The Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M University honored six alumni April 3 during the Outstanding Alumni Awards Banquet.
Receiving the Outstanding Alumni Honor Award were William A. Coskey ’75, chairman, CEO and president of ENGlobal Corporation; Mark A Fischer ’72, chairman, CEO and president of Chaparral Energy Inc.; Gregory E. Hall ’82, president of Drillers Supply International; and George K. Hickox ’80, general partner of Heller Hickox & Co.
Receiving the Outstanding Early Professional Achievement Alumni Honor Award were Ashok Gowda ’98, president of BioTex and COO of Visualase; and Chris Jones ’99, director of strategic technology development of iRobot Corporation.
William A. Coskey ’75
Chairman, CEO and President, ENGlobal Corporation
Coskey is the founder of Houston-based ENGlobal Corporation and currently serves as the company’s chairman and chief executive officer. ENGlobal is a leading provider of engineering, automation, and project services to all sectors of the energy industry, throughout the United States and internationally.
The company’s engineering segment provides consulting services for the development, management and execution of client projects requiring professional engineering, construction management, and related support functions. ENGlobal's automation segment offers a wide range of services dedicated to the implementation of automation, control, and process analytical systems.
The company’s government services group specializes in the turnkey installation and maintenance of automated fuel handling facilities for branches of the U.S. military at installations worldwide.
Coskey, a 1975 summa cum laude graduate of Texas A&M University, received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. His career has been marked by entrepreneurship, as both a founder and investor in numerous oil industry service firms. Coskey has served on the Texas A&M University Electrical Engineering Department Advisory Council since 1999, and as chairman of the council since 2006.
Mark A. Fischer ’72
Chairman, CEO and President, Chaparral Energy Inc.
Fischer graduated from Texas A&M University in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree with honors in aerospace engineering. He began his career with Humble Oil Company, now Exxon Company USA. In 1988, Fischer founded Chaparral Energy, Inc., as a privately held independent oil and gas production and exploration company with headquarters in Oklahoma City.
He has served as its chairman, chief executive officer and president since its inception. Chaparral Energy, under Fischer’s guidance, has been recognized as one of the fastest growing companies and has been an Oklahoma City Metro 50 award winner eight times and Texas A&M Aggie 100 award winner four times.
Fischer is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the American Petroleum Institute and has served as a director of the API from 1984-1986. In 2012, Fischer was a national finalist for the Ernest and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He sits on several non-profit organization boards including the Boy Scouts of America and he is currently serving on the Dwight Look College of Engineering Advisory Council and the board of the Association of Former Students for Texas A&M.
Gregory E. Hall ’82
President, Drillers Supply International
Hall developed the drilling plan that freed 33 Chilean miners trapped underground after a copper-gold mine caved in the Atacama Desert, Chile on Aug. 5, 2010. Hall worked on the complex rescue plan for months before putting the plan into action on Oct. 12, 2010. All 33 miners were brought to the surface safely.
He is also the owner and chief executive officer of Drillers Supply International (DSI). Hall started DSI in 1986 in Houston. Seven years later he opened the branch, Drillers Supply S.A, in Chile and another branch of DSI in Minnesota in 2000.
Hall has received many accolades and awards, such as the 1991 Presidential "E" Award for export excellence from President H.W. Bush and the Aggie 100 award in 2008 for his company being one of the 100 fastest growing companies owned by a Texas A&M alumni. He received his degree in engineering technology from Texas A&M.
George K. Hickox ’80
General Partner, Heller Hickox & Co.
Hickox has been General Partner in the private equity firm of Heller Hickox & Co. since 1991. The partnership was formed to make oil and gas company equity investments and is focused on transactions involving recapitalizations, restructurings, bankruptcy, workouts and special situations.
Hickox joined Texas Oil and Gas Corporation in 1981 where he held both drilling and production engineering positions. In 1983, he accepted a position at InterFirst Bank Houston, N.A., as assistant vice president in the energy lending group, and subsequently worked in the bank’s energy loan workout group. Hickox worked in investment banking and energy finance from 1986 until forming his current partnership. Hickox served as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of The Wiser Oil Company from June 2000 until the sale of the company in June 2004 and presently serves as a director of NATCO Group, Inc., and as a director and officer of several other private companies.
Hickox received a bachelor’s degree in geology in 1980 and a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering in 1981, both from Texas A&M University, and an M.B.A. in finance from the University of Houston in 1985. Hickox is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Industry Board of the Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Ashok Gowda ’98
President, BioTex and COO, Visualase
Gowda received his bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Vanderbilt University in 1991 and his master’s and doctoral degrees in bioengineering from Texas A&M University in 1994 and 1998 respectively.
While completing his graduate work, he co-founded a medical technology incubator, BioTex, Inc. To date, under his direction as president of BioTex, the company has raised more than $20 million in funding through various grant mechanisms, successfully licensed a number of technologies, spun-out two separate commercial stage companies, Visualase, Inc. and Base Pair BioTechnologies, and continues to thrive as a medical device research, development and manufacturing firm.
Gowda has served as principal investigator on more than 15 National Institute of Health grants, has authored more than 40 peer reviewed publications, and is an inventor on more than 20 issued patents. He continues to direct research and development efforts at BioTex, while also serving as Chief Operating Officer for Visualase, where he oversees numerous aspects of the company’s commercial efforts.
Chris Jones ’99
Director of Strategic Technology Development, iRobot Corporation.
Jones is the Director of Strategic Technology at iRobot Corporation. He has more than 15 years of experience in robotics research and development and got his start in robotics at Texas A&M University in 1997 as an undergraduate working for Dr. Nancy Amato. His contributions to robotics have included developments in the areas of autonomous robotic systems, natural interfaces for intuitive human-robot interaction, and novel robotic mobility and manipulation systems.
In addition to multiple technology and leadership roles at iRobot since 2005, he has been involved in robotics research and development at the Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems at the University of Southern California, the Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center at Sandia National Laboratories, and the Robotics Research Lab at Texas A&M.
Jones also co-founded SBIR Source, a web-based platform empowering small high-tech businesses and researchers to find and win funding through the Federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to commercialize their technology and grow their business. He received his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Texas A&M and his master’s and doctoral degrees in computer science from the University of Southern California.