Education Committee  — Houston

Leah R. Bennett, CFA, CIC

Managing Director, King Investment Advisors, Inc

Leah R. Bennett is a portfolio manager and securities analyst for King Investment Advisors, Inc. She has been with KING fourteen years and has seventeen years of experience in the investment business. Leah, a CFA charterholder and a Chartered Investment Counselor, is a graduate of Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Economics. Before joining KING, Leah was a research analyst for Capital Research & Management in Los Angeles. As an analyst for KING, Leah has followed the healthcare and retail industries for the last ten years. She authors the firm’s quarterly portfolio analysis publication, KING Portfolio Review, and has been both author and contributing author of the DecisionMaker, KING’s quarterly commentary on the financial markets and the economic environment.

Her articles on the firm’s equity holdings are widely distributed to major brokerage firms within the industry. Leah is past-President and current Director of the CFA Society of Houston. She is a member of the CFA Institute and co-founder of the CFA Institute-Texas Investment Research Challenge, having formerly served as Chairman of the organization’s education committee. Leah serves on the M. A. Wright Fund Oversight Board, Jessie H. Jones Graduate School of Management, Rice University.

Paula Canlas

Fund Operations Manager, Salient Partners, L.P.

Paula has 11 years of experience in the financial industry with six years focused in fund administration and investor relations. Previously, she worked for UBS Financial Services, JP Morgan Chase & Co, and Van Kampen Investments. In 2007, Paula joined the Houston office of Telemus Capital Partners, LLC/ RDG Capital, LLC that was later acquired by Salient Partners, L.P. in 2011. Paula’s primary role is the Fund Operations Manager for the MLP business of Salient Capital Advisors, LLC.

Paula graduated from Texas State University in San Marcos with a Bachelor of Healthcare Administration. She was the Co-Chair of the 2007 American Cancer Society (ACS)- Starlight Gala Committee and currently services on the advisory committee for Distinguished Giving Division for ACS.

Janet Luby, CFA, CPA

Senior Vice President
Senior Portfolio Manager
Co-Chairman – Houston

Janet serves as senior vice president, senior portfolio manager in the investment management group at Amegy Bank of Texas. She is responsible for managing discretionary portfolios for high net worth individuals, endowments and foundations. Her areas of expertise include investment analysis, asset allocation, portfolio construction and macroeconomic evaluation and analysis.

Janet has more than 23 years of experience in the investments industry and has worked for several financial institutions in Houston including Invesco and Van Kampen Investments. In her 12 years with Van Kampen, she served as lead senior portfolio manager for a multi-cap focus fund, as well as senior portfolio manager for a $6 billion + mutual fund.

Janet earned a Bachelor of Business degree in finance from Texas A&M University and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Public Accountant (CPA) designations. She is also a member of the CFA Institute, the CFA Society of Houston, and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

Becky Roof

Managing Director, Alix Partners

Becky Roof brings a unique perspective to her turnaround and crisis management engagements. With over 25 years of experience, her credentials consist of an equal blend of corporate and consulting experience. Becky’s tenure as vice president and CFO of a Houston-based oilfield services company provides her with an enhanced perspective of the corporate and operating issues faced by management, other stakeholders and their representatives. She also possesses an extensive consulting background providing interim and crisis management to troubled and underperforming companies in a broad array of industries.

Prior to joining AlixPartners, Becky was a director in the corporate finance, regeneration and disputes practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Previously, she provided litigation support, fraud investigative work, and corporate recovery consulting services for Ernst & Young LLP.

Becky is a Certified Management Accountant, a Certified Insolvency & Restructuring Advisor, and a CPA (licensed in Texas). She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and Bachelor of Arts degree in geology from Trinity University, where she was a university scholar. She is a member of the Turnaround Management Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and is on the Board of Directors of the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Linda Shirkey

President and CEO, Shirkey Consulting, Inc.

Linda Shirkey founded Shirkey Consulting, Inc, in 1994 after serving the investment advisor community as an institutional broker for five years. Prior to that, she was a corporate banker working with Fortune 500 high technology companies, and has held marketing and new product development positions in the legal and financial services industries. Ms. Shirkey holds a BA magna cum laude from Case Western Reserve University. She is a frequently requested speaker at national conferences, providing a practical, straight forward perspective on managing compliance in a successful firm.

Shirkey Consulting, Inc. provides its expertise nationwide to new and mature investment advisory firms, hedge funds, pension consultants, and financial planners. The company approaches compliance from a best practices perspective, developing the most effective and efficient means to meet the ever-changing regulatory requirements for firms of all sizes.

Networking Committee  – Houston

Brett Ashley Longoria

Senior Portfolio Analyst at Avalon Advisors, LLC
Chairman – Houston

Brett Ashley Longoria is a Senior Portfolio Analyst at Avalon Advisors, LLC focusing on alternatives as well as family office services. She joined Avalon in December of 2011 as a Client Advisory Assistant and in 2012 became a Client Advisory Analyst. She graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University, with a B.A. in American Studies. Brett Ashley serves as the President of the Periwinkle Foundation Friends Board and is a volunteer for the Theta Charity Antiques Show and the Houston Alumnae of Kappa Alpha Theta.

Jesica Radenheimer

Associate and Portfolio Administrator, Avalon Advisors

Jesica G. Radenheimer is an Associate and Portfolio Administrator at Avalon Advisors. Prior to joining Avalon, Jesica worked a Financial Operation Trading Specialist at Chilton Capital Management and as a Financial Representative at Fidelity Investments. Jesica began her career as a Paraplanner at Ameriprise Financial. In her previous roles, Jesica analyzed client portfolios and prepared reports, assisted clients with financial goals and maintained various high net worth relationships and institutional platforms.

She graduated from the University of Houston with a B.B.A. in Finance and a Certificate of Corporate Entrepreneurship.

Victoria Ridgway

Head of Client Services, Champion Advisors LLC

Victoria Ridgway is the head of Client Services at Champion Advisors LLC. Since joining in early 2015, Victoria is responsible for all client communications and account administration. Prior to Champion, her career has included positions focused on development and community, from grant-writing for the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston to launching a multiespacio. Victoria attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Art History. Victoria is an active member in her community, enjoys a British murder mystery, and always makes her pie crust from scratch.

Marisela Luviano

Senior Audit Manager, Melton & Melton, LLP

Marisela Luviano, CPA is a Senior Audit Manager with Melton & Melton, LLP, a local CPA firm, where she provides audit services to investment companies (including investment advisors, hedge funds, and broker-dealers) as well as other industries in the Houston area. Prior to joining Melton & Melton, LLP, Marisela began her career in Dallas in January 2007 with Rothstein Kass. She earned her CPA in Texas in February 2009. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, the National Association of Professional Women, Texas Wall Street Women, and the Texas Hedge Fund Association. She has held various board positions in the ALPFA Houston Professional Chapter from October 2011 through October 2014. Marisela graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Houston—Downtown in December 2006 with a Bachelor of Business Administration with a major in Accounting and a minor in Finance.

Philanthropy Committee – Houston

Rachael Cahan

Senior Vice President, Macquarie Energy
Co-Chair Philanthropy Committee, Houston

Rachael is a Senior Vice President in the Energy Markets Division at Macquarie Energy focused on energy structuring and origination. Rachael works with power and gas clients to develop structured financing solutions with a focus on energy supply and has previous experience managing structured transactions and supply deals throughout their lifecycles. Rachael joined Macquarie in Houston in 2008 after previous experience supporting the derivatives trading desk at UBS in London and Sydney, Australia. Rachael began her career in equity operations at JP Morgan in Sydney, Australia. Rachael holds a Masters in Finance and a Bachelor of Business Studies with majors in Finance and Economics from Massey University, New Zealand.

Kathryn Shurin

Attorney, Haynes and Boone, LLP

Katy Shurin is a member of the Energy, Power and Natural Resources Practice Group in the Houston office of Haynes and Boone, LLP.  Katy advises clients in the energy and commodities sectors on a wide array of complex transactional matters, including matters relating to commodities trading, commercial lending, project finance, mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions, with a particular focus on the power, renewables, and upstream and midstream oil and gas industries.

Katy’s experience includes counseling investment banks, commodities trading firms, energy companies, private equity funds and other energy and commodities investors in structuring, analyzing and negotiating structured financings, credit facilities, physical and financial commodity hedging arrangements, power purchase agreements and other physical off-take agreements, joint ventures, and asset and stock purchase and sale agreements.

Prior to joining Haynes and Boone, Katy worked in New York as a capital markets and securities associate, where she represented publicly traded and privately held companies in connection with initial public offerings, secondary and follow-on offerings, shelf registrations, exchange offers, PIPEs, rights offerings, private placements and offerings pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S, and advised clients on SEC reporting and corporate governance matters.

Alexandra Gottschalk

Controller, Tudor Pickering, Holt & Co.

Alexandra Gottschalk is a Controller with Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., an integrated energy investment and merchant bank. Her primary focus includes supervising the broker-dealer operations as well as treasury management, board reporting, internal operations and analysis of firm growth opportunities. Previously, she worked in the Assurance practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP after beginning her career in the International Tax Group with Deloitte Tax, LLP. She holds an MS in Accountancy and a BBA in Accounting from the University of Houston Honors College. Additionally, she is a Certified Public Accountant.