About / Donnie Young
Donnie Young
Director
Mr. Young is the Founder and Managing Member of Race Rock Group and all its affiliates, a private holding company focused on control and non-control investments in private companies, industrial and commercial real estate and other alternative investments that he founded in May 2007. Mr. Young is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Race Rock Infrastructure (RRI). RRI is a Houston, Texas based manufacturer of critical infrastructure products and solutions with a nationwide presence. In November 2020, RRI acquired Structural & Steel Products, Inc., a Fort Worth, Texas based manufacturer of engineered pole products for electricity transmission/distribution, highway lighting and sign structures, telecommunications, and other specialty end markets, as well as a distributor of guardrail and other highway safety products. In December 2022, RRI acquired Highway Safety Corporation, a Connecticut and Ohio based fabricator of guardrail and bridge rail products as well as solar panel structural support posts, with in-house galvanizing capabilities.
Since 2021, Mr. Young has served on the board of Newpark Resources (NR:NYSE) where he is a member of the Environmental, Social and Governance and Audit Committees and Chair of the Compensation Committee. From November 2019 to March 2021, Mr. Young also served as Executive-in¬ Residence with Warburg Pincus, LLC in their Industrial and Business Services Group. Mr. Young was Chairman and CEO of Hoover Ferguson, Ltd. from 2008- 2019 and a board director until 2021. Hoover Ferguson, now Hoover CS, was a fully integrated provider of chemical tanks, cargo carrying units, catalyst bins, modular containers and other related rental products and services to the global energy, petrochemical and general industrial end markets with 42 locations in 26 countries. Mr. Young led a management buyout of Hoover Group in 2009 and eventually sold the company to First Reserve in 2015 before merging Hoover with the Ferguson Group to create the Hoover Ferguson Group in 2016. During his tenure, Hoover Ferguson won multiple awards including being listed five years in a row as one of Houston’s Best Places to Work and Houston’s Fastest Growing Companies by the Houston Business Journal. In 2015, Mr. Young was selected as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the five-state Gulf Coast region and was a finalist for the national award. Prior to joining Hoover in 2008, Mr. Young worked in New York City in private equity at Citigroup Venture Capital and Sciens Capital and investment banking at Bank of America and Prudential Securities. Mr. Young is the former Chairman of the Houston Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and has served on the board of directors of KIPP Houston, the Energy Workforce Council and The Doe Fund in New York City as well as numerous industry and philanthropic organizations. Mr. Young currently serves on the board of the Walsh Park Benevolent Corporation and the Fishers Island Club. Mr. Young graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in Government.
Mr. Young has served on the board of directors of Gulf Capital Bank since December 2019 and is a member of the Corporate Nominating and Governance, Loan and Audit Committees.
