From left: Jim Bass, Fred Hegi Jr. and Brent Christopher are among the leaders of CFT, the largest community foundation in Texas and one of the largest in the United States. They recently celebrated CFT’s $3.5 million grant for the emergency cardiac response program at the American Heart Association.
Communities Foundation of Texas is proud to announce that Fred Hegi Jr. has agreed to serve as chairman of its board, and the organization welcomes Jim Bass as its newest trustee. Both business leaders have long records of community service that are an asset to CFT, which oversees more than $750 million in assets across nearly 900 charitable funds.
Fred Hegi Jr.: Dedicated to Improving Services for Those in Need
Hegi, a CFT board member for three years and a past vice chairman, is a founding partner of the Dallas-based private equity firm Wingate Partners. For the past 15 years, he has been the chairman of the board of United Stationers Inc. and was the lead independent director of Lone Star Technologies until its sale to U.S. Steel Corp. in 2007. He currently serves on the boards of directors of Texas Capital Bancshares, Hallmark Cards, Austin Industries and Drew Industries.
Hegi is a strong leader for his alma maters, serving on the board of trustees for Southern Methodist University and on several executive advisory councils for the University of Texas, where he earned a doctoral degree. Hegi also led the major gifts campaign for Harvard Business School, where he earned a master of business administration degree.
Locally, Hegi is a founder and former chairman of the Interfaith Housing Coalition, a Dallas-based ministry to homeless families, which in 1997 established the Frederick B. Hegi Jr. Humanitarian Award to recognize his legacy. He also is a trustee for both the AT&T Performing Arts Center and Southwestern Medical Foundation. Hegi lives in the Dallas area with his wife of 43 years, Jan Vestal Hegi. They have two grown sons.
Jim Bass: International Business Expert and Dallas Community Leader
New trustee Jim Bass, a board member of Reata Pharmaceuticals Inc., is a seasoned international legal, business and civic leader and brings 20 years of corporate finance and mergers/acquisitions experience. Bass was previously an executive director of an Asian regional investment bank based in Hong Kong. Bass graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from Yale University and obtained his doctor of jurisprudence degree from Stanford University, where he was editor-in-chief of The Stanford Journal of International Law. On the nonprofit side, Bass is a member of the board of trustees of The Trinity Trust Foundation, The Hockaday School and St. Mark’s School of Texas. He has served as an International Affairs Fellow with the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations and was a visiting scholar at the College of Business and Management at Peking University. Bass lives in Dallas with his wife, Hong, and three children.