2023 Top 20 Impact Makers Honorees
Tanya B. Pal and Rick Pal
2023 Top 20 Power Couple Impact Maker Award
Awards Presentation
Saturday, February 25, 2023
Four Seasons Hotel Houston
Tanya B. Pal and Rick Pal are vital supporters of the nonprofit and entrepreneurial communities promoting enterprise, health, and education.
Tanya B. Pal, CPA, MPA, is the director of Your Part Time Controller’s (YPTC) Texas market, which was established in March 2017. Since joining YPTC in February 2018, Tanya’s primary role has been to establish YPTC’s brand by educating nonprofit leaders, auditors, and accountants, not only in Houston, but all across Texas, regarding the merits of hiring a specialized nonprofit accounting services and financial reporting firm for fractional CFO/Controller services. Empowered by YPTC’s culture and values, she also has successfully hired, guided, and coached her team to not only deliver excellent client service but also to establish healthy work-life balance and develop/realize professional goals. As a result, her team won the Houston Business Journal’s Best Place to Work designation in 2021.
Tanya graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with both BBA & MPA degrees through their five-year Professional Program in Accounting. She draws on over 25 years of financial accounting, auditing, and C-Suite Management experience from a wide array of business entities, from start-ups to multi-national firms. Tanya also holds a Nonprofit Finance Certificate from Rice University’s Center for Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership.
In service to the community, Tanya is a recurring presenter for the Nonprofit Financial Series at the United Way of Greater Houston, Rice University’s Best Boards Conferences and Leadership in Action certification program, and the Excellence for Nonprofit Leadership Program hosted by Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce/The George Foundation.
Tanya also has been a presenter for YPTC’s national webinar series, Power Tools for Nonprofits Conference, and Harvard Business School Alumni Associations’ 2021 Nonprofit Board Summit, to name only a few.
In her personal time, Tanya volunteers with, and supports, various nonprofits in the Houston metroplex area. Currently, she serves as a board member and the finance committee chair for the Memorial Park Conservancy and as board president of the University of Houston Friends of WGSS Studies.
Tanya was named a Women Who Mean Business 2022 Honoree, in the Outstanding Business Leaders in Finance category, by Houston Business Journal.
Rick Pal is an award-winning entrepreneur and investor. He graduated from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin where he was the first two-term chairman of The Texas Union in school history. Currently, he serves as the managing partner of Zuhnë, one of the fastest growing brands in home improvement.
Rick’s prior business experience spans clean-tech manufacturing with Air Generate (licensed to Electrolux), retail service with Emprise (acquired by Liberty Tax Service), and senior roles with several high-tech firms, including Enterprise Works (acquired by Iconnix), Commerce One (Nasdaq: CMRC), and Webify Solutions (acquired by IBM). His commercial investments include Awake Solar, Zuhnë Logistics, and several real estate projects.
Rick is actively involved in supporting community betterment projects. As the founder of Innokul, he created the first privately funded incubator for start-ups in eastern India and Ek Disha (now merged with America India Foundation). Its purpose as a nonprofit is to support and facilitate high-impact sustainable projects in health, education, and enterprise with a focus on South Asia. He is also a limited partner in Houston Health Ventures and a seed stage funder and mentor for healthcare companies. His involvement in social ventures includes Leg Works, Wello Water, UE Life Sciences, KTK-BELT, and Embrace Global (merged with Thrive Networks). He also has served as a mentor for start-ups at IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, Good Works Houston, University of Houston MBA Club, Asia21 Action Lab, and MIT’s Emerging Worlds.
In service to the community, Rick created the “Pal - Make a Difference” endowment in 2006 at The University of Texas at Austin, which awards annual scholarships to students who make a difference within their communities. He also established the Friends of India Studies endowment in 2015 at the University of Houston. As well, Rick is a board member of: Texas Union Advisory Council at The University of Texas at Austin, UH College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Dean’s Advisory Board, and Fort Bend Education Foundation. Rick also has served on the City of Sugar Land’s Building Standards Commission, the Fort Bend ISD Bond Committee, the Asia Society Business Steering Committee, and the Texas Exes Scholarship Committee. As well as all of the above, Rick is a TEDx speaker, an Asia21 Leader, a Texas Next Generation Project Fellow, an Indiaspora member, and a guest speaker at the University of Houston Texas Gulf Coast Small Business Development Center.
Rick is an avid mountain climber. In April 2017, he summited Mera Peak, a 6476-meter mountain in Himalaya.
It is for all the reasons mentioned above, and many more, that Tanya B. Pal and Rick Pal have been named a Top 20 Power Couple Impact Maker for 2023.