IN THIS ISSUE:

• The Energy Corridor District celebrates Earth Day 2023
• Women's History Month: Charlos Ward leads at bp
• Women's History Month: Kayla Ngo: Entrepreneurship and leadership
• Women's History Month: Sylvia, Houston's enchilada queen, breaks glass ceilings in the food industry
• City of Houston construction project updates
• The Energy Corridor District I-10 wall painting project
• District News
• April Events

The Energy Corridor District is holding its first-ever free Earth Day event at Terry Hershey Park at 15200 Memorial Drive from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on April 20! In collaboration with Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones and other Energy Corridor stakeholders we're excited to invite you to a large-scale community event to improve the environment and have fun.

Come out to enjoy this and more:

• Yoga in the Park brought to you by Busybody Rehab & Fitness
• Tree and seedling giveaways brought to you by CITGO and SBM Offshore
• Farmers Market PLUS specialty Earth Day Market
• Food trucks
• Westside High School students bring science projects and education
• Large-scale recycling
• And so much more family fun!

WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH:

ENERGY CORRIDOR WOMEN BLAZE A PATH TO LEADERSHIP

CHARLOS WARD LEADS AT BP

In honor of Women's History Month, The Energy Corridor District is highlighting Energy Corridor women leaders paving the way for the next generation. As part of this series, the District did a Q&A with Charlos Ward, a part of bp's Regions, Corporates and Solutions Division.

Q: Tell us a little about your background? Where did you grow up and go to school and what did you study? 

CHARLOS: I was born in New Orleans, but moved frequently because my mother was in the U.S. Air Force. I had attended 13 schools by the end of my 10^th grade year. At that time my mother was stationed in Sumter, S.C. South Carolina had recently opened a residential high school. In order to have stability for my final two years in high school, I applied and was accepted to the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics. At the time, I was fascinated with the original MacGyver TV show and thought that if I majored in engineering, I, too, would be able to create anything out of simple household items. After high school I wanted to be close – but not too close – to family, so I attended Rice University and double majored in chemical engineering and economics. Later in my career, I returned to Rice to complete the Executive MBA program.

Q: What is your professional journey and why did you choose the path you took? 

Charlos Ward: While in university I had to work to pay for tuition and living expenses. A friend told me that a local refinery was paying three times the minimum wage! I quickly applied and worked part-time while completing my degrees. Years later, I read a speech by former bp CEO Lord John Browne, in which he called for climate action. That 1997 speech attracted me to bp 25 years ago. I have worked as a Project Manager, designing and building platforms, pipelines and LNG facilities in the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, Trinidad and Angola. Throughout my career at bp, I have been able to directly see how my work benefits the community by creating jobs, providing energy for cooking, fuel for transport and light to homes. I have come full-circle and am now working in bp’s Regions, Corporates and Solutions division, helping bp customers develop strategies to decarbonize their operations by using renewable power and electric vehicles, switching to low carbon biofuels and hydrogen and implementing carbon capture utilization and sequestration (CCUS) technologies. 

Q: What is your vision of leadership?

Charlos Ward: I view leadership as doing the right thing in the moment. To me, leadership is not tied to titles or years of experience. Leadership is behaviors and actions, such as having the courage to ask pertinent questions in the meeting when others are silent, calling out discrimination in real-time and using it as a teaching moment and ensuring short-term decisions do not jeopardize long-term objectives.

Q: As a woman leader, what do you hope to inspire in the young girls and young women who will follow in your footsteps? What advice would you give them as they embark along their own journey?

Charlos Ward: I hope to inspire all to consciously design a life that is whole and fulfilling. When I joined bp, most of the women in executive positions were married but had no kids, and the perception was that women had to prioritize career or family. Now, I mentor men and women of all backgrounds who are equally sharing responsibilities for parenting children, caring for elderly parents or raising pets. I coach them on how to set boundaries, so that they can be physically and mentally present for the meaningful relationships in their lives. Setting boundaries is easier when you have a track record for excellence performance. Excellent performance can be subjective, so I provide my mentees tools and techniques to make performance conversations more objective. I also encourage my mentees to solicit real-time feedback through open-ended questions such as, “How can I make that better next time?” or “Hindsight being 20/20 what could I have done differently?”

Kayla Ngo, owner of seven Vietnamese restaurants in Houston, the most recent one Resilience Viet Kitchen & Bar at 1140 Eldridge Parkway, has spent her entire adult life creating an entrepreneurial empire built on a loyal team through inspirational leadership.

"As an entrepreneur, there is sacrifice and time and energy in the beginning, but don't forget the end goal and have fun," Kayla says, recalling her early days in the restaurant business.

"You want to make sure you lead by example and if you take care of your employees they will take care of you," Kayla adds, noting this has been her guiding philosophy as she and her husband, Daniel Nguyen, built their Pho Binh brand

Kayla immigrated with her family from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam in 1991 when she was 10 years old. After getting a degree in finance from the University of Houston, she and her husband, Daniel, decided to jointly open their first restaurant. Daniel's family already had one restaurant and Kayla's business acumen and focus on guest experience made it a logical path for the pair.

Within a few years, the couple opened several more locations, finally upscaling their offerings in 2015 with Phi Binh Heights, a restaurant offering a Mom & Pop feel with elevated ambiance. Detail oriented and business savvy, Kayla built a team of workers that have stayed with them for years, making them feel more like a family.

This year, when Kayla turned her sights to the Energy Corridor to open Resilience -- another upscale concept -- she didn't have to look far to find someone to launch and manage the restaurant.

Vivian Nguyen moved to Houston from Toronto, Canada last year to work at the Ngo family restaurants. With a passion for hospitality and great respect for the way her family operated the Pho Binh dynasty, Vivian knew she would be learning from the best.

"If the team succeeds you will succeed, so make sure your team has what they need to succeed," Vivian said, explaining what she's learned since she started working closely with Kayla. "This is what I learned from her."

Vivian has overseen the launch of Resilience -- the newest Vietnamese restaurant in the Energy Corridor that offers hand-crafted Vietnamese-inspired cocktails, such as Robin Not Batman and Thai Basil Margarita as well as unique dishes like bone marrow oysters.

She has carefully built a staff based on Kayla's guiding principles and is focused on attracting a loyal clientele.

"I want them to have fun," she says of her staff. "We hire people who live and breathe hospitality."

And she hopes to instill that in the next generation of women leaders.

"Find a balance, remember to have fun and don't forget your end goal," Vivian tells her workers, repeating her mentor, Kayla's, mantra.

SYLVIA, HOUSTON'S ENCHILADA QUEEN,

BREAKS GLASS CEILINGS IN THE

FOOD INDUSTRY

Sylvia Casares, Houston’s very own Enchilada Queen, started her career in the 1970s in what was then a male-dominated corporate food world, doing everything from food science to sales before deciding to bring her knowledge to her own business.It was then, in 1998, when she opened her first restaurant, Sylvia’s Enchilada Kitchen.

“I was just burnt to a crisp in the corporate field,” she said. “There were hardly any women, and it was rough and terrible and I just could not do it anymore.”

Recalling the multiple rounds of layoffs she survived, Ms. Casares said, “I felt like I had to gain control over my future, over my life.”

Cooking for people always brought her joy, warmth and memories from her childhood in Brownsville, Texas. But she also knew that to bring those flavors to Houston she had to set herself apart from all the other Tex-Mex and Mexican restaurants in Houston. And so, the Enchilada Queen was born as she focused her efforts on taking that authentic dish and making it the best it could be. 

More than 20 years later, Sylvia’s favorite is still the traditional cheese enchilada with chili gravy, though her restaurant menu and cookbook offer many other varieties, recipes and originals. 

After opening her first restaurant in West Houston, she jumped at the chance to open another when a location opened on Eldridge, eventually convincing her to close one of her original spots on Westheimer. The Eldridge location had the wood-fired stove she wanted to give her food that special flavor she was looking for, space and a business partner with decades of knowledge in the food service industry. That partner is now also her husband. 

Today, Sylvia’s restaurant has been named by the Houston Chronicle as one of the city’s Top 100 and she offers cooking classes every two weeks. She has competed in a Bobby Flay cooking competition, been a finalist of the James Beard award and published a cookbook. 

“It brings me joy to feed people,” said Sylvia, noting even at home she cooks and bakes and gives it away to neighbors and friends. “People connect food to good memories. It’s an emotional thing. It brings back for me happy times.” 

CITY OF HOUSTON CONSTRUCTION UPDATE

The City of Houston's Park Ten Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) Diversion Project will progress in the coming weeks extending lane closures on Eldridge Parkway.

The lane closures will stop just north of the Eldridge-Memorial intersection.

As the work progresses, lanes along Park Row and portions of Eldridge Parkway should slowly reopen.

The lane closures are necessary for the contractor to safely complete the construction project. The overall project is expected to continue through the end of the year with traffic progressively improving.

More information about the project and traffic disruptions can be found on the City of Houston Public Works' website.

MARCH 29: SBA presents how to get WBENC WBE certified

APRIL 7: Gabriel Gonzalez at Lomonte's Italian Restaurant

APRIL 15: SNAFU at Watson's House of Ales

APRIL 20: The Energy Corridor District's Earth Day 2023

APRIL 21: Outreach Center of West Houston Casino Night 20-Year Celebration