Laura and Greg Bird to be honored as 2026 Business Executives of the Year

Texas Wesleyan University, the Fort Worth Report, and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce are pleased to announce that Laura and Greg Bird have been chosen as the 2026 Fort Worth Business Executives of the Year by the Fort Worth Business Hall of Fame selection committee.
Greg Bird is the CEO and President of Jetta Operating Company, LLC, and Laura is the
President of Anthracite Realty Partners.
This outstanding couple will be honored at the 56 th Fort Worth Business Hall of Fame event at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, at the Palmwood Event Venue.
Tickets
Tickets to the Business Hall of Fame event are $400 per person.
The following sponsorship opportunities are also available:
Executive Sponsor – $25,000
Leadership Sponsor – $10,000
Blue & Gold Sponsor – $5,000
Table Sponsor – $3,500
The reception begins at 6 p.m. and the dinner begins at 7 p.m. Dress is business attire and tickets are open to the general public. To make sponsor the event or to purchase tickets, contact Amy
Tate-Almy, Development Officer, at 817-531-5806 or go to www.txwes.edu/bhof.

About this year’s honorees
Laura is President of Anthracite Realty Partners and has over 40 years’ experience in the development and construction industry including retail, residential, education, public facilities, non-profit, high rise and tenant improvement construction.
Starting in construction field office work, she gained hands-on experience as she worked to complete her formal education.
Laura’s primary career focus has been on creating interdisciplinary teams to plan and build aesthetically significant and purposeful environments that support the health, wellness and lifestyle of their occupants. Three of the projects she worked on are AIA award winners.
Laura has worked for general contractors J.W. Bateson and Linbeck Construction; developers including Lincoln Property Company; and has volunteered for non-profits during building campaigns. Under her guidance the development of Frost Tower Fort Worth, a 25-story downtown project, was completed in 2018. Laura holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Building Construction (Construction Science) from the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University.

Laura and Greg are the parents of two grown children and 7 grandchildren. They enjoy
experiences with their family traveling, learning, and being open to new challenges and thought processes that the evolving family brings to daily living. A new passion has been learning about health and wellness topics.
Community service is an important commitment and Laura has had the opportunity to work with DFWi, DDRB, PID#1, Fort Worth Tarrant County Innovation Partnership, Fort Worth Club, Fort Worth Country Day, Jewel Charity, Cook Children’s Medical Center, Texas Health Fort Worth Philanthropy Cabinet, Alliance for Children, and Frost Bank Fort Worth Advisory Board.
Laura and Greg were awarded the 2022 Distinguished Philanthropist Award by the Association of Fund-Raising Professionals.

Greg Bird is CEO, Co-Founder and owner of Jetta Operating Company. With his 40 plus years of industry experience, he has been President of Jetta for the past 35 years. He is responsible for overseeing Jetta’s growth as an upstream producer, generally in the southern US. The company focuses its efforts on the drilling and production of oil and gas along with gathering of the associated products. Jetta’s growth expanded with the prevalence of horizontal drilling in the Delaware Basin.
As the company grew, Greg and his wife, Laura, knew it was time for a new corporate home and set plans in motion to develop a downtown Fort Worth office tower. Long-time
banking partner, Frost Bank, was also looking for a new corporate home in an iconic building and became the namesake for the new project. The 25-story office tower completed in 2018 anchors the real estate portfolio for the Bird family office. Anthracite Holdings is family owned and managed and invests in a diverse group of both private and public companies covering technology, next generation energy, healthcare, commodities and environmental services.
Greg has served as board president for Scouting America’s Longhorn Council and BRIT, which manages the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. He currently serves as board president for the BSA Longhorn Council Property Foundation. Both Laura and Greg, through the Bird Family Foundation, are supportive of numerous charitable organizations that focus on health, wellness, nature and education.

Greg was named Award Finalist in the 2020 Southwest Region for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award. He is also the recipient of numerous BSA awards including the 2018 Distinguished Citizen Award. In 2013, he was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Graduates for the Petroleum Engineering department at Texas A&M University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering.

About the Fort Worth Business Hall of Fame
The 56 th Business Hall of Fame is made possible by the joint efforts of Texas Wesleyan
University, the Fort Worth Report, and the Fort Worth Chamber to present the Business
Executives of the Year. Last year’s recipient was Mr. Rusty Reid, Chairman and CEO of
Higginbotham.
This year’s event is being partially sponsored by:
Luther King Capital Management, TTI, Inc., and Higginbotham
The event supports Texas Wesleyan scholarships through the School of Business and the
Wesleyan Fund.