Margaret Wallace Brown, AICP, CNU-A (B.S. ’83)

Former Director, City of Houston Planning and Development Department

Margaret Brown is the retired Director of the City of Houston’s Planning & Development Department. With more than 35 years of public service, her experience is a unique combination of policy and engagement. Throughout her tenure as director, she infused innovation into the City’s land-development regulatory system and fostered collaboration with customers and the general public. Through her efforts, the City’s regulatory environment refocused toward more walkable, context-sensitive development, creating better streetscapes and more compact, multi-modal developments.

Margaret is certified by both the American Institute of City Planners and the Congress for the New Urbanism and has served on numerous national and local committees in the planning, architecture, and land-development arenas. A died-in-the-wool Houstonian, she spends her free time cheering on the Coogs and enjoying the green spaces our City has to offer.

Paul Donovan

Retired Real Estate Executive – ExxonMobil

Paul Donovan is Principal of PMD RE Consulting Services, LLC. His company provides Real Estate and IT Infrastructure support to the Permian Strategic Partnership. Donovan is a retired real estate executive from Exxon Mobil Environmental Services Company with over 36 years of company service. He began his career with Exxon Company USA in June 1984 on the internal audit staff and eventually took on additional responsibilities and was a supervisor in Downstream Controller’s Refining and Financial System Development. Donovan began his real estate career in May 1998. That July, the Exxon Upstream Development Company was formed, where he led a 350ksf renovation of Greenspoint 4 and 6. In 1999, he was named manager of the Exxon Mobil merger team, and his team completed over 30,000 moves and renovation of hundreds of thousands of spaces throughout Houston (~6msf).

In late 2000, Donovan moved to London and led real estate projects across Northern Europe, West Africa and the Middle East, including the Saudi Gas Initiatives. In 2004, Donovan returned to Houston as the southern facilities manager and led real estate facility operations across the southern United States, including all industrial facilities. In 2007, Donovan moved to Fort McMurray as facilities manager for Syncrude Canada, Ltd and took over all of the Imperial Oil facilities in 2008. In April 2009, Donovan became program manager for what was to become the Exxon Mobil Spring Campus. Donovan led the design and execution strategy for the campus, supported by 45 architectural, engineering, and project management firms.

In July 2011, Donovan was named project executive for the Imperial Oil campus in Calgary. Donovan’s team designed and executed this award-winning campus, which was completed in early 2016, culminating with Imperial Oil’s annual shareholders meeting. Both of these projects were lifetime opportunities that he was privileged to be a part of. In 2016, Donovan returned to Houston and was the global projects manager responsible for executing projects in Shanghai, Baytown, Baton Rouge ,Guyana, and Singapore.

Donovan retired from Exxon Mobil on October 31, 2020, after a nine-month loan assignment to the Permian Strategic Partnership. In 2021, Paul received CoreNet Houston’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He remains active in CoreNet. He received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Northeastern University and is a retired Certified Public Accountant.

Andrea Downs

President, DEBNER

As the president of DEBNER, a commercial furniture and services company, Andrea Downs is a vision-driven leader with the ability to motivate talent and build exceptional sales organizations, drawing upon years of consultative sales experience, strategic problem-solving, and entrepreneurial experience. She is privileged to work in a creative industry blending her passion for design with business strategy and execution.

Prior to joining DEBNER, Downs was the Knoll Regional Director for the third largest region in Knoll’s portfolio. During her 19 years at Knoll, she held multiple executive positions, including Market Development Manager and Divisional Vice President of KnollTextiles. Downs enjoyed creating strategy and revenue growth for a global luxury brand. She understands how our environment can positively benefit our wellness and work outcomes for individuals, teams, and organizations.

Born and raised in Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, Downs graduated from the University of North Carolina - Greensboro with a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design and a minor in Political Science. She has lived in Nashville, Tennessee, and more recently in Chicago, Illinois, for ten years before moving to Houston in 2012. Downs currently serves as the treasurer of the Board of Fresh Arts Houston and as a fundraising member of the Steer Auction Committee of The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

Downs has one son who is a freshman at the University of Arkansas and another son who is a senior at St. Thomas High School. When not spending time with her sons, she enjoys spending time with friends, knitting, running, and traveling.

Chris Hines

Director – *rand construction corporation

Chris Hines is a native Houstonian and a proud graduate of the University of Houston in 1989. The Hines family is definitely a cougar family, with Chris’ father graduating in the 40s, his brother graduating in 1974, and his son graduating in construction science last year.

Chris has been in the commercial construction industry for 36 years, specializing in high-end corporate interiors projects as well as new construction and data centers. Chris was CEO and managing partner for Trademark Construction in Houston for 29 years and was acquired by HITT Contracting in 2016. Chris remained on board at the newly integrated firms for six and a half years and opened new offices in San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas.

Since then, Chris has been working for Rand Construction and launched a new office for the company in Houston two years ago. He is most proud of how he worked his way through the field for a few years, learning to be a builder. This experience has served him well with this background.

Chris has two children, 21 and 25 years old, and looking forward to grandkids soon.

Angela Hodson

Chief Philanthropy Officer, YMCA of Greater Houston

Angela Hodson joined the YMCA of Greater Houston in May 2021 as the Chief Philanthropy Officer, bringing 28 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. She has a unique and diverse perspective, having served as a consultant with Dini Spheris for organizations of all sizes through capital campaigns and strategic planning for almost a decade. Providing a path for these organizations to create sustainable fundraising and reach their fullest potential is Hodson’s passion and drive.

Hodson honed her leadership skills while serving as President and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston, where she transitioned the organization from its previous leader of fifty years to a renewed approach and focus on impact, updated processes, and quality programs.

Prior to this, Hodson served as Vice President of Baylor College of Medicine where foremost among her accomplishments was successfully managing their $1 billion capital campaign for five years. These roles have given her the knowledge and capability to lead teams and individuals to realize their greatest strengths and maximize their success.

In her role as the YMCA's Chief Philanthropy Officer, Angela provides strategic leadership to advance sustainable and innovative development programs that further the YMCA of Greater Houston’s mission. Hodson has a B.A. in Journalism from Texas A&M University, where she played on the women’s golf team. She has two daughters and enjoys hiking, playing golf, and exploring national parks.

John E. Walsh, Jr.

Retired Professional and Non-profit Volunteer

John E. Walsh, Jr. is a Houstonian with a professional career in real estate development, public service, institutional development, and leadership roles in a wide range of community-oriented civic and cultural programs.

Walsh is an active volunteer with Executive Service Corps Houston with a focus on assistance to non-profit organizations in the areas of market research, finance, outreach, business planning, real estate acquisition, planning, and development.

Walsh has served as Director of the Graduate Real Estate Program at the University of Houston C. T. Bauer College of Business. He served as Director of Real Estate and Campus Planning for the University of Houston System, where projects included the development of the UH Energy Research Park. Walsh has been extensively involved in leadership roles with Exxon’s real estate subsidiary – Friendswood Development Company, the Urban Land Institute, and the Greater Houston Partnership. In 2003, he joined Mayor Bill White’s staff as Deputy Chief of Staff for Neighborhoods and Housing.

Throughout his career, Walsh has been recognized with the following awards: NASA’s Public Service medal, the Anti-Defamation League’s Torch of Liberty Award, the National Jewish Committee’s Institute of Human Relations Award, the Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year Award, and three University of Houston awards (the President’s Service Award, the Center for Public Policy Vision Award and the College of Social Sciences Volunteer of the Year Award). Walsh is an active participant in various community organizations, including the Hermann Park Conservancy, Avenue CDC, Buffalo Bayou Partnership, and the Fifth Ward Redevelopment.