Suuport Our Induction Dinner
Everyone is welcome to attend the Annual Induction Dinner, honoring Texas’ foremost past, present and future business leaders. Through table and ticket purchases, TBHF is able to achieve its mission and continue to provide scholar and veteran awards through the Future Legends Scholar & Veteran Award Program. To learn more about supporting the Induction Dinner, please visit the Induction Dinner page.
Invest In The Future
Investing in our future Texas business leaders is a winning bet. The Texas Business Hall of Fame awards those who demonstrate an early inclination towards entrepreneurship and community involvement through the Future Legends Scholar & Veteran Award Program. Award finalists are identified through our 23 partner universities and entrepreneurial veteran groups around the state. Winners are selected through a vigorous interview process with Texas Business Hall of Fame Directors and Legends. To date, we have awarded almost 800 entrepreneurial students and veterans across our state. In 2022, 40 individuals will receive this $15,000 prize in addition to permanent inclusion the TBHF network.
Over 70 percent of recent recipients have already founded a Texas-based company. Over the past four decades, countless recipients have gone on to build successful businesses and give back to their communities in meaningful ways.
Make a contribution
It requires a group of successful, forward-thinking business leaders who love Texas to step up and make meaningful investments into our future Texas business leaders by making gifts of cash, stock, challenge grants, and planned gifts to the TBHF Scholar & Veteran Award Program. If you would like to donate a Hall of Fame scholar award or support the scholar and veteran award program, please contact Meredith Walker at mwalker@texasbusiness.org
or call our office at 713-960-1820.
Scholar Testimonials
I made it to the interview with Jason McCann from Varidesk and it was terrific. The virtual set up worked seamlessly on my end, the Q&A using the message board was terrific and the interview itself was a fascinating look at a great entrepreneurial story. Really enjoyed it and looking forward to the next one.
Daniel Gamboa
Acton School of Business
Class of 2020
The scholarship has made, and continues to make, a large impact on my entrepreneurial career. In particular, the scholarship has enabled me to expand my mobile development business, and with it I am having some exciting successes. I’m also now in the planning stages for a severe weather notification service that will be the first of its kind, with the goal of providing specific, actionable, short-term information to the general public. Again, I can’t thank you all enough for the incredible blessing of the TBHF scholarship, and I am excited to see how it will continue to impact and encourage my goals.
James Skidmore
Texas A&M University
Class of 2011
We have moments in life that make a real impact– that help define and shape who we are and give opportunities. 1995 was one of those for me, when the Texas Business Hall of Fame granted me a scholarship at a time where I had a lot of drive but little income. My goal will be to come full circle – one day when I am inducted, representing the growing number of women and their contributions to the business landscape of our great state, I will feel I have repaid the debt or brought it full circle.
Kimberly Haley-Coleman
University of Dallas
Class of 1995
I was able to use the contacts that I met through the Texas Business Hall of Fame to complete my capital requirements and open PediaPlex to help the families throughout the DFW metroplex. I am honored and proud to be a past scholarship recipient of the Texas Business Hall of Fame. I will be forever grateful for the opportunity that TBHF provided for me!
Sonia Kirkpatrick
University of Dallas
Class of 2011
The TBHF scholarship made a huge impact in my life. I just graduated from business school and started a company, Escapade Travel. I used the scholarship to provide seed funding for this. My goal in going to business school was to launch a start-up, and this scholarship allowed me to make my dream a reality! I just started, but stay tuned on the outcome…
Andrew Allen
University of Texas, Austin
Class of 2011
This scholarship and other feats at UH gave me boosted confidence to apply for a one-year Masters in Global Management program at Thunderbird School of Global Management, which I completed this past April. I am now working for Jones Lang LaSalle as a Consultant in our Latin America Regional Operations, and serving as the company’s Panama and Central America transactions office…
Justin Boyar
University of Houston
Class of 2010
My scholarship has most impacted my life and career by completely paying for my MBA degree. That degree, in turn, helped me acquire my current position, which I may not have qualified for based on experience alone (having just graduated after going straight through from undergraduate to graduate school). As a young adult in my mid-twenties, I count myself fortunate to have already earned both degrees and to have a stable job (that I love) in this uncertain economy. My TBHF scholarship was definitely a factor in both of these, and for that I am thankful
Meghan A. Burton
Sam Houston State University
Class of 2010
One of the other huge benefits of being a recipient of the scholarship was meeting these titans of industry and getting the chance, even if just for a day, to rub shoulders with them and hear their stories. Some told a tale of a meteoric rise to the top only to lose everything and then have to start over again. Others had a story of slow, methodical growth in which they slowly built market share over the span of decades. Either way, it was great to learn from both their successes and failures. Seeing how successful they have been and how much they have given back to the local community through philanthropy gave me as a small business owner something to strive for.
Tim Bates
University of Houston
Class of 2004
I was a proud, honored recipient in my MBA days of a generous scholarship. That scholarship came at a time in my life when I was very poor, where a flat tire or a high light bill could ruin my budget. When I graduated from law school I had a mountain of debt. But that debt was reduced dollar for dollar by the scholarship you gave. And so, I was able to retire that student debt quicker and move on in my life to more valuable pursuits sooner than I otherwise could have. Looking back, then, the scholarship accelerated my life. So, thank you.
Jonathan Simon
Baylor University
Class of 1996