XPX Houston 2026 Summit
Empowering Growth | Elevating Value
Location
Houston Country Club,
1 Potomac Dr, Houston, TX 77057
Date
Thursday, February 12th, 2026
Coming Soon
Moderators & Panelists
Jonathan Babcock
Jonathan Babcock joined Compass Group in 2022 and is responsible for sourcing and evaluating new investment opportunities.
Prior to joining Compass Group, Jonathan worked in various roles providing strategic guidance to private equity groups and their portfolio companies. Jonathan began his career working in buy-side and sell-side investment banking, leading target identification on both platform and add-on acquisitions for private equity groups and corporations collectively managing over $1B in committed capital. Additionally, Jonathan provided transaction support for senior-level deal managers including financial modeling, valuations, and industry research for companies ranging from $50M to $250M.
Jonathan holds a B.A. in Accounting from MidAmerica Nazarene University and is an MBA Candidate at Washington University in St. Louis Olin Business School.
Bobby Beason
Bobby Beason is a serial entrepreneur and founder of VSSTA Inc., an automotive diagnostic equipment company providing ADAS calibration and scanning services to collision repair shops nationwide. VSSTA completed a majority recapitalization in 2025, and Bobby now serves as interim CEO. He previously owned and exited several collision centers.
Bobby has a passion for the automotive industry, software development, and electronics. Outside of work, he enjoys fishing, cooking, and collaborating with his daughter on her entrepreneurial ventures.
Bob Boesiger
Bob Boesiger is the Managing Director of the Estate Strategies and Trust Practice. He works closely with each client to create an effective estate planning design and assists in implementing appropriate strategies and techniques to achieve the client’s goals and objectives.
Bob is well-versed in various legal, charitable, life insurance-based, and asset protection strategies that provide the tools to create unique and effective plans. In his practice, Bob takes a holistic approach to create plans to provide greater security and protection to shield client assets from taxes and losses during the most challenging financial and legal situations.
He and his practice complete the planning process by providing each client with sophisticated executive summaries and ongoing trust accounting and tax compliance.
Prior to joining the firm, Bob was a practicing attorney, most recently owning his own law firm and adding over 10 years of experience with a large Detroit-based law firm. In his nearly 30-year legal career, he assisted families with estate transfers and wealth planning and practiced corporate law for closely held business owners. Bob has also served as the Director of Wealth Planning with a multi-state regional bank and a national strategist for a boutique life insurance-based planning practice.
Bill Boffa
Jim Briggs
Bobby Bryan
Bobby Bryan joined Compass Group in 2021 and is focused on evaluating and executing new investment opportunities. In addition, Bobby provides operational finance support for the management teams of Compass Group portfolio companies.
Prior to joining Compass Group, Bobby spent nearly seven years at Aegion Corporation where he held leadership roles in the Strategy & Corporate Development group as well as the Operational Finance group. Prior to joining Aegion, Bobby spent seven years in investment banking, most recently serving as Vice President at GulfStar Group. Before starting a career in finance, Bobby was a minor league pitcher in the Kansas City Royals organization.
Bobby earned his MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and a BA from Rice University.
Jack Chang
Jack Chang is the founder and a Managing Director at DGP Capital, an independent investment bank focused on early/growth-stage technology-oriented energy and industrial companies. Jack has executed over $4 billion in transactions within the energy and industrial sectors, including M&A, Initial Public Offerings, and Private Placements. He holds Series 79, 63 and 82 licenses*. Prior to DGP, Jack was a Director within GE Venture’s Oil and Gas Investment team. While at GE Ventures, he focused on technology-enabled midstream, downstream and process industry investments. Prior to GE Ventures, Jack was an Associate Director within UBS’ Global Natural Resources Investment Banking group. While at UBS, he executed transactions for upstream, midstream, downstream and oil-field service companies. Before joining UBS, Jack was a member of Tyco International’s corporate strategy and business development team. Jack earned his BS in Electrical Engineering and MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.
Joe Corkin
Steve Curry
Steve Curry is the Founder and CEO of MustardSeed, a project leadership firm that helps business owners, operators, and investors protect value during periods of growth, acquisition, and post-close integration. He specializes in the execution risks that most often undermine M&A outcomes, including system integrations, operational handoffs, multi-vendor coordination, and governance breakdowns following a transaction.
As founder, Steve is directly accountable for MustardSeed’s delivery approach and the outcomes achieved by its teams. He works closely with owners and executive leadership to advise on integration strategy, establish execution governance, and ensure that complex initiatives move forward with discipline and control. Under his leadership, MustardSeed embeds experienced project leaders inside client organizations to drive day-to-day execution while maintaining alignment with leadership priorities and transaction objectives.
Steve’s experience spans finance, operations, and large-scale project execution across highly regulated and performance-driven environments. Through teams he leads and advises, he has supported post-acquisition integrations ranging from middle-market transactions to large, multi-business integrations within global, Fortune 500 food and consumer packaged goods organizations.
Nikolay Gergov
Rich Hall
Rich Hall is a trusted M&A Advisor, Business Advisor, and Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) dedicated to helping business owners prepare themselves and their companies for successful transitions. Drawing from a corporate career spanning executive leadership, business turnarounds, and mergers & acquisitions, Rich offers an unparalleled blend of experience and strategic insight.
As the founder of Rich Hall Group, he specializes in aligning business value with owners' financial goals, ensuring that their legacy and hard work translate into lasting success. Rich’s work has led to transformative results, including tripling the exit value of a family-owned software company and guiding a technology business from near insolvency to record-breaking revenue and profitability.
Rich’s approach centers on building value-driven, sellable businesses while preparing owners for their next chapter. He goes beyond exit planning, actively guiding owners through the M&A process — from positioning companies to attract buyers, to leading the entire selling process.
An accomplished speaker and author of The Exit Planning Journey™, Rich engages audiences with practical strategies and real-world insights. He is a recognized leader in his field, serving as a Silver Fox Advisor, CEO Roundtable Chair, and mastermind group facilitator. Rich’s expertise spans industries, including oil & gas, technology, healthcare, manufacturing, professional services, and more.
Sharon Heaton
Sharon B. Heaton, the CEO and Founder of sbLiftOff, is dedicated to serving commercial and government contracting clients. An avidly sought speaker on M&A, Heaton’s book LIFT OFF: 12 Things to Know Before Selling Your Business, published by Forbes, an Amazon bestseller, is in its second edition. Heaton also shares her thought leadership in Harvard Business Review, Federal News Network, Washington Business Journal and other trade and regional outlets around the country.
Her M&A advisory firm has a national reputation with founder owners who want to sell or buy a company–and lift off to their next adventure. Heaton has been associated with the global law firms of Skadden Arpsand Latham & Watkins and has served as Senior Counsel on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, General Counsel and Deputy Staff Director of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. She co-founded Wellford Energy Group, an investment bank serving clean energy and low carbon companies. Previously, she was Deputy Counsel of a Fortune 500 company operating in ten states.
Ms. Heaton holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Chicago Law School and a B.A. from Barnard College.
Brandon Henry
Before founding Mosaic, Brandon spent time at some of the nation’s largest financial firms, where he had the opportunity to advise hundreds of business owners and their families on the intersection of business, tax, and succession planning. Today, Mosaic serves a handful of Texas based entrepreneurial families with significant liquid holdings. Client families are typically first-generation founders with most of their success tied up in their operating company and real estate while trying to navigate the inevitable complexities that accompany substantial success. These families tend to outsource the bulk of their technical needs such as tax, legal, investment, and insurance to specialists that commonly work independently, rarely communicating or collaborating with each other.
Bill Herrington
Bill was a commercial banker for over 30 years with Hibernia National Bank in New Orleans and Capital One in Houston. He managed many industries and divisions in his banking career, including energy services, maritime, retail, gaming, syndications, and U.S. corporate. In 2018, Bill joined Amerisource, and in 2021, he co-founded the Amerisource Secured Income Fund, where he is a general partner. Amerisource has diversified into the private equity space and established the Amerisource Opportunity Fund, which will support independent sponsor equity investors. Bill earned his B.S. and Master's in Finance from LSU and completed the General Manager Program at Harvard Business School. He is the author of two award-winning books: Contraflow, a memoir about Hurricane Katrina, and The Green Real Deal, an examination of and balanced proposal for American energy policy.
Rodrigo Himiob
Christine Hollinden
Christine Hollinden, principal of Hollinden | growth without guesswork, leverages her expertise in consulting, M&A, marketing, and financing from roles at Grant Thornton, PwC, and KPMG to help organizations achieve growth. She is a frequent presenter for the AICPA, AM&AA, Association of Financial Professionals, BDO, and Geneva Group International, among others. An active leader in her community, she is the Chapter Leader of AM&AA Houston, Board Member for the financial literacy organization, the 5 Buckets Foundation for financial literacy and Board Member of the Texas Business Hall of Fame. In her spare time, Christine is an avid golfer and is president of a food and wine society.
Steven Kesten
Gregory Kostiuk
Greg has spent more than 25 years building and leading world-class sales teams. His career path has taken him from his birthplace in Western Canada to stops in England, France, and Russia, landing in Houston in the late 1990s, where he has resided ever since. He has worked at various companies in the energy space, from large multinational corporations like Schlumberger and Nabors Industries to private companies of various sizes, including start-ups and early-stage technology organizations. At Nabors, he was responsible for the sales and marketing efforts of the technology division, Canrig Drilling Technology. During Greg’s tenure, the organization enjoyed tremendous growth, and the brand achieved global recognition for its multiple products and services. Recently, Greg served as the COO of Energi Bizz, an e-commerce startup, and before that, he was the vice president of Evolution Engineering, a technology-focused manufacturer ultimately acquired by Baker Hughes.
Now, Greg is the President and Founder of StratEX Sales. As an expert sales advisor and practitioner with decades of experience, he helps businesses address challenges across the entire spectrum of revenue-generation activities. Often, this involves implementing a Certified Sales Operating and Management System. This comprehensive approach encompasses all elements needed in a modern, thriving sales environment, resulting in predictable and scalable growth.
Michael Landers
Michael Landers brings over 20 years of extensive audit and business advisory experience, concentrating his practice in strategic financial planning and corporate transactions. His proficiency includes M&A, deal structuring, SEC reporting, and ensuring GAAP compliance, which positions him as a resource for both public and privately held companies. Michael conducts thorough due diligence reviews, where he assesses accounting policies, earnings quality, working capital, cash flow, asset valuation, and operational processes.
His approach enables him to provide nuanced insights that significantly enhance the strategic decisions and financial structures of his clients. His ability to integrate complex financial data with strategic business planning makes him a crucial figure in guiding significant corporate transactions and a trusted advisor to each of his clients.
Mark Henderson Leary
Mark loves to help business owners get the most out of their people, their businesses, and themselves through a simple, efficient, and comprehensive system: the Entrepreneurial Operating System®. As an Expert EOS Implementer®, he has worked with hundreds of companies in small and large ways to help them live their best entrepreneurial lives now and run businesses that matter by helping them get out of their own way, simplify how they run their businesses, and giving them access to the same tools and information that the most successful companies are using.
Chris McCarty
Chris has a passion for family, playing golf, and entrepreneurship. After a short career in professional golf, he transitioned into business coaching and development. For the past 20 years, Chris has used his passion for entrepreneurship to build multiple businesses, and he continues to share his experiences to help other entrepreneurs build and grow their businesses.
Chris specializes in executive coaching and leadership team training by helping the teams he works with clarify their visions, gain traction through discipline and accountability, and improve overall team health.
As a lifelong entrepreneur, he started his first business working with restaurants and entertainment venues. In 2010, Chris founded Einstein Marketing Concepts, a strategic marketing firm that is dedicated to helping clients build a vision for their business and execute their visions by utilizing the fundamental components of business development.
Whether it is in his own businesses or in his executive coaching practice, Chris truly believes in a help-first philosophy. He is passionate about helping others build their businesses and helping them have the freedom to live a life they love.
John McKee
John McKee is the principal and founder of Encore Advisory Group, which provides exit and succession planning, and financial consulting, for small and medium-sized businesses. Using these tools, John helps owners transform their relationship with their business by working with them to clarify their goals and then putting an action plan in place to attain them. John has earned a Certification in Exit Planning (CExP) from Business Enterprise International, Inc. and a certification in Leadership Coaching from the Doerr Institute for Leadership at Rice University.
Prior to starting Encore Advisory Group, John spent 25 years as a commercial lender working with owners of small to medium-sized privately held companies to help them fund and grow their businesses. From that experience, John developed an in-depth understanding of the challenges that business owners face. He started Encore Advisory Group in 2018 to help business owners meet those challenges.
John is from Tyler, Texas, but has lived in Houston since 1993. He and his wife, Miranda, have two sons, Tyler and Maxwell. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in finance and a concentration in accounting. John formerly served as treasurer and board member at First Presbyterian Church. He is currently an active member of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church. John is an Eagle Scout and active as an adult leader in Boy Scouts.
Brett Pardue
Kim Petersen
Kim is Managing Director and heads the Houston office for Checchi Capital Advisers, a quantitively driven investment management firm. She specializes in advising business owners and corporate executives through significant life transitions, providing tailored financial strategies to navigate these pivotal events.
Prior to joining Checchi Capital, Kim worked with early-stage venture capital firms in Houston, advising their portfolio company CEOs on strategic growth initiatives and operational excellence. Previously, Kim had a distinguished 22-year career at JPMorgan in Houston. During her tenure as Managing Director there, Kim built and ran several business verticals, including specialized wealth advisory services for CEOs and business owners.
Kim continues to mentor young entrepreneurs and is active in the Houston community. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Association for Corporate Growth (“ACG”) Houston; The University of Texas Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee; The University of Texas McCombs School of Business Parents Council; and EDEN Grow Systems. She also served on the Boards of Directors of The Children’s Museum of Houston and River Oaks Baptist School; as well as River Oaks Baptist School Executive, Finance (Chair) and Advancement Committees; and Duchesne Academy Investment Committee. Kim graduated from The University of Texas at Austin and holds her Series 65 license. She and her husband have three children and live in Houston.
Dan Russell
George Sandmann
Transfer Path • Boosting Value Before You Sell: 12–24 Month Game Plan
George Sandmann is the founder and CEO of Growth-Drive, a technology-powered business growth system used by advisors and owners to build scalable, sellable, and investable private companies. A former attorney turned entrepreneur, George brings over 30 years of experience in founding, growing, and advising companies, including a decade leading thousands of business cases with a national community of advisors.
He is the author of The Growth-Driving Advisor (Forbes, 2023), where he introduced the breakthrough concept of Strategic Capacity — the measurable ability of a business to deliver predictable profits, sustainable growth, and transferable value. George’s work helps CEOs and advisors align leadership, operations, and growth strategy to dramatically increase performance and market value.
Jessica Seff
David Velez
Mark Waller
Mr. Waller is CEO of Proceanic, LLC, a Houston based company, with offices in S.E. Asia and S. America, focused on providing integrated engineering, project management, and subsea inspection services globally. His career includes positions as a Senior Seagoing Marine Engineering Officer, Classification Society Surveyor, FPSO Technical Operations Manager, and Business Owner/Manager. With over 40 years in the Marine and Energy Sectors, he has broad experience in both the energy and maritime industries. Mark has led Proceanic’s growth from start-up, to regional operator, to a global player, overseeing strategy, operations, and most recently M&A initiatives.Other skills accumulated from necessity include management of QHSE, ISO, ISM, ISPS and ILO MLC Systems, and a detailed understanding of Classification & Regulatory requirements for the Maritime and Energy Industries. He is also trained in the fundamentals of Maritime Law and Chartering and has acted as Subject Matter Expert (SME) and Expert Witness. Mark is actively involved in industry organizations and is knowledgeable on topics related to offshore operations, business transformation, and cross-border partnerships.
Johanna Watson
Johanna Watson is the visionary founder and owner of Artemis Partners, a Houston-based executive search firm dedicated to empowering businesses with exceptional leadership talent. Since its establishment in 2015, Artemis Partners has grown into a nationally recognized organization, serving clients across the United States with a unique, tailored approach to executive and direct searches. Johanna’s mission has always been clear: to deliver client-focused solutions that prioritize cultural alignment and drive organizational success.
Under Johanna’s leadership, Artemis Partners has expanded its offerings beyond executive search to include robust training and development programs, comprehensive outplacement support for public companies, and customized executive coaching and career accelerator initiatives. This holistic approach not only ensures businesses find the right leaders but also supports long-term growth and adaptability.
As a native Houstonian, Johanna’s deep ties to the local community and economy fuel her passion for connecting people, opportunities, and resources. Her extensive network and commitment to her clients’ success have made Artemis Partners a trusted name in the industry.
Johanna is an active member of several leadership organizations nationwide, recognizing the critical role continuous education and collaboration play in shaping the next generation of executives. Her dedication to giving back, inspiring others, and fostering professional growth remains the driving force behind her work at Artemis Partners.
For Johanna, success isn’t just about filling roles—it’s about creating transformative partnerships that empower both individuals and organizations to thrive.
Dustin Williamson
With more than 25 years of financial and management experience, Dustin is mentoring and empowering our team of finance and HR consultants, spearheading our quality program, and driving strategic growth in the area. Highly analytical and forward-thinking, Dustin’s areas of expertise include structured finance, strategic planning, valuations, turnarounds, traditional and unconventional investments, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, global business management, executive partnerships, international negotiations, and revenue growth.
Doug Winnie
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