Our People

Board of Directors

Joe Bybee, Chair

Joe Bybee is the Vice President, Private Banking Group at Merrill Lynch.  Prior to joining the Private Banking and Investment Group at Merrill Lynch, Joe was the lead equity manager and the head of the Houston office of U.S. Trust Company.  Prior to joining U.S. Trust in 1996, he worked at Eagle Management & Trust Company for nine years as the Chief Domestic Equity Portfolio Manager. With 20 years of experience, Joe is a Chartered Financial Analyst and is a member of the Houston Society of Financial Analysts.  He earned a B.A. in Economics and History from The University of the South and an MBA with honors from The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.  He is Chairman of the investment committee for Texas Presbyterian Foundation.  Joe’s focus on the team is investment strategy and portfolio construction and management.  Joe is a member at First Presbyterian Church Houston.

Johnny Myers, Vice Chair

Johnny Myers is the managing partner at Group 418, LLC and Executive Director of the Millican Reserve Land Conservancy. Johnny brings an experienced background in entrepreneurial and organizational development, project and change management, and resource and fund development strategies.  Early in his career, Johnny served as the Retreats Director at Camp Cho-Yeh and the Director of Operations at First Presbyterian Church, Houston. He also served as the Director of Resources and Director of Community Outreach at Atlanta’s Peachtree Presbyterian Church, and the Director of the Learning Community at SafeHouse Outreach building capacity in Georgia non-profits. Johnny is the founding President and CEO of the Bill Maness Outreach Center in Atlanta, Georgia and has worked with leaders all over the country developing organizations that impact community. He currently lives in Bryan, Texas with his beautiful wife and very active eight year old son.

Gary Junek, Treasurer

Gary is currently serving as Executive Vice President at Texas Capital Bank.  He has held a variety of business development and management positions with national and regional banks during his 30 year banking career.  Gary’s focus is building high performance teams that offer a variety of financial products and advice to privately owned businesses.   Gary and his wife are actively involved in Spring Branch ISD community where he teaches Junior Achievement, serves on the Executive, Finance and Endowment committees of the Spring Branch Education Foundation and has coached SBMSA sports teams.   Gary is a member at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church and actively involved in Men’s Life and the Dad’s Group.

Ken Purgason, Secretary

Mr. Purgason started and was the CEO of two midstream energy companies. He is the co–founder, and retired CEO and President of Tristream Energy, LLC.  Tristream is a privately owned and private equity backed midstream company providing services to producers in six East Texas counties. Before starting Tristream, Mr. Purgason co-founded and was CEO and President from 1998 through 2004 of the privately held midstream company, Sago Energy.  Sago owned and operated gas processing plant, fractionation, and pipeline assets in Texas and Louisiana.

He is the former Board Chair of Grace School, a K – 8 private school sponsored by Grace Presbyterian Church – Houston, where he and his wife are active members.  He is a past member of the Board of Trustees of Houston Christian High School, where he served as Secretary and Treasurer. He is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and the Houston Producers’ Forum.  He is also a past member of the Gas Processors Association National Board.

Mr. Purgason received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Oklahoma University in 1975, and his MBA from UT – Austin in 1979.

Natalie Bachynsky

Natalie Bachynsky is a Family Nurse Practitioner at Houston County Medical Center in Crockett, Texas and an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch- School of Nursing in Galveston, Texas. She is a graduate of the University of Texas Medical Branch and Texas Woman’s University. Natalie and her husband, Ashton, have two children, Greyson and Sophia, and are members of Antioch Baptist Church in Lovelady, Texas. Natalie has dedicated her professional career to patient advocacy and improving care for vulnerable, underserved populations. She currently practices as a nurse practitioner in a rural health clinic for children and adults. Her teaching role at UTMB allows her to develop “service-learning” projects such as the federally-funded “Interprofessional Pediatric Advocacy Program” through which 360 nursing, medical and allied health students provided collaborative home health care to 139 medically-fragile children being monitored by Child Protective Services from 2012-2015. Each summer, Natalie serves as a camp nurse at Camp Blessing Texas, a Christian camp for children with special needs, where she leads teams of nursing students that volunteer to care for campers with critical health needs. Natalie has a distinct understanding of Cho-Yeh “camp-life” as she has also been a camp nurse at Cho-Yeh since 2010.

Bo Bothe

Bo Bothe is co-founder, president and CEO of the brand experience firm BrandExtract. He serves as a brand strategist while overseeing operations and corporate strategy. The firm’s work consistently earns recognition from local and national organizations for excellence in strategy and creativity. He received his MBA from the Jones Graduate School at Rice University and his bachelor’s degree in design communications from Texas Tech University. He’s a native Houstonian and Strake Jesuit alum. Bo is a member of the Houston Business Journal’s inaugural “40 under 40” class and is currently president of the alumni board for Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business. Because of his mother’s two-time battle with cancer, he helped to found CancerForward, a non-profit organization focused on helping cancer survivors with Beth and Jess Moore and Brian Cruver.  Bo also sits on the boards of the Owen Daniels “Catching Dreams” foundation and Houston Chapter of Lemonade Day. He and his wife Heather have four children and currently live in Spring Valley where he serves on city council. Bo and his family are active members of St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Houston.

Gary Carlson

Gary Carlson is Senior Vice President and Chief Administration Officer of McDermott International, Inc., a leading engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) company focused on executing complex offshore oil and gas projects worldwide.  He has global responsibility for Human Resources, Information Technology, Communications/Public Relations, and Travel. Gary has over 37 years of experience with global engineering, construction and energy service companies including MWH Global, Inc. in Colorado, KBR, Halliburton, Dresser Industries and M.W. Kellogg.  He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio.  Gary, his wife Angie and daughters Emma and Madelyn are members of Grace Presbyterian Church.  He is an elder, having chaired and served on the Grace School committee. Emma and Madelyn are veteran Cho-Yeh campers.

Geoff Gannaway

Geoff Gannaway is a partner with Beck Redden L.L.P.  He represents both plaintiffs and defendants in complex commercial litigation, business disputes, and professional liability matters. Before joining Beck Redden L.L.P. as an associate, Geoff began his legal career by serving as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Louis H. Pollak of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

While in law school, he served as an Articles Editor for the Texas Law Review. Active in the law school’s advocacy program, he was selected to the Order of Barristers after winning two mock trial competitions and being named “best advocate” in a third. He also completed an internship at the Texas Supreme Court, providing research assistance to the Honorable Xavier Rodriguez.  Geoff earned his BS in Chemical Engineering from Rice University and his JD from the University of Texas at Austin.  He is an Associate at Brown College at Rice University, alumni interviewer for Rice Alumni Volunteers for Admission and is a member of First Presbyterian Church Houston.

James Hagemeier

Hagemeier is a Texas CPA with more than 20 years of experience in various treasury, accounting and management roles with emphasis in M&A and raising and restructuring Debt and Equity.  Hagemeier most recently served as the Co-Founder and CFO of Black Elk Energy where he managed the company’s growth from startup to a valuation over $1 billion during a five year period.  During this time Hagemeier received numerous awards including the Houston Business Journal CFO of the year award for High Growth Companies.   Prior to forming Black Elk Energy, James was the CFO for Perfect Commerce where he led the efforts to raise roughly $50m in debt and equity financings to fund the company’s growth.  Before joining Perfect Commerce, he worked in treasury at Metals USA, and for Schlumberger, managing the International Accounting group.

Monique Pappas

Monique Pappas is an Accountant at Annunciation Orthodox School.  She has over 12 years experience in Accounting & Auditing fields as well as management experience in the Food Service Industry.  Before returning to work in 2014, she was a stay at home mom of two and business manager for the Pappas family household.    She graduated from Texas A&M University with a BBA in Accounting in 1986.  Monique currently sits on the Board of her NCL Chapter, Bayou City, as the VP of Provisionals.  She was also the VP of Philanthropy for 2 years.  She has served as Treasurer on the Philoptochos Board of Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral as well as Treasurer and President of the PTC for Annunciation Orthodox School.   Monique is widowed and lives in Spring Valley with her two children. Anastacia attends Memorial High School and Plato James attends St. Thomas High School.  Both children have attended Camp Cho-Yeh for over 9 years.  The family is active members of Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral.

Rusty Sturgis

Rusty Sturgis and his wife, Robin, are longtime members of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church (MDPC).  They became members of the church through the confirmation process as children of parent members.  They met in high school at MDPC, graduated from Texas A&M University and later married at MDPC.  Their three daughters have experienced wonderfully rich moments at Cho-Yeh and personally know most of the camp leadership and staff.  Rusty has a degree in Chemical Engineering and works as the Offshore Field Development Manager at Bechtel, one of the largest engineering and construction companies in the world.  Prior to working for Bechtel, Rusty spent much of his career at Technip, developing solutions and plans for offshore oil & gas developments around the world.  Rusty has served MDPC as an elder and as a member of a construction committee overseeing a $22 million expansion.  Rusty also has many years of experience coaching youth recreational and competitive sports.  He was a member of the Board of Directors for the Memorial Ashford Girls Softball Association for seven years, serving as Director of Operations for four years and President for two years.

Cho-Yeh’s Advisory Board

Camp Cho-Yeh is blessed to have an advisory board who is committed to helping Cho-Yeh be more successful in fulfilling its mission.  The advisory board graciously comes alongside the staff and Board of Directors to provide wisdom, insight and counsel.

Keith Little:  Vice President, Business Development at Cheniere Energy
Rich Dodds: Vice President of Marketing & Product Management, C&C Reservoirs
Scott Hollingsworth: DBIA, President of S.L.I. Group
Miles Harper: CPA, Partner, Carr, Riggs & Ingram, LLC
Kelly Gerland:  Senior Vice President at BCH & Associates.