Executive Service Corps of Houston - ESCH

Our highly experienced and trained volunteers – mostly retired corporate executives – are passionate about sharing their expertise to help nonprofits build and sustain a successful organization so that they, in turn, can focus on the thing that matters most – their mission.

Our History

The Executive Service Corps of Houston was created in 1984 by Ken Jamieson, retired chairman, and CEO of Exxon Corporation, to enable the local nonprofit community to tap into the abundant talent and experience of our area’s retired corporate executives.

Ken recruited Houston executives Randall Meyer, president and CEO of Exxon Company, USA, who in turn enlisted Roy Trusty, retired secretary of Exxon USA to serve as an interim executive director without pay.

Under Jamieson’s auspices, ESCH was chartered and incorporated on September 10, 1984. Its Board of trustees included Jamieson as chairman, Meyer and Trusty, as well as Howard Boyd, retired chairman of El Paso Company; M.A. Wright, chairman of Cameron Iron Works; V.G. Whittington, VP of employee relations for Shell Oil, and J. Hugh Roff, Jr., chairman of United Energy Resources. Glenn Westman, VP of finance of Gulf Oil, was named treasurer.

In 1999, Michael Grasley, former Chairman and CEO of Shell Chemical, became ESCH chairman. New committee chairs were named. Marketing was given a higher priority, and skills training was deemed mandatory for consultants. At the same time, volunteer recruiting was accelerated and a major fundraising program was mobilized.

Burt Hering, a former VP of Engineering and construction for Amoco Power Resources, agreed to head training and led a team in developing a curriculum of five courses for consultants. Basic training was made mandatory.

Under the leadership of Gayle McNutt, formerly VP for public affairs at Baylor College of Medicine, ESCH continued evolving dramatically. The staff grew, a monthly newsletter began circulation via the Internet, and fundraising improved significantly. By the close of 2001, ESCH had a board of 17 gifted members; a budget of $150,000; two paid, full-time staffers; renewed momentum, and a simplified mission: to provide management consulting services to the nonprofit community of Greater Houston.

Based on a national survey of ESC organizations, ESCH was well on its way. Even against organizations with larger staffs and budgets, ESCH now ranked among the nation’s leaders in projects performed and clients served. Moreover, a great advance was about to be made possible by Houston Endowment Inc., which donated $75,000 – the largest single grant ever made to ESCH – and included a $45,000 “Stakeholder Project” and $10,000 a year for operations in the years 2004-06. Strategic research among nonprofit leaders, donors and volunteers, all undertaken as part of the Stakeholder Project, brought ESCH’s strengths, weaknesses, perceptions and priorities into clearer focus as the organization prepared for its second 20 years.

Original inspiration

ESCH traces its inspiration to 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson authorized the International Executive Service Corp, an organization modeled after an idea attributed to entrepreneur/philanthropists David Rockefeller and Sol Linowitz, themselves inspired by the Peace Corps. The ICES’s emphasis was on sending senior executive volunteers to emerging nations, on programs shaped by the United States Agency for International Development, to assist in creating prosperity and stability through principles of private enterprise.

Recognizing that retired executives and business professionals represented a resource to nonprofit endeavors in the U.S., a National Executive Service Corps was established to serve New York City in 1977. The idea spread to other major cities. Today, independent Executive Service Corps affiliates operate in 23 states.