Member Spotlight: David Schein
David Schein was born in Philadelphia, but grew up in a small town near Boston. Hid big break came when my father, career-Navy, was transferred to the big Naval base in Norfolk, VA. Being in a bigger city and a little more southern agreed with him. He did well in high school and earned a full scholarship back to Philly at the University of Pennsylvania. He started college as a pre-med, but discovered that he did not like working with sick people in his work-study job at the UPenn Hospital. He ended up with a degree in Transportation Economics while hosting a weekly radio program on the arts on Public Radio. He also had my own arts management business and went on to earn his MBA at the University of Virginia Darden School.
David’s connection to Houston started when he moved here to pursue his law degree at the University of Houston. He started with Shell Oil right out of law school. He worked in three states in three years with positions in human resources. He then returned to Houston with Tenneco Oil Company, where he was the Manager-EEO/AAP for his first two years and then handled labor, contracts and real estate matters nationwide in the Tenneco Legal Department for five years. He "hung out my shingle" after that and became involved with the Asian Chamber of Commerce, serving on their board for eleven years. He ran for State Representative for near Northside Houston in 1992 on the Republican ticket. A man named Norman Adams connected with him and invited him to attend events of the fairly new Heights Chamber of Commerce. He was active with the Heights Chamber until 1999, when he moved his household to Virginia, while maintaining his property and law office at 1111 Heights Blvd.
As David completed law school, he made a commitment to himself to become a professor at a certain point. Being in Northern Virginia, he began to teach as an adjunct at as many as four universities at the same time. However, he felt like he was stalled out. So, I put his life on hold and moved to Charlottesville for a second time. He earned a Ph.D. in Higher Education Management in three years, the least possible time. He taught full-time at two universities in Virginia, but then accepted an opportunity to return to Houston full-time as a faculty member at the Cameron School of Business at the University of St. Thomas. He also rejoined the Heights Chamber.
David just completed his 10th year at UST, where he is a Full Professor and the Cameron Endowed Chair of Management & Marketing. In addition, he still has an active part-time consulting and law practice out of his Heights Boulevard office. He was elected to the Heights Chamber Board in October 2020. He belongs to numerous organizations, including the Labor and Employee Relations Association, Houston Council on Foreign Relations, The Greater Houston Business Ethics Roundtable, The Academy of Legal Studies in Business and World Affairs Council of Houston. He is also a Patron Member of Museum of Fine Arts Houston and Houston Grand Opera.
David’s reading is mostly research for his over 20 professional journal articles and two books in print. He presently has two journal articles and three books in various stages of development, including his first fiction-based-on-fact book, "A Cheap Education."
David is the proud parent of three adult children and four grandchildren. He is an accomplished cook, a world traveler, decent tennis player and hits the gym 3 or 4 mornings a week.
