Real Estate
Mike C. O’Brien, formerly a principal in the real estate appraisal firm of Korman O’Brien LLC, has formed Fort Worth-based O’Brien Realty Advisors. He will continue to provide full-service real estate consulting and appraisal services for government agencies, law firms, real estate companies and corporate clients across the nation. Real estate specialist Chris B. Haller has joined the firm as an analyst and business development manager. Haller has more than 12 years of experience in strategic planning, budgeting, investment property analysis and commercial real estate brokerage. Before joining O’Brien Realty Advisors, he worked as a broker for Coldwell Banker Commercial, Searcy Vasseur Group and Patterson and Associates for six years. He earned a bachelor’s degree in finance and real estate from Texas Christian University and is a board member and membership chairman of the TCU Frog Club. He is an associate member of the International Right of Way Association, Appraisal Institute, Greater Fort Worth Real Estate Council and Leadership Fort Worth Class of 2003. Other team members are professionals who have been working with O’Brien for many years: Mark Sadler, senior analyst; Kenneth M. Link, analyst; Walker B. Kelly, analyst; and Lindsay R. Martin, office manager. O’Brien previously worked as a senior analyst with Integra Realty Resources and trained at Arthur Anderson and Co. in Houston. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1997 with a degree in economics and a minor in business foundations. He is an associate member of the International Right of Way Association, Appraisal Institute, Greater Fort Worth Real Estate Council and Leadership Fort Worth, Class of 2008. O’Brien specializes in complex eminent domain and other real property litigation assignments of all types of properties and has testified in a number of special commissioner’s hearings and trials throughout Texas as a specialist on market value.
Banking & Finance Southwest Bank has named Rusty Stehr as executive vice president-manager of oil and gas lending for the West Seventh Street banking center in Fort Worth. Stehr brings more than 10 years of energy lending experience to his new position. He previously served as senior vice president of energy lending for Sovereign Bank, where he originated the company’s energy lending group. Stehr earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Oklahoma and is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma College of Law. He is an active member of the North Texas community, working with organizations such as Mission Arlington and Hugworks. Stehr is also a member of the Fort Worth Wildcatters, Dallas Petroleum Club and the ADAM Energy Forum.
Boards & Organizations Gov. Rick Perry has appointed Daphne Brookins, a human services specialist for the city of Fort Worth Community Action Partners, to the OneStar National Service Commission for a term to expire March 15, 2016. The commission works with the OneStar Foundation to further national service initiatives in Texas and administer the AmeriCorps Texas program. Brookins is launching Rising Stars, a youth leadership initiative. She is a board member of Expanding Your Horizons, the Amon Carter Jr. Downtown YMCA, Director’s Circle of Girls Inc., New Directions Initiative, Tarrant County Challenge, and Southeast Fort Worth Dropout Coalition. She is also a former forum leader and former spokesperson for the American Cancer Society, former Forest Hill mayor pro tem and councilwoman and past president of the Texas Wesleyan University Alumni Association. She is a past member of the Texas Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities, Tarrant County CHIP Coalition and Fort Worth Sister Cities Young Professional Advisory Council. Brookins received a bachelor’s degree from Texas Wesleyan University. Donna Hugly, partner at Sanford, Baumeister & Frazier LLP, has been appointed by Gov. Rick Perry for a six-year term to the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy. Hugly merged her firm with Sanford, Baumeister & Frazier in December 2010 and joined as a partner. Her client base includes medical professionals, retailers, wholesale distributors, real estate and service professionals, among others. She is a member of the Texas Society of CPAs’ board and also served four terms on the organization’s executive board. She is a past chairman of the Dallas Chapter of the Texas Society of CPAs. She served a three-year term on the Governing Council of the American Institute of CPAs and is a member of the Behavioral Enforcement Committee of the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy. She has been recognized as Young CPA of the Year by the Dallas Chapter of the Texas Society of CPAs, and she was named Committee Chairman of the Year by the Texas Society of CPAs for her work as chairman of the Practice Issues Committee. Hugly graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Texas A&M University.
Education Khosrow Behbehani, a noted biomedical researcher, inventor and chairman of the University of Texas at Arlington Department of Bioengineering, has been appointed dean of the university’s College of Engineering. Behbehani joined UT-Arlington in 1985 and has been chairman of his department since 2002. He has nine patents, with one patent pending, and is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. His work has attracted significant support from the U.S. Department of Education, the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. In recent years, Behbehani has garnered recognition for his work to develop an ultrasonic sleep apnea detection system, a portable device that improves detection and ultimately treatment for patients. Behbehani succeeds Jean-Pierre Bardet, who will continue as a member of the civil engineering faculty. Behbehani earned his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Louisiana State University, a master’s degree in systems engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and his doctoral degree in engineering science from the University of Toledo. He spent five years with the Puritan Bennett Corp., then a California-based manufacturer of critical care respiratory devices, before returning to the world of academic research at UT-Arlington.
Energy Troy A. Hoefer has joined Approach Resources Inc. as vice president-reservoir engineering. Hoefer has more than 25 years of operating and management experience in the oil and gas industry. For the past 16 years, he has had increasingly responsible positions in reservoir and operating engineering at Pioneer Natural Resources. Most recently, he was reservoir engineering manager of the South Texas Asset Team, which oversees development of Pioneer’s Eagle Ford shale play. Before joining Pioneer, Hoefer worked in various engineering capacities for Mesa Inc., which merged with Parker and Parsley in 1997 to form Pioneer Natural Resources. Hoefer earned a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. Approach Resources also promoted Walter M. Glasgow Jr. to vice president-operations. Glasgow joined the company in September 2012 as manager of operations. He has 32 years of production operations and management experience in the industry, including 23 years at Mosbacher Energy Co. and its affiliates, and eight years at Wagner Oil Co. Glasgow received a civil engineering degree, magna cum laude, from Vanderbilt University and is a licensed professional engineer in Texas.
Health Care Fort Worth-based veterinary pharmaceutical company Vétoquinol USA hired Michael Mockler as product manager for the VET Business Unit. Mockler will be responsible for the anti-infective, renal and otic product categories as well as other new products and marketing programs. Mockler brings more than 10 years of experience to his new position as product manager. Previously, he was a brand manager at RPG Innovations in Dallas, where he managed three pet specialty brands across five pet care categories. He also held various positions at Virbac Animal Health in Fort Worth, including product manager and compliance specialist within the technical support department. Mockler also has professional experience throughout the veterinary, biotech and retail industries, including positions as a veterinary, genotyping and field technician. While at Virbac, he developed collateral for a product that went on to receive an American Graphic Design Award. Mockler is a graduate of Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., where he earned a bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in marine sciences.
Honors & Awards The Fort Worth Independent School District’s Teachers of the Year – Jessica Bobo and Karen Galley – were surprised at their schools with new Lexus automobiles from Sewell Lexus of Fort Worth as part of an appreciation package. Bobo teaches first grade at Westpark Elementary and was named District Elementary Teacher of the Year. Galley teaches at Success High School and was selected as Secondary Teacher of the Year. Both were chosen from a field of 46 applicants and announced during the Recognition Dinner for the 131 Campus Teachers of the Year sponsored by Central Market and other community partners. Each teacher was presented with a prize package that includes the use of a Lexus during the summer, dinner at Del Frisco’s, tickets to a Texas Rangers game and a night’s stay at the Worthington Renaissance Hotel. The District Teacher of the Year recipients will advance to the Region 11 Teacher of the Year competition and, if selected, will go on to State Teacher of the Year competition. Eric Mullins, band instructor at Western Hills High School and Benbrook Middle School, has been selected as the 2013-2014 Bayard F. Friedman Chair for Teaching Excellence in Performing Arts. Performing Arts Fort Worth established the chair in 1999; it recognizes and rewards an exemplary Fort Worth Independent School District teacher each year. The recipient carries the title for one year and receives a $5,000 honorarium. An 11-year veteran of teaching, Mullins graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a bachelor’s degree in music along with teacher certification. He has led both the Western Hills Marching Band and Western Hills Wind Symphony to multiple University Interscholastic League awards for consecutive years as well as regional championships at numerous marching band festivals and showcases. Mullins also directed the Western Hills High School Jazz Band, which placed in the top three in its class at the Highlander Jazz Festival for three years in a row. The remaining 14 chairs will be announced in the fall and recognized at the annual awards luncheon later in the year. Paul Austin, a professor in Texas Wesleyan University’s Graduate Programs of Nurse Anesthesia, has been selected to receive the John F. Garde Researcher of the Year Award. He will be honored by his peers and the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists at their national meeting in August. Richard Whitman, vice president of mortgage lending at Texas Trust Credit Union, has received the Five Star Mortgage Professional Award for the second consecutive year. Whitman is one of 224 professionals, out of 15,765 in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, to be designated a five star professional, which recognizes mortgage professionals based on overall consumer satisfaction. More than 43,000 recent homebuyers in the Dallas-Fort Worth market were surveyed. Whitman has been leading the Texas Trust mortgage team since 2006. Donna Cochran has been credentialed as a certified title insurance associate, the highest professional designation for title professionals in Texas. She is executive vice president of the commercial division for First Western Title. She has more than 25 years of combined experience in title insurance and banking. Her commercial transactions include shopping centers, multi-site and multi-property assemblages, apartment buildings, retail stores and hotels/motels. The Hanover Insurance Group Inc., a leading provider of property and casualty insurance products and services nationwide, has honored Fort Worth’s Wortham Insurance & Risk Management with its West Region Agency of the Year award. The award recognizes Wortham’s ability to deliver value to customers and its continued commitment to insurance expertise and specialization. Wortham was also recognized for its commitment to providing local community support. Texas Health Resources has been named one of the 2013 Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles by the National Business Group on Health. This marks the fourth year THR has received the award. For 2013, Texas Health again earned the gold distinction for its commitment to promoting a healthy workplace and encouraging employees and their families to maintain healthy lifestyles through its “Be Healthy” employee wellness program. Fort Worth Sister Cities won a 2012 Innovation Award for humanitarian assistance from Sister Cities International. Winners will be honored at the Lou Wozar Annual Awards Banquet during the 57th Sister Cities International annual conference on July 13 in San Antonio. Allied Electronics, a trading brand of Electrocomponents plc, received eight awards at the recent 2013 EDS Conference in Las Vegas. Allied was recognized by its supplier partners for sales excellence, sales growth, outstanding distribution, marketing and more. The Fort Worth-based company received the following honors: 2012 Million Dollar Club Award from NKK Switches; Distributor of the Year from Harting Elektronik; Distributor of the Year from Schaffner; New Product Introduction Champion from Crydom Inc.; Innovative Marketing Award from Honeywell; 2012 Outstanding Performance Silver Award from Neutrik; 2012 Exceptional Growth Award from Magnecraft; and Outstanding Growth Award from Qualtek Electronics Corp. The Fort Worth Independent School District and its Capital Improvement Program management partner AECOM have been selected jointly to receive the 2013 CLIDE (Celebrating Leadership in Development Excellence) Award.
Law Kelly Hart & Hallman appointed Toby M. Galloway as partner in the Litigation Practice Group. Galloway will expand Kelly Hart’s white-collar and securities enforcement practice. Previously, he was regional trial counsel in the Fort Worth Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission and supervised all litigation, including cases involving financial reporting and accounting fraud, insider trading, offering fraud, Ponzi schemes, oil and gas fraud, market manipulation, mutual fund market timing, options backdating, fraud involving life settlements, broker-dealer litigation, and fraud by investment advisers. He also served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. Prior to the SEC, Galloway was in private practice in Dallas. He earned a bachelor’s degree in finance with high honors from the University of Texas at Austin in 1991 and graduated with honors from the University of Texas School of Law.
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