Two Local Firms with Booths at this Year’s OTC
Ramesh Anand (left), President of American Personnel Services with visitors to his booth: Gitesh Desai (second from left) and his brother Pradeep Anand (third from right) and their friends and colleagues.
By Jawahar Malhotra
HOUSTON: Even though attendance was much lower than previous years at the Offshore Technology Conference, there were signs of a resurgence in confidence among the delegates who attended the four day event last week from May 1 through May 4 at the NRG Park and Stadium. That was encouraging news to two small businesses which have their eyes set on growing as the oil bust starts recovering. Both of them had booths this year at the OTC.
The first is Dartex Industries, started by the veteran oil and gas professional T.J. Sinha who has worked with several other notable firms in town. This is his first foray into business on his own and he feels optimistic. Dartex Industries has a plant in Delhi to manufacture high pressure gaskets, flanges, needle valves and flowline equipment.
T J Sinha (left), President of Dartex Industries Inc, Texas at his booth with Deputy Indian Consul General Surendra Adhana at the OTC.
Sinha has worked worldwide in the oil industry for the past 45 years and has established offices in Faridabad (southeast of Delhi), Houston and Esbjerg, on the western coast of Denmark. The Dartex Industries booth was located among the cluster of other Danish booths.
The other firm was American Personnel Services, whose booth featured giant-sized color pictures of the founder’s two dogs Rocky and Max. “That really got people to stop and talk to us,” grinned APS founder and President Ramesh Anand. “It was better than having a bunch of nuts and bolts or equipment lying there.”
Anand estimates that close to 500 people visit his booth and that he was able to develop significant ties to partner up with other companies too. Anand has been in the recruitment and search business for over 30 years, having started in it in 1984 in his hometown Mumbai. He started APS in 1994 after he moved to the Houston area. It is APS’ second year at the OTC and Anand promises to be back next year too.