HAAG SHERMAN Always a Knight

Haag Sherman is completing a three year stint, during a particularly challenging period, as Executive Chair of the Episcopal High School Board of Trustees. A lifelong Episcopalian, Haag served as an acolyte at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Waco from elementary through high school, and he and his family are members of Houston’s St. John the Divine Episcopal Church. Drawn to Episcopal High School’s four pillar mission and to the joy of the community, grounded in the dignity of each individual and daily worship in the Benitez Chapel, Haag has followed the call to serve the Diocese of Texas as a leader of its flagship institution.

With a BBA from Baylor University and a JD from the University of Texas at Austin, where he served as an adjunct professor of law, as well as a book, Shattering Orthodoxies: An Economic and Foreign Policy Blueprint for America (Easton Press 2008) and a financial software patent (2013) under his belt, Haag is CEO and principal stockholder of Tectonic Financial, Inc., a bank holding company that owns T Bank, NA (a nationally chartered bank) and an investment business (Sanders Morris Harris and Tectonic Advisors) with over $5 billion in client assets. Driven by an advanced tech platform, Tectonic has one of the highest returns on tangible equity in the nation. He also co owns with his brother a water logistics and energy disposal business in the Haynesville Basin, one of the largest in the US. Additionally, he serves on two NYSE listed company boards – Hilltop Holdings, Inc. and CBIZ, Inc.

Haag’s legacy as EHS Executive Chair is broad and deep and centers on his commitment to the School’s mission as a community of faith. As Vice Chair of the EHS Board in March of 2020 when the Covid pandemic hit and Executive Chair as of July 2020, Haag led the School through the PPP discussions (EHS ultimately declined) as well as the critical conversations as to how to get our students back on campus and maskless in a responsible manner, understanding that strong student faculty interaction can only be developed in person. As Haag remembers, “Our students and faculty wanted to be able to talk, laugh, and smile again. So much of communication is expressive and lost behind masks. Guided by science and not fear or political pressure,” Haag and the Board led the effort for the necessary infrastructure tweaks and quarantine guidelines to make in person school possible safely beginning in September 2020. They met weekly as a Board committee throughout the 2020 2021 school year and beyond to monitor and oversee the effort.

Haag recalls that the following year as schools around the country were polarized by national issues, he and the Board worked hard to “chart a course that was mission consistent, built on community, and grounded in faith.” But they also insisted that EHS students be able to discuss the important ideas of our time in a civil manner. The Board ultimately crafted a statement of Diversity, Community, and Inclusion built on faith and supported an interim term civil discourse curriculum for freshmen that fit the EHS mission and community.

Additionally, Haag explains: “We have worked very hard to continue down the path, begun by previous Board Chairs, of building institutional strength and processes. We recognize the brilliance of the Founders’ vision and want the Episcopal experience to be delivered to generations well beyond our lifetimes. Toward this end, we have concluded our most recent Strategic Plan and are currently working on the detailed tactics to achieve the plan and ensure mission consistency.” For Haag, the key elements of the Strategic Plan include a focus on adherence to the mission, governance transparency to engage the community, and the integration of technology into learning without sacrificing the human touch.

Beyond EHS, Haag and his wife Millette have two daughters, Carson, EHS ’19 and SMU ’23, and Julia, EHS ’24. He has served on the Endowment Board of St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, the board of Men of Distinction, an organization that funds medical research, and the advisory board of Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business. In addition to her volunteer work at EHS, Millette Sherman serves on the board of Houston’s March of Dimes, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital’s Friends of Nursing, and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation.

The decision to choose EHS for Carson and Julia was driven by the mission and Four Pillars, and Haag reports that the Religion Pillar has been foundational for the girls. In fact, like her father in Waco, Carson served as an acolyte during her junior and senior years. Haag describes Advent Chapel as a favorite campus event—the community worshipping together, students as acolytes and choir, the traditional readings and hymns. What speaks most emphatically to Haag on campus daily are the smiles. “The curriculum is as rigorous as any in the city or country,” he explains, “but our students are happy. Carson and her friends describe their EHS experience as magical.”

Haag is grateful for his time as Executive Chair and the opportunity to work with the knowledgeable, reflective, and caring board members, who so love the School. “We have had some fulsome debates on matters, but always civil, thoughtful, and articulate.” He is also grateful for the opportunity to work with Head of School Ned Smith and his team and for the support and encouragement of the community. “We want to continue to be a model for the rest of the country on how to discuss the issues of our age—which increasingly impact education—in an open, constructive, and decorous manner,” he offers. “As for me, I will always be a Knight!” For that, for his hard work and wisdom, for his commitment to the faith based mission, and for leaving EHS stronger than when he took the reins, EHS will be forever grateful.

– Nancy Laufe Eisenberg, Special Advisor to the Head of School

with EHS Teachers

Pop Quiz turns the table on teachers and asks them to respond to a list of quick questions. Their enthusiastic responses reveal the values, quirks, and interests that make them so effective in teaching EHS students.