Houston 2025 and Beyond

HOuston2025

From left: Atul Badwal, Vice President, Additech Inc., John Moseley, Senior Director, Port of Houston, Consul General of India, Parvathaneni Harish, Sutapa Ghosh, Advisor and Co-chair, Houston 2025 and Beyond, Ed Gonzalez, Mayor Pro Tem, Dipankar Sinharoy, Track Lead, Houston 2025 and Beyond.

HOUSTON: The inaugural Houston 2025 and Beyond business forum and gala, July 9 and 10, at the Hilton America’s Hotel in downtown Houston, can be cogently summarized in the phrase “It’s about Houston and You …”. The idea is smooth out the deep troughs of the energy cycles with increased commerce through the Port of Houston, top-notch universities, and a globe-leading medical center. Day 1 featured an opening ceremony, followed by a forum discussion and spirited Q&A session, a cocktail reception and wound down with an elegant gala and entertainment. Day 2 featured impressive forums featuring industry and government leaders which were all very well attended.

The opening ceremony featured ribbon-cutting by the Honorable Consul General of India, Parvathaneni Harish and speeches by Harish and Mayor Pro Tem, Ed Gonzalez. Harish congratulated the organizers on setting up a forward-looking agenda incorporating the best minds for the future growth and development of Houston. Ed Gonzalez expressed his satisfaction with the level of interaction and community involvement in furthering energy development and sustainability programs right in our own backyard.

The business forum quickly got down to brass tacks with an enthralling discussion on the Future of Energy: Innovation, Sustainability and Diversity was moderated by and Ramanan Krishnamoorti, Chief Energy Officer, U of H and featured industry leaders Ram Shenoy, CTO, Conoco Phillips, Dr. Sergio Kapusta, CTO of Technel, June Ressler, President, Cenergy Companies, Graeme Pirie, VP of Business Development, DNV-GL. The forum focused on STEM education, the challenges of retooling the existing workforce to take on the changing needs of tomorrow and the constant drive to extend the research boundaries to achieve a diverse and sustainable future.

The evening was rounded off with a cocktail reception and an elegant gala in the ball room, organized by Sutapa Ghosh, Advisor and co-chair. The ambience was wonderful and drew a lot of oohs and aahs from all in attendance. John Moseley, Senior Director, Port of Houston recognized the signing of the Memorandum of Friendship and Partnership with the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), Mumbai, India. Honorable Councilman Jack Christie and former Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia were also present and spoke about the diversity of Houston and the sense of community service and long term plans espoused by Houston 2025. The gala was emceed by Nate Griffin of Fox 26 and the evening’s entertainment was provided by Moodafaruka and Rhythm India, who kept the audience completely enthralled with their energetic performances.

The next day was feature-packed with forums and lunch discussions. The morning’s forum, Dos and Don’ts of doing business in India and Bangladesh was moderated by Asoke Deysarkar and featured Prof. Sugata Bose, MP – India and Gardner Professor of History, Harvard University, Rashed Khan Menon, Minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism, Bangladesh and Dean Wenner, Executive VP – Richard Design System Inc. The next session Fracking to LNG: Optimizing Operation Costs on Surface Drilling discussed the importance of increasing efficiency and lowering cost especially in these times of low crude prices. It was moderated by Rustom K. Mody, VP/ Chief Engineer, Baker Hughes and featured Prof. Akhil Datta-Gupta, Texas A&M, Richard Green, Region Segment Lead, DNV-GL, Nameer Siddiqui, MD, Goldman Sachs; Mickey Callanan, COO, PfP Industries; Vik Rao, Exec Director, RTEC. Lunch featured a speech explaining the history of Indo-US relations by Swadesh Chatterjee, recipient of the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian awards.

After lunch, there were additional discussion around the Fracking to LNG Tracts – Impact of HSE and Future Regulations with panelists Sean Riccardelli, President, RCS and Tim Armitt, Director, Lavender International; Operations and Future Trends with panelists Ajay Batra, Director, Cheniere Energy, Chris Caswell, Director, KBR, Tony Teo, Director, Keppel; Future Trends and Risk Management moderated by Ruth Liao, Editor, LNG Americas at ICIS Heren with panelists Ajay Batra, Director, Cheniere Energy, Rashed Haq, VP, Sapient Global Markets.

Houston 2025 and Beyond is an independent non-profit organization whose main objective is to bring together thought leaders from various fields in Houston and abroad to build a better Houston together for 2025 and beyond. The people behind this conference are Asoke DeySarkar and Sutapa Ghosh, Advisors and co-chairs, Jayant K Roy Choudhury and Soovo Sen, co-chairs, Shiladitya Basu and Dipankar Sinharoy, Track Leads along with the forum committee members – Raja Roy, Hirakesh Roy, Mrinal Choudhuri, Indrani de Sirkar, Surupa Shaw, Subrata Dasgupta and Nirmalya Roy.