Welcome: Our New 2025 Governing Board Members

We are excited to welcome a dynamic group of leaders to our Governing Board. Each brings a unique blend of experience, insight, and passion for our mission. As we look ahead to new opportunities and challenges, these individuals will play a vital role in guiding our vision and strengthening our ability to amplify giving. Meet our newest Governing Board members and learn more about the expertise they will bring to the Community Foundation.

Kelly Hackett
Managing Director – Family Office Services, Tectonic Advisors

Kelly Hackett has been crafting foundational investment strategies and structures for family office enterprises and ultrahigh net-worth clients for over two decades. Her own multi-faceted perspective as an attorney, investor, and client, in combination with a discerning capacity to understand client ambitions, enables her to develop tailored services that deliver sustainable financial strength and stability. In both the boardroom and c-suite, Kelly brings strategic leadership and a unique ability to evaluate other points of view through a diverse, comprehensive lens. She is a collaborative, conscientious, and proactive advisor and board director, passionate about impactful strategy, effective governance, and compliance/risk management processes that drive long-term value.

Currently Managing Director and Head of the Family Office division at Tectonic Advisors, Kelly founded and launched this division in 2017. As both a thought leader in family enterprise management and a second-generation client, Kelly brings a unique, fresh perspective to the Tectonic Advisors Family Office team. She partners closely with clients on governance, succession planning, wealth education, financial management, and charitable strategies. She also serves as a client investment committee member and advisor facilitating strategic deliberations and authorizing limited partner investor decisions. For Kelly, ensuring families achieve their multigenerational investment, lifestyle, and philanthropic goals is not a career – it is a calling – and has led to positive financial and business impact. She has grown Tectonic’s family office assets under management by 60% and expanded the scope of client engagements year over year.

Also, as Vice President and Trustee of the Hackett Family Foundation since 2012, Kelly has set the direction for investment, transformative grant making, and operational leadership/administration. For more than five years prior, Kelly was Managing Director of Family Office Services for Salient Partners, LP. Her unique combination of personal and professional experiences enables her to tailor family enterprise and wealth management services to ensure each client family reaches financial milestones, enjoys time for life’s most fulfilling activities, and builds a philanthropic legacy for future generations.

Kelly’s two decades of professional accomplishments are matched by her relentless dedication to giving back to others. She currently serves as Board Chair of St. Luke’s Health System, where she and the leadership team have rebuilt two governing boards. With the Greater Houston Community Foundation, she chairs the Investment Committee and is a Council Member and alumna of the inaugural class of the Next Gen Donor Institute. She is also active on the boards of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, United Way of Greater Houston, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Baylor College of Medicine. These experiences bring deep expertise in critical board responsibilities such as committee structures, e.g., audit, governance practices, and succession planning.

From 2005 until 2012, Kelly served in corporate securities, governance, M&A, and project management roles in Houston with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and Bracewell & Giuliani LLP. Kelly began her professional career as an Investment Analyst at John Hancock Financial Services in Boston.

Kelly is a hands-on volunteer for treasured causes, including providing at-home ministry and eucharistic services to an assisted living facility since 2010. Passionate in her beliefs, she is often invited by nonprofit organizations and donor groups to share her perspective on strategy, multigenerational giving, and the business of philanthropy.

Kelly earned a J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law in 2009, holds an executive education certificate in finance and accounting from the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, and graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in business administration, double majoring in finance and international business. While there, she also spent a summer abroad at the University of Oxford, studying comparative strategic management and international finance.

Cody McGregor, Next Gen Representative
Managing Director, FTI Consulting

Cody was in the Community Foundation’s 2023 Next Gen Donor Institute class. He and his wife Kate learned about the program through both the Community Foundation of Richmond (where Kate’s parents are involved) and Alexandra Tennant, a Next Gen alumna. Cody is on the board of the Barrington Family Foundation and is a strategic thinker and grant maker.

Cody is a Managing Director at FTI Consulting in the firm’s Strategic Communications Practice. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1999 and served in the 3rd Infantry Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division. While serving with the 82nd, he was assigned to an infantry platoon and later to a sniper position in a scout reconnaissance platoon. During his time in service, Cody ascended to the rank of sergeant and took part in deployments to Egypt in support of the Multinational Force and Observers peacekeeping mission and Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom where he earned the Combat Infantryman’s badge.

Following his service, Cody graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and went on to work for a member of the Texas House of Representatives, the Texas Commissioner of Agriculture, and managed two statewide campaigns.

In 2014, Cody founded the Texas chapter of Concerned Veterans of America, a statewide veterans advocacy coalition made up of hundreds of volunteers and staff. He went on to serve as the National Outreach Director, serving as the organization’s spokesperson, and helped build a national network of veterans and military family members responsible for advocating for veterans at the federal and state levels.

Cody serves as an officer on the board of The Barrington Family Foundation, whose mission is, in part, to support our country’s active-duty troops, veterans, and their families. He also sits on U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s Military Academy Nominations Committee and is an active member of his community in Houston, Texas.

Jay Sears
Managing Partner, NewQuest

As co-founder and Managing Partner of NewQuest, Jay K. Sears focuses on growing the NewQuest platform through new development, acquisitions, and strategic opportunities, alongside managing key client relationships. A 40+ year veteran of the commercial real estate industry, Sears has actively been involved in the building of over 130 retail projects throughout Texas and the Southwest.

In 1996, Sears founded Sears Realty Company, a commercial brokerage and development firm that developed, managed, and leased numerous grocery-anchored shopping centers throughout the greater Houston area. Sears Realty was formed in response to the site selection and development needs of Sears’s grocery and retail clients, brokering or developing numerous transactions involving Albertsons, H-E-B, Kroger, Walgreens, Petco, and 24 Hour Fitness, among many others. The company flourished and in 2001, Sears merged with Quest Properties, forming NewQuest Properties. Today, NewQuest is the largest privately-held shopping center developer in Texas, having developed over $4.5 billion in retail and shopping center projects.

Sears received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Baylor University in 1982. He currently serves on the board of West Houston Association, is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), the Urban Land Institute, and Rice Design Alliance. Aside from real estate, Sears has spent many years working on micro-finance, community development and water wells in Africa through Opportunity International and Living Water.

Currently, Sears is focused locally and principally on education by providing scholarships to under-served students at Liberty High School and Eight Million Stories, in addition to supporting local organizations AVDA, Toys Fore Kids, Team Catapult, Houston Children’s Charity, and The Forensic Center of Excellence (TXFNE). Sears enjoys traveling extensively and is a bit of a fitness nut, competing in Masters Track & Field.

Jay Steinfeld
Founder and CEO, Blinds.com

As founder and CEO of Blinds.com, Jay was an early mover in e-Commerce. In 1993, he bootstrapped his company into the #1 online window coverings retailer in the world. In January 2014, Jay sold it to The Home Depot but continued to lead Blinds.com for over 6 years as its CEO. Additionally, he joined the Home Depot Online Leadership Team.

Blinds.com is known for its unique start-up culture and has won numerous awards, including The Best Place to Work in Houston, Top 5 Workplaces in Texas, AMA Marketer of the Year, National Call Center of the Year, and Top 50 Most Engaged Workplaces in America. Jay is an E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year, teaches Entrepreneurship at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, a board member of The University of Texas Herb Kelleher Entrepreneur Center, and serves on numerous other boards, both public and private.

His book, “Lead from the Core: The 4 Principles for Profit and Prosperity”, is a Wall Street Journal Bestseller. Jay supports numerous charities and organizations that support helping people become better than they ever believed possible.

Click here to learn more about 2024 New Governing Board Members which included, Avani Narang, Brandon Simmons, Y. Ping Sun, and Anthanette Wilson.

More Helpful Articles by Greater Houston Community Foundation:

• Meet Avani Gupta Narang
• Lily Johnson: A Young Changemaker Sharpening Her Philanthropic Toolkit
• A Mother’s Spirit of Generosity Lives on Through Her Children
• Scholarships and Economic Mobility
• Trust and Impact: Strengthening Houston Through Strategic Philanthropy

This website is a public resource of general information that is intended, but not promised or guaranteed, to be correct, complete, and up to date. The materials on this website, including all comments and responses to comments, do not constitute legal, tax, or other professional advice, and is not intended to create, and receipt or viewing does not constitute, nor should it be considered an invitation for, an attorney-client relationship. The reader should not rely on information provided herein and should always seek the advice of competent legal counsel and/or a tax professional in the reader’s state or jurisdiction. The owner of this website does not intend links on the website to be referrals or endorsements of the linked entities.