Based in Houston, Mike Rome serves as Senior Advisor and co-leads the Board, CEO, and Private Equity practices. He is a member of the life sciences, industrial, professional services, and financial services practices, and plays an integral role in the firm’s growth, culture, and client service excellence commitment. He also currently serves as the Interim Director for the McNair Center for Entrepreneurship at Houston Baptist University. Mike was drawn to Allen Austin because of the firm’s history, leadership architecture, and disciplined approach to retained search consulting as well as the purpose-driven approach the firm has integrated into its fiber. Because of Mike’s passion for helping others and his background with numerous boards, he is driven with a commitment to the philanthropy arena. Mike is a proven operator, an accomplished coach, and counselor to boards and CEOs nationally. Mike has served on over two dozen corporate and non-profit boards and regularly advises clients on a wide variety of board, executive leadership, recruitment, culture-shaping, and succession related matters.
Prior to joining Allen Austin, Mike served as CEO and Principal at Chilton Capital. Mike is nationally recognized as a leading investment manager and management advisor to business owners, senior executives, and family offices. His forty-four-year career includes experience in virtually every facet of the financial sector and capital markets. Internally, Mike is well-known as a strategist, connector, and coach to some of the most influential leaders in Houston.
Before joining Chilton, Mike was CEO of Texan Capital for three years where he oversaw a similar transformation. At Texan Capital, Mike redefined internal incentive structure, improved culture, and hired a new Chief Investment Officer who succeeded him as CEO when he was recruited (by H&S) to Chilton. Ultimately, Mike acquired Texan Capital and oversaw the integration into Chilton.
Prior to Chilton, Mike was Senior Partner at Bridgeway Capital. Mike managed the growth of Bridgeway Capital from $450 million in assets to just over $6.2 billion. Mike talks about Bridgeway as the most amazing thing he has ever been a part of as Bridgeway became the largest corporate philanthropist in the state of Texas at one point, giving 50% of net profit to strategic charities. In his career, Mike was EVP Institutional Marketing at AIM/Invesco, SVP of Capital Markets at Merrill Lynch, EVP of Capital Markets for Kidder Peabody and EVP and Manager of Institutional Sales for Oppenheimer. He is a Partner in a small private-equity firm, Memorial Capital Partners.
Mike graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree and was a two-sport letterman in Football and Baseball. He furthered his studies in Portfolio Management at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, and in Behavioral Finance at Harvard University. Mike’s strong passion for purpose driven leadership is shown through his position on a number of boards, including the City of Houston Higher Education Finance Corp., University of Kansas School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Texas Libraries System, Houston Baptist University’s Center for Christianity, and Houston Wilderness. Mike has also taught at the University of Houston’s Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship.