Board of Directors
Hero
Steven J. Kean, JD
Director / Board Chairman
Steve Kean is President and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership, the Houston region’s principal business organization. The Partnership focuses on attracting investment and trade to Houston, building a strong workforce, advocating for sound public policy, and convening a diverse set of Houstonians when major issues arise. Prior to joining the Partnership in 2023, Steve was Chief Executive Officer of Kinder Morgan, one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America. Steve has worked in the energy industry since 1985 in various commercial, operational and legal positions, primarily in the wholesale energy and energy transportation and storage sectors.
Steve serves on the board of Kinder Morgan and as a Senior Advisor to ArcLight, an infrastructure focused private equity firm. Steve also serves on the boards of United Way of Greater Houston and Good Reason Houston. Steve holds a bachelor's degree from Iowa State University and a law degree from the University of Iowa.
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Melissa Kean, PhD
Director / Vice President
A member of St. Joseph’s Orthodox Church, Melissa Kean served as the Centennial Historian at Rice University from 2005 until her retirement in 2020. During her time as the Historian of Rice University, she was named one of “Houston’s 41 Most Fascinating People” by the Houston Chronicle. She holds a Ph.D. in History from Rice and a JD from the University of Iowa.
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His Grace, the Right Reverend Bishop Thomas
Director
His Grace the Right Reverend Thomas (Joseph), Ed.D. is an auxiliary bishop of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America and serves parishes in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1953, Bishop Thomas is of Arab-American heritage. He earned his B.A. from William Paterson College in 1974 and later completed theological studies at St. Vladimir’s Seminary and the Antiochian House of Studies. He holds a Doctorate in Education from California Coast University and an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from St. Tikhon’s Seminary.
Ordained to the priesthood in 1994, Bishop Thomas served parishes in New York, Texas, and Florida. He was elevated to archimandrite in 2004 and consecrated to the episcopacy by Patriarch Ignatius IV in Damascus later that year. He was enthroned as Bishop of Oakland and the East in 2005.
An advocate for Orthodox education and youth ministry, His Grace has chaired the Assembly of Bishops’ Committee for Youth since 2011 and serves as episcopal liaison to the Orthodox Christian Education Commission. He oversees the Antiochian Village and other Archdiocesan ministries and is the Episcopal Liaison for the Orthodox Youth and Young Adult Ministries
Bishop Thomas is a noted speaker and author on topics including Orthodox bioethics, education, pastoral care, and youth formation. He has presented nationally and internationally, including at conferences in Germany, Hong Kong, and across North America. His published works appear in Christian Bioethics (Oxford University Press) and other theological journals.
From 2014 to 2018, he served as Assistant to the President of the University of Balamand for student recruitment in North America. He currently serves on the boards of St. Tikhon’s Seminary and The Saint Constantine School.
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Archpriest Richard Petranek
Director
Father Richard Petranek served as the pastor of St. Paul Orthodox Church in Katy, Texas until his retirement in the summer of 2018. He possesses valuable experience working with parish day schools. Fr. Richard functioned as a chaplain in a parish day school of 450 children in grades K-8. He was a member of the Southwest Association of Episcopal Schools for over ten years. As a pastor, Fr. Richard oversaw a school of 750 students in grades K-8. In both schools, his responsibilities included supervision of multi-million dollar capital campaigns, and has raised over $21 million in building projects during his tenure. His responsibilities also included interviewing and approving future board members. Fr. Richard was invited by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to join the Order of Saint John for his commitment to service. Fr Richard is currently on the staff of St Joseph Antiochian Church in Houston.
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Archpriest Joseph Huneycutt
Director
Father Joseph Huneycutt is the pastor of St. Joseph Antiochian Orthodox Church in Houston, Texas. Ordained in 1994, Fr. Joseph served the Antiochian Archdiocese until 1997. From 1997 to 2003, he served in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Fr. Joseph holds a BS from Appalachian State University, Master of Divinity from Nashotah House Seminary, and Doctor of Ministry from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Fr. Joseph served as Vice-Chairman of the Antiochian Archdiocese Missions & Evangelism Department (2016-2024) and has served as the Dean of the East Texas Deanery in the Diocese of Wichita and MidAmerica since 2011.
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Nick Massad, Jr.
Director
After graduation from Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston in 1973, Nick Massad joined American Liberty Hospitality at a Sheraton Hotel located in Dallas, Texas. He later served as General Manager of that hotel, as well as several of the company’s other hotels, before becoming its first President in 1983. He, along with his wife Vicki, purchased Houston based ALH in 1990, and Mr. Massad has since served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. American Liberty develops, owns, and operates hotels and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023.
In 2007 the Massad family funded the rebuilding of the library at the Conrad N. Hilton College. The project is known as the Massad Family Library and Hospitality Industry Archives and is the world’s largest repository for the files and memorabilia of America’s legendary hoteliers.
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Dragos Neacsu
Director
Dragos Neacsu holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Bucharest and a Master’s Degree in Mathematics from the University of Oregon. He has worked in the energy industry since 2006 as an analyst in natural gas and power markets for Portland General Electric, BG Group (Shell) and BP North America. He is currently working for DRW based in Houston, focusing on the Western US power markets. Dragos is responsible for generating short and long term views on power price formation, supply and demand balances, hydro generation forecasts and transmission upgrades. Dragos is currently acting as the Head of the Finance Committee for the Church of Saint Joseph, having served in the past as the treasurer and president of the Parish Council.
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John Pyrovolakis
Director
John Pyrovolakis is the founder and CEO of Innovation Accelerator, created in 2008 as the private side of a public private partnership. Innovation Accelerator has developed a new innovation model that has been credited in the 2012 PCAST report for attracting $200M into IA’s portfolio of companies.
John also founded the Innovation Accelerator Foundation (IAF), a non-profit organization committed to nourishing innovation beyond the lab. The IAF is home to iBridge, the world’s largest university intellectual property marketplace, with over 170 participating universities and 18,000 innovations.
Previously, John worked as a banker for Jesup & Lamont Securities, and did diligence on technology investment targets for large corporations such as Mastercard, Suntrust Bank, and the US Department of Education. John founded Collegescape, an online college admissions system, out of the 1996 MIT Entrepreneurship Competition, and sold it two years later to the Thomson Corporation (TSX: “TOC”), a large multinational conglomerate.
John is a graduate of New York University with a triple major in mathematics, philosophy, and computer science. He proceeded to the doctoral program on teaching fellowship and scholarship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a focus on mathematical logic. At MIT, John did research on automated theorem proving at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. John was also a Teaching Fellow at Harvard, where he taught “Space, Time and Motion” at the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Laboratory, and won the Derek Bok Prize for teaching excellence.
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Gordon Shahin, PhD
Director
Gordon T. Shahin Jr. holds a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester, a Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering, and a PhD in Chemical Engineering and Bio-medical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Gordon was Manager for Shell’s Improved Oil Recovery engineering group and laboratory supervisor for over 14 years of his 33-year career. He was the Shell Training Center Instructor for advanced reservoir engineering processes, and Senior Technical Consultant in Reservoir Engineering for Royal Dutch Shell group. He has worked for Shell in the Energy Industry in various upstream development roles internationally and in the Gulf of Mexico. Gordon holds over 60 patents and has numerous publications. He is currently President of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors in Houston, serves on the Parish Council of St. George Orthodox Church Houston, and is an active SCUBA diving instructor.