharton School and an MA in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania as part of the Joseph H. Lauder program and a BA in Economics from Princeton University. He is a dual citizen on the US and France and is fluent in French. He lives in the Clear Lake area and loves sailing on Galveston Bay with his wife and family (when he can drag them along!) 

PASCALE NICOLET SMITH
Director and Immediate Past President

Pascale Nicolet Smith - Biography

Pascale is an international business leader and President of Agora Management LP, a privately held holding company with operations in Management Consulting, Real Estate, and Technology. 

Her management consulting firm Agora Partners, LP spans over 20 years of advisory work in strategic growth and operational improvement around the globe with companies ranging from $50 Billion in revenue to start-ups and individuals.  She is currently building a real estate brokerage firm, and a fluids processing company, Flow Technology Systems, LLC.

Prior to her independent career, Pascale was a consultant with McKinsey & Company in Switzerland, France, and the U.S.; then headed the Strategy group for the largest division of Compaq Computers with global responsibilities focusing on growth in Asia.  Before her MBA, Pascale was an executive producer for documentaries at Ekis Reportages an independent production firm in Switzerland, for which she presented at the Cannes Festival.

Pascale holds an MBA from the Wharton School, and B.A.’s in Economics and Art from Drew University.  She is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Switzerland with a South African heritage, and is fluent in French, Spanish, English, and Portuguese.  She loves the outdoors, cooking, and spending time with her family.

RENJU JOSE KURUVILA (MBA 2016)
President-elect

Renju Jose Kuruvila, CFA - - Biography

Renju Jose Kuruvila is President of M/D Totco, a division of NOV (NYSE: NOV), a leading independent provider of technology to the energy industry with operations in more than 60 countries. Prior to his current role, Renju spent a decade undertaking mergers and acquisitions for NOV and was involved in 100+ transactions around the world. He was most recently Vice President, NOV Ventures where he held global responsibility over joint ventures, alliances and investments in early stage technologies. Renju joined NOV in 2002 in Houston, Texas as a Strategic Analyst and has been in various roles in the Middle East, Europe, and South America during his career.

He has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, a Master of Science in Manufacturing Systems from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a CFA Charterholder. Prior to moving to the United States for his education, Renju managed his family’s natural rubber plantation business in India. 

Renju currently sits on the Boards of NOV’s joint venture with Schlumberger called IntelliServ and with Saudi Aramco, called ARM. Since 2017 he has been a member of the Board of the Houston Area Parkinson Society.

Andrew Clark

Andrew Clark is a founder and principal with The Castell Group, LLC an investment and advisory firm assisting companies in the technology business.  He has a 35 year career spanning many facets of technology and energy businesses.  On a daily basis he interacts with some of Houston’s top entrepreneurs assisting them with their businesses while identifying the best of breed in which to invest.

Andrew is a prior president and chairman of the Houston Angel Network (named top angel group by Angel Capital Association five years running).  He is the founding managing director of the Texas Halo Fund and was founding managing director of the SURGE accelerator.  He has invested in numerous companies spanning industries from consumer products, software, Internet-based, and energy tech to life sciences. 

His corporate career covers stints at Reliant Energy (now NRG), Compaq Computer (now Hewlett Packard), and Coopers & Lybrand (now IBM and Pricewaterhouse Coopers).  He began his private equity investment experience at Compaq where he served as board observer on a deal co-funded with the premier Sevin Rosen Funds.

He has served as a guest lecturer on numerous occasions at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, The Bauer School at the University of Houston, and the Tulane Graduate School of Business.  A primary topic at recent Rice lectures has been board governance and post-investment monitoring.  Andrew has also spoken at industry conferences and investment forums.  He has served on panels at various family office forums.

He is a graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he received his Bachelor of Science degree with a concentration in Entrepreneurship.  He was both a Benjamin Franklin Scholar and a University Scholar at Penn.

PAUL PRYZANT (BS, THE WHARTON SCHOOL)
General Counsel 

Paul Pryzant - - Biography

Paul Pryzant is a partner in the law firm of Seyfarth Shaw LLP, which has more than 900 lawyers across 16 offices, and provides transactional, litigation and advisory legal services to clients worldwide.

For over 35 years, Paul has represented clients in a variety of mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt financings, and other corporate transactions.  Paul works with entrepreneurs who want to sell or merge their companies.  He also regularly works with strategic buyers, and private equity funds and their portfolio companies, which are acquiring software and other high-tech companies that help his clients obtain new cutting-edge technologies, and add new products and services.

Paul helps sellers successfully and efficiently sell their company, and minimize their potential liabilities to the buyer.  He translates the complexities of the M&A process into plain English that sellers can understand, so they can make the right decisions for their company.

Buyers face challenges working with entrepreneurs selling their company, especially when the seller is new to the M&A process and may not be adequately represented by experienced M&A counsel.  Paul’s objective is to help the buyers he represents quickly build trust with the target company and their counsel, and help guide the transaction to closing quickly and efficiently.

SONALI DAMLE (MBA 2006)
Scholarship Foundation

Sonali Damle --  Biography

Sonali is an international business leader with experience in building and leading new business ventures and high-growth global service organizations. Sonali currently heads global operations for the Bain Innovation Exchange (BIE) which is Bain and Co’s innovation engine, The BIE connects startups; accelerators; venture capitalists and corporates to unleash game changing ideas to build the future today. She considers herself as a serial entre/intrapreneur with this being the 2^nd business she is helping build at Bain.

Prior to this she spearheaded the global centers of expertize model and build the Bain Capability Network (BCN). In this capacity as the head of BCN, she grew the business from an idea to a ~500 person team serving clients across industrial and functional areas; incubating new AI based tools and accelerating the pace and cost to serve consulting client needs

Prior to Wharton, Sonali, founded her 1^st startup in New York in early 2000’s focused on geospatial mapping of survey and aerial photography data to inform construction at major infrastructure hubs such as ports. She has since been an advisory board member on various early stage ventures.

Outside of work she has a keen interest in social impact and mentorship. She enjoys exploring new places with her spouse and 2 kids  -  curious about history and cultures (art; music and food); fascinated by people with diverse worldviews and always game to adventure sports from scuba to skydiving.

Sarah Dong (BS 2006, MBA 2011)

CAMILO MUNOZ (MBA 1999)
Speaker Luncheons

Camilo Munoz --  Biography

Camilo Muñoz has more than 20 years of executive-level and start-up experience in the language localization, investment banking and real estate industries. He is the founder of Translation Source, a language service company offering solutions in more than 100 languages; he is also the co-founder and current chairman of the board of Spanish ASAP, a single language vendor in the localization industry; the founder and chairman of the board of Ocania Investments, a real estate investment company; and the co-founder and chairman of the board of Concrete ASAP, a manufacturer of precast concrete products in southeast Texas.

Prior to his entrepreneurial career, Camilo worked as an investment banker at Lehman Brothers in New York. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School, an MA in International Studies from the Lauder Institute (University of Pennsylvania) and a BS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Florida.

Camilo is currently a member of the Board of Trustees at St. John's School in Houston and has served as the President of the Association of Language Companies. He speaks English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

BILL STEVENSON
Community Outreach

Bill Stevenson -- Biography

Bill Stevenson is Principal and Consultant of HK Stevenson, Inc. Bill serves on the Board of Directors for the Wharton Club of Houston, and is a veteran management, marketing and technology consultant. 

He holds degrees from both Wharton and UCLA’s Anderson School, in management, marketing and finance, including an MBA.  He has been a member of the Rice Alliance for many years, where he continues to be a Judge with the Rice Business Plan Competition.  With Citicorp, Bill managed a $12 billion portfolio targeting money center banks and middle market corporations.  With Compaq, he led two teams focusing on new marketing programs and channel development, and co-chaired another to address early major account strategy.   Bill left Compaq to co-chair a start-up targeting a $500 million electronic communications market niche to improve information flow, and then founded his consulting business.  Bill is actively involved in church and community affairs.