Houston’s 25 most powerful couples, from restaurant royalty to real estate moguls

Between Aaron Bludorn’s Michelin-star credentials and wife Victoria Pappas Bludorn’s family name, the couple has a stronghold on Houston’s culinary scene. Together with partner Cherif Mbodji, they opened the restaurant Bludorn on Taft Street in 2020 and have been basking in acclaim ever since. The trio tackled another project: Navy Blue, serving seafood from the Gulf Coast and international waters. The Rice Village restaurant opened in November 2022. A third restaurant project is slated to open soon in the Memorial area.

Street to Kitchen co-owners Benchawan Jabthong Painter, known as Chef G, and Graham Painter opened their “Thai and bougie” restaurant in a new East End space, at 3401 Harrisburg, in November. Jabthong Painter won a coveted James Beard award for Best Chef Texas this summer. 

Cinda and Armando Palacios are the husband-and-wife team behind several restaurants in the Greater Houston area. As heads of the Palacios Murphy hospitality group, they own and operate Armandos and Lulu’s in River Oaks, in addition to Hotel Lulu and Popi Burger, both in Round Top. Mandito’s, a casual Tex-Mex destination also in Round Top, opened a second location in Bellaire earlier this year. Mandito’s Tex-Mex, a cantina-style version of upscale River Oaks mainstay Armandos, is set to open in 2024 at 9910 Gaston in Katy.

James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Shepherd made his name as the proprietor of Underbelly Hospitality, which has included Underbelly, Hay Merchant, Georgia James, UB Preserv and One Fifth. Now, he and wife Lindsey Brown run the Southern Smoke Foundation, which has distributed more than $9 million to food and beverage industry workers via an emergency relief fund; the foundation recently raised funds for West Maui wildfire relief. Brown, who previously ran a public relations firm, recently stepped away from PR to focus full time on Southern Smoke.

Marcelo Saenz and Adrian Dueñas are partners in life and interior design. Ecuador-born Dueñas is CEO and owner of BeDesign; he opened the modern, contemporary and Euro-centric furniture and furnishings store in 2016 where Upper Kirby and Montrose connect. His partner, Saenz, is lead designer and co-owner. Past and present projects include the Wilshire, Arabella and the Residences at the Allen.

Nina Magon, Houston interior designer and founder of Nina Magon Studio, began her career in fashion before entering the design world. Her clients include Astros great José Altuve in addition to retail, hospitality and commercial spaces. She’s also launched a furniture collection with Universal Furniture, home accessories with Bergdorf Goodman, a lighting collection with Studio M and released a new book, “Evoke.” Her husband, Texas A&M University alum Karun Magon, founded Capital Builders in 2006.

With more than 500,000 social media followers and 2 million monthly page views on Pinterest alone, Houston interior designer Marie Flanigan is capitalizing on the recent surge in online shopping. She launched her own e-commerce site, MarieFlanigan.com, earlier this year selling home goods from her own licensed collections as well as products she uses in projects for clients. Her husband, Joe Flanigan, was a home builder before changing careers to become an asset manager with Worthwhile Capital Management. The couple celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary earlier this year and have three children.

Jerry Hooker and Jacob Sudhoff received a 2020 Good Brick Award from Preservation Houston for restoring the C.L. Neuhaus House (built in 1909) in Courtlandt Place. Sudhoff is chief executive of Douglas Elliman’s Texas region. Hooker, an architect and principal at Mirador Group, and Sudhoff previously worked on the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center. Together with business partners, they constructed the Giorgetti condo building on Kirby.

Bill Baldwin is the owner and founder of Boulevard Realty, a premier real estate firm in the Heights. His partner, Fady Armanious, is the creative director of Tootsies, a retail destination for high-end women’s clothing near River Oaks. In April 2022, they hosted dozens of the city’s social set in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, for Armanious’ three-day, 40th birthday extravaganza. The couple raised $1.7 million for Holocaust Museum’s 2023 Lyndon Baines Johnson Moral Courage Award Dinner featuring a performance by Vanessa Williams.

Astros pitcher Lance McCullers and his wife, Kara McCullers, are building in a big way this year. In addition to expecting their second child, the McCullerses launched a new hospitality brand with friend Juan Carlos Martinez de Aldecoa and business partner Blake Fertitta.  Maven Coffee + Cocktails at Minute Maid Park is just phase one for their new company. Additional locations are opening in the Thompson Hotel and at Silver Street Studios.

Astros third baseman and shortstop Alex Bregman wed longtime girlfriend Reagan Bregman, née Howard, in December 2020. The couple first met and began dating when they were 19. In 2018, Alex founded Breggy Bomb Tequila & Lime Infused Salsa, which has since expanded to include award-winning barbecue sauces and rubs. Reagan Bregman started Exiza, a size-inclusive athleisure collection for women, in 2021 and recently launched a new jewelry line in collaboration with Shaftel Diamonds, “With Love by Reagan Bregman.” Together, the Bregmans support those impacted by COVID-19 and promote autism awareness through their nonprofit organization Bregman Cares. They have a son, Knox Bregman.

Jim Crane serves as chairman and chief executive officer of Crane Capital Group, Crane Worldwide Logistics and Crane Freight and Shipping; he is also owner and chairman of the two-time World Series-winning Astros. He opened two restaurants, Osso & Kristalla and Potente, in 2017 adjacent to Minute Maid Park. He married Whitney Crane, née Wheeler, that same year; the couple has a son, James Crane II.

Cal McNair is chairman and chief executive officer of the Texans. He also serves as vice-chair of RCM Financial Services and a director of Palmetto Trust Co. Hannah McNair is vice president of the Houston Texans Foundation, which has raised more than $37 million since its inception in 2002.

Paris, Texas-raised and Glassell School-trained artist Trenton Doyle Hancock is one of Houston’s most well-known and celebrated talents. In March, he converted Contemporary Arts Museum Houston’s entire first floor into what curators said was the “first-ever playable basketball court in an art museum.” CAMH Court, a partnership between the museum and Adidas Basketball, added an artful touch to the 2023 NCAA Men’s Final Four tournament. Hancock’s partner, JooYoung Choi’s debut exhibition, “JooYoung Choi: Love and Wondervision,” was on view at Rice University’s Moody Center for the Arts over the summer. Choi, a South Korea- and Houston-based artist, drew brightly colored imaginary characters from her childhood memory to fill the immersive exhibit.

Houston native Gary Tinterow returned to Texas in 2012 to serve as the seventh director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He previously worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Tinterow’s longtime partner, Chris Gardner, is a fellow New York transplant who has worked as an antiques dealer with shops in SoHo and Bridgehampton.

Like what you see inside of MFA Shop? Chris Goins, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s general manager of retail, is responsible for stocking the museum boutique with must-have gifts, tabletop goods and more. She previously worked at Tootsies. Her husband, Josh Pazda, is an author and part owner of Josh Pazda Hiram Butler Gallery near Montrose, a popular spot to see works by Matt Kleberg and Ellsworth Kelly. 

Artist and El Salvador native Geraldina Interiano Wise won the 2023 Mayor’s Hispanic Heritage Award “Arts in the Community” distinction. From her studio in the Washington Arts District, she creates paintings, sculpture and works on paper. She and fellow former Glassell School of Art classmate John Cryer III cleverly repurposed a baffle from Rothko Chapel. Her husband, Scott Wise, is the former president and chief investment officer for Covariance Capital Management Inc., and he spent 21 years as the vice president for investments, treasurer and corporate secretary of Rice University. Today, he is CEO and president of the Cullen Foundation.

Reginald DesRoches became Rice University’s eighth president in 2022. He is also a professor of civil and environmental engineering and professor of mechanical engineering. His wife, Paula DesRoches, is a “highly accomplished health care professional, nurse practitioner and administrator recognized for her leadership in occupational health,” according to Rice University’s website. The couple have three children; daughter Shelby is a student at Rice.

Renu Khator, University of Houston president and chancellor, helped the institution secure an invitation to join the Big 12 collegiate athletic conference earlier this year. She is the first foreign-born president of the university, the second-ever woman to hold the position and the first Indian American to lead a major U.S. research university. Her husband, Suresh Khator, holds a doctorate in engineering and is a professor and associate dean of UH’s Cullen College of Engineering.

Rich Kinder served as president and chief operating officer of Enron from 1990 to 1996 before founding Kinder Morgan in 1997. With a net worth of $7.1 billion, he is currently No. 128 on the 2021 Forbes 400 list of richest Americans. In 2020, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston opened the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building — a $476 million expansion and the nation’s largest cultural construction project in a decade. In 2018, the Kinders offered a $70 million grant to Memorial Park Conservancy, the largest green-space donation in Houston history. The couple’s transformational gift of $10 million in 2008 helped found Discovery Green, a 12-acre park in the center of downtown Houston. This year, in celebration of Discovery Green Conservancy’s 15th anniversary, the Kinder Foundation donated an additional $2 million to establish an endowment.

John Havens is president of Seismic Exchange Inc., one of the largest 2D and 3D seismic data and marketing firms in the U.S. He and wife Terri Havens are both LSU grads and minority owners of the Astros. They also own Cal-A-Vie Health Spa and Vista Valley Country Club and helped co-found the Clubs at Houston Oaks with two other Houston couples.

Co-chair Brigitte Kalai helped the Houston Symphony Ball raise $1.1 million during the 2023 “Golden Age of Hollywood Ball.” She is a former Texas Children’s Hospital pediatric nurse, Houston Chronicle Best Dressed honoree and Woman of Distinction. A former Big Sister, she pledged $500,000 to create the Brigitte and Bashar Event Space at Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Greater Houston. She and her husband, Bashar Kalai, president and CEO at Amerapex, also made a $1 million commitment in 2020 to build the Brigitte and Bashar Plaza of Respect for Interfaith Ministries. The Kalais are both University of Texas alums and have two children.

Laura and John Arnold pledged to donate 5% of their wealth annually to charity, becoming the first philanthropists to make the commitment to Global Citizen’s “Give While You Live” campaign in April 2021. The couple has a net worth of $3.3 billion and were early adopters of the Giving Pledge, the campaign created by Melinda and Bill Gates and Warren Buffett for billionaires to publicly commit to giving away the majority of their wealth. John, a former energy trader and hedge fund manager (he left Enron before its collapse in 2002), and Laura, a mergers and acquisitions attorney, established the Laura and John Arnold Foundation in 2010. Today, the foundation, Action Now Initiative and donor-advised fund fall under the umbrella of Arnold Ventures, which oversees work guided by evidence-based policy, research and advocacy in four areas of concern: criminal justice, education, health and public finance.

Frances Moody Buzbee, whose maiden name is synonymous with Galveston, and attorney Tony Buzbee tied the knot in July 2022. Buzbee represented the women in the 22 civil lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct against Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson and got an impeachment acquittal for Attorney General Ken Paxton earlier this year. He ran for the Houston City Council seat for District G and advanced to a runoff against incumbent Mary Huffman. Moody Buzbee previously worked as Galveston Chamber of Commerce’s director of special events and recently transformed property in Burton, called Frances Farms, into an animal rescue facility. The Buzbees raised a record $2.8 million for Houston Children’s Charity in October 2022.

Gene Wu, a Houston native, currently serves District 137 in the Texas House of Representatives. He previously worked as a prosecutor in the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. Miya Shay, who was born in China, is an Emmy Award-winning journalist for KTRK, Channel 13, covering city government and breaking news.