Committee

Amanda Cooper Benbow, СВРА, is a visionary strategist with a proven track record of collaborating with premier private equity firms, investment firms, and family offices to orchestrate seamless mergers and acquisitions. With unwavering precision, Amanda delivers bespoke human resource infrastructures that empower organizations to navigate complex transactions with ease. Her mission is to elevate both the firm and its current/future investments by offering comprehensive solutions for procurement, administration, and ensuring absolute compliance across all facets of human resources. Amanda's expertise and commitment to excellence set the gold standard in driving success and sustainable growth in today's dynamic business landscape.

Amanda joined Insperity in fall 2017 as a business performance advisor and has a stellar track record of being an annual top performer, achieving Pinnacle Summit three times and Chairman’s Club twice.

While not at the office, Amanda is mother to two adorable little girls, a wife to an oil & gas entrepreneur and dedicated philanthropist. She enjoys traveling with her family, is an enthusiastic about her board position at Arrow Child & Family Ministries. Amanda always has the best interest of her peers and clients at heart!

Crystal Clifford is the Managing Director, Business Manager for Hightower Texas. In her role, Crystal is the senior corporate leader for the Houston office and is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the firm.

Prior to joining Hightower in 2020, Crystal was Chief Operating Officer for Avantax Wealth Management in Dallas, Texas where she led all Operations and Technology functions for the broker dealer from 2018 to 2020. Prior to Avantax, she spent 18 years with LPL Financial in San Diego, California in various operations and technology roles. In her last role there, she was Senior Vice President of Technology with responsibility for LPL Financial’s risk and regulatory technology platforms.

Crystal is passionate about financial literacy and in her free time volunteers to provide financial education to women and high school girls. Through her volunteer work, Crystal wants to help women gain knowledge, skills, and the confidence to make sound decisions and improve their lives.

Carrie Colbert is Founding and General Partner of Curate Capital, a venture capitalist firm dedicated to championing women-led businesses by providing not only financial support but also invaluable mentorship and resources. Her journey into the world of venture capitalism was born out of over two decades of experience in the energy industry, ten-plus years as an influencer, plus five-plus years of angel investing.

Throughout Carrie's career, she witnessed the disparities and challenges women face in male-dominated sectors. Fueled by a passion for equality and a desire to make a meaningful change, she decided to channel her expertise and resources into a venture that would empower women entrepreneurs to thrive. At Curate Capital, their mission extends beyond financial returns; it's about creating a more inclusive and equitable business ecosystem where all voices are heard and valued.

Summer Craig, the President & CEO of Craig Group, is a seasoned digital marketer with a background driving ROI-focused strategies for multi-million dollar companies.

From starting her career at Austin-based ad agency GSD&M working on Mastercard, Walmart, and Southwest Airlines to navigating the corporate communications complexities of mergers and buyouts in the telecom industry at SBC Global-Cingular-AT&T, Summer rapidly rose through the ranks and her analytical prowess became a hallmark of her career. This skillset, combined with her expertise in media buying and selling, positioned her as a standout in the early advertising landscape.

Charging into the digital realm, Summer played a pivotal role at AOL, contributing to the adoption of innovative Martech and pioneering programmatic advertising. That experience was a stepping stone to Summer’s tenure at HomeAway.com (later VRBO), where the company completed a successful IPO and she delved into the world of venture capital, and her entrepreneurial flame was lit.

She moved back to Houston and soon became a regional client rep with New York-based Publicis ZenithOptimedia overseeing Gulf States Toyota, where she learned the intricacies of operating one of the world's largest privately held businesses under a major brand. Summer transitioned into an in-house leadership role where she was responsible for showing marketing effectiveness to the board, dealer council and executive stake-holder groups.

In 2019, Summer founded Craig Group, a company rooted in data-first sales and marketing, leveraging her extensive wisdom and expertise built over the course of 20 years to create impactful results for clients.

Beyond building a large team across four states, Summer's most impressive personal accomplishments include summiting Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Rainier as a proud mom of three. Her out-of-the-office passions — ranging from mountain climbing and camping to competitive sports and giving time to causes she believes in — reveal an authentic commitment to pushing boundaries and pursuing hard goals.

For decision-makers at private equity-backed businesses and independent family-owned companies, Summer Craig is a valuable and dynamic partner, combining a wealth of experience with a relentless focus on delivering tangible value.

Allie Danziger has a heartfelt passion for helping ambitious people succeed with over 15 years of experience leading, mentoring and recruiting through two businesses which she has started and successfully exited.

In 2009, Allie started one of Texas' top marketing agencies, Integrate Agency, which she sold in 2018. Under her leadership, Integrate Agency generated over $15MM in revenue, employed over 250 young professionals and helped over 600 clients grow.

In 2020, Allie used her experience in coaching, training and hiring hundreds of employees to found Ampersand, a leading workplace training platform focused on teaching the "unwritten rules of the workplace" and providing the skills and confidence young professionals need to succeed. The company's training platform has lifted up over 10,000 professionals and is working towards eliminating the skills gap from higher education to employment and break systemic barriers in place.

Ampersand was acquired by Ascent Funding in 2023 to scale the company’s mission to support student’s success, and Allie now leads the success program as SVP and GM of AscentUP, living in Houston, TX.

Mr. Dennis has been a Principal, Managing Director, and Managing Partner of WoodRock& Co. since he founded the firm in April 1998.  He is responsible for deal origination and selection, deal and project leadership, strategy, and business management. To date, Mr. Dennis has executed over $8 billion in transactions.

Prior to WoodRock, he was a Vice President with Koch Industries, Inc. in their international and capital services groups. In these positions, he was responsible for Koch’s global merchant banking and M&A efforts. From early 1996 through June 1997, he served as Chief Financial Officer, and later as acting Chief Operating Officer, of Gas Services International, Limited (“GSI”), a contract compression and engineering services company with offices in Houston, Texas, and Singapore. Before GSI, he advised both American Breco Corporation and Aviation Sales Company (NYSE: AVS) in their merger, acquisition, divestiture, and financing activities. His prior investment banking experience includes Simmons & Company International and Goldman Sachs & Co.

Prior private equity experience includes SCF Partners, L.P. and Breco Holdings, Inc.  He holds an AB from Harvard College and an MBA from Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management. Following college, he served as an officer in the United States Navy.

Steve Fenton is the Texas-South Region Area Managing Partner for SeatonHill.  He is a highly accomplished executive with senior level experience in the financial and accounting consulting, staffing, and recruiting industry.  With three decades of leadership experience, he has successfully established and implemented strategic vision and focus for achieving business goals and initiatives.  His extensive knowledge of market trends, market development, and recruiting/consulting operations have contributed to Steve’s proven record of revenue growth, increased profitability, and increased market share in existing and start-up markets.

Hossam is a Managing Director and Technology Partner at SCF, overseeing the firm's venture portfolio. With extensive experience in the energy sector, technology development, and commercialization, he evaluates and executes new investment opportunities. Hossam previously founded O&G Technologies, a Houston-based technology incubator, and held leadership positions at Lime Rock Partners and Tercel Oilfield Products. He brings expertise from a 17-year tenure at Schlumberger.

David Fowles is a Regional Director at The Riverside Company focusing on originating deal opportunities and qualifying add-on acquisition candidates in the Southcentral and Southeast regions. Before Riverside, Dave spent three years at Mangrove Equity Partners as a Vice President focused on deal origination.

Before that he had a twenty+ year career as a US Army Special Forces Officer (commonly known as Green Berets), where he served with distinction leading special operations forces across the globe, earned three Bronze Star's, including one with a “V” device for valor. He brings a wealth of leadership, organizational, and analytic experience to Origination and Riveside.

When he decided to transition to the private sector, Dave enrolled in the Executive program at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, earning an MBA. He also holds a BA in Political Science from SUNY Oswego.

Patrick Hayes’ practice focuses on commercial real estate and assisting clients in acquiring, disposing, capitalizing and forming companies. Patrick’s real estate practice covers all aspects of commercial real estate, including acquisition, development, capitalizing, financing, leasing and disposition of all product types of commercial real estate. His corporate/commercial practice centers on the formation and restructuring of commercial entities, including corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies, as well as the acquisition, capitalization, financing and disposition of business enterprises, the preparation of various contracts and agreements, and the representation of clients in their ongoing business activities.

After selling a successful manufacturing company that Chuck Hendee took from a startup to twenty million in revenue, he now helps small business leaders grow more successful businesses and live better lives. Chuck has been a mentor with the University of Houston Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship since the late nineties and is now a chair with Vistage Worldwide. He provides services as a business coach, mentor, and consultant. Consulting includes designing and implementing incentive systems.

Janice Jucker is co-owner of Three Brothers Bakery with her husband, Robert Jucker. The bakery was founded in 1949 by Bobby’s father and two uncles after surviving the Holocaust. They like to say they are “Memory Makers Who Happen To Be Bakers®…for five generations and almost 200 years. Now there are 4 locations in Houston employing approximately 75. Their pecan pie was named “best mail order pecan pie America has to offer” by Country Living Magazine and has had many accolades along with their Pumpecapple Piecake. Prior to joining the bakery in 2005, Janice worked for Lucent Technologies and Avaya selling multi-million dollar communications systems.

Lee is managing partner of Smart Business Network Inc., a national events, media and marketing company founded in 1989, primarily responsible for expanding the company’s Aspire deal-making conference throughout the U.S. He plays a key role in establishing corporate policies and developing long-term strategy and growth plans. Previously, he founded and chaired the Growth Group at national law firm Arter & Hadden LLP (now Tucker, Ellis & West), which focused on working with middle-market and high-growth technology companies. 

Name of the game in any business is evolve or dissolve.

The Visual Cue evolves your brand so that your business stays competitive in times of change.
+ Entering new markets
+ Growing through acquisition
+ Post-merger
+ Launching new offering
+ Price competition
+ Attract the right customer/talent
+ Mixed Reputation

In the early years of his career and after receiving his Electrical Engineering degree from L.S.U., Lenny worked as an Electrical Engineer, specializing in automation and controls, and systems integration. 

After 10 years of working as an employee, his interest in entrepreneurship eventually led him to launch a technology consulting firm based in New Orleans, LA and enrolling in an MBA program to hone his business skills. Unfortunately, the first stint in his entrepreneurial journey and MBA was short lived due to the impact of Hurricane Katrina. 

Lenny suddenly found himself homeless, jobless, and living in a hotel room with a family of 5 and a couple of days’ worth of clothing for each. After initially evacuating to Beaumont, TX, he eventually landed in Houston. Determined and desperate to start rebuilding, Lenny returned to Corporate America, landing a job in Oil and Gas. This was the beginning of a career transition from engineering and technology to management and finance, which prompted him to re-enroll in an MBA program. 

Jason Sanders is the Crowe office managing partner in Houston, Texas. He is also a partner in the tax group at Crowe specializing in federal tax planning, business succession planning, and transition planning for closely held businesses. Jason has more than 24 years of experience helping businesses develop and execute tax planning and savings strategies.

As a trusted advisor and leader, Jason works primarily with closely-held middle market companies to develop and execute tax planning and savings strategies. His clients are typically S-Corps, C-Corps, and partnerships, where effective tax planning can have a positive impact on both business entity and personal taxes. In his role as tax advisor, Jason and his team help family-owned business negotiate both the compliance and the interpersonal issues that come with multi-generational transitions of businesses, where his demeanor and technical knowledge can ease such transitions.

As leader of the Briggs & Veselka tax department, Jason takes pride in developing his professional staff to “pay it forward”. Mentoring, coaching, and growing the firm’s tax professionals in alignment with the firm’s growth strategy is the aspect of his department chair role that Jason finds most rewarding.

Jeffery Sheldon is CEO, GP & Managing Director of the CitareTx venture capital funds and its management company, and CEO of three CitareTx portfolio companies: EMIT Corporation, Houston Medical Robotics, Inc. and Coagulex, Inc. He also serves on several other venture capital fund boards and founded numerous start-up companies, including IDev Technologies, Inc. sold to Abbott for $310 Million.

Clay Spitz is COO of Chief Outsiders, a national management consulting firm providing Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and Chief Sales Officers (CSOs) on a fractional (part time, temporary) basis to middle market companies that wish to accelerate their revenue growth. The firm has over 100 CMOs and CSOs nationally from every industry segment. Spitz started his career in a family service business which was eventually sold into an industry rollup. He has considerable experience as a marketing, sales and operating executive in companies ranging from midsize privately held to Fortune 1,000 corporations. Spitz has been a senior executive at Terminix International, TeleCheck International and Olshan Foundation Solutions and has owned a business himself. Clay joined Chief Outsiders in 2010 as one of the very early members of the firm

Robin has dedicated her career to empowering businesses, starting as a business analyst, she later became President of SQL*Systems and later founded RMS and Company, specializing in mergers and acquisitions. Since 2006, as a Vistage Chair and seasoned executive coach, Robin invests over 1,000 hours annually advising CEOs and senior executives. A recipient of Vistage's highest accolades, including the Star, Chair Excellence, and Cope Awards, her mission remains to challenge and elevate business leaders to achieve their utmost potential.

Robin is the founder and CEO of infoFluency, a company passionate about data and visual analytics and the apps that bring insights to life. infoFluency specializes in putting data in a useable form for business leaders and decision makers.

Robin is a graduate of Texas A&M University, is married with 3 adult daughters, and enjoys travel.

Mr. Thimmig is an industry expert and thought leader across multiple industries including, automotive, marketing, education, investment, esports, and media, launching new brands and products along with raising capital.

At heart I am an educator. My parents were both teachers, and I have always had a passion for not just solving problems but explaining the solutions so that clients understand not just “what” we are going to do, but “why” that is the best path forward.

I like complexity. My clients are business owners, executives, professionals, and their families. While they may seem different, they all share in the fact that their success has brought complexity to their lives and they need a partner to provide sophisticated planning and solutions. For some it is the challenge of multigenerational wealth transfer, for others the planning of an exit from a closely held business, and for many, the development of a comprehensive strategy for managing their wealth across life stages. Regardless, they count on me to be the quarterback of a process that brings a combination of Bernstein resources to partner with them and their other trusted advisors and identify the best path for the future.

Logan Walters is a private equity investor and business advisor with over 15 years of finance, operations, and consulting experience working primarily in institutional private equity firms and operating companies. During his career he has completed mergers and acquisitions with over $1.25 billion in aggregate value. He prides himself most on the many relationships he has developed with entrepreneurs and investors who have trusted him as a financial and/or strategic partner.

Bret West recently joined PNC Business Credit in 2021 as a senior vice president and business development officer serving the Texas, Louisiana and Southwest markets. He is based in Houston, Texas.

Previously, Bret had an extensive career in commercial/corporate banking as the Head of Energy Services Group at Wells Fargo Bank. Bret developed the strategies that helped to propel bank’s success and leadership position over the past 20+ years in the areas of loan syndication, capital markets, treasury management and corporate services.

Bret began his career with Barnett Banks in Tampa where he received his formal credit training before becoming a Business Banker, Credit Officer and then Middle Market lending.

Bret received his B.A. in Finance from the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He is active with his church and the community and has served on corporate boards of National Association of Oceans Industries (“NOIA”) and Literacy Now, a Houston non-profit focused on literacy intervention.

Luke Westerman is a former Wall Street investment banker and venture capitalist with 20+ years experience investing in and advising dynamic entrepreneurs.

He is currently active in several companies and projects in Houston and also serves as a Director at Westerman Capital, a family office.

He and his partner Ale reside primarily in Houston along with their 15 year old hurricane rescue dog, Franky. They are passionate about the arts and are devoted animal welfare advocates.

Dr. Sunny Zhang is an award-winning educator, entrepreneur, and investor. She is the founder of TrueLeap Inc., an education technology provider improving global access to quality digital education. A tenured professor at the University of St. Thomas, Dr. Zhang has been teaching in business schools for 20 years. She co-founded Born Global Ventures (startup studio) and Born Global Community (501c3) supporting global startups and diverse entrepreneurs.