ACE NG Houston Speaker Series is a monthly series hosted on the last Thursday of each month bringing in entrepreneurs to share their experience, skills, knowledge and wisdom. The roughly one hour moderated talk or presentation will be preceded and followed by open networking.

FREE ADMISSION. Food and drinks are provided with additional food and beverages available for purchase. Parking after 7pm is free (do not need to scan the code).

Dress code: Casual

June Speaker Series: Donna Fujimoto Cole

Ms. Donna Fujimoto Cole founded Cole Chemical & Distributing, Inc., in 1980, divorced, with a 4 year old daughter and $5,000 in savings she grew Cole Chemical to it's peak revenue in 2006, at $90 million in sales and 49 employees.

Cole grew her company into one of Houston's leading woman- and minority-owned chemical distributors, supplying gasoline, jet fuel, antifreeze and other chemicals for clients such as Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66, Toyota and Colgate.

After working in the chemical industry for 4 years as VP of Sales and a 26 percent owner of del Rey Chemical, her customers: Exxon, Dupont, Monsanto and Shell asked her to start her own business. Donna started buying and selling chemicals out of a friends real estate office and within four months she needed to locate a warehouse to operate Cole Chemical to include additional chemical packaging services. The Company is known locally and nationally by receiving many quality awards from Fortune 500 companies, the Small Business Administration and numerous awards from the Chemical as well as Energy Industry professional organizations.

Ms. Cole has started, sold, invested and divested many types of businesses; from civil construction, to drilling loss circulation materials, chemical manufacturing, real estate, promotional advertising, distribution, warehousing, blending and packaging, to provide financing alternatives, back office support and IT integration with supply chain management services.

In 2022, Ms. Cole sold a 40 percent interest in Cole Chemical to Berryman Smith, LLC., to provide additional products and toll manufacturing services with 500+ tank cars and 7 terminals with warehouses nationally.