Executive Vice President and General Manager of Houston Chronicle, Bob Carlquist, and Vice President of Fayez Sarofim & Co., William Gentry Lee, Jr., were elected recently to serve on the Project GRAD Houston Board of Directors.

The board sets policies governing the operation and direction of Project GRAD Houston, a nonprofit comprehensive community-collaborative with the goal of increasing high school graduation and college attendance rates of students from Houston’s economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

“Bob Carlquist and Gentry Lee are distinguished leaders in business and will strengthen and bring valuable perspectives to the board,” says Roy Hughes, Executive Director of Project GRAD Houston. “In addition to our outstanding board members from diverse fields, the new board members will provide strong leadership in our ongoing efforts to provide a quality education and resources for economically-challenged students in Houston.”

Current members who will serve on Project GRAD Houston Board of Directors:

• Cynthia Briggs, Executive Director, Communities In Schools
• Bob Carlquist, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Houston Chronicle
• Dr. Max Castillo, President, University of Houston – Downtown
• Emily Cole, Former Principal, Davis High School
• James Crownover, Former Director, McKinsey & Co.
• Dennis L. Greer, Chief Operating Officer, Central Houston, Inc.
• Roy Hughes, Executive Director, Project GRAD Houston
• James L. Ketelsen, Former CEO, Tenneco, and Founder, Project GRAD Houston
• Kathryn Ketelsen, Co-Founder, Project GRAD Houston
• William Gentry Lee, Jr., Vice President, Fayez Sarofim & Co.
• George Martinez, Former Chairman, Sterling Bank
• Robert Stockwell, Chief Academic Officer, Houston Independent School District

The new board members were nominated by the Board of Directors on September 21, 2004. 

"This Board of Directors reflects Project GRAD Houston’s strong regional support and its growing national connections,” says Hughes. “They will play an important role in Project GRAD Houston’s continued success and progress in one of the top school reform models in the United States.”

Project GRAD Houston is a nonprofit pre-k through 16 school reform model serving over 48,000 students in 71 public schools in H.I.S.D. Over the last decade, 2,050 students have enrolled in college using the Project GRAD Houston Scholarship.

Founded by Jim Ketelsen, former CEO of Tenneco, the program was initiated in H.I.S.D. in 1993-1994, and has a proven track record of increasing graduation rates and improving student academic success. Project GRAD now serves 133,000 students nationally in 217 schools in Akron, Atlanta, Brownsville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Kenai Peninsula, Knoxville, Lorain, Los Angeles, Newark, and Roosevelt, New York. For more information about Project GRAD Houston, please visit www.projectgradhouston.org