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BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND OFFICERS
The Board of Directors of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation is made up of 12 members, including George P. Mitchell as Chairman, and spans three generations of Mitchell family members.
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George P. Mitchell is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Mitchell Energy & Development Corp., a Fortune 500 company, which was listed on the New York Stock Exchange prior to its merger in January 2002 with Devon Energy Corporation. A native of Galveston, Texas, Mr. Mitchell graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in petroleum engineering, with additional emphasis in geology.
Following service as a captain in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, he joined a newly formed wildcatting company, first as a consulting geologist and engineer and later as a partner. He was named president in 1959, and under his leadership the company grew and evolved into one of the nation's largest independent oil and gas producers.
His crowning accomplishment in the industry was pioneering drilling and completion technologies that created a shale gas revolution. He drilled for gas in a rock formation known as the Barnett Shale, found across Northern Texas, and enabled viable production through the first successful application of the hydraulic fracturing technique to dense shale formations. His unconventional thinking and unwavering determination changed the energy future for the United States and now has the potential to significantly impact the world.
In the late 1960's, Mr. Mitchell led his company to develop a real estate project on a scale never seen in the booming Houston area-a complete new town. The Woodlands, a 25,000-acre planned community located 27 miles north of downtown Houston, opened in late 1974. When sold in 1997, it had a population of 48,000, led Houston's market in new home sales for seven consecutive years, and was the state's new home sales leader. Today the acreage totals 27,000 and the population is 100,000.
With his late wife, Cynthia, Mr. Mitchell also took leading roles in the rejuvenation of Galveston's historic Strand District by restoring more than 20 buildings and operating three hotels. In 1985, they revived the mid-winter Mardi Gras celebration in Galveston, which now draws 500,000 visitors annually.
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Katherine Lorenz was elected President of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation in January 2011. Before taking on this role, she served nearly three years as Deputy Director for the Institute for Philanthropy (www.instituteforphilanthropy.org), whose mission is to increase effective philanthropy in the UK and internationally, and she now sits on the Institute's Board of Directors.
Prior to her work with the Institute for Philanthropy, Ms. Lorenz lived and worked in Oaxaca, Mexico for nearly six years where she co-founded Puente a la Salud Comunitaria (www.puentemexico.org), a non-profit organization working to eradicate malnutrition and advance food sovereignty in rural Oaxaca through the integration of amaranth into the local diet. She continues to be highly involved with Puente's work as an active Board Member.
Before founding Puente, she spent two summers living and working in rural, poor communities in Latin America with the volunteer program Amigos de las Américas and later served on their Program Committee and as a trustee of the Foundation for Amigos de las Americas. Additionally, she currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Endowment for Regional Sustainability Science and the Amaranth Institute and formerly was a Board Member of Resource Generation. Along with her family, Ms. Lorenz is a member of the Global Philanthropists Circle (through the Synergos Institute) and is an active participant in the GPC Next Generation subgroup. She sits on the Council on Foundations Committee on Family Philanthropy and serves on their 2012 Family Philanthropy Conference Planning Task Force. Ms. Lorenz holds a B.A. in Economics and Spanish from Davidson College.
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C. Grant Mitchell serves as President of The Mitchell Family Corporation, a family-owned investment management company that oversees the financial assets and real estate holdings of George P. Mitchell and the Mitchell family. He also serves as a director and Vice President of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation. Grant has spent most of his career in the entertainment industry where he has written, directed, and/or produced both documentary and dramatic productions for television and film. His work has been seen on networks such as Showtime, MTV, PBS, The Learning Channel, The History Channel, and numerous international broadcasters. Grant lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife and two children.
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