The Greater Houston Partnership welcomed 24 new member companies in the month of October. The Partnership works to connect companies with resources, information and networking opportunities to help increase business while also providing a platform to influence the direction of the region. New members joining in the month of October include: A Perfect Fit: A Perfect Fit works to help its customers find the best Assisted Living and Memory Care communities. Website. Advario: Advario is in the storage industry, with a focused growth strategy on chemicals, gas and new energy. Website. American Cancer Center: American Cancer Society is a nationwide, community-based organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem through research, education, advocacy and services. Website. Barrett-Jackson Auction Company: Barrett-Jackson Auction is an American collector car auction company. Website. Comfort Systems USA South Central: Comfort Systems USA is Houston's trusted HVAC partner for building services and mechanical construction solutions for some of the community's most important customers and buildings. Website. Commercial Resource Installation (CRI): Commercial Resource Installation, a prominent installation company headquartered in Houston, TX, offers comprehensive and exceptional solutions to transform commercial workspaces to create a constructive workspace. Website. Continuum Solutions: Talent acquisition firm, Continuum Solutions, focuses on finding the right fit for their client's IT, development or leadership team. Website.  Digital Transformation Leaders: Digital Transformation Leaders helps leaders and their businesses leverage the digital opportunity through strategic business and technology innovations; to create a sustainable future, innovate, optimize ROI, transform their businesses, scale and succeed. Website. Education Alliances: Education Alliances works to prepare students for higher education by connecting them to career pathways and focusing on occupational skill development. Website. Equinor US: Equinor is an international energy company committed to long-term value creation in a low-carbon future. Its purpose is to turn natural resources into energy for people and progress for society. Website. EVA Airways Corp: EVA Airways Corp provides cargo, freight and airline transportation. Website. First Bight Ventures: First Bight is the first venture capital firm solely dedicated to investing and developing early-stage synthetic biology companies to overcome their Industrialization challenges to reach their first milestones for commercialization. Website. Global Supplier, LLC: Global Supplier, LLC is a newly formed woman-owned supply chain. Global Supplier, a logistic client-centric supply chain that fills customer demands through the most efficient use of resources including distribution capacity, inventory, and labor. Website. Gray Reed: Gray Reed offers a wide range of legal services including business litigation, corporate transactions, oil & gas, tax planning and litigation, real estate, healthcare, trusts and estates, employment law, family law, intellectual property, and bankruptcy. Website. Intuitive Machines: Intuitive Machines is currently completing its lunar program which will provide lunar surface access, lunar orbit delivery, and communications at lunar distance. Website. Kids' Meals, Inc.: Kids' Meals has been making and delivering free, healthy meals directly to the homes of hungry children. Website. LSA Global: LSA Global is a consulting and training firm that helps high growth companies get there by powerfully aligning culture and talent to strategy. Website.  Nalco Water: Nalco Water is a supplier of water, energy and air improvement solutions and services. Website. Port of Texas City, Texas: For more than a century, the Port of Texas City/ Texas City Terminal Railway Company, has served as the gateway to economic progress for the Galveston County, the State of Texas and the Nation. Website. Raise Your Hand Texas: Raise Your Hand Texas supports public policy solutions that invest in students, encourage innovation and autonomy, and improve college and workforce readiness. Website. SeedAI: SeedAI is a nonprofit that works to build collaboration between leaders across the private sector, government, academia, and civil society to support community-driven AI investments, focusing on people who have been historically marginalized and overlooked. Website.  The Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Inc.: The Bridge is a comprehensive crisis center empowering individuals impacted by sexual and domestic violence, human trafficking, and child abuse. Through a continuum of care from prevention, intervention, and advocacy support, it upholds the safety, justice, and autonomy of all victims and survivors of violence. Website. Veryable Inc: Veryable Inc connects businesses to workers through its online marketplace, enabling a real-time approach to production. Veryable also gives workers more options, and gives flexibility and control to leaders on the shop floor. Vgn Bae Studios: Vgn Bae Studios is a digital media (recording, photography, videography) studio. Website.  Click here to see the Partnership's Membership Directory. To learn more about membership with the Greater Houston Partnership click here, or contact membership@houston.org.

The Greater Houston Partnership celebrates our members making important announcements and sharing news about their operations and impact in our community. Learn more about some of those announcements over the last month below. AltaML, a leading applied artificial intelligence (AI) scale-up placed 18th on The Globe and Mail’s Fourth-Annual Ranking of Canada’s Top Growing Companies. Canada’s Top Growing Companies ranks Canadian companies on three-year revenue growth. AltaML earned its spot with three-year growth of 2309%. The Translational Research Institute for Space Health, housed out of Baylor College of Medicine announced a new fellowship opportunity for postdoctoral scientists focusing on the health challenges of deep space exploration and innovating solutions with partners California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. TRISH is now accepting proposals for the fellowship program. Selected fellows will participate in TRISH’s Academy of Bioastronautics — a mentorship community for space health professionals. BP is set to acquire Archaea Energy Inc., a renewable natural gas company that moved its headquarters to Houston last year. The deal is valued at approximately $4.1 billion and is expected to close by the end of this year. In result of selling its headquarters building in San Ramon to Sunset Development, Chevron will move to a smaller office in California and send 200 employees to Houston. In order to improve its employee experience, Chevron's new office is one-third the size of its recent headquarters, coming in at 400,000 square feet and will accommodate 2,000 employees. Houston-based nonprofit Episcopal Health Foundation received a gift of $20 million from Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. EHF focuses on researching preventative solutions for the underlying, root causes of poor health as well as making health care more affordable and accessible. Scott pledged she would donate her entire fortune in 2019 and since, has given away at least $12 billion to 1,257 groups. Through the purchase of Optum, a subsidiary of the insurer UnitedHealth Group, Kelsey-Seybold Clinic advances their $1 billion expansion plan. Kelsey-Seybold will continue to focus on and deepen its commitment to high-quality, patient-centered care at a lower total medical cost, and plans to reach 50-plus locations in Houston by 2026. In a $25 billion deal, Kroger plans to buy Albertsons, combining two of the largest supermarket chains in the country and creating one of its largest private employers. Kroger states that the deal will best benefit consumers by using half a billion dollars in cost savings from the merger to invest in lower prices. A new development project is underway, bringing a man-made surf resort to Houston's Generation Park. The project will include a 6-acre man-made surf lagoon, a large beach area, an event lawn and more. California-based Beach Street Development and McCord Development, developer of Generation Park are partnering to open HTX Surf in fall 2024. Construction will begin early next year. Management Consulting Firm McKinsey & Co. has set up a decarbonization hub in its Houston office as part of its plan to spend $100 million over the next decade to boost Houston’s decarbonization economy. This new initiative will focus on promoting carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) and green hydrogen, revamping business models for carbon-heavy companies and more. RDLR Architects recently celebrated 40 years of serving the Houston community. Being one of the few Hispanic owned Architect firms in its time of opening, RDLR helped pave the way for Hispanic business owners in the Houston area today. The firm is credited for many award-winning architecture projects throughout the City of Houston including the Houston Food Bank, SER Jobs for Progress, HCTRA Toll Gantry’s, IAH People Movers, METRO LRT Stations and more. Shell plans to build a $1.48 billion low-carbon fuels facility at the site of its former Convent refinery in Louisiana. The plan to repurpose Convent is the first in a series of projects Shell is considering at its chemicals facilities along the Gulf Coast to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels. The regional spending plan could cost as much as $10 billion. Announced at the Partnership's recent State of TMC event, the Texas Medical Center's future 500-acre BioPort campus will focus on cell and gene therapy — a method that takes cells out of the body for correction through highly sophisticated biomanufacturing then places them back into the body to treat diseases — as well as manufacturing and distribution for pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. Additionally, the BioPort campus is expected to create 100,000 jobs and incorporate an education campus for students right after high school.  If you are a member and want us to help communicate news about your organization, please send a press release or information about the announcement to member.engagement@houston.org and we will share it with our content team for possible inclusion in an upcoming roundup. Learn more about Partnership membership.