Events

More Than a Store: Three Decades of Tumultuous Changes 1960-1990

Mr. Robert T. Sakowitz is President and CEO of Hazak Corporation, Houston, Texas, a Corporate Consulting company for Business Strategies, Marketing, and Development with multi-industry and multi-national companies for over thirty-five years.

Formerly he has served on the Boards of Directors of: The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Texas (Houston Branch Chairman), Continental Air Lines; Morse Shoe Company; Galleria Bank (Founding Director) and Texas American BankShares; National Retail Merchants Association/ National Retail Federation; The American Council for the Arts; The Houston Symphony;  Societe Viticole Europeene; TungTex Apparel Manufacturing of HongKong ; DiCentral Corporation; FreshBrew Group (Founding Director); Digital Documents Advisors; the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau (Chairman), the Houston International Festival (Co-Founder).  He also served as Chairman of both the Houston and Harris County Sesquicentennial Committees, the Houston Municipal Arts Committee; Co-Chairman of the 1980 White House Conference on Small Business, Southwest Region, and Co-Chairman, Texas Conference on Small Business.                                                                                                                                                                     Mr. Sakowitz continues to serve on the Board of Advisors, Texas A&M Galveston, TX.; the Blue Bird Circle Foundation, the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership Maritime Committee, and as Co-Chairman of the Board of Advisors of IM- Houston Interfaith Ministries.                                            He is a member of numerous civic, arts, business, and charitable organizations.

Prior to forming Hazak consulting company, Mr. Sakowitz was President and Chief Executive Officer of Sakowitz, Inc, helping to transform it into an internationally recognized fashion specialty retailer. He was a forerunner in initiating in-store marketing concepts of European ready-to-wear apparel boutiques in the United States, launching the first Andre Courreges boutique, following with Yves St. Laurent Rive Gauche, Givenchy, Valentino, and Ermenegildo Zegna, and numerous distribution relationships and joint ventures with other European and Asian designers first in America. The extraordinary “Ultimate Gifts” of the annual Sakowitz Christmas Catalogues, delivered throughout every state in America and frequently abroad, were covered by press and television media world-wide. He is frequently called upon for media interviews and speaking engagements regarding marketing, supply chain and retail distribution, business strategies and forecasts

He also innovated the first wine department within department stores, and Fine and Rare Wine Auctions with Christie’s of London, which continued to develop the wine market in the U.S. for over twenty years (1967-88).

Mr. Sakowitz has been the recipient of numerous local, national and international awards; among them are the Chevalier de L’Ordre National du Merit, the Republic of France; the Cavaliere del Ordine al Merito by the Republic of Italy, and the International Best Dressed Hall of Fame.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Mr. Sakowitz is a graduate of St. John’s School in Houston, and Harvard University, AB History and Government, Cum Laude; and has been blessed with four children and eight grand-children..                                                                                     

Join the Fresh Start Committee for the Annual Holiday Party at Career & Recovery Resources.  Enjoy a pizza party and fellowship and encouragement with the agency clients who are working dilingtenty to overcome barriers from criminal justice involvement, subnstance use, underemployment and/or  housing instability.  We will celebrate the clients hard fought accomplishments and present them with a gift to show our appreciation, encouragement and support.  

Supporting cancer research for over 50 years.

http://www.lombardiaward.org

BEAR ... BE A RESOURCE FOR CPS KIDS

BEAR will provide lunch for participants from the Corner Bakery.  Please register by 3:00 PM on Tuesday, December 9th so that we may have an accurate lunch count.  

Rotarians and friends will separate gifts by age to create gift bags according to CPS children's wish list.

BEARing Gifts provides holiday gifts to children involved with Child Protective Services who otherwise would have no holiday cheer at all. Over 14,000 children were served with our help last year!

Let's do it again this year! Bring your donation of new, unopened toys to the Warehouse on Thursday December 11th, 2025.

*Located at the end of the Brookwood Business Park next to Oaks Dads’ Club (baseball fields).

A View from the Texas Business Court

The Inaugural Year: Progress & Momentum

Judges: Sofia Adrogué and Grant Dorfman 

Hon. Sofia Adrogué

Governor Greg Abbott appointed Sofia Adrogué to be one of the inaugural judges of the Eleventh Business Court Division, effective September 1, 2024. The Eleventh Business Court Division is composed of the counties of Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Matagorda, Montgomery & Wharton. A native of Argentina, Sofia is a former Senior Trial Partner with Diamond McCarthy LLP, a 10-year+ Texas Super Lawyer, Best Lawyer, & Latino Leaders “U.S. 25 Most Influential Hispanic Lawyer” & “Most Powerful Woman in Law.” She envisioned & serves as the Editor of the TEXAS BUSINESS LITIGATION treatise (5th Edition) & has published and/or spoken on over 250 occasions. She is a graduate of Harvard Business School Owner/President Management Program, an alumna of HBS (U.S. Keynote Graduation Speaker for HBS OPM 37, ostensibly the first woman, & U.S. Class Representative), & a graduate of the University of Houston Law Center, magna cum laude, & Rice University, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, both on full academic scholarships.

Having handled matters arising in Texas, across the U.S. as well as in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Puerto Rico, among other venues, she has obtained favorable judgments and settlements on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants in U.S. state and federal courts and in alternative dispute resolution (ADR— mediation & arbitration) proceedings. Sofia has served on THE ADVOCATE Editorial Board, the Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee, the CLE, Mentor & Professionalism Committees of the State Bar of Texas as well as the CLE, HOUSTON LAWYER & the Professionalism Committees of the Houston Bar Association, among others. She is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, the Texas Bar Foundation & the Houston Bar Foundation. She has also served as a Member of the Houston First Board of Directors as well as the City of Houston Mayor’s Hispanic Advisory Board.

She has received over 40 awards, including the `2025 Greater Houston Woman’s Chamber of Commerce Pioneering Leadership in Justice Award; the 2024 L.I.F.E. Mother’s Day Award; the 2023 UHLC Hispanic Law Heritage Wall of Honor recognition; the 2022 Top 30 Women in Houston Award; 2021 World Affairs Council of Greater Houston Global Leader of Influence; 2020 Comcast Hispanic Heroes Award; a Greater Houston Women's Chamber “Hall of Fame” Inductee; a HOUSTON CHRONICLE Channel 11 “Texas Legend” & 10 “Extraordinary Latinos” (Inaugural List) ; National Diversity Council “Most Powerful and Influential Woman of Texas” & one of the “Top 50 Women Lawyers”; a UH Law Center Immigration Clinic Arrival Award & a Houston Jaycees “Outstanding Houstonian”; a Texas Jaycees “Outstanding Texan”; and a U.S. Jaycees “Outstanding Young American”; among others. Sofia has been recognized for her public service by the City of Houston with a proclamation of July 10, 2004 & December 18, 2018, as “Sofia Adrogué Day.” 

Hon. Grant Dorfman

Governor Abbott appointed Grant Dorfman to the new Eleventh Business Court Division in Houston on June 14, 2024, and he has been elected by his colleagues to serve as the Administrative Presiding Judge for the initial two-year term of the Court. Judge Dorfman previously served as Judge of the 129th and 334th District Courts of Harris County. In between his terms of judicial service, Judge Dorfman worked as Senior In-House Counsel in charge of litigation for Nabors Industries, the world’s largest land-based drilling contractor; an Of Counsel attorney with Sheehy, Ware & Pappas; a mediator and arbitrator, and state court visiting judge; and, most recently, as the Deputy First Assistant to the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

A native Texan, Judge Dorfman graduated from Brown University with an A.B. in Honors History magna cum laude and was admitted to Phi Beta Kappa. He also obtained a Master of Studies (M.St.) in History and Political Philosophy from Oxford University and a J.D. from the Yale Law School. After law school, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jerry E. Smith of the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and, prior to taking the bench, practiced commercial litigation for ten years with two Houston law firms: Susman Godfrey and Ogden, Gibson, White & Broocks.

Judge Dorfman currently serves on the boards of the University of Houston Law Review, HSPVA Friends (supporting the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts), and the Texas Association of Retired, Senior and Former Judges. He has in the past served as a member of the faculty of the National Judicial College and as an adjunct faculty member of the University of Houston Law Center. A life fellow of the Houston Bar Foundation and a sustaining life fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, Judge Dorfman is also a member of the Federalist Society and the American Law Institute, and served as an officer on the Houston Bar Association’s Communities in Schools and Professionalism Committees; an ASTAR (Advanced Science and Technology Adjudication Resource) Judge; judicial liaison to the HBA Securities Litigation & Arbitration Section; and served on the State Bar Pattern Jury Charge Committee and the Supreme Court Code of Judicial Conduct Advisory Committee.

If you have experienced grid lock trying to drive through River Oaks to see the elaborate winter wonderland decorations-we have you covered! Mister McKinney's Houston History Bus Lights Tour will drive you past the over 100 homes that voluntarily create spectabular light displays starting November 20th. 

We have all 20 seats on the first tour of the season and will create a wait list in case there is enough for another group of 20...RSVP quickly. All ages love this tour. I have personally taken many visitors for this ride and highly recommend it.

Come hear Dr. Timothy B. Boone and Dr. Lance Black, two of the leading medical innovators in Texas and the world, talk about the many accomplishments that are made when one bridges the professions of Engineering and Medicine. Both will amaze us as they share extraordinary advances in patient care in the 21st Century.  EnMed researchers, with their deep understanding of the potential of artificial intelligence, are bringing us cutting edge medicine. Join us for The EnMed Experiment: Medicine x Engineering.

Dr. Timothy B. Boone is the Interim Dean of the Texas A&M School of Engineering Medicine. He is Emeritus Professor of Urology and the Craig C. Brown and Suzanne Smith Centennial Chair in Medical Education at Houston Methodist and the former Director of the Education Institute at Houston Methodist. He earned is MD/PhD at the University of Tecas Medical and Graduate School, Houston.  For the last decade, Dr. Boone has played a leading role in the development of the first engineering medicine program offering dual degrees, a medical doctorate and masters degree in engineering in four years..  

Dr. Lance Black, MD and MBID, is the senior associate dean of innovation and strategic projects at EnMed at Texas A&M University -- a joint initiative of the Texas A&M College of Engineering and College of Medicine in Houston.  With a background in family medicine and military service, Dr. Black transitioned  into the medical device and digital health start-up space, where he has spent over a decade leading product development, commercialization strategy and clinical innovation efforts.  He is passionate about mentoring students and faculty to advance technologies that improve patient care and health system performance.  

Both of these physicianeers will share some of the latest innovations in health care coming to your doctor's office and hospital soon!  It will be a great show and tell with plenty of time for your questions.  Help us start the year anew with these new innovations!

Join us for fellowship  and fun at our monthly Rotary Club of Houston Social.  Food and drinks are available for purchase.  

With over 45 years of experience as a Professional Engineer, Commissioner Tom Ramsey has dedicated his career to improving the safety, infrastructure, and quality of life for communities across Texas. He has served as Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner since 2020, overseeing maintenance of nearly 6,800 miles of roadway, 72 parks, and 10 Community and Nature Centers. His office also manages over $900M in infrastructure projects.

A native of Crockett, Texas, and a resident of Harris County for over 35 years, Ramsey earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University. His professional achievements have earned him numerous accolades, including being named Engineer of the Year by Houston-area engineering societies and receiving the Distinguished Graduate Award from the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M in 2023. The American Society of Civil Engineers recognized him as the 2024 Public Official of the Year.

Before becoming County Commissioner, Ramsey served as Mayor of Spring Valley Village from 2012 to 2020. His strong faith inspires his commitment to public service. He serves as a deacon and Bible study teacher at Second Baptist Church in Houston. He and his wife, Marsha, have three children and seven grandchildren.

We watched Venezuela in amazement, while news broadcasted overwhelming happiness by some and dismay by others. Professor Francisco Monaldi will be providing a timely analysis of Venezuela's oil and US policy: What to expect?             and reponding to your questions on Thursday, January 22, 2026. 

Francisco J. Monaldi, Ph.D., is the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in Latin American Energy Policy and director of the Latin America Energy Program at the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

He is also a fellow at the Claudio X. González Center for the United States and Mexico, a lecturer in energy economics at Rice University’s Department of Economics, and a lecturer in energy management at the Jones Graduate School of Business. He is a member of the International Faculty at IESA School of Management in Venezuela and Panama, where he was a professor and the founding director of the Center for Energy and the Environment. He is a nonresident fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.

He is a member of the International Advisory Council of Global Americans, the Venezuela Solutions Group of the Atlantic Council, and the Education Advisory Board of the Association of International Energy Negotiators. 

Monaldi was previously a visiting professor at the School of Government at the Tecnológico de Monterrey in México; an adjunct senior research scholar at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University; a visiting professor of energy policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; an associate of the Geopolitics of Energy Project and the Roy Family Fellow of the Environment and Natural Resources Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; the Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professor in Latin American Studies at Harvard University; an adjunct professor of international energy policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University; a visiting professor of political economy at Stanford University; a national fellow at the Hoover Institution; and a researcher and lecturer in political economy at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas. He has also been a visiting lecturer at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, and the Universidad ESAN in Lima.

Monaldi is a leading scholar on the politics and economics of energy and resource policy in Latin America. He also studies institutions and resource wealth management in developing countries. He has consulted with numerous international institutions, governments and companies — including the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, CAF Development Bank of Latin America, Saudi Aramco, Ecopetrol, PDVSA, PEMEX, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total Energies, Equinor, JP Morgan, Barclays, Natural Resource Governance Institute, Harvard Center for International Development, S&P, Rystad, Wood Mackenzie, Eurasia Group, Medley Advisors, and the governments of Norway, the U.K., the U.S., Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Kazakhstan.

Monaldi has authored and coauthored numerous academic publications, including “Shale Renders the Obsolescing Bargain Obsolete: Political Risk and Foreign Investment in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta” (Resources Policy, 2021); “The Cyclical Phenomenon of Resource Nationalism in Latin America” in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia (Oxford University Press, 2020); “The Political Economy of Oil Taxation in Latin America” in “The Political Economy of Taxation in Latin America,” G. Flores-Macias, ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2019); “Institutional Collapse” in “Venezuela Before Chavez: Anatomy of an Economic Collapse,” R. Hausmann and F. Rodriguez, eds. (Penn State University Press, 2014); “Oil Fueled Centralism,” in “Oil and Gas in Federal Systems,” G. Anderson, ed. (Oxford University Press, 2012); and “The Political Economy of Oil Contract Renegotiation in Venezuela,” in “The Natural Resources Trap: Private Investment without Public Commitment,” W. Hogan and F. Struzenegger, eds. (MIT Press, 2010).

He holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in political science (political economy) from Stanford University, an M.A. in international and development economics from Yale University, and a B.A. in economics from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.

Join the Rotary Club of Houston for an intimate evening fundraiser in support of Rotary Camp Enterprise and Youth Programs.

Enjoy a welcoming reception with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and wine, hosted by Terry and Dr. Joe Agris at their Bellaire home. The evening will include a special safari tour beginning at 4:30 PM, followed by time to connect with fellow supporters who share a commitment to empowering the next generation of leaders.  You will be entertained on the Grand Piano by Kathleen Fenninger and on the harp by Kate Gabriele.  Light Italian cuisine will be offered.  

You will also meet and be briefed by students who participated in previous Camp Enterprise programs.  It's a great celebration of how Rotary  of Houston supports and encourages both social and business entrepreneurship.  Come learn about this 21st century youth leadership program for area high school students.  

Proceeds from this event support Rotary’s signature project, Camp Enterprise, an immersive business and leadership experience for Houston-area high school students, and other youth development programs of the Rotary Club of Houston.  We hope you will join us for this fun and festive friendraiser.  As a guest at this event, we request a donation of your choice by clicking on the "Donate" link below.  

Donate to Camp Enterprise 2026

January 29, 2026 | 4:30–7:00 PM
Safari Tour begins at 4:30 PM

400 Mulberry Lane
Bellaire, TX 77401

Kindly RSVP by January 26.

John Whitmire, the 63rd Mayor of Houston was sworn in on January 1, 2024, bringing decades of public service experience to the role. Before becoming mayor, he served as the longest-tenured member of the Texas State Senate, representing Houstonians for 40 years in the Texas Senate and 10 years in the Texas House. Throughout his career, Whitmire has been a strong advocate for criminal justice reform, public safety, and economic development. As mayor, Whitmire is focused on strengthening public safety, fixing the city’s finances and infrastructure, and improving Houstonians' quality of life. His leadership is shaped by his love for people, his vast understanding of government and his commitment to public service.