EXECUTIVE SERVICE CORPS OF HOUSTON     CONSULTANT   MARVIN KIEL

Professional Background:  Marvin Kiel retired from Shell Oil Co. in 1989 after a 32-year career.  He was assigned to the Production Department with experiences in Oklahoma, Montana, Offshore Louisiana and Texas.   In his last position, he was a Senior Staff Reservoir Engineer in Shell’s Research Group in Houston..  He holds a B.S. degree in Mining Engineering from South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.  Marv and his wife Louise have lived in Houston since 1986.   In addition to volunteering at ESCH, he has been a leader and volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America for 38 years.  Both he and his wife are active in their church –he sings in choirs and teaches Adult Sunday School.

ESCH Experience:  Marv joined ESCH in 1990 and since then has helped more than 20 nonprofits mostly with computer applications and design of databases.   Some of his recent clients and projects include: ·                                Life Houston, an organization that provides infant formula to needy families, requested a database to track their clients in 1999.  He designed a relational database and has continued to support them with modifications as their needs change.   The database helps them to prepare accurate and timely reports of their services for funding agencies.  It also helps them prevent client abuse.

·                                Avance provides education and assistance mainly to Hispanic families helping them with language, parenting and job skills.  They requested a database to track the many different services that they provide.  In most cases, clients do not have in-house skills to design computer relational databases.  Avance was different.  After observing the design process one of their staff members was able to continue and complete the design.

·                                Lord of the Streets is an organization of the Episcopal Church that provides assistance for the homeless on Fannin Street.  They had no accountability of the clients they were serving.  The new Executive Director had worked with databases designed by Marv at two previous agencies and requested design of a similar database.  They are currently beginning to enter data, and the database design will be completed as soon as a working population has been entered.

According to Marv, it’s very gratifying to use computer skills developed during my entire career with Shell.  Most non-profit clients have several things in common:  they have poor accountability of the clients they serve, unable to prevent duplication and abuse; they struggle to prepare accurate and timely reports of their services and most of them do not have computer skills to bring their operations up to the standards of today’s business world.