D CEO

After moving from New York City to Dallas with his family in the 1980s, Sargon Daniel started to become more curious about his parents’ immigration journey from Iraq to the States about a decade earlier. So, his parents shared their journey with him. His father, Donald, grew up near the “hyper-dangerous” city of Fallujah in a British military camp. His mother, Khana, lived in Baghdad and immigrated to Greece, escaping religious persecution, before making it to America. Due to safety concerns in Baghdad, she couldn’t leave the house without a family member. The youngest two of their three sons became doctors. Daniel, the eldest, became the first in his family to earn an undergraduate degree. After being born in New York and moving to Dallas when he was five years old, Daniel graduated from Georgetown University, where he earned a law degree from Columbia University. He then spent nearly six years in the legal field before launching Nexus Renewable Power, LLC in 2016. At the link below, Daniel details how the lessons instilled by his parents guide his journey.

After testing luxury piercing experiences at her family’s high-end jewelry store, Ylang 23, Alysa Teichman saw an opportunity to merge the tattoo culture with designer jewelry and create a company of her own. Today, that market gap is no more. Across the street from Dallas’ iconic Al Biernat’s steakhouse at the longstanding Shops of Highland Park, Teichman’s body piercing studio, Wildlike, has been a success from the start. Designed by local firm Swoon, The Studio, it emits a luxurious yet comfortable ethos with pops of bright, modern glitz and shining gemstones—it’s what sets it apart from other players, especially traditional tattoo parlors. “People were using piercings to mark a moment in time that was important to them—a birthday, an anniversary, a cancer-versary, a breakup, a divorce,” Teichman says. “I saw that there needed to be a physical space devoted to this.”   She launched the company in 2021 with a $530,000 SBA loan. In its first full year, Wildlike brought in $3 million in sales. Two years later, she secured a second $1 million SBA loan to continue building the brand. Recent success led Teichman to replicate her Dallas store with a second Wildlike studio in New York last year. There’s plenty of room for growth. According to Verified Market Research, the body piercing jewelry market is valued at more than $8 billion and is projected to approach $11 billion by 2031. 

Like most individuals, business leaders are always looking for ways to improve. Personally, professionally, within their companies, their respective industries, or the business ecosystem they work within. In large part, their ability to constantly think on ways to get better is what has led them through their professional endeavors. For D CEO’s December edition, Layten Praytor asked a couple of influential Dallas C-suiters to share their ideas on how they’d make Dallas even better. Here’s what Bret Farrar of Sendero, Lalit Ahluwalia of DigitalXForce, and Carla Pellegrino of Urban Italia had to say.

During the holiday season, few things rival sitting near a roaring fireplace with a book you’ve been trying to read for the better part of six months. For D CEO’s December issue, we asked a handful of Dallas area executives which book was their favorite read in 2024. If you need any recommendations for your fireside reading, here are a few from Ossa (Fredricsson) Fisher of Aurora, 🌳Harrison Blair of Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, Rick Perdue of Rosewood Property Company, Jim Neil of Dallas Trinity FC, Taylor H. Wilson of Haynes and Boone, LLP, Marianne Fazen, PhD of DFW BUSINESS GROUP ON HEALTH, and Lindsay Clark, CPA of State Fair of Texas®.

Opportunity is king, or at least I think that’s the saying. As we round out 2024 and turn our attention to 2025, it’s natural to think of what possibilities and opportunities may sit on the horizon. For business leaders, the wheels never really stop turning, constantly trying to stay two steps ahead and look around the corner for whatever trends are happening in their industry. Rather than asking what their New Year’s resolution might be, for D CEO’s November issue we poked around some North Texas C-suites to see what the biggest opportunities industry leaders foresee in the next year. This is what Dave Copps, Adam Wright, Ph.D., and Lily Cabatu Weiss came up with:

When Kendra Scott stepped off the plane onto Texas soil as a teenager, her stepfather welcomed her with a bouquet of yellow roses. She still remembers the advice he gave her.  “We had such a big bond,” Scott says. “He said, ‘Honey, I want you to use the gifts you were given in this world to do something good. You have a very short time on this earth. While you’re here, I want you to make it count.’ “He died when he was 47 years old,” she continues. “I just turned 50 this past year. Every single day I wake up, I feel lucky to be alive, and I think, ‘What can I do?’”  The yellow rose symbolism has stuck with Scott throughout her career. It’s the name of her ranch in central Texas, and it’s also the inspiration behind her new retail brand, Yellow Rose by Kendra Scott, which launched in 2023. The brand opened its second brick-and-mortar location on Dec. 13. The West Village Dallas location on McKinney Street is a special one for Scott—it was the site of the second-ever Kendra Scott store. “I love how centrally located it is in Dallas,” Scott told D CEO. “And I felt like ‘How fun would it be to bring our second Yellow Rose store to the place where it kind of all began, in a place where this community has been so involved with my brand for so many years now?’ “It just felt like the right place,” she says. “It felt like this was a time to revitalize kind of what we were doing here, bring some freshness and newness to the folks who have been walking the streets of McKinney Avenue for all these years seeing Kendra Scott. This is a new era for this brand, and I couldn’t think of a better place to do it.” Today’s store features warm yellow walls adorned with western-inspired clothing and jewelry. The custom hat bar is a full-circle feature for Scott, who got her start in the fashion business at the age of 19 by making hats. The store features product partnerships with brands like Wrangler, Westerly, Three Sons, Arloom, Juan Antonio leather jackets and handbags, HBarC Ranchwear, Daydreamer tees, and Ranch Road Boots. 

This holiday season, give yourself a gift and cross this off your list. Register TODAY and set yourself up for success in 2025. Join us for D CEO’s Business Growth Summit on February 6, 2025, a powerful half-day event designed specifically for people like YOU - the business owners driving the North Texas economy. Do you lead a small – medium sized business? Presented by Amazon, CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen), and Comerica Bank, this summit is replete with keynotes and workshops that are timely and relevant. Join other leaders to learn, network, and elevate your business in 2025.   The program will help answer questions such as: - How can talent strategies be aligned with scalable growth? - How can we get the most from our banking relationship? - What are the secrets to building a sustainable brand? Save your spot today: https://lnkd.in/gRebsVvH

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After a decade at the helm of HKS, Inc., CEO Dan Noble will be stepping down from the role and handing the reins to Heath May, the current global practice director of HKS LINE (Laboratory for INtensive Exploration), Noble told D CEO in an exclusive interview. May will officially become CEO in January 2026 after a year of apprenticeship and preparation. “Leading HKS has been the privilege of a lifetime,” Noble says. “Over the years, I’ve had the honor of working with some of the most talented and creative individuals in our industry. Together, we have redefined what’s possible in architecture and design. I am confident that Heath’s leadership will propel HKS toward continued innovation and success.” The global architecture firm behind SoFi Stadium in LA, Jinjiang International Exhibition Center in China, AT&T Stadium and American Airlines Center in Dallas, and other iconic projects turns 85 this year. Noble was the firm’s fifth CEO. He was named to the post in 2014, but his career with the company goes back to 1983 when he joined as an intern architect. He never left. Noble was named director of design in 2009. During his tenure as CEO, according to the firm, HKS “expanded its global reach, diversified its portfolio, and fostered a culture that drives innovation, inclusivity, and community impact.” That included launching a strategic plan that teed the company up for exploring the implications of design beyond architecture. “We knew that our success depended on transformational leadership, and since then, we have made significant investments in developing our next generation of leaders,” Noble says. The firm has grown by leaps and bounds from its Dallas origins, now boasting 1,600 employees at 29 offices across the globe. The firm stands to generate about $600 million in revenue this year, Noble notes, and it saw 36,000 applicants apply for a job with the company this year. When considering who would fit the bill for the firm’s next chief executive, Noble and team had a number of characteristics in mind. “Where we think the future is going requires somebody who has an insatiable curiosity and an adept handle on the trajectory of technology as it’s integrated into our industry—how we can be leaders in that and not just participants,” Noble says. Humility and a sense of humor were also important, he adds, and design talent was key. “When you put all that together, there are a few people in our firm who have those tools, but I don’t think anyone has it to the degree and the balance that Heath does in a way that will resonate with the future of our talent base,” Noble says. 

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