HOUSTON- Kase Lukman Lawal was born in 1954, in Ibadan, Nigeria. Eager to be part of the civil rights struggle in America, Lawal arrived in the United States in the early 1970s. He moved to Houston in 1972 to attend Texas Southern University. Upon leaving college, Lawal worked in the oil industry as an engineer and chemist.

When Lawal began CAMAC (Cameroon-American) in 1986, the small company traded agricultural commodities such as sugar, tobacco, and rice. Lawal was highly visible in the Houston community and dedicated approximately 60 percent of his time to public service. As a member of the Port of Houston Authority Commission, Lawal helped to establish the port’s Small Business Development Program to award contracts to Houston-area businesses and developed memorandum of friendship agreements with 20 ports, mostly in South Africa and other countries in Africa.

By providing management consulting and technical assistance to foreign ports, Lawal helped Houston to maintain its international presence and its flourishing import-export trade. As of 2004, the port of Houston was first in the United States in foreign tonnage and included the nation’s largest petrochemical complex. Lawal was a director of the Cullen Engineering Research Foundation; a member of the United States Trade Advisory Committee on Africa; a member of the boards of directors of Cape Investment Holdings, the Greater Houston Partnership, and the Houston Airport System Development Corporation; and chairman of the Houston Mayoral Advisory Board on International Affairs and Development. He and his wife Eileen have three children.

We salute Kase Lawal as this week’s Living Legend and invite you to send in who you think will make a good Living Legend and why they should be honored.