DI People: The Dallas Foundation, BenefitMall, D.R. Horton, and More Make Moves

Across North Texas, companies are promoting and hiring people to take on leadership positions within their organizations.

Dallas Innovates covers prominent personnel moves in Dallas-Fort Worth businesses and nonprofits—from the newest startups to well-established companies. Here are the people moves tied to innovation and technology in the region.

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BenefitMall adds to its Consumer Products Division

Headquartered in Dallas, BenefitMall, a provider of next-generation broker services, has added Randal Mitchell to the Consumer Products Division as a sales manager and promoted Alvin Sims to a business development executive.

With 35 years in the health insurance sales industry, Mitchell has had extensive experience across the Medicare, Individual and Commercial Group markets. In his new role, he will be responsible for the overall sales and growth of the consumer product division, as well as directly managing and leading the national sales team. His skillset will prove value as he leads the consumer products team in assisting brokers with contracting, certification, education, and selling senior and individual products.

Mitchell’s addition allows for Sims, who has been with the company for eight years, to transition to his new role, where he will be responsible for broker recruitment and contracting.

“As we continue to look for opportunities to enhance the services we provide for our brokers and their clients, we also must ensure we attract and retain high quality, talented executives that will help us be more innovative, forward thinking and solution oriented,” said Roni Jernigan, director of the Consumer Products Division at BenefitMall, in a statement. “We are excited to welcome Randal to the BenefitMall family as well as continue to foster Alvin’s career growth within the organization.

The Dallas Foundation names a new chief impact officer

Drexell Owusu

Texas’ first community foundation, the Dallas Foundation announced that North Texas leader Drexell Owusu will become its new chief impact officer, effective April 26.

Most recently, Owusu served as senior vice president of education & workforce at the Dallas Regional Chamber, where he spearheaded the organization’s growth and developed the current regional education and workforce pipeline. Prior to joining the Dallas Regional Chamber, Owusu was founder and chief executive officer of Brave Capital Partners, an investment company focused on catalyzing minority communities.

In his new role, Owusu will lead a team focused on enhancing the Foundation’s community impact strategy to reduce intergenerational poverty and improve child well-being.

“The Dallas Foundation is thrilled to name Drexell Owusu as our next Chief Impact Officer,” said Matthew Randazzo, president and CEO of The Dallas Foundation, in a statement. “Drex has the proven experience and leadership necessary to drive our community impact strategy and continue our organization’s decades-long legacy of partnership and philanthropic investments to address today’s pressing needs while positioning Greater Dallas for a brighter, more equitable tomorrow.”

Katapult appoints a new general counsel

Tahmineh Maloney

Katapult, a provider of eCommerce point-of-sale lease-purchase options for nonprime US consumers, has named Tahmineh “Tammy” Maloney as its new gneral counsel.

Previously, Maloney served as general counsel of E*Trade Bank, where she advised on federal and state banking regulations, M&A, investments, cryptocurrency, banking products and activities, and payments. Maloney brings over seventeen years of experience in legal and advisory roles with experience in the fintech space, and holds a Juris Doctorate degree from Georgetown University Law Center.

In her new role, she will be responsible for legal compliance throughout the company while working alongside Derek Medlin, Katapult’s COO.

“I am excited that Tammy has joined our organization as General Counsel,” said Medlin. “Her experience at leading financial services organizations and important regulatory agencies will support our strong focus on innovation and growth while maintaining our laser focus on compliance and great consumer experiences.”

D.R. Horton, Inc. appoints a new independent director

Ben Carson

Dallas’ D.R. Horton, Inc., America’s largest home builder, announced that Dr. Benjamin (“Ben”) S. Carson, Sr. will become its independent director effective April 20.

Most recently, Dr. Carson served as the 17^th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from 2017 to 2021. At HUD, Carson led the agency in creating innovative programs to advance economic opportunity and provide safe, fair, and affordable housing. During his tenure, Dr. Carson led the collaboration of eight federal agencies to establish the White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing.

Dr. Carson is also world-renowned neurosurgeon who, prior to serving as HUD Secretary, was involved with more than 15,000 surgical procedures and was the recipient of numerous awards including Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“The Company will benefit greatly from Ben’s intellect, life experiences and leadership skills, including his recent experience as HUD Secretary,” Donald R. Horton, chairman of the Board, said in a statement. “Ben has been actively involved in programs directly related to U.S. housing, including homebuyer education and the need for affordable housing to improve the quality of life for families in America. We expect Ben to bring new perspectives that will enhance the effectiveness and composition of our Board.”

RealFoundations hires an ‘industry ace’

Andrew Chumley

RealFoundations, the world’s leading provider of management consulting solutions and managed services for the real estate industry, has hired Andrew Chumley to help manage the firm’s growing Data Services delivery.

Chumley brings over a decade of experience in commercial real estate to RealFoundations. Chumley’s background disciplines from property operations, asset management, and real estate technology to the movement of both financial and operational data sets. His expertise in data movement will be particularly valuable to investor and investment manager clients in his new role serve as senior manager of Data Services, which is a new position created to provide greater oversight on delivery of data services. In addition, Chumley will be responsible for ensuring that client needs and expectations are well-understood, formally documented, and clearly tied to operational goals and outcomes.

“In today’s digital world, real estate data management is very complex and challenging due to the lack of standardization of data models across organizations, technology platforms and even data categories,” Jim Valente, global head of Data Services at RealFoundations, said in a statement. “Andrew’s expertise in real estate and technology, particularly data services, adds great depth to the RealFoundations team and will benefit clients daily. He knows what it takes to ensure that clients get their data in complete and accurate form to the right place, in a timely manner, and can easily access and leverage it when they need to do so.”

New Friends New Life names Board chair

Tracey Nash-Huntley

New Friends New Life, the Dallas-based organization that restores and empowers formerly trafficked teen girls and sexually exploited women and their children, has welcome Tracey Nash-Huntley as its new chair of the Board.

An active citizen and Dallas community volunteer, Nash-Huntley joined the New Friends New Life Board in 2018. In addition, she serves on the Board of Goodwill Industries in Dallas and on the Advisory Board of SMU’s Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility. Nash-Huntley is also a founding member of The Village Giving Circle (VGC), a philanthropic group launched in 2017 by nine dynamic African American women through the Texas Women’s Foundation.

“I am honored to serve as Board Chair and I look forward to my new role on advising and supporting our CEO, Bianca Jackson, as she leads the dedicated team,” said Tracey Nash-Huntley. “Together, they do the important work—day in and day out—empowering, educating and restoring the lives of the women and girls we serve. Bianca’s passionate and inclusive leadership style is a tremendous asset, especially now, as New Friends New Life navigates through the effects of the global pandemic, Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate movements and the fight for social justice and racial equity. We know our members are disproportionately affected. Since the pandemic, food, housing and job insecurity have become more pressing concerns. Sex trafficking and especially online sex trafficking is on the rise. Now is the time for us all to make a difference as we engage in this important work.”

Reata adds to Its Board of Directors

Christy J. Oliger

Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has appointed Christy J. Oliger and Shamim Ruff to its Board of Directors.

With almost 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, Oliger served in various commercial roles at Genentech, Inc. and Roche Holding AG until her retirement in July 2020. Most recently, Oliger served as SVP, Oncology Business Unit head at Genentech, Inc where her tenure led to senior leadership roles across a variety of therapeutic areas, including oncology, neurology, rare diseases, respiratory, dermatology, and immunology in hospital and specialty settings.

Shamim Ruff

Like Oliger, Ruff brings extensive experience in the biopharma industry, serving in various regulatory roles. Ruff most recently worked as chief regulatory affairs officer and SVP, head of Quality Assurance at Stoke Therapeutics but has also served in increasing senior regulatory roles at Sanofi, Amgen Inc., Abbott Laboratories, and AstraZeneca PLC. Additionally, she is a chartered chemist and member of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

“We are excited to welcome Ms. Ruff and Ms. Oliger to Reata’s board,” said Warren Huff, Reata’s CEO and president, in a statement. “They join at a critical point in Reata’s development having just submitted our first New Drug Application for bardoxolone methyl (“bardoxolone”) for the treatment of chronic kidney disease caused by Alport syndrome. Both Ms. Ruff and Ms. Oliger bring a wealth of experience that will be invaluable in helping us achieve our mission to develop innovative therapies that change patients’ lives for the better.”