Sima Ladjevardian is a Houston-based attorney and mediator with over 20 years of experience in business law, family law, and consulting. For the past 10 years, she has been active in fostering intercultural relations in the political and nonprofit arenas. Sima has developed extensive experience in fundraising in Non-profit, civic and political arenas. She is Co-Founder of Big Hearted Texas; Co-Founder of the Texas Executive Progressive Council; Co-Chair of The Texas Signal; Co-Founder of Fairness in Democracy; Co-Founder and Board Member of the Society of Iranian American Women for Education; Co-Founder and Co-Chair of Arts of the Islamic World Initiative at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. She is Board Member of the Center for Public Policy Priorities; Board Member of Good Government Support Services; Trustee of the MFAH, and Advisory Committee Member of the Asia Society Muslims of America. Sima was a National Finance Committee Member for Hillary for America and Asian-American and Pacific Islanders Finance Council Member for Hillary for America. She served as Senior Advisor and Campaign Finance Liaison for Beto O’Rourke’s U.S. Senate race, a campaign that broke fundraising records. She handled all aspects of fundraising and community outreach in the Greater Houston Area for the O’Rourke campaign. Sima is fluent in English, Farsi, French, and Spanish.

Harry Gee, Jr. attended the public schools of the Houston Independent School District and graduated from Rice University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and Economics in 1960. He enrolled at the University of Texas School of Law and attained his Bachelor of Law degree in 29 months In May of 1963 was appointed as Assistant Attorney General of the State of Texas. In 1966, he began the private practice of law in Houston, Texas. When the State Bar of Texas adopted board certification, he was among the first group of attorneys to be qualified as a Board Certified Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law in 1979 and subsequently, he chaired the Examination Committee for Immigration Board Specialization for five years. Mr. Gee has been recognized as an authority in the field of immigration law, not only having lectured at seminars and institutes conducted by Rice University, University of Oklahoma, Texas Tech University, University of Houston and the American and the Texas Immigration Lawyers Association but also having chaired two immigration law conferences at his alma mater, The University of Texas. Actively involved in various legal organizations, Mr. Gee served as President of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. During his term, NAPABA established the Thomas Tang Moot Court competition which has become a most prestigious event at the annual NAPABA conference. He has also served as a member of the Board of Governors of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Chairman of the Texas Chapter of AILA for two years, Chairman of the Immigration and the Law Day Committees of the Houston Bar Association, and as President of the Asian American Bar Association of Houston. In 2005, the Asian Bar of Houston honored him with its inaugural Impact Award. In 1993, he was honored by his colleagues in his election to the Board of Directors of the State Bar of Texas and chaired the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His family has established a Presidential Scholarship at the University of Texas in the field of Immigration Law in honor of his parents, a Red Rose scholarship at the University of Houston-Downtown, a scholarship at the University of Texas Health, a Chinese Professional Club academic scholarship and a scholarship in honor of Antje Gee for Rice women athletes. Mr. Gee is a Senior Fellow of The American Leadership Forum and served as Chair of the organization. He is also a member of the board of the Greater Houston Partnership, the Institute of International Education, The Center for Houston’s Future, the University of Texas Health Science Board and the Houston International Festival Foundation. Among the many other boards he has served on are the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Mickey Leland Kibbutz Program, the Greater Houston Community Foundation, the University of Houston Law Foundation, the Child Abuse Prevention Council, the Asian American Coalition and the Institute of Chinese Culture, the United Way, the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, the Children’s Fund Task Force of the Joint City/County Commission on Children, the Jefferson Award and the advisory Board of JPMorgan Chase, Houston. In 1999, Mr. Gee was elected as chair of LEAP, a national organization promoting the advancement of Asians into positions of leadership within their companies, educational institutions and communities and instituting research and publication of public policy analysis germane to the Asian community. He is one of a select few Chinese from Houston to have been invited to join the prestigious Committee of 100. Because of his concern about education, he has served as a member of the Board of Directors of St. Thomas University, the Annenberg Challenge, the Concerned Houstonians for Effective and Superior Schools Committee, the Citizen’s Initiative for Higher Education, Class Chairman of the Rice University Alumni Fund Drive, President of the Rice University Chinese Alumni Association and as an Executive Advisory Committee Member of the University of Houston Creative Partnerships Campaign and the Chancellor’s National Advisory Committee. He was on the Board of the Association of Rice Alumni and served as President of the Rice Alumni Association from July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007. Mayor Bob Lanier appointed Mr. Gee as a founding member of the Steering Committee of Imagine Houston and appointed him as the first Asian to the board of the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Mayor Lee Brown appointed Mr. Gee to the Board of Houston 2012, a non-profit foundation which promoted Houston as the site of the 2012 Olympics. Mr. Gee served on the Super Bowl Host Committee as Chair of the Community Relations Committee responsible for the establishment of the Youth Education Town (YET Center) resulting in contributions of over $2,000,000 to the Houston community from the National Football League and the Houston Host Committee to create two YET centers in the community, the first time the NFL created two centers in the same year. Harry has been happily married to the former Antje Wuelfrath for more than 40 years and they are the proud parents of three children, Andrew, Claudia, and Sonja, who are 1997, 1999 and 2001 graduates of Rice University respectively and are especially proud grandparents of eight adorable grandchildren.

Lynden Rose obtained his bachelor of business administration from the University of Houston in 1983 and his jurisprudence doctorate from the University of Houston in 1989. He is admitted to practice law in all Texas state courts and the Texas Southern District/Bankruptcy Court. An active participant in Houston’s political, civic and philanthropic life, Mr. Rose is a practicing attorney at Stanley Law and is also founder of the LM Rose Consulting Group. Mr. Rose previously served on the Board of the Regents of the University of Houston, his alma mater; the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau; and the Harris County Sheriff’s Civil Service Commission. He currently serves on the board of Hermann Memorial Healthcare System, the largest not-for-profit healthcare system in the State of Texas. The Bahamas Ministry of Foriegn Affair appointed Mr Lynden B. Rose as Honourary Counsul to Houston, Texas and the Southwest Region of the United States. In welcoming Mr. Rose to his diplomatic team, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Fred Mitchell said he hoped that this will increase the level of service to Bahamians in that area. From 1982 to 1984 Mr. Rose was a professional basketball player drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers and played with the Las Vegas Silvers and in Europe. Mr. Rose graduated form the University of Houston and recieved his Juris Doctorate from the University of Houston. Mr. Rose’s legal practice and consulting company’s clients include domestic and international organizations, and high net worth individual investors as well as elite professional athletes. He is married to Marilyn Rose, also a native of The Bahamas and has served as a Regent at Texas Southern University, and they have three children, Madelyn, Lynden Jr., and Lynnard.