Gabe Muoneke
Although, Nnadubem Gabriel Muoneke “Gabe” was born in Michigan in 1978 to Igbo Nigerian parents, it did not take him long to land in Houston where he would be molded into the individual we see today.
While growing up in Houston, Muoneke attended St. Christopher’s Private Catholic School, which included Latin, French and German in the curriculum. Muoneke attributes this foundation as the genesis of his desire to be a true renascence man. From that point on, he was fascinated with idea of doing, if not the impossible, the extremely difficult.
Muoneke participated in the multiple and seemingly unrelated areas of expertise just because in his mind, they were the exact same thing. As a child in elementary, Muoneke started learning two languages on his own, while learning the piano and saxophone. Even today, Muoneke is still determined to learn more in multiple areas and considers energy solutions no different than learning a language, mathematics, martial arts or basketball. Muoneke speaks seven languages including Hebrew, which he still studies.
Muoneke lived by this mentality and pursued basketball relatively late in life at 13; his father (at the time completing his PhD at University of Houston) introduced him to a Nigerian and UH alumnus, Hakeem Olajuwon. This determination guided Muoneke through high school an all “A” student (5.9/6.0 GPA Cypress Falls) while being one of the most sought after high school seniors in the state of Texas and the US. Muoneke enrolled at The University of Texas at Austin with a basketball scholarship and majored in petroleum engineering.
As a four-year starter for The University of Texas Men’s Basketball Team during 1996 to 2000, Muoneke would rise in the university’s history books to reach top 20 in scoring, rebounding, games started and played while finalizing his degree in petroleum engineering .
Muoneke would enjoy a near 10-year professional basketball career mainly overseas and with short stints in the NBA and the NBA’s Developmental League where he would prove he was not average in anything he did. He would retire early to pursue a career in oil and gas and shortly start MTX, an African-Based Energy Company. Today MTX is engaged in multiple energy projects in Africa including a $200M gas project that will increase the host countries power capacity by 30 percent.
Muoneke has been married to Lenea Muoneke for 15 years and they have four children.