Member Profile
Gary Awad on Fueling the Future 

Gary Awad had a lot of experience negotiating international petroleum contracts before he and representatives of nine other oil companies  prepared to finalize a major deal the consortium had been negotiating with a newly independent country. After five years, they needed a single signoff to cement the deal. Ten representatives lined up at the conference room table. Representing the government was their single counterpart, who reached down into his lap and pulled out a pistol. Putting it on the table between them, he declared that they were going to do this deal with an additional $100 Million signing bonus wired into a special bank account, or they weren't going to do it at all.

After the meeting, the consortium went to the U.S. State Department, where Gary had worked during the Carter Administration. Then they explained to the foreign government that if they wanted to build a relationship with the west, they couldn’t ask for bribes. Western companies are governed by anti-corruption laws. The consortium would only make remittances to the government. Fortunately, the  foreign government recognized they needed western companies in the project to offset the leverage a single country’s involvement would have on the young nation. The consortium successfully developed the fields, which today exports significant quantities of petroleum to world markets and provides the majority of revenues for that nation.

That experience was one of many interesting moments in Gary’s first career in the international petroleum business.. Those years took him to some far corners of the earth, but he never lost his connection to home. Gary and his wife Georgette have been married for 43 years. With their daughter Sarah and son Garrett, they lived for three years in a storybook neighborhood outside of London and for four years in Houston, but they’ve always returned to the Pasadena area.   

When Gary negotiated with Soviet counterparts during the final years of the Soviet Union, his company often entertained the heads of petroleum ministries in Los Angeles. The Soviets didn’t have the technology to develop deeper water oil production at the time, so Gary gave one Minister a tour of his company’s oil production platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel using the company plane. Afterwards they proceeded to the company president’s house for a private dinner. At the end of the evening, Gary drove their guest to his hotel. Along the way, the visitor wanted to stop and buy some cigarettes, so Gary stopped at a supermarket. The Minister marveled that they didn’t need a party card to enter. He walked every aisle of the supermarket eyeing through tears the food on display. 

The petroleum collaboration would end up in the Minister’s report, but the supermarket would never be forgotten. On another occasion, a Soviet scientist told Gary the single most effective tool leading to the breakup of the Soviet Union was the VCR and videos which provided a sharp contrast between the western lifestyle and the experiences of the average citizen. 

Gary retired after thirty years with one of the petroleum majors, then became involved with a startup oil and gas venture based in Calgary, helping to grow and list the oil company on public exchanges in Canada and London. It became the best performing junior international oil company on the Toronto stock exchange in 2004. He was lead Director on its Board until they sold the company in 2008,  the same year he had a cancer diagnosis. He didn’t know it at the time, but beating cancer opened a door to a whole new set of experiences. He saw his daughter become a successful gallery artist and tenured professor and his son help grow a successful social enterprise shoe company (TOMS), start another company with a professional football player, then become involved with an early stage foodtech company. He got to welcome two grandchildren to the world. And, he got a chance to have a positive impact on people’s lives in whole new ways.

After Gary sold his Canadian petroleum venture, he turned his focus to charities and investing. Gary has used his knowledge and experience to mentor startups and nonprofits through his roles at the LA Cleantech Incubator (LACI), Homeboy Industries, the Beacon Housing Foundation and the Pasadena Angels.
 
In 1988, Father Greg Boyle founded Homeboy Industries to help rehabilitate former gang members. It's not an exaggeration to say that it has inspired millions of people. Homeboy Industries expanded into a bakery, and then a café, and then a silk screening business. And then it inspired four hundred versions of itself to be established across the globe. Then, it got a new CEO, Tom Vozzo, and it really started to get innovative. 

Homeboy acquired Isidore, a LACI portfolio company Gary was mentoring, to enter the electronics recycling business. Gary knew Tom as a former Pasadena Angel from a decade ago. Gary and Tom worked together to form the Homeboy Ventures and Job Fund, which promptly garnered $11M toward a goal of $15 M, while Homeboy has added a further $22M from MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett and another $15M from the State of California. Gary chairs the Advisory Board for the Fund, where the goal is to invest in businesses that do social good and provide employment opportunities for the Homeboy family. 

Gary’s traveled all over the world and lived in a lot of places, but today you can find him at the intersection of Social Improvement and Innovation and enjoying time with his family and friends on his pickleball court or on the golf course.