Features Region: Southwest

Arid, rocky and windblown, the landscape of West Texas seems to stretch on forever. The sky is big and bold above the hills and rock formations, trees are a rarity, and annual rainfall is measured in inches, not feet. Energy is the other measure of this rugged landscape, which has been drilled for oil and […]

Piece of cake? Well, it won’t be quite that easy to grow this franchisor of specialty retail bakeries, but the right ingredients and people are in place.  So assures Camille Penniman, who’s soon to celebrate her first anniversary as general counsel and the only in-house lawyer at Nothing Bundt Cakes. The Dallas, Texas-based company, which […]

Nothing was hit harder by the COVID-19 pandemic and related closures and protocols than the hospitality industry. Whether it was resorts and theme parks or concerts and sporting events, the lack of people visiting customer-facing businesses caused organizations big and small to suffer. Very few entities in the hospitality industry rely more on in-person interaction […]

In 1973, JCPenney was operating more than 2,000 locations throughout the U.S. Its catalogs—often novel-length and featuring thousands of products from furniture to formalwear—were a fixture on many a living-room coffee table. Since its founding in 1902, the department store giant had become a bona fide icon of American commerce. But in 1974, a massive […]

She’s not just knocking wood over the fact Lockheed Martin hasn’t had a serious work stoppage in the past 10 years. Jennifer Motwani Hurley tries to ensure business continues under any condition. Last April, for instance, she helped the defense and aerospace contractor agreed to a new four-year, two-month contract with its machinists’ union in […]

It’s a long way from Alberta’s oil sands-rich prairie to the Texas Gulf Coast refineries and terminals most capable of handling the heavy crude from the north. Pipelines and railroad are the primary connectors, but both entail risk. Pipelines can burst or spring leaks, and freight trains may derail. At least the risks are being […]

A fine Portuguese porcelain dinner set makes a great Christmas gift. Designing it yourself at the factory is pretty appetizing, too. Or how about a Roaring 20’s blowout bash with your name in lights at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theater? Both are among the “fantasy gift” packages that Ryan Parley has helped vet as the vice […]

In retrospect, Doug Martin wonders why it took some persuasion for him to accept the position. Texas-born and bred, Martin so craved the locally produced Blue Bell Creameries ice cream that he’d arrange for half-gallons to be sent to the faraway places where life and career took him. Besides, its headquarters is in Brenham, the […]

Not many general counsels commence with a company at the outset. Fewer still may experience the wild ride that Daniel Belhumeur has experienced since he joined a 2016 exodus from a Houston energy heavyweight to a scrappy startup. “That’s why I came here,” Belhumeur tells Vanguard in May from Tellurian Inc.’s headquarters. “I wanted to […]

While there are differences between military and corporate leadership, Ryan Bardo recognizes enough common denominators. As the new general counsel at T.F. Warren Group, he won’t be barking out orders as the Houston-based company looks to expand its storage tank construction operations in the United States and Latin America. But Bardo will apply what he […]