I am a homegrown mechanical engineer, born-and-raised in Houston, Texas. I grew up as the youngest of ten siblings. My father was in chemical sales, but ventured into various entrepreneurial efforts throughout his career. I graduated from Stratford High School before attending Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. I graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 1993 and went to work for Brown & Root as a project engineer. My career with Brown & Root took me from project to project and facility to facility – from building a bridge in Virginia to running projects out of Dallas to managing maintenance contracts in Houston. I left Brown & Root in 2000 to join Jacobs Engineering as a project manager in charge of the maintenance of several ExxonMobil gas plants spread across southeast Texas. I stayed at Jacobs until the birth of the our second set of twins in 2007.
I enjoyed a short hiatus from the oil and gas industry to delight in the role of being a non-working mother to four amazing children. Once all of the children were in school, I realized I wanted to get back to a working professional environment and teamed up with my husband, John Perez, to start Cognascents. Along with serving as the company’s Treasurer, I am member of the strategic planning committee and I manage the company’s financial and accounting operations.
