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Future-focused Houston nonprofit names leadership plans

transition plans

David Gow has been named president and CEO of the Center for Houston's Future, succeeding Brett Perlman who's focusing on the organization's hydrogen mission. Photos courtesy

A nonprofit organization dedicated to leading Houston into the future has named its next leader.

The Center for Houston’s Future named David Gow as president and CEO, succeeding Brett Perlman, who was announced in April to be remaining at the Center with a focus on the Center’s hydrogen initiative. Gow is the founder and chairman of Gow Media, EnergyCapital's parent company. His role is effective September 3.

“I am excited to step into this opportunity with the Center and work with the team, the board and many other stakeholders to help shape Houston’s future,” Gow says in a news release. “The Center presents an exciting opportunity to cast a vision for our region and identify initiatives that will make an impact.”

Gow — whose career includes a portfolio of online media properties and ESPN Radio — is a board member of Goose Capital and chair of MSAI, an entity he formed through a SPAC acquisition. Before he founded Gow Media, he served as CFO and CEO of an online watch retailer, Ashford.com. Prior to Ashford, Gow was director of corporate strategy at Compaq Computers and a consultant at McKinsey & Co. He received his master’s in public policy from Harvard and his bachelor's in economics from Williams College.

“David’s portfolio of experiences and skills, record of innovation and success, and deep commitment to the Houston community make him the perfect fit to lead the Center as we chart and execute on our next set of initiatives focused on ensuring a bright future for all residents in the Houston region,” adds Center for Houston’s Future Board Chair Cindy Yeilding.

In his new role, Gow will lead the Center’s next effort, Vision 2050, which plans to identify the city's key issues, gaps, and opportunities.

“Today’s announcement also reflects the success of the Center’s clean hydrogen program,” Yeilding continues. “On behalf of the Center’s board, I’d also like to recognize Brett for launching and building such a successful and important effort as well as his overall leadership and record of achievement at the Center these past seven years.”

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

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Hear from the leading ladies behind the latest endeavor at Gow Media. Photo courtesy of The Green Insider

Friday Feature: Hear from the ladies leading EnergyCapitalHTX.com

(POD)CAST OF CHARACTERS

With the initial launch of EnergyCapitalHTX behind us, please turn your attention to the ECHTX Friday Feature–a rotating content share of intelligent and interesting podcasts covering relevant topics and people initiating transition across the energy industry.

Mike Nemer and Greg Frank, hosts of The Green Insider, graciously shared with ECHTX a recent episode to kick off the series.

In this shameless plug, listen in as Lindsey Ferrell, editor of ECHTX, and Misti Pace-Krahl, vice president of business development, discuss the details of the newest website for all things Energy Transition brought to you by Gow Media. Like its sister sites, CultureMap and InnovationMap, subscribers to ECHTX can expect to stay informed of the latest news, trends, and topics of interest across the energy industry.

The premiere sponsors of the ECHTX site, Greater Houston Partnership and Houston Energy Transition Initiative, known as HETI, support the site’s mission to connect the incumbent energy industry with cleaner and greener energy programs on a global level.

Be sure to subscribe for regular updates of how the world is leveraging the industry expertise, talented leadership, existing infrastructure, and established financiers of Houston to accelerate global transition to an energy abundant, low-carbon future.

Hear the entire episode below.


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Chevron CEO touts biofuels as part of its renewable energy efforts

Betting on biofuels

As Chevron Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth surveys the renewable energy landscape, he sees the most potential in biofuels.

At a recent WSJ CEO Council event, Wirth put a particular emphasis on biofuels—the most established form of renewable energy—among the mix of low-carbon energy sources. According to Biofuels International, Chevron operates nine biorefineries around the world.

Biofuels are made from fats and oils, such as canola oil, soybean oil and used cooking oil.

At Chevron’s renewable diesel plant in Geismar, Louisiana, a recent expansion boosted annual production by 278 percent — from 90 million gallons to 340 million gallons. To drive innovation in the low-carbon-fuels sector, Chevron opened a technology center this summer at its renewable energy campus in Ames, Iowa.

Across the board, Chevron has earmarked $8 billion to advance its low-carbon business by 2028.

In addition to biofuels, Chevron’s low-carbon strategy includes hydrogen, although Wirth said hydrogen “is proving to be very difficult” because “you’re fighting the laws of thermodynamics.”

Nonetheless, Chevron is heavily invested in the hydrogen market:

As for geothermal energy, Wirth said it shows “some real promise.” Chevron’s plans for this segment of the renewable energy industry include a 20-megawatt geothermal pilot project in Northern California, according to the California Community Choice Association. The project is part of an initiative that aims to eventually produce 600 megawatts of geothermal energy.

What about solar and wind power?

“We start with things where we have some reason to believe we can create shareholder value, where we’ve got skills and competency, so we didn’t go into wind or solar because we’re not a turbine manufacturer installing wind and solar,” he said in remarks reported by The Wall Street Journal.

In a September interview with The New York Times, Wirth touched on Chevron’s green energy capabilities.

“We are investing in new technologies, like hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, lithium and renewable fuels,” Wirth said. “They are growing fast but off a very small base. We need to do things that meet demand as it exists and then evolve as demand evolves.”

Houston robotics company partners with Marathon Petroleum to scale fleet

robot alliance

Houston- and Boston-based Square Robot Inc. has announced a partnership with downstream and midstream energy giant Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC).

The partnership comes with an undisclosed amount of funding from Marathon, which Square Robot says will help "shape the design and development" of its submersible robotics platform and scale its fleet for nationwide tank inspections.

“Marathon’s partnership marks a major milestone in our mission to transform industrial tank inspection,” David Lamont, CEO of Square Robot, said in a news release. “They recognize the proven value of our robotic inspections—eliminating confined space entry, reducing the environmental impact, and delivering major cost efficiencies all while keeping tanks on-line and working. We’re excited to work together with such a great company to expand inspection capabilities and accelerate innovation across the industry.”

The company closed a $13 million series B last year. At the time of closing, Square Robot said it would put the funding toward international expansion in Europe and the Middle East.

Square Robot develops autonomous, submersible robots that are used for storage tank inspections and eliminate the need for humans to enter dangerous and toxic environments. Its newest tank inspection robot, known as the SR-3HT, became commercially available and certified to operate at a broader temperature range than previous models in the company's portfolio this fall.

The company was first founded in the Boston area in 2016 and launched its Houston office in 2019.

$3B acquisition of hazardous waste co. tops latest energy news to know

Trending news

Editor's note: The top energy transition news for the month includes Veolia's $3 billion Clean Earth acquisition and ERCOT's new $9.4 billion project. Here are the five most-read EnergyCapitalHTX stories from December 1-16, 2025:

1. Hazardous waste company with Houston presence to make $3B acquisition

Veolia will acquire Clean Earth. Photo courtesy of Veolia/LinkedIn

Veolia, a Boston-based company with major operations in Texas, is purchasing hazardous-waste company Clean Earth from Enviri as part of a $3 billion deal. Veolia is a private water operator, technology provider and hazardous waste and pollution treatment company that operates a large hazardous waste treatment and incineration facility in Port Arthur. Hazardous waste treatment is a growing sector as the clean energy, semiconductor manufacturing, healthcare and pharmaceutical industries generate high levels of waste that need to be handled safely. Continue reading.

2. Federal judge strikes Trump order blocking wind energy development

A federal judge has thrown out President Trump's executive order blocking wind energy development, calling it 'arbitrary and capricious.' Photo by Moritz Lange via Unsplash.

In a win for clean energy and wind projects in Texas and throughout the U.S., a federal judge struck down President Donald Trump’s “Day One” executive order that blocked wind energy development on federal lands and waters, the Associated Press reports. Judge Patti Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts vacated Trump’s executive order from Jan. 20, declaring it unlawful and calling it “arbitrary and capricious.” Continue reading.

3. Air Liquide and Hyundai ink partnership to scale hydrogen economy

Air Liquide and Hyundai agreed to expand hydrogen refuelling networks, storage capacity and more at a meeting in Seoul last week. Photo courtesy Air Liquide.

Air Liquide, which maintains its U.S. headquarters in Houston, and South Korea-based Hyundai Motor Group are expanding their strategic partnership to accelerate the growth of the global hydrogen ecosystem. The renewal of the companies’ Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was announced at the Hydrogen Council CEO Summit in Seoul last week. Together, the companies will work to scale hydrogen production, storage, transportation and utilization across Europe, Korea and the United States with a concentration on heavy-duty transport, logistics and public transportation. Continue reading.

4. ERCOT approves $9.4B project to improve grid, meet data center demand

ERCOT plans to build a “super highway” of new transmission lines to boost grid reliability. Photo via Getty Images

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the electric grid for 90 percent of Texans, is undertaking a $9.4 billion project to improve the reliability and efficiency of statewide power distribution. The initiative comes as ERCOT copes with escalating demand for electricity from data centers and cryptocurrency-mining facilities. Continue reading.

5. Reliant partners to expand Texas virtual power plant and home battery use

Reliant is offering new incentives to boost NRG's virtual power plant network in Texas. Photo via goodleap.com.

Houston’s Reliant and San Francisco tech company GoodLeap are teaming up to bolster residential battery participation and accelerate the growth of NRG’s virtual power plant (VPP) network in Texas. Through the new partnership, eligible Reliant customers can either lease a battery or enter into a power purchase agreement that incentivizes users by offering monthly performance-based rewards for contributing stored power to the grid. Continue reading.

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