Rodger Rees, Galveston Wharves Port Director and CEO, oversees the fourth busiest U.S.

cruise port, located on one of the nation’s top 40 cargo waterways. This self-sustaining city

entity generates more than 14,000 jobs and has an estimated annual state economic impact of

$2.1 billion.

Since Rees took the helm in January 2018, the Port of Galveston has increased revenues 131

percent by following a 20-Year Strategic Master Plan adopted in 2019. Using both debt and

public-private partnerships, the port has built two new cruise terminals. A $125 million cruise

terminal, in partnership with Royal Caribbean International, opened in 2022. The port completed

its fourth cruise terminal at a cost of $156 million in November 2025 to service MSC Cruises and

Norwegian Cruise Lines.

In 2023 the port was awarded $42.3 million in state grants, the largest grant amount in the port’s

history, to fund critical cargo and transportation projects. The port used cash reserves

generated from the cruise business and the grant proceeds to fund a $106 million cargo

infrastructure improvement project. The project began in 2024 and will be completed this year.

In 2023 and 2024, Rees successfully guided the port through over $210 million in municipal

bond financings.

The Galveston Regional Chamber of Commerce honored Rees as its 2022 Galvestonian of the

Year for positively contributing to the betterment of the region’s business community. In 2023,

the Houston Business Journal named Rees one of the most admired CEOs in the Houston

metroplex. Rees has served two terms on the board of directors of the Texas Department of

Transportation Port Authority Advisory Committee and was elected vice chairman of the Texas

Ports Association as representative for the Upper Texas Region.

Rees previously served five years as deputy executive director and chief financial officer for Port

Canaveral, the world’s second busiest cruise port.

Rees spent his early years in Tennessee and is a graduate of East Tennessee State University

with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting. In addition, he is a Certified Public

Accountant, licensed in the state of Georgia. He has more than 25 years of executive

management experience in both private and public entities. Rodger and his wife, Luci, have two

sons. The oldest son is currently attending Texas A&M University at College Station. His

younger son will be a senior at Ball High School in Galveston in the fall.

Martyn A. Pell is a seasoned financial services executive with more than 20 years of experience leading high-performing organizations, driving strategic growth, and delivering strong financial results across competitive markets. He currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Wellby Financial, a $2.6 billion credit union serving more than 126,000 members across the Houston metropolitan area. 

Since assuming the President & CEO role, Marty has led Wellby through a period of significant growth and transformation. Under his leadership, the organization has increased its loan portfolio by more than 20%, strengthened net income, enhanced its corporate governance framework, and launched a forward-looking strategic plan focused on sustained success through 2027. His commitment to both performance and culture has resulted in record-high employee engagement, substantial member value returns—including a multi-million-dollar special dividend—and recognition such as “Most Admired CEO” by the Houston Business Journal and “Best Place to Work” by the Houston Chronicle. 

Prior to joining Wellby, Martyn held senior executive roles at Coastal Federal Credit Union and First Community Bank, where he built a reputation for transforming underperforming business units into high-performing operations. As Chief Lending Officer at Coastal, he led record-breaking loan production and significantly expanded mortgage operations. During his tenure at First Community Bank, he served in multiple executive capacities including President and Chief Financial Officer, overseeing large-scale growth initiatives, mergers and acquisitions, and multi-state operations. 

Martyn is known for his ability to translate strategy into action—aligning teams, strengthening stakeholder relationships, and driving innovation to solve complex business challenges. His leadership style emphasizes collaboration, accountability, and building strong, purpose-driven cultures that deliver measurable results. 

AG Gupt is the President of Alexander-Grene Developers, a Houston-based real estate development firm with a multi-decade track record and more than 30 completed transactions spanning commercial, industrial, and mixed-use asset classes across the Texas Gulf Coast. With an active pipeline exceeding $150 million — including the landmark Lilac Field Business Park in League City and Waller Medical Plaza in Waller— he structures complex syndications that align physician investors, institutional capital, and community-scale development with high impacts and investor-returns. A Columbia-trained construction finance executive and OSU MBA, AG brings the credentials of a seasoned developer, but the perspective of a builder who has consistently identified and activated opportunities others overlooked — from ground-up mixed-use to medical real estate to build-to-rent communities reshaping Houston's fastest-growing corridors.

Stephanie Sides-Sembera is the Director of Real Estate at Port Houston, where she leads the

administration and strategic management of the port’s industrial property portfolio. Her

responsibilities include industrial leasing and property management, land acquisition and

development, long-term land use planning, and ensuring regulatory and environmental

compliance across all real estate assets.

Sides-Sembera brings more than 16 years of experience in commercial real estate, operations,

and organizational leadership. She previously served as Associate Managing Director of Platform

Operations at Cushman & Wakefield, where she supported national real estate initiatives,

developed training programs, and guided the rollout of a national tenant experience survey.

Before that, she spent over a decade at Transwestern, progressing into senior leadership roles

overseeing large commercial portfolios, managing multidisciplinary teams, and supporting

national and international clients. She also gained additional client and development experience

through her work at Always In Season.

At Port Houston, Sides-Sembera directs real estate transactions, oversees asset and financial

performance, develops administrative standards, and works closely with operations and

infrastructure teams to guide property improvements. She also maintains strong relationships

with industry, development, and regional stakeholders to support the port’s strategic growth.

Sides-Sembera holds a Master of Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Adler University and

a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Sam Houston State University. She holds CPM and

ACoM designations from the Institute of Real Estate Management, is a licensed Texas Real

Estate professional, and has served in leadership roles with BOMA and IREM.

Donna M. Shafer is the associate center director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, a position she assumed in March 2019. In this role, Shafer assists in leading a workforce of more than 11,000 civil servant and contractor employees at one of NASA’s largest installations in Houston and the White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. She also assists with a broad range of human spaceflight activities.

Since July 2018, Shafer most recently served as chief counsel in Johnson’s Office of the Chief Counsel. Prior to that, Shafer had served as the deputy chief counsel since 2007 and the acting chief counsel since May 2017.

Shafer’s NASA career at Johnson began in 1989, when she was an Information Security specialist. She joined the Office of the Chief Counsel in 1997, where she has held positions with increasing responsibility. Shafer has experience in all legal practice areas and has served as the assistant chief counsel for Procurement matters, assistant chief counsel for international and commercial matters and the assistant chief counsel for general legal matters.

Shafer has the distinction of serving as the legal advisor to the Columbia Task Force and the team who authored the Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report (2008). In addition, Shafer co-authored, with Johnson’s Lead for General Legal Matters Amy Xenofos, the Aero-Medical Legal Operations chapter of Loss of Signal, Aeromedical Lessons Learned from the STS-107 Columbia Space Shuttle Mishap (May 2014). Shafer’s experience includes two details to NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center and NASA’s Langley Research Center as the acting deputy chief counsel.

Shafer earned a Doctorate of Jurisprudence from the University of Houston and a Bachelor of Science from Midwestern State University.

Jennifer Henrichs is the President and owner of JRH Engineering & Environmental Services, Inc., a role she has held since 2014. After several years in the healthcare industry, Jennifer deepened her environmental and regulatory expertise through Texas A&M University, including completion of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory Compliance Program with specialized studies in wetland delineation and USACE permitting. She soon discovered a passion for the way civil engineers transform raw land into successful, revenue-producing developments. From that passion, Jennifer later earned her master’s degree in civil & environmental engineering from Lamar University. She is married to Jason Henrichs and is the proud mother of three children—ages 13 and 16, with her oldest currently serving in the U.S. Army. Outside of work, she enjoys snowboarding in Breckenridge, Colorado, and traveling to Key West, Florida. Jennifer also brings a developer’s perspective through her own public mini-storage warehouse project in Harris County, Texas. This firsthand experience gives her a unique, well-rounded understanding of both the engineering and development sides of complex projects.

Over the past decade, Jennifer’s experience has spanned the full lifecycle of civil and environmental projects—from zoning and rezoning, pre-project planning, feasibility studies, and permitting, managing the design process and, in many cases, overseeing construction management. Her portfolio includes both private commercial developments and public works infrastructure projects.

Jennifer has also served for more than five years as a City of Pearland Zoning and Planning Commissioner, supporting city planning initiatives, infrastructure planning, UDC code decisions, joint development workshops, and the rezoning process for property owners.

At JRH, Jennifer’s mission is to help developers identify utility capacity, drainage, and floodplain constraints early—so they can accurately quantify site risk, control capital costs, and protect project pro formas, preserving target IRR and risk-adjusted returns. Personally, she is committed to raising awareness of the senior housing crisis and building alliances that expand access to housing solutions that improve seniors’ quality of life.