Looking for open doors

SMU December Commencement speaker Brady Wood ’90 shares his life – from buying The Green Elephant as a student to founding development firm Woodhouse.

Alumni

December 15, 2025

Brady Wood ’90 has crafted a life that is intentional and yet full of happenstance. At the office for his development firm Woodhouse, Wood calls the main worktable a “kitchen table,” where “ingredients” for new ideas – like concept, location, building history, landlord and customer – pour out.

“Every project has to have a story,” he says. “Every detail has this intentional purpose.”

Many of his ventures – including Highland Park Village’s Park House and tennis club Banner House at T Bar M –can claim these curated experiences. When you walk through the oversized double doors of Mexican restaurant José, you’ll find touches of Guadalajara and Wood’s own life throughout.

The bright, vibrant colors are inspired by Guadalajara, where Wood has traveled for tequila tastings for over a decade. The fountain in the courtyard was crafted from a mold of an agave plant. The tables are formed from quarried lava from Mexico’s Tequila Volcano. Even the brick courtyard walls are inspired by the real-life location. The restaurant itself is named after a ceramicist in the city. Most striking is the giant, black-and-white mural along the restaurant’s back wall – it’s a compilation of Wood’s photos of Guadalajara. Designed by an artist on Wood’s team, the ceramic tiles were then glazed by artisans in Mexico.

Every project has to have a story,” he says.
“Every detail has this intentional purpose.

TAKING OVER THE GREEN ELEPHANT

Incorporating personal touches goes back to his first venture: buying The Green Elephant while still a student at SMU. As social chair of his fraternity in the post-death penalty era (and just as the national drinking age was raised to 21), Wood planned epic parties for his classmates. He found himself advising the owner of The Rhythm Room, a frequent location of those parties, on how to improve the bar – things like widening the doors and adding an outdoor bar – until the owner offered for Wood to take it off his hands.

“I said, ‘Absolutely, I will definitely do that; by the way, how much does it cost?’” recalls Wood. He and his brother both sold their cars and Wood sold gift cards to classmates to close the gap. And as for the name?

“My dad owned this green rental trailer, and on it were these elephants,” explains Wood. Prior to owning the bar, the trailer would be parked near Wood’s apartment – another frequent location for parties – so students eventually spread the word to “park by the green elephants” to get to events. When it came time to name his newly owned bar, the moniker stuck.

EXPANDING THE BUSINESS

By the time Wood graduated with his degree in business, his bar ventures had only expanded: “I was 22 years old and already had hundreds of employees,” he says. “Had the owner of the bar not suggested I buy it, I would never have thought to ask … everything in my life is an unexpected chapter.”

Wood also began managing the band Jackopierce – made up of his classmates Cary Pierce ’91 and Jack O’Neill – adding the music industry to his portfolio, as well as venturing into real estate: “We formed a new company and had amazing partners, most that I went to school with, and my brother,” Wood adds.

SHARING HIS WISDOM

“The number one thing I would tell students today is stay extremely open minded to the connections and people that you meet,” he says. “Doors are opening all around you.”

In his own life, Wood can trace that trajectory as a through line that begins at SMU: he joined a fraternity and ended up managing the band of two fraternity brothers; one of those band members then introduced him to his wife; and his wife, then, introduced him to his business partner, with whom he has launched a number of companies.

“There are very few ‘tracks’ these days, but what you do have are connections,” he says. “You have friends, you cultivate these relationships, and that’s something that I think is very important. I stumbled upon what I was doing because I was looking through these doors and seeing opportunity.”

He recalls that entrepreneurship historically hadn’t been considered an academic field unto itself – but that one professor in the Cox School of Business, Jerry White, was leading the charge at the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship.

“That prepared me for what I was doing, because I was winging it a lot,” Wood says. “The way I approach entrepreneurship is, of course, I look at the upside. But I also study the worst-case scenario. And if I can stomach that, I move forward.”

ENGAGING FELLOW SMU ALUMNI

Today, Wood is ready for his next adventure – reconnecting SMU’s “Lost Generation,” who graduated from SMU during the death penalty and immediately after.

“Hopefully, I can inspire my class and the classes behind me to reengage with the school,” he says. “We should be giving the school a bear hug, because for me, it did everything for me. We should be embracing it.”

Wood is going back to his party-planning roots, envisioning ways his generation can reawaken their school spirit: “The campus is amazing, the school is amazing, and the people are amazing,” he says. “I’m so excited about SMU right now.”

It’s all part of the mentality Wood put as his senior quote in his high school yearbook: “keep moving.”

“And I have not stopped moving since then,” he says.

The number one thing I would tell students today is stay extremely open minded to the connections and people that you meet, he says.