2014 autumn volume 18 no. 1 - ut...

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MOVINGFORWARD

MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

Fall semester began with excitement caused by the opening of the new building addition. Almost immediately, students gravitated to the many common spaces and study areas in the

new facility. This attraction fulfills the vision of architectural affiliates Goody Clancy of Boston and SHW Group in nearby Plano, who designed the four-story structure with student needs in mind. On December 1, we will hold opening ceremonies and officially debut the space to the public. Check the Comet Calendar (utdallas.edu/calendar) for details.

Our expanded facilities allow us to accommodate a generous influx of new students and faculty members. We welcome 20 new faculty members, who bring excellent education and professional credentials and substantive teaching and research experience.

Our distinguished faculty is always a point of pride, so I was pleased this summer to learn that Dr. Rebecca Files, an assistant professor of accounting, was one of six UT Dallas professors to be recognized with a 2014 UT System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award. About the same time, we named Dr. Files the first recipient of the Dr. Sydney Smith Hicks Fellowship, which recognizes excellence in research and teaching by tenure-track assistant professors in our school. In July, at its annual meeting, the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics recognized Dr. Alain Bensoussan, Ashbel Smith Professor of Operations Management and director of the Jindal School’s International Center for Decision and Risk Analysis, with the W.T. and Ida Reid Prize in Mathematics, an award for his “fundamental contributions” in the fields of differential equations and control theory.

This summer I also was happy to name three longtime leading JSOM researchers to new en dowed posts. Coordinator of the Jindal School’s Accounting Area, Dr. William (Bill) Cready was named to fill the Adolf Enthoven Distinguished Professorship. Accounting Professor Suresh Radhakrishnan was appointed to the Constantine Konstans Distinguished Professorship in Accounting and Corporate Governance. Marketing Professor Michael Rebello was appointed to the Susan C. and H. Ronald Nash Dis-tinguished Professorship.

Including undergraduate, graduate and executive education programs, our student enrollment this fall semester tops 7,500, up 7 percent from the same time last year. Among those numbers is our largest freshman class ever, with 489 students. The MS in Information Tech-nology and Management Program has also grown significantly. It now represents our largest graduate program, with 816 degree seekers. The former longtime leader, the MS in Accounting Program, is second with 675 students.

As usual, students continue to represent us well in regional and national competitions. Last spring, Jindal School undergraduates made a clean sweep of the local chapter of the American Marketing Association’s Collegiate Marketer of the Year Awards. The winner and all three other finalists were Jindal School students. The JSOM-based campus student group Enactus finished in the Top 20 of 202 teams that competed at the 2014 Enactus United States National Exposition. Members of the business-career student group Phi Beta Lambda earned 10 awards at the organization’s national convention in June, after winning 35 awards at the state conference, including 21 for first place — a state record — earlier in the year.

As I write, we are looking forward to our annual Scholarship Breakfast. During the breakfast last year, we raised sufficient funds to grant 40 scholarships.

Our alumni and friends remain generous supporters. JSOM donations totaled more than $12.7 million in Fiscal Year 2014. That represents a 30 percent increase over FY 2013. In addition, we have increased our donor rolls by 18 percent. Please read Your Support Matters Now More Than Ever on page 19 to see the impact of private support on the education we deliver.

As ever, we deeply appreciate your assistance in building and maintaining one of the nation’s leading business schools. Thank you. We pledge to do our utmost to continue delivering excellence in education.

Best wishes,

Visit our site on the worldwide Web

j i n d a l . u t d a l l a s . e d u

Hasan PirkulDean and Caruth Chair of Management

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Healthcare Management: The Business Side of MedicineSnapshots of four JSOM programs that have been training physicians and other professionals since the late 1990s.

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Jindal Art CelebratedAn April art event, installation of a commissioned glass sculpture in the atrium of the school’s new addition and the appearance of other new artwork elsewhere in JSOM have enhanced the aesthetics of business education.

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Navigating the New AdditionMaps to guide you through the school’s new wing, which

formally opens December 1.

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Advisory Council Leadership ChangesSteve Penson takes the reins from Skip Moore.

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Distinguished Alumni Award Kevin Ryan, MBA 1995, credits his JSOM education as a strong factor in his successful career.

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The Social Ties That BindSocial media is becoming an integral part of everyday life at the Jindal School.

DEPARTMENTS

18 Scholarship Breakfast

19 Development

20 JSOM Research Ventures

25 New Faculty

30 Faculty News

32 Program Updates

33 Conference News

35 Student News

38 Alumni Profile

39 Alumni NotesVOLUME 18, No. 1 AUTUMN 2014

M O V I N G F O R W A R DPUBLISHERDr. Hasan PirkulDean and Caruth Chair of ManagementEXECUTIVE EDITORDr. Diane Seay McNultyAssociate Dean for External Affairs and Corporate DevelopmentMANAGING EDITORKristine ImherrART DIRECTION & DESIGNThinkHaus Creative, Inc. Dorit Suffness, Elizabeth Fenimore Miler Hung Pr incipalsILLUSTRATIONJoseph CrabtreeRoy ScottPHOTOGRAPHYPamela Foster BradyJoe CazaresBill CrumpAllison DupuisJohn FowlerRandy Eli GrotheKarah HosekKristine ImherrRhiannon LeeMario MolinaDebbie SamacBrian L. Wiest Yang XiWRITERSEric ButtermanJill GlassKristine ImherrCaroline MandelDonna Steph RianJeanne SpreierGlenda Vosburgh

MANAGEMENT Magazine is a publication

of the Naveen Jindal School of Management,

in the autumn and spring for friends of

the university. The school retains the right to

determine the editorial content and manner

of presen tation. The opinions expressed in

this magazine do not necessarily reflect official

univer sity policy.

© University of Texas at Dallas, 2014

UT Dallas is an equal oppor tunity/ affirmative action university.

On the cover: A glass sculpture created by local ar tist Jim Bowman hanging in the atrium of the new Jindal School addition. Photo by John Fowler.

T H E NAV E E N J I N DA L S C H O O L O F

UT Dallas | Autumn 2014 32 The Naveen Jindal School of Management

By Donna Steph Rian and Glenda Vosburgh

Former president of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas Britt Berrett recently returned to

campus — he is an alumnus who earned a PhD in public affairs in 2009 — to step into a new role at the Naveen Jindal School of Management develop-ing an undergraduate curriculum in healthcare management. His arrival and new role have generated a lot of curiosity, particularly among those outside the school’s community unaware that JSOM already has a long track record of training professionals — including physicians and other health-care specialists — to run the business side of medicine. Inside the Jindal School, extending the healthcare management curriculum to undergraduates is a logical next step in programs that began when the Jindal School and UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas began the Alliance for Medical Management Education (amme.utdallas.edu) in 1997. Since then, related programs — chief among them, MS in Healthcare Management — have been added and are thriving. What follows are a pro-file of Berrett and snapshots of the MS and three other key healthcare management programs.

HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT:THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MEDICINE

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Demand Underpins MS in Healthcare Management

Program —– and Drives Expansion Plans

A continually growing market

demand for well-educated

healthcare management profes-

sionals has energized Jindal

School plans to add undergradu-

ate healthcare management

courses to its curriculums. These

will supplement existing pro-

grams, including an undergradu-

ate concentration in healthcare

management offered under the

Bachelor of Science in Business

Administration degree plan and the 7-year-old Master of Science

in Healthcare Management Program.

Dr. Forney Fleming developed the pioneering and highly suc-

cessful master’s degree program, which is designed to rigorously

equip students to efficiently and effectively manage the busi-

ness side of healthcare. An orthopedic surgeon with decades of

experience as a practicing physician, Fleming earned his medical

degree from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston

and an MBA from the University of Houston at Clear Lake. For

the MS program, he sets goals and standards high, consistent

with UT Dallas’ emergence as a top-tier university.

“One of the unique things about the Jindal School is we’re

very entrepreneurial,” Fleming says. “A large percentage of our

faculty comprises professors who come from the ‘real world’ and

bring their career experiences, as opposed to career academi-

cians. That trait offers a unique perspective to students.”

The program offers evening classes and a flexible format to

accommodate the needs of working professionals, including

healthcare administrators, clinicians and support personnel. The

36-hour-credit program usually can be completed in two years

with students taking two classes per semester. It also includes

hands-on experience and training in area healthcare facilities.

More than 200 have earned the MS in Healthcare Manage-

ment degree since the program’s inception.

“At UTD, we are expanding our overall curriculum to position

ourselves as the definitive educational resource for healthcare

management education in this area,” says Fleming. “In that

regard, we want to offer multiple programs and concentrations

to accommodate the needs of our students.”

Expansion is only logical, if you consider, as Fleming has,

that the U.S. healthcare system accounts for more than $2.5

trillion in annual expenditures, which is nearly 20 percent of

the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to recent

statistics. Healthcare employs

one out of 10 working adults

nationally and is responsible

for more than 15 percent of

annual employment growth

in Texas.

That is one reason why

Fleming recruited well-

known Dallas healthcare

leader Britt Berrett (see Top

Area Healthcare Administrator

Joins Jindal Faculty below)

to lead the undergraduate

course expansion effort.

“Healthcare is one of the

largest, fastest-growing and

most complex industries and

professions in the world,”

Berrett says. “It requires well-

prepared and well-educated

healthcare professionals for

the future — people who

understand the passion for

caring for others but also

have the academic training

necessary in a multitude of

areas. Healthcare requires

new solutions, and there is

no place more prepared

than the Jindal School at

providing the leadership to

provide answers.”

Beyond that, Berrett says, “UT Dallas provides an exceptional

venue for creating collaborative solutions through the synergy

of academia and industry. Like never before, academia and

industry are coming together to respond to some of the greatest

challenges of our generation. UTD is at the forefront of this effort.”

— Donna Steph Rian

Top Area Healthcare Administrator

Joins Jindal Faculty

Britt Berrett, PhD 2009, Fellow of the American College of

Healthcare Executives and a 2011 UT Dallas Distinguished

Alumni Award recipient, has joined the Jindal School as

a clinical professor to provide leadership in developing the

school’s undergraduate healthcare management curriculum.

Students who take American Healthcare System examine the structure, f inancing and operation of healthcare delivery in the U.S.

Healthcare Management: The Business Side of Medicine

Forney Fleming


He comes to UT Dallas from

Texas Health Presbyterian Hos-

pital Dallas, where he served as

president since 2010. Under his

leadership, the 898-bed acute-

care hospital expanded through

numerous initiatives, including

the addition of hybrid operating

rooms and the renovation of the

Margot Perot Center for Women

and Infants. Prior to that, Berrett

served as president and CEO of

Medical City Dallas Hospital/Medical City Children’s Hospital for

a decade. He has been a healthcare executive for almost 30 years.

“I think I bring a tremendous amount of passion and com-

mitment and dedication to the healthcare profession,” Berrett

says. “That commitment, coupled with decades of experience in

the healthcare field at some of the most sophisticated healthcare

delivery systems in the United States, as well as my work with

healthcare policy in Washington, will be of tremendous value to

students who are beginning careers in healthcare.”

In addition to teaching at the Jindal School, Berrett plans to

continue lecturing and speaking nationally and internationally.

Nationally, he works with Dignity Health, a California-based not-

for-profit that operates hospitals in 17 states; BJC, a St. Louis-based

nonprofit healthcare organization; Premier Health, a southwestern-

Ohio-based company; and Carillon Clinics, based in Minnesota.

Abroad, he has worked with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to

help prepare emerging leaders for executive healthcare responsi-

bilities. He also is working with the Korean Hospital Association

regarding employee engagement and strategic outcomes and will

deliver a keynote address at the 5th Korea Healthcare Congress

2014, a national convention organized by the association and

scheduled for November 12 to November 14.

Berrett recently co-authored a book with Paul Spiegeleman,

Patients Come Second: Leading Change by Changing the Way You

Lead (An Inc. Original, New York). Published last year, the book

has been named a New York Times best-seller, Wall Street Journal

best-seller and USA Today best-seller.

Patients Come Second shakes up the traditional healthcare

model, arguing that in order to care for and retain patients,

leaders must first create exceptional teams and find ways to

engage nurses, administrative staff, physicians and supervisors,

and strengthen the importance of every level of the healthcare

delivery team. By connecting employees’ work with a higher

purpose and equipping them with the tools to become leaders

themselves, patient care can be dramatically transformed.

“This ties in nicely with the role of the Jindal School in the

development of an undergraduate program,” Berrett says. “Some

professionals may not have clinical aptitude, but they most cer-

tainly can contribute to the healthcare of our community.”

Not coincidentally, Berrett’s research interests focus on engag-

ing employees through transformational leadership theory. He

also is collaborating on research on physician engagement and

strategic human resources.

Berrett earned his PhD in public affairs from the UT Dallas

School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences. He also has

served on the Jindal School’s Healthcare Executive Council and

on its Executive Education Advisory Board, as well as taught as

a guest lecturer at the university. He received his MS in health

administration from Washington University School of Medicine.

“I recognize a university that is innovative, bold and respon-

sive to a changing healthcare environment,” Berrett says. “I

couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of that scenario.”

— Donna Steph Rian

AMME Trains Physician Leaders

When the Alliance for

Medical Management

Education was established in

1997, the graduate business

program for physicians was

one of the first of its kind in

the United States.

Headed by Jindal School

Clinical Professor John

McCracken, executive director,

the program is a partnership

between the Jindal School

and UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and the first

strategic partnership between a major school of business and

a school of medicine to offer a graduate business program

for physicians.

AMME offers two degrees, a Master of Science in Healthcare

Management and a Healthcare Management Executive MBA.

Both curriculums are designed to accommodate physicians’ busy

schedules, with four-day courses convening every other month.

AMME’s classes are taught by nationally recognized business

and medical school faculty with outstanding academic creden-

tials and healthcare experience. Several UTSW faculty members

teach in the AMME program, and several of the medical school’s

physicians have gone through the program. UTSW offers con-

tinuing education credits to the physicians who attend.

The AMME program is in such strong demand that there is a

two-year waiting list for doctors who want to enroll, and its suc-

cess has caught the attention of other universities.

“We constantly get phone calls about the program from uni-

versities that want to start similar programs, and we get a lot of

referrals,” McCracken says. “We’ve had to take the application off

our website to slow the flow of applicants.”

AMME has attracted students from 34 states. Graduates occupy

senior leadership positions in hospitals, health systems, group

practices, managed-care organizations, professional associations

and academic medical centers throughout the U.S. About 60 per-

cent of graduates go on to earn an MBA, according to McCracken.

Dr. Mark Laney, chief executive officer, Heartland Regional

Medical Center, St. Joseph, Missouri, is a 2000 graduate. “My

educational experience completely transformed my career,

helping me to make the difficult transition from clinical

medicine to leadership,” he says. “I was well-equipped with the

knowledge and skills to be successful in, arguably, medicine’s

most chaotic time.”

In today’s healthcare environment, medical professionals

must grapple with constant changes and turmoil that makes hav-

ing strong management skills more important than ever before,

McCracken says. In addition, there is growing demand for physi-

cians with the training required to be successful in administra-

tive or leadership jobs in healthcare.

“Today, all job searches for physician leaders require some

kind of [management] training,” McCracken says.

Graduate Dr. Joseph Minei, a UTSW professor of surgery and

co-director of surgical intensive care at Parkland Hospital, says

the program is a must for current or aspiring healthcare physi-

cian leaders.

“The AMME program delivers cutting edge material, well

taught by John McCracken and the experts he brings into the

various topics,” Minei says. “I have been able to take on signifi-

cant leadership roles much more prepared than before my time

in the program.”

— Glenda Vosburgh


Britt Berrett

John McCracken

John McCracken (left) and Forney Fleming (right) conversed with AMME alumnus Dr. Esteban Lopez at a 2010 forum the Jindal School held on the business impact of healthcare reform.

Each AMME course is delivered in a focused four-day session that meets from Saturday morning to Tuesday afternoon, minimizing the time doctors and healthcare administrators spend away from the off ice.

UT Dallas | Autumn 2014 7

Certificate Program Offers Doctors

an Online Option

The Healthcare Leadership and

Management for Physicians

Certificate Program is a unique

offering in the United States,

says Dr. Michael Deegan, who

heads the program.

Deegan, a physician who also

holds a doctor of management

degree and has an extensive back-

ground in management, joined

the Jindal School in 2012.

A clinical professor in the Exec -

utive Education Area, he came aboard and soon accepted respon-

sibility for developing the online program. He had previously

served as executive vice president and chief clinical and quality

officer at Arlington-based hospital system Texas Health Resources.

Open to licensed physicians practicing medicine in the

United States, the healthcare leadership program equips students

with management and leadership training that can help them

better manage their practices or become effective executives

within the healthcare industry.

Classes cover subjects such as emotional intelligence and

effective communications, managing relationships, negotiation

skills and teamwork, among others.

“There is a dramatic need for physicians to have a better grasp

of leadership and management knowledge, skills and competen-

cies,” Deegan says. “There are an estimated 800,000 to 900,000

doctors in the U.S. and only about 5 to 10 percent have interest

in an advanced business degree. It requires a significant time

commitment, and physicians don’t have that much time; so giv-

ing them a more compact

program is helpful.”

The certificate

program consists of 11

lessons that are divided

into three sections. New

lessons are introduced

at three-week intervals,

and the program takes 10

months to complete.

“At the end of each

section, I send out a survey

to the students, and I push

for 100 percent participa-

tion,” Dr. Deegan says. “The feedback has been very positive.”

The course was originally designed for practicing physicians,

he says, but consideration is being now being given to offering it

to physicians during their residency training.

— Glenda Vosburgh

Healthcare IT Program Produces Specialists

for a Growing Field

The Healthcare Information

Technology Certificate

Pro gram was created to take

advantage of employment

opportunities in the medical

side of the IT industry —

opportunities that are strong

and expected to grow stronger.

Founded in 2012, the

certificate program is open to

graduate-level degree- and non-

degree students working to gain

a competitive edge in IT. About 30 certificates have been earned

since the program began.

“Students in the program must have a four-year undergradu-

ate degree, and we also look at their GPA,” says Dr. Indranil

Bardhan, JSOM professor of information systems, who runs the

program. “The cutoff is 3.0, but exceptions are sometimes made

if the student has extensive work experience.”

The student population consists of individuals who work in

healthcare but want to switch careers within that industry and

those who work in IT in other industries, such as at banking or

high tech, who want to take advantage of employment opportu-

nities in healthcare.

“About 70 percent of the program’s students are already in

our MS in Information Technology and Management or MBA

degree program,” Bardhan says.

The certificate program is divided into three sections, one focus-

ing on core concepts and another teaching the use of analytical

tools to refine data that helps in making medical decisions. The

third section provides students with hands-on experience using

Epic software, the leading software for electronic medical records.

UT Southwestern Medical School allows certificate students to

use the same online Epic software environment that the medical

school uses to train its students and healthcare proviers. Epic is

used by about 60 percent of the large hospitals in the Dallas-Fort

Worth area. 3— Glenda Vosburgh

Jordan Asher, MD, MSChief Medical Officer, MissionPoint Health Partners, St. Thomas Health System

Steven Cook, MD, MSChief of Pediatric Otolaryngology and Hospital Medical Director, Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children

Michael Burgess, MD, MSMember, U.S. House of Representatives

Darrin D’Agostino, DO, MBAChairman of Internal Medicine, University of North Texas Health Science Center

Kathleen Forbes, MD, MSChief Medical Officer, OSF Healthcare System

Howard Garb, MD, MBA Chairman of the Board, Texas Spine and Joint Hospital

Clifford Fullerton, MD, MSChief Medical Officer, Baylor Quality Alliance, Baylor Health Care System

Paul Hancock, MD, MBAChief Medical Officer, Swedish Medical Center

David Herman, MD, MS President and Chief Executive Officer, Vidant Health System

Carlos Hernandez, MD, MS President, WellMed Medical Group

Scott Holliday, DO, MBA Chairman of the Clinical Governance Board, U.S. Anesthesia Partners

Samson Jesudass, MD, MBA Senior Vice President, Ascension Health System

Robert Lane, MD, MS Professor and Chairman, Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin

Mark Laney, MD, MS Chief Executive Officer, Heartland Regional Medical Center

Daniel LeGrand, MD, MBA President of the Medical Staff, St. Vincent Carmel Hospital

Vinay Mehindru, MD, MBA Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Florida Waterman Hospital

Joseph Minei, MD, MBAProfessor of Surgery and Director of Surgical Intensive Care, Parkland Hospital

John Myers, MD, MSPresident, Questcare Medical Services and Chief Executive Officer, QRx Medical Management

Tricia Nguyen, MD, MBA President, Texas Health Population Health, Education & Innovation Center, Texas Health Resources

Charles O’Mara, MD, MSAssociate Vice Chancellor for Clinical Affairs, University of Mississippi Medical Center

William Rayburn, MD, MBA Professor and Chairman, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center

Samuel Ross, MD, MSChief Executive Officer, Bon Secours Baltimore Health System

Teresa Rummans, MD, MS Chairman of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic

David Teegarden, MD, MSPresident and Chief Executive Officer, Trinity Mother Francis Hospitals and Clinics

David Winter MD, MSChairman of the Board and President, HealthTexas Provider Network, Baylor Health Care System

Clyde Yancy, MD, MSProfessor and Chief of Cardiology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Irvin Zeitler, DO, MSChairman of the Board, Texas Medical Board

Thomas Zellers, MD, MSProfessor of Pediatric Cardiology and Chief Medical Officer, Children’s Medical Center

SOME NOTABLE AMME Alumni


JSOM healthcare management courses encourage sharing and collaboration for effective problem solving.

My educational experience completely

transformed my career, helping me to

make the difficult transition from clinical

medicine to leadership.” – MARK LANEY

“

Michael Deegan

Indranil Bardhan


The weekend before fall semester officially launched on August 25,

Dallas glass artist Jim Bowman worked in the Naveen Jindal School

of Management’s new addition to install a hanging sculpture he had

spent months creating for the atrium of that new space.

Installation of that commissioned piece and other artworks

purchased, lent or contributed to the school’s collection add to a

new effort to enliven the school culturally and celebrate the aesthetic

— the ingenious, creative and entrepreneurial — sides of business.

Jindal

AR

T

Celebrated

Other artworks now part of the Jindal School’s collection are (clockwise from top left): Great Potential, three bronze acorns by Brad Oldham; Oil on Canvas (Landscape #1), a painting by Jon Flaming; Wise, a mirror/polished stainless steel owl by Brad Oldham; Mother Lode III and Mother Lode IV, acrylic paintings by John Van Ness; and Three Squigglies, a bronze statue by Janet McGreal.

Before assembling the sculpture, Jim Bowman (left), seen here with his dog, Lacy, put together a model at his Dallas studio, which is replete with a furnace, kiln and other equipment for creating his blown and molded works.

Jindal ART Celebration

The glass sculpture (at left) that is the centerpiece of the new atrium took shape after the sculpture’s creator, Jim Bowman (above, left), and his friend Eric Hall borrowed a “cherry picker” crane from the campus Facilities Management Department to get a ride to the ceiling, where they attached a steel armature to a support chain and then carefully placed each of the component pieces of the work.

10 The Naveen Jindal School of Management

Beyond looking, guests were able to purchase some of the art on display.

Artistic Impressions included a silent auction, food and drinks and entertain-

ment from guitarist Daniel Hodan, the TI Jazz Band and student violinist

Naomi D’Amato.

Works by Bowman and other artists were front and center in the Jindal School on April 26 at a special event, Artistic Impressions

of Management, which called attention to the Jindal Art Collection. The first floor of the school was transformed into galleries and

exhibit space featuring paintings, photos and sculptures.

Small World (left), by PhD student Yang Xi, Overall Best in Show, and LUV Dallas (above), by Zain Siddiqui, Student Best in Show, were top winners in the JSOM Business Photo Competition. Guests (below, from the left) included: JSOM Advisory Council member Brad McCleary with his wife, Amy; advisory council member Andrea Nicholas; Sandy Fowler, viewing photos by her husband, John.

The Glamour Age of Flight exhibit (above, left and right) recaptured the hey-day of Braniff International Airlines in photos and posters. Art consultant Jacqueline Anderson, seen in the left photo with her husband, Dallas Museum of Art Eugene McDermott Director Maxwell Anderson, curated the exhibit.

Local artists whose works were featured at the Artistic Impressions event included Brad Oldham (left), who exhibited sculptures large and small, and Jon Flaming (right), whose paintings lined the walls of the Executive Education wing. They stopped to talk to JSOM Association Dean for External Relations and Corporate Development Diane McNulty, one of the evening’s chief organizers.

Below: The evening’s honorary co-chairmen, Jindal School Distinguished Alumnus H. Ronald (Ron) Nash (center), MS 1979 and his wife, Susan (right), chatted with artist Janet McGreal next to her Three Squigglies bronze. At right, top to bottom: A portion of West Texas Hardware Store, Rowena by Jon Flaming; a pop-up exhibit featuring works for sale local artists; Waxahachie by Jon Flaming; watercolors at the Paint By Number exhibit; guitarist Daniel Hodan.



The efforts of many were required to plan, set up and run the event.

More than three dozen students volunteered their time. They favorably

impressed visitors, who complimented their professionalism and expressed

appreciation for the opportunity to meet them.

UT Dallas President David E. Daniel and his

wife, Susan, attended the Artistic Impressions of

Management event. Daniel earlier told organizers

that from now on, money will be budgeted to

include art in each new UT Dallas facility.

Jindal School Dean Hasan Pirkul, who attended with his

wife, Tulin, said that “the support of the April event shows that

aesthetics have a broad appeal.”

“Undoubtedly, art enhances education. But we hope that not

only students but also faculty, staff and visitors will enjoy and

benefit from the school’s art collection.”

At Left: Event attractions included a silent auction featuring items from gift baskets to a vacation-home stay in France. Below: Sculptures by Brad Oldham lining the south sidewalk of the JSOM courtyard made for pleasant strolling for guests who came out to listen to the TI Jazz Band (below right).

Below, from the left: UT Dallas Interim Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Dwight Clasby (right) with his wife. Julie; guests Jessica and Nathan Young; and JSOM Assistant Dean for Development and Alumni Relations Erica Yaeger (left), a co- chief event organizer, with immediate past JSOM Advisory Council Chairman Skip Moore and JSOM Corporate Relations Director Michelle Moore

Among the many student volunteers were (above, left to right) Alice Zhu, Cody Eilrich and Hae Min Lee, and Munashe Chando (right) with UT Dallas mascot Temoc, who helped make the evening a success.

Jindal School Dean Hasan Pirkul and his wife, Tulin, paused for a photo at the exhibit of the winning photos submitted to the school’s business photo competition.

UT Dallas President David E. Daniel showed his artistic side at the Paint By Number exhibit, where guests made their contributions to an abstract piece.



Offices

PhD Offices

Study/Meetings

Classrooms

Exec Ed Classrooms

Interview Rooms

Stairs/Elevators

Centers/Labs

Restrooms

Facilities

The new four-story addition to the Naveen Jindal School of Management is open. But what’s where? b The maps here should help you get your bearings. b And to navigate room numbers, think “Plus One.” It is a quick way to differentiate rooms in the new space from those in the existing building. b Room numbers in the existing building start with their floor number, followed by a period/dot and then the room’s number. JSOM 1.118, on the first floor, is the official room number of the Davidson Auditorium. JSOM 4.418, on the fourth floor, is a frequently booked conference room. b In the new addition, all rooms are numbered as 1 + — one plus the floor number followed by a period/dot and then the room number. So, if you are in the new addition and need to be on the first floor in room 105 — a meeting room — it is numbered 11.105. b On the second floor, room 101, a computer lab, is 12.101. Rooms on the third floor begin with 13. And those on the fourth floor — 14. b Got it? Happy navigating.

NAVIGATING THE NEW ADDITION

A formal opening ceremony for the new building addition, with a ribbon cutting,

speeches and tours, is scheduled for December 1 at 3:45 p.m. Check the Comet

Calendar (utdallas.edu/calendar) for details.

COLOR KEY:

2ND FLOOR

3RD AND 4TH FLOOR

1ST FLOOR

Breakout Rooms


Skip Moore, a managing partner for

Deloitte & Touche LLP, steps down

this fall as chairman of the Naveen

Jindal School of Management Advi

sory Council, the group of corporate execu

tives, experts and leaders who offer outside

guidance to school administrators. Moore

has watched the group grow in popularity

as it has helped steer UT Dallas closer to

Tier One status. He proudly passes the baton

to his successor Steve Penson, regional

manager of Austin Commercial, the building

arm of Austin Industries.

“These two years have been rewarding to

spend with council members, Moore says of

his leadership role. “I think Steve will step

right in and take it to a whole new level.”

Still, Penson knows he has big shoes to

fill. “I’m humbled by the list of people who

have filled this position before me,” he says.

“Under Skip Moore, we’ve seen the council

meetings have ideas flow more easily. It’s

become even more of an important body.”

Penson is excited for the opportunity,

ready to lend his own ideas to continue the

council’s growth. “The school gives the coun

cil a great deal of information in meetings,

and I want to encourage members to give

more feedback,” he says. “I also want there

to be even more of a connection between the

students and the council—after all, that’s

who we’re there for.”

Penson expects businesses in the Metroplex

to see it as more of a value to them in areas

such as networking. “There is a great op

portunity here for connections to be made,”

he says.

He also sees it as another chance for his

company to be involved with the school.

“We’ve had a chance to be aligned with many

areas within the university, and as we grow

nationally and globally it’s just a natural fit,”

he says.

Moore, who will still be involved in

the council, has been rewarded by Dean

Hasan Pirkul for his service with Skip Moore

Leadership and Service Scholarship. Part of

the surprise, though, was that Moore and

Deloitte decided to contribute too.

“I had become a huge believer in the

quality of the school, the future of the

school and the importance of the school

to the community,” Moore says. Donating

“was an easy decision to make.”

With a strong desire to make a significant

impact, Moore chose to allocate a planned

gift from his estate. Deloitte is contributing

to the scholarship fund as well.

Moore considers it just a little thank you

for his experiences with the Jindal School.

“It’s hard to describe but when you’re up on

campus there’s just a different feel...It feels

like there’s innovation going on and a lot of

ideas. And that’s what I do in business. I help

companies bring their ideas to fruition. [The

school] clearly broadened my perspective.” 3

NEW LEADERSHIP CHANGES FOR ADVISORY COUNCIL

Skip Moore Steve Penson

By Eric Butterman

DEPARTMENTS ADVISORY COUNCIL UPDATE

Kevin Ryan, chief financial officer and senior vice presi-

dent at Merit Energy Company, has been named a 2014

UT Dallas Distinguished Alumnus, both for his career

accomplishments and his commitment to the university.

Last year, with an initial investment of $10,000, Ryan and

his wife, Cristi, established the Kevin and Cristi Ryan Opportunity

Fund as a way to support the Jindal School far into the future.

Having earned his master’s degree in business administration

from the School of Management in 1995, Ryan credits this educa-

tion as a strong factor in his career. “Not only did it help in getting

the CFO job at Merit 16 years ago, but a huge factor in my contin-

ued success at Merit is due to the skills I learned.”

Ryan remembers a moment four years into his CFO post that

called for versatility, a quality often encouraged at school. “We

had just completed a large-asset acquisition and split the company

into two operating divisions,” he says. “As an accounting/finance

person, I found myself in meetings with geologists and petroleum

engineers making decisions on drill wells and capital projects.…I gained an incredible amount of operations experience during that four-

year period running the division. It was a great challenge, but an even greater opportunity to learn.”

Ryan’s philosophy is to join only a handful of nonprofit boards and advisory councils in order to maximize his involvement in each. A

member of the UT System Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee, he also serves on the JSOM Advisory Council, which he joined in 2010.

“The wonderful group at JSOM makes it so fun and easy to be a part of the team and to strive for great things,” he says. “Receiving the

recognition as the JSOM Distinguished Alumnus was just the icing on the cake. I look forward to my continued role in helping the JSOM

and UT Dallas strive for Tier One status. We are on our way!” 3

By Eric Butterman

JSOM Distinguished Alumnus Kevin Ryan, MBA 1995, rode his 2001 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Classic to campus for this photo. He did not arrive in the suit; he changed into it. He says he got the motorcycle “just before I turned 40” because he had always wanted one, and now he belongs to a motorcycle club made up of dads in his Richardson neighborhood.

J S O M Fa c t o r s I n t o G ra d ’s C o n t i n u e d S u c c e s s

D i s t i n g u i s h e D A l u m n i

A w A r D


The Naveen Jindal School of Management is revolutionizing the future

of business education.

Highlighted throughout this magazine are numerous examples

of groundbreaking programs, award-winning faculty, exceptional

students and trailblazing alumni, who each demonstrate the vast

impact of a Jindal School education.

This fall, the school will conclude its first

comprehensive fundraising campaign, and

your financial support is a vital component in

maintaining momentum.

With only weeks remaining before the

December 31 deadline, your support is needed

now more than ever. Please stand by the

Jindal School as it continues to strive toward

excellence and reach new heights of success.

Your gift, regardless of size, will empower

faculty members to enrich their innovative

teaching, inspire student achievement and enable the Jindal School

to continually be recognized as a leader in business education.

YOUR SUPPORT MATTERS NOW MORE THAN EVER

40New Scholarship Awards

40 new scholarship awards were generated through ticket sales for the Jindal School’s 2013 Scholarship Breakfast. For information on this year’s breakfast featuring Robert Safian, editor and managing director of Fast Company magazine, see page 18.

233% increase in the number of JSOM alumni who have made a gift to the Jindal School since the start of the Realize the Vision campaign. Today the Jindal School alumni population exceeds 31,000.

70% of JSOM undergraduate students received some type of financial support this fall semester. This includes all grants, loans or scholarship awards.

233%Increase inJSOM Alumni Giving

70%UndergradsReceive Support

To make a gift, visit jindal.utdallas.edu/give or contact the Jindal School Office of Development and Alumni Relations at 972.883.5855.

$175 is the average price of one textbook.Most students will spend $1,200 on textbooks and supplies alone each semester.

Per Book$175

DEPARTMENTS SCHOLARSHIP BREAKFAST

he spotlight will shine on business

innovation and ways to shape the

corporate future creatively when

top magazine editor Robert Safian

takes the podium November 5 as

keynote speaker at the Naveen Jindal School of

Management’s annual Scholarship Breakfast.

Safian, editor and managing director of

the business magazine Fast Company, will

deliver “Lessons of the World’s Most Innovative

Companies,” sharing his experiences with the

likes of Apple, Facebook and Twitter and offer

ing insights into the most innovative compa

nies. He shows how companies can thrive, even

in tough times, by embracing the power of in

novative ideas and creative execution.

His appearance will be the highlight of the

breakfast, the Jindal School’s major fundraiser,

which will be held at the Westin Galleria.

Begun in 2009, the event has generated more

than $400,000 and funded almost 200 scholar

ships. With backing this year from platinum

sponsors Ericsson and the Wingate by Wyndham

Richardson/Dallas hotel, and gold sponsors

Avnet, MUFG Union Bank and The Sherwin

Williams Company, organizers hope to hit the

halfmillion dollar mark in raised funds.

The breakfast was established with two

missions: to offer a forum for discussing

relevant business issues and to support the

education goals of UT Dallas students — the

next generation of business leaders.

Safian’s speech is backed by his own diverse

accomplishments. At Fast Company, an award

winning monthly with a reputation for focusing

on what is truly “new” in business, he oversees

all editorial operations, in print and online,

and plays a key role in guiding the magazine’s

advertising, marketing and circulation efforts.

Under his leadership, Fast Company has received

numerous accolades, including Magazine of the

Year honors from the Society of Business Editors

and Writers and the Gerald R. Loeb Award for

Distinguished Business Journalism.

Safian came to Fast Company in 2007 from

Fortune, where he served as executive editor.

Prior to that, he was an executive editor at

Time and headed Money as its managing edi

tor for six years. Safian began his career with

a sevenyear tenure at The American Lawyer,

where he rose from summer intern to ex

ecutive editor. He joined SmartMoney in 1994

and moved to Fortune in 1997. Money was a

National Magazine Finalist four times under

Safian’s leadership. He also played key roles

in securing National Magazine Awards for The

American Lawyer, SmartMoney and Time. 3

‘FORWARD THINKING’ Focus of Annual Fundraiser

Above: Keynote speaker Robert Saf ian, editor and managing director of Fast Company

Below: UT Dallas President David E. Daniel (foreground, center) speaking with Associate Dean Diane McNulty at the 2013 breakfast; JSOM Dean Hasan Pirkul at bottom right.

DEPARTMENTS DEVELOPMENT


JSOM RESEARCH VENTURES

he Naveen Jindal School of Management makes research a major component of its

portfolio — not just a peri-pheral goal. So it is no surprise f ive leading research-ers on the faculty have been recognized by being named to endowed posts, and a sixth has earned a faculty fellow-ship and been recognized by The University of Texas System Board of Regents.

Two of these professors have been named as Ashbel Smith Professors, and three others have previously served as Ashbel Smith Professors. And all six f ind it vitally important that their enthusiasm for their subject matter extends to the classroom.

RO

Y S

CO

TT

by Eric Butterman6Six Rewarded for Research

Michael RebelloFrom having his research cited in the Journal of Economic

Literature’s 25year retrospective to serving as partner and adviser on

hedge fund strategy and investment at Eiken Capital in Singapore,

Dr. Michael Rebello has had an impressive career. Now he adds being

appointed to the Susan C. and

H. Ronald Nash Distinguished

Professorship to the mix.

The endowed professor

ship “gives me resources

to pursue my research

and to support doctoral

students,” he says.

“Running the PhD pro

gram [in finance], I

hope to gain more promi

nence for it.”

His main topics of research have

been corporate governance and

security design. Recently, he has studied corporate reputations and

the role of financial analysts. “I’ve looked at analysts who worked for

brokerages, and we showed the whole universe of sellside analysts,”

he says. “It actually altered the correlation between stocks — between

stock returns — important from many perspectives because correlation

is the key to understanding risk. Another finding was [about] analysts

hired by mutual fund companies and showing they are able to identify

good investments for the companies and the managers of the compa

nies actually pay attention to what analysts have to say.”

Rebello’s highest aspiration is for his students to become indepen

dent, especially in research — not as simple as it might seem. “They

should be able to do everything on their own without relying on

faculty,” he says. “We want them to be truly independent researchers.

Ultimately what determines whether you’re considered a great PhD

program is student achievement. What I’m trying to do is improve the

culture of the program so students want to produce highquality re

search — and a lot of it. They have to be selfmotivated rather than

pushed into it.”

JSOM alumnus H. Ronald (Ron) Nash, MS 1979, who with his

wife, Susan, endowed Rebello’s new post, hopes that it will continue

to keep researchers going. “We want to reward very bright and tal

ented people in their career,” Nash says. “One of the key measures of

the quality of a university is research dollars and how much they’re

attracting. That’s key when heading into Tier One status. These pro

fessorships can allow [UT Dallas] to support research.”

Jindal School Dean Hasan Pirkul (center) with Susan C. and

H. Ronald (Ron) Nash, longtime JSOM supporters whose gift

created the distinguished professorship that carries their names.

Michael Rebello

One of the key measures of the quality of a

university is research dollars and how much

they’re attracting. That’s key when heading

into Tier One status. These professorships

can allow [UT Dallas] to support research.

— H. Ronald (Ron) Nash


Suresh RadhakrishnanDr. Suresh Radhakrishnan has been appointed to the Constantine

Konstans Distinguished Professorship

in Accounting and Corporate

Governance.

And, for him, the honor

is quite personal.

“I am very thankful

to the school and Dean

Hasan Pirkul, especially

since I had known

Connie Konstans for close

to 15 years,” he says.

Konstans, who died in 2013,

was a longtime accounting

professor who founded JSOM’s

Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance (jindal.utdallas.edu/

iecg). “We used to call each other ‘brother,’ ” Radhakrishnan says.

“Even at the last part of his career, I was a witness to how very fo

cused he was on his mission for corporate governance.”

Radhakrishnan’s own research has hit many topics, but especially

homed in on the evaluation of intangibles and the benefits and costs

of intangibles. “We need to understand the global economy,” he says,

“and where and how intangibles add value.”

His work on organization capital and charitable giving has been

covered by major media, and he has presented at forums such as the

Microsoft CEO Summit and the SAP Global Congress. And, as interim

director of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance, he

says he aspires “to create a governance benchmarking exercise — on

a very large scale. We used to have a research conference every year

with knowledge experts from national and international universities to

discuss current happenings — I would like to

restart that. I also want to bolster our current

offerings — one is our annual conference,

which has been a quality event.”

He says his goal as a teacher is to evoke

passion and help students find a deeper in

quisitive mind. “We’ve had many successful PhD students — I’m proud

to say they are successful academics at top research universities,” he

says. “It’s extremely gratifying in that I may have had a small role in

influencing their thinking and research questions they choose.”

William Cready Coordinator of the Jindal School’s Accounting Area, Dr. William

(Bill) Cready has been named to fill the Adolf Enthoven Distinguished

Professor ship. “I knew Adolf quite well, and it’s an honor to be affiliat

ed with him in any way,” Cready says. Enthoven, who died in 2012, was

the school’s seniormost accounting professor and founder of its Center

for International Accounting Development (jindal.utdallas.edu/oiland

gas/) “He had such a worldwide reputation in his accounting skills, and

it’s a real privilege….This gives people further goals to work for as

they progress in academia and recognizes the best among academia. It

says they have accomplished something in their research.”

In accounting, Cready’s research has been on financial reporting’s

effect on decision making. It is “looking at things like whether large

institutional investors trade differently than individual traders,” he says.

“Is financial accounting leveling the

playing field, letting small inves

tors keep up or making things

divergent? I want to get the

idea of how financial report

ing conveys to markets.”

Cready finds the Jindal

School of Management “an

overwhelming positive” for

JSOM RESEARCH VENTURESWilliam Cready finds the

Jindal School of Management

“an overwhelming positive”

for researchers. “Research

is recognized as vital and

a clear priority within the

school...We have a clarity

of purpose here.”

Connie Konstans

researchers. “Research is recognized as

vital and a clear priority within the

school,” he says. “That’s not often the

case. Many colleges of business have

different objectives and often conflict

ing signals are sent to faculty. We have

a clarity of purpose here.”

Cready teaches a graduate course on

intermediate accounting and a PhD semi

nar on financial accounting research.

“We need to show students how chal

lenging accounting is,” he says. “They

don’t have easy answers in the real world of the profession, and you

need to come up with solutions.”

Cready continues to be inspired by Enthoven as his career takes

on new challenges. “At his memorial service, I talked about speak

ing with him, and he was contemplating a talk about oil and gas

that would be given in North Korea,” he says. “Not a common op

portunity. He was that globally wellknown, reputable and valued.

He was quite a role model.”

Rebecca FilesFor Dr. Rebecca Files, 2014 has turned into quite a year. It was

enough to be named the first Sydney Smith Hicks Faculty Fellow, but

then she learned this summer that she was a recipient of the Regents’

Outstanding Teaching Award.

The fellowship was endowed by Dr. Sydney Smith Hicks, a past

chairman and more than 20year member of the Jindal School

Advisory Council, who set it up to help tenuretrack assistant profes

sors launch their careers more effectively.

The fellowship is more than an opportu

nity for her research, Files says, it is impor

tant encouragement. “I feel very honored

and appreciate that [Dr. Hicks] is willing to

acknowledge people at our school earlier in

their career,” she says. “I see it as a signal

that I’m heading in the right direction. It’s one more example of the

tremendous support I’ve felt from the school.”

Files’ research into corporate fraud and finding a better way to

analyze financial statements began with analyzing more than a

thousand statements over a 10year period. A highlight was present

ing some of her work at the annual UT Dallas fraud conference.

Her teaching philosophy is that

accounting can be fun and that

the connection with students

doesn’t have to end. “I have

the thought that if I don’t

seem excited about the

material I’m teaching then

how can my students?” she

says. “I want to show them

accounting goes far beyond

aspects like general ledgers. I

also like my students to feel I’m

invested with them. My husband

and I make a point of every few months coming up with a place

where we can meet after they move on. It can be a baseball game,

going for ice cream, just that they know they can bounce ideas off

of me and I’m there to help their career.”

This kind of dedication last year led to her earning the UT Dallas

President’s Outstanding Teaching Award, a recognition that in turn led

a UT Dallas nominating committee to put her name forward for the

UT Systemwide award. For it, Files committed to a lengthy application

process. Approximately 150 pages and more than a dozen recommen

dations later, she had earned one of the most important awards a

I want to show [my students] accounting

goes far beyond aspects like general

ledgers. I also like my students to feel I’m

invested with them. — Rebecca Files

Suresh Radhakrishnan

William Cready

Rebecca Files

Adolf Enthoven

Sydney Smith Hicks


JSOM RESEARCH VENTURES

college educator could hope to attain.

“The experience of applying was a good one, partly because it

made me think about how I can still do things better,” she says. “I

wrote about my teaching philosophy and mentoring—you can’t help

but evaluate it again when you’re forced to think about it in such an

indepth way.”

In addition to the monetary award of $25,000, Files also joins

a club she may be able to learn from for a lifetime. “I’ve already

reached out to fellow winners at the school, and now I’ll get to meet

winners from all over the state at Austin for the ceremony,” she says.

“I’m grateful that the UT System dedicates so many resources to

reward teachers.”

Newly appointed Ashbel Smith Professors in the Jindal School are

Özalp Özer, an operations management professor, and Daniel Cohen, an accounting professor.

zalp zerÖzer, who joined the JSOM faculty in 2009, recently also has been

a visiting professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. A pricing

expert, he is the coeditor of The Oxford Handbook of Pricing Manage

ment. A recent study on consumer behavior relative to retail pricing

that he coauthored with MIT colleague Karen Zheng, “Markdown

or Everyday Low Price? The Role of

Behavioral Motives,” was featured

on the UT Dallas News Center

and received several men

tions in retailers’ media.

Özer, who serves as an edi

tor on six professional

journals, earned a doctor

ate in operations research

from Columbia University. His

recent research interest lies in

understanding and quantifying the role of nonmoney issues, such as

trust and trustworthiness, in managing global supply chains.

Daniel CohenCohen, who joined the faculty in 2010, teaches courses in financial

accounting and financial statement analysis. His research focuses on

financial reporting and disclosure, discretionary accounting choices,

corporate governance and analyst earnings forecasts. In some proj

ects, he investigates the determinants and consequences of financial

reporting as well as the effects of regula

tion on corporate governance. His

scholarly works are frequently

cited and often downloaded;

he ranks No. 318 in the

Social Science Research

Network’s list of the Top

12,000 Business

Authors. An associate

editor for the Journal

of Accounting and

Economics, he also sits on

the editorial board of The

Accounting Review. Last academic

year, he was invited to make presen

tations at Georgetown University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University,

INSEAD, Maastricht University, Shanghai University of Finance and

Economics and Tel Aviv University. 3

GIL SADKA

Gil Sadka joins the

Naveen Jindal School

of Management as an

associate professor of accounting. He

comes from Columbia University,

where he also served as an associate

professor of accounting.

“UTD, in my opinion, is the fastest-

growing business school,” Sadka says.

“Moreover the accounting department

is top-notch. In addition, both Texas

and Dallas are growing rapidly. It is

nice to join such a growing business

environment, where I can be a part of

helping capitalize on such growth and

assist the business community by pro-

ducing a well-educated workforce.”

Sadka’s research interests lie in

equity valuation and examining the

role of earnings and earnings predict-

ability in generating stock-price vola-

tility and the implications for asset

prices. His studies also explore issues

related to “aggregate earnings and

aggregate stock-price movement, as

well as the implications of accounting

practice on contracting and other

actions taken by firm managers and

their competitors.”

Sadka earned an MBA and a PhD

from the University of Chicago Booth

School of Business, and a bachelor’s

degree from Tel Aviv University. He

served as assistant to the chairman of

the Israel Accounting Standards Board

from July 2000 to July 2001, and in

the Israeli Defense Forces from 1994

to 1997.

“Being a researcher means that you

must constantly learn new theories and

new methodologies,” Sadka says. “I

hope to continue my research in capital

markets and continue to broaden my

academic interests. I also hope to learn

from my colleagues and pass on this

new knowledge to our students.”

TOYAH MILLER

An associate pro-

fessor of strategy and

entrepreneurship in

the Organizations, Strategy and Inter-

national Management Area, Toyah

Miller has a passion for bringing busi-

ness skills to the social arena. She

recently returned from Ghana, where

she worked with a microfinance orga-

nization to construct a social impact

analysis plan for its loan programs to

women entrepreneurs.

“I enjoy boundary-spanning experi-

ences that cut across corporate, non-

profit and academic areas that allow

me to work on ideas that have social

impact,” she says. “Micro-enterprise,

entrepreneurship, social enterprise,

and youth and young-adult workforce

development as tools for poverty alle-

viation are passionate interests of

mine personally and professionally.

“My interest in innovative and

social entrepreneurship, and especially

their use for social purposes,” Miller

says, “stemmed from growing up with

a mother who would volunteer in

retirement homes after work because

she saw a need.…After organizing

career-development programming at

children’s homes and mentoring social

business, I decided to go back to

school to research…social entrepre-

neurship, defined as creative use of

resources to generate both social and

economic value.”

Miller, who earned a PhD from

Texas A&M University and a BBA from

Baylor University, is teaching graduate

NEW FACULTY ADDED IN ALL ACADEMIC AREASTwenty faculty members at the level of senior lecturer or above are joining the Naveen Jindal School of Management this academic year. Nineteen of the newcomers are profiled here. Find the profile of Dr. Britt Berrett on page 3. | A total of 248 educators, including adjunct and visiting professors, now work in the school.

DEPARTMENTS NEW FACULTY

by Donna Steph Rian

24

Who Was Ashbel Smith?

Özalp Özer

Daniel Cohen

A physician and

onetime surgeon

general in the army of

the Texas Republic, Ashbel Smith

also served multiple terms in the Texas Legislature and

helped foster better relations between the state and

Europe. He was the first president of the Board of Regents

and is remembered as the father of The University of Texas.

Ashbel Smith


and undergraduate social entrepre-

neurship classes.

Her research focuses on four interre-

lated areas: innovation and change,

international contexts of business, entre-

preneurship and corporate governance.

“Business and entrepreneurship are

instrumental tools in making change

in our society,” she says, “and it can

start with an opportunity identified by

our students here at UTD.”

JIEYING ZHANG

An assistant pro-

fessor of accounting,

Jieying Zhang comes

to the Jindal School from the Univer-

sity of Southern California’s Leventhal

School of Accounting. Prior to that,

she was a research and teaching assist-

ant at the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, where she earned her PhD

in accounting. Zhang earned an MS in

accounting from Northwestern Univer-

sity and an MS in business administra-

tion from Peking University.

“I am very excited about joining

UTD, as the university has a very

strong accounting department that is

also research-oriented,” Zhang says.

Zhang’s research interests are in

financial accounting, with special

focus on debt marketing, auditing

and accounting conservatism.

CHRISTIAN VON DRATHEN

Assistant Professor

of Finance Christian

von Drathen comes to

UT Dallas from the corporate world,

where he served more than 25 years in

corporate finance and investment

es or published in leading journals.

“My passion for information sys-

tems research originates from the

strong belief that advances to informa-

tion systems and technologies are

changing, and will continue to change,

our world,” says Tang, whose research

spans mobile commerce and comput-

ing, social networks and game theory.

Tang says he was attracted to

UT Dallas as a young, agile and grow-

ing university that is evolving into one

of the top research institutions in Texas.

“I am extremely impressed with the

efforts taken by UT Dallas to become a

Tier One university and am really excit-

ed to be part of the effort to propel

UT Dallas into the new stage,” he says.

ANYAN QI

Anyan Qi, assistant

professor of opera-

tions management, is

energized by the critical challenges of

capacity management and is looking

forward to sharing his enthusiasm

with students and colleagues, he says.

Qi joins the Jindal School after

receiving his PhD from the University of

Michigan. He also holds BS degrees in

economics and engineering from Tsing-

hua University, Beijing. He is teaching

Managerial Methods in Decision Mak-

ing Under Uncertainty this fall.

“Many decisions regarding capacity

are made before full information is

known, often requiring large and irre-

vocable expenditures. Moreover, the

consequences of wrong capacity deci-

sions critically affect a firm’s bottom

line,” Qi says.

“Advances in information technolo-

gy can provide huge amounts of data

regarding operations and demand,

banking. He will teach corporate valu-

ation at the Jindal School next spring.

“Being asked to become part of

UTD’s excellent finance faculty is a rare

honor,” von Drathen says. “I’m delighted

to join and look forward to sharing my

knowledge with students and to develop

new insights with my colleagues.

“I also enjoy coming to Texas because

it seems to have a lot in common with

Bavaria, my home state in Germany.”

Von Drathen started his career as a

consultant at McKinsey & Co. and has

served in senior management positions

with such firms as J.P. Morgan & Co. in

London and New York City, Communi-

cations Equity Associates of Munich,

and most recently as a director with

Heinr. von Drathen & Co., an asset and

real estate management firm in Ham-

burg that his grandfather founded. His

research interests include empirical

finance, corporate finance, private equi-

ty, natural experiments — those that

take advantage of real-world situations

to study the causal effects of change —

and structural estimation.

Von Drathen earned his MS in man-

agement from the London Business

School and an MS in accounting and

finance from the London School of Eco-

nomics and Political Science. He expects

to earn his PhD in finance this year, also

at the London School of Economics.

ATANU LAHIRI

Atanu Lahiri, assist-

ant professor of

information systems,

brings a wealth of research and practi-

cal business experience to UT Dallas.

Most recently, Lahiri served as assis-

tant professor of information systems

at the Foster School of Business at the

helping firms make capacity decisions.

Although supply chains today are high-

ly decentralized with complex topolo-

gies, many firms and suppliers are

working to maintain tight relationships

with initiatives that involve strategic

decision making in capacity investment.

“UT Dallas is a great school and

very strong in research, so I am very

excited to come here,” Qi says. “I hope

to work on cutting-edge research top-

ics in collaboration with my col-

leagues, be a good teacher in the class-

room and provide service as needed.”

SHENGQI YE

Shengqi Ye, assist-

ant professor of opera-

tions management,

began using online shopping frequently

when he came to the United States

from China, while working on his PhD.

“I found that online retailers have

many new levers to learn and influence

their demand. For instance, online

retailers have access to customer click-

ing and browsing data, they can use

online marketing tools like sponsored-

search advertising to influence

demand,” he says. “It’s interesting to

investigate how these new levers can be

used to improve retailers’ operations.”

Ye earned his PhD in operations

management from the Kelley School

of Business at Indiana University, after

graduating with honors with a BS in

automatic control from Tsinghua Uni-

versity in Beijing.

Ye finds the operations manage-

ment group at the Jindal School “a

great fit for my research,” he says.

“I have many collaboration oppor-

tunities here with the great minds in

this group. In terms of teaching, the

University of Washington at Seattle,

where he was recognized with the

Andrew V. Smith Research Excellence

Award. He also has served in various

positions at Eastman Kodak Co., Mill-

er Brewing Company and Pricewater-

houseCoopers in India.

Lahiri’s research involves digital

piracy, software security, telecom eco-

nomics and health IT. He is teaching

Business Data Warehousing this fall.

“The information systems group at

the Jindal School is outstanding and

boasts several Distinguished Fellows of

the Information Systems Society,

including Dean Pirkul,” Larhiri says. “I

am proud to have the chance to be a

member of this group. My objective is

to follow in the footsteps of my senior

colleagues and pursue excellence in all

areas of teaching, research and service.”

Lahiri earned a PhD and MS from

the University of Rochester, a Post-

graduate Diploma in Management —

equivalent to an MBA — from the

Indian Institute of Management and a

bachelor’s degree from the Indian

Institute of Technology.

SHAOJIE TANG

Shaojie Tang, assist-

ant professor of

information systems,

joins the Jindal School after serving as

research assistant professor with the

Department of Computer and Infor-

mation Sciences at Temple University.

He is teaching Object Oriented Pro-

gramming this fall.

Tang, who received his PhD in

computer science from the Illinois

Institute of Technology in 2012,

already has been a co-author of 50

papers presented at leading conferenc-

students are smart and motivated, so it

is rewarding to teach them. I am very

excited about being here.”

Ye hopes “to become an influential

researcher in the field of online retail-

ing” while also helping students better

understand operations management,

which can significantly boost their

careers, he says.

SHEEN LEVINE

Sheen S. Levine,

assistant professor of

organizations, strategy

and international management and

part of the Institute for Innovation

and Entrepreneurship (jindal.utdallas.

edu/centers-of-excellence/iie), comes to

the Jindal School from Columbia

University’s Institute for Social and

Economic Research and Policy, where

he has taught since 2010. Levine also

has taught at the University of Penn-

sylvania’s Wharton School, MIT Sloan

School of Management and Singapore

Management University.

Levine is studying how “Pay it

Forward” creates surprising acts of

kindness and leads to sharing knowl-

edge and facilitating innovation.

Other research interests include busi-

ness strategy, international business,

organizational theory, behavioral

strategy, social networks and evolu-

tionary cooperation.

“My current research focuses on

understanding people’s generosity and

what the conditions are that enable

generosity,” Levine says. “I also study

how organizations can increase collab-

oration, and what are some of the

things that organizations do that ham-

per collaboration, even if they don’t

intend to do so.”

DEPARTMENTS NEW FACULTY DEPARTMENTS NEW FACULTY


Levine earned his PhD from the

University of Pennsylvania and a

master’s in management from the

Wharton School.

“I think UT Dallas is in a unique

point in its evolution,” Levine says. “I

saw an opportunity for me to help the

innovation and entrepreneurship pro-

gram, and develop and contribute to the

creation of knowledge at UTD across

disciplines and across departments.”

GREGORY DURHAM

Gregory Durham,

clinical associate pro-

fessor of finance and

director of the undergraduate finance

program, comes to the Jindal School

from Montana State University, where

he taught since 2003. Texas holds a

special place in his heart, as he earned

an MBA in finance from UT Austin.

Durham is teaching introductory

finance this fall.

“Due to various personal ties with

the state of Texas, I have enthusiastical-

ly followed, from afar, the meteoric rise

of the Jindal School in a wide variety of

academic rankings during the past 10

to 12 years,” Durham says. “At Mon-

tana State University, I had a wonderful

life — both professionally and person-

ally. But, I jumped at the chance to join

the Jindal School, with its esteemed

faculty and excellent students.”

Durham also has taught at the Uni-

versity of Washington, the University

of Melbourne, Portland State Universi-

ty, the National Economics University

of Hanoi and Arizona State University.

His research interests include

behavioral finance, sports-wagering

markets and educational issues in

“UTD’s Jindal School has a great

reputation both in Texas and national-

ly,” he says. “Dallas is my home, so

I’m thrilled to be back and to have

this wonderful opportunity.”

Gamino’s research interests include

federal income taxation, and state and

local taxation. He will be teaching

Intermediate Financial Accounting,

Fundamentals of Taxation and Funda-

mentals of Taxation I. Gamino earned

his Master of Laws degree in taxation

from the University of Miami, his JD

from the University of Oklahoma and

his BA from Rutgers University.

ATHENA ALIMIRZAEI

Athena Alimirzaei,

clinical assistant pro-

fessor and assistant

area coordinator of operations man-

agement, says she “enjoys working

with young scholars,” as well as her

own research into optimization mod-

els and algorithms for solving sports

scheduling problems.

“Since professional sports are such

big business, the concept of desirable

or fair schedules is of great interest.

Amateur sports leagues, such as those

found in college athletics, and recre-

ational sports leagues also need sched-

ules that are viewed as being fair,” she

says. “Mathematical optimization can

be very useful in the creation of fair

schedules. The original motivation for

this research comes from the schedul-

ing problems that are being solved by

proprietary heuristics developed by

Dallas-based AllPlayers.com.”

Previously, Alimirzaei was an oper-

ations research analyst at ORM Tech-

nologies in Dallas while serving as an

adjunct professor at UT Dallas and

finance. Durham earned a PhD from

Arizona State University.

ARTHUR SELENDER

Arthur Selender

brings more than

20 years of both academic and industry

experience, primarily in derivative

instruments and hedge-fund marketing.

As clinical professor of finance, he will

develop and serve as the director of the

Finance Trading Lab, where students can

learn practical skills. Selender is teach-

ing Fixed Income Securities this fall

and will teach Valuations next spring.

Selender’s background includes

managing an analytical options fund

for Cogent Partners for two years. He

has served in management positions

at several top institutions, including

NatWest Markets, Goldman Sachs &

Co. and McKinsey & Company. He is

chief investment officer and one of

the founders of Four Peaks Wealth

Management and has two managed

accounts based in Italy. He was a con-

sultant to the Cambium Global Tim-

ber Fund and was founder and CEO

of Derivative Technologies in Dallas.

Selender also has taught at South-

ern Methodist University, Maastricht

University in the Netherlands and the

Amsterdam Institute of Finance. He

earned his PhD in finance and an

MBA in finance and statistics from the

University of Chicago.

DANIEL RAJARATNAM

Clinical Professor

of Marketing Daniel

Rajaratnam has been

offering marketing insights to universi-

ty students for almost three decades.

Southern Methodist University. She is

teaching two sections of Quantitative

Business Analysis this fall and three

sections of Managerial Decision Mak-

ing next spring.

“The Jindal School at UT Dallas is

one of the best business schools in the

nation,” she says. “I am so excited.”

ANINDITA BARDHAN

Anindita Roy

Bardhan, senior lec-

turer, accounting,

brings more than 10 years of public

accounting experience with clients in

Fortune 1000 firms in such industries

as manufacturing, finance, high tech

and healthcare, as well as startup and

venture capital companies.

Prior to joining UT Dallas, she was

a manager, joint venture accounting

and analysis, at Fresenius Medical

Care, a leading North American dialy-

sis services company. She also has

worked in executive positions at Price-

waterhouseCoopers, as an indepen-

dent consultant at Texas Christian

University and at accounting firm

Tatum LLC, Dallas.

“UTD as an educational institution

has grown by leaps and bounds during

the past decade, in terms of national

ranking and student body,” Bardham

says. “I am looking forward to bring-

ing my industry and public accounting

experience to the classroom.”

Bardhan earned an MBA from

Bentley University, Massachusetts, and

a BS from University of Madras, India.

She is teaching undergraduate and

graduate courses in intermediate

accounting, auditing and financial

statement analysis.

He comes to the Jindal School from St.

Edward’s University in Austin, where

he served as an associate professor of

marketing since 2010. Prior to that,

Rajaratnam served in various teaching

positions, including associate professor

of marketing at Baylor University from

1987 to 2010 and as a lecturer at Texas

A&M University from 1984 to 1987.

Rajaratnam is teaching Principles of

Marketing and Capstone Marketing

Decision Making this fall.

“I am excited to be on the team at

JSOM,” he says. “The Jindal School’s

reputation is well-known.”

Rajaratnam’s research interests

include “issues such as nationalism and

their impact on global marketing, as well

as the contribution of mainstream mar-

keting research to business disciplines.”

Rajaratnam earned a PhD from

Texas A&M, an MBA from Illinois State

University, a Postgraduate Diploma in

Personnel Management from Xavier

Labor Relations Institute, India, and a

BS from Andhra University, India.

JOHN GAMINO

Two things are

particularly gratifying

for Clinical Assistant

Professor John Gamino: having stu-

dents come back and thank him for

helping them pass the CPA exam, and

students deciding to concentrate in

tax as a profession after taking his tax

course, he says.

Gamino comes to the Jindal School

from Texas State University, where he

served as assistant professor. He began

his academic life at New York University,

after working at the former TXU Corp. in

various positions, including senior tax

counsel, for more than 20 years.

VICTORIA DEEN MCCRADY

Victoria Deen

McCrady, senior lec-

turer in business com-

munications, says her favorite part of

her job is mentoring students, who

“need to navigate more communica-

tion channels than at any other time

in history.”

“I love helping students polish

their résumés and find internships and

jobs. When you talk with students

about their résumés and look at what

they want in terms of a particular job,

then you are able to help them deter-

mine who they want to be in their

lives,’’ she says.

McCrady, who holds an MA in Eng-

lish from Texas A&M University and a

BA from Texas Christian University,

will teach several business communi-

cations courses, which she has been

doing on an adjunct basis at UT Dallas

for more than a year. She also will be

working with students who want to

pass the Microsoft Excel test, a certifi-

cation that “helps students stand out

in the competitive job market.”

ZHE (JAMES) ZHANG

Zhe (James) Zhang,

visiting assistant pro-

fessor of information

systems, earned his PhD earlier this

year from the University of California,

Irvine and his BS from the National

University of Singapore in 2007. He pre-

viously worked as a data modeler for the

Oversea-Chinese Bank Corporation in

Singapore. He will teach Introduction to

Business Intelligence and Data Mining.

DEPARTMENTS NEW FACULTY DEPARTMENTS NEW FACULTY


Honorees were:Kannan Ramanathan [1] – Outstanding Graduate Teaching

Mark Thouin [2] – Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching

Christina Betanzos [3] – Outstanding Teaching by an Adjunct Faculty Member

Eugene Deluke [4] – Outstanding Online Teaching

Bahriye Cesaret [5] – Outstanding Teaching by a Teaching Assistant

Koren Jo [6] – Outstanding Teaching by a Teaching Assistant

Amanda Besch [7] – Outstanding Staff

The dean also recognized [8] Malissa Cloer, JSOM recipient of a Spring 2014 CARE award, given to The University of Texas at Dallas staff

deserving of special recognition by virtue of having “demonstrated superior performance, offered outstanding customer service or performed

acts which have enhanced the image of the university.” | And he honored [9] Dr. Rebecca Files, who recently earned a Regents’ Outstanding

Teaching Award (see Six Rewarded for Research on page 20).

Naveen Jindal School of Management Dean

Hasan Pirkul [1, 4, 5, 6] introduced the

school’s 2013-2014 academic year Outstand-

ing Faculty and Staff Award winners at a reception

September 5. A teaching committee made selections

for outstanding teaching. A separate committee of school

staff members chose the Outstanding Staff Award. All

winners received a plaque and a grant of $1,000.

OUTSTANDING FACULTY AND STAFF HONORED

Additional New Assignments:Dr. Ram Natarajan, academic director for MBA programs

Dr. Larry Chasteen, director of the Online MBA Program, on

reduced assignment this fall, handles staffing and class-related

issues for the program.

Dr. Sonia Leach, director of the Undergraduate Supply Chain Program

Dr. Ravi Narayan, director of the MS in Business Analytics Program

Madison Pedigo, director of the MS in Innovation and Entrepre-

neurship Program

New Assignments Throughout JSOM

Organizational changes that have taken place in Jindal School

administration since this spring include the following:

Lisa Shatz, formerly director of the Full-Time MBA Program,

has been named assistant dean for all MBA programs. She now

manages not only the full-time program but also the part time

Professional MBA (PMBA) programs and the online MBA pro-

gram. She oversees all student and marketing-related aspects of

the programs.

Assistant Dean Shawn Alborz has assumed, as of this fall,

management of graduate programs assessments. He has stepped

down from his roles as director of the Undergraduate Supply

Chain Program and as director of the PBMA programs. He con-

tinues as director of the MS in Supply Chain and the MS in

Management and Administrative Sciences programs.

Dr. Indranil Bardhan is now coordinator of the Information

Systems Area, taking over from Dr. Srinivasan Raghunathan,

who resumes teaching and research.

Engin Calisir is assuming a new role as assistant dean, JSOM

Technology and Facilities. Besides overseeing the school’s tech-

nology and infrastructure, he assumes responsibilities for overall

building infrastructure.

Formerly an assistant dean in the Executive Education Area,

Tom Henderson is now an assistant dean of undergraduate

programs. He also is the new director of the BS in Business

Administration Program, a post being vacated by Dr. Vance

Johnson Lewis, who returns to teaching.

“I am always fascinated by the evo-

lution of information technology and

its impact on our society,” Zhang says.

“With the success of Internet business

in the last decades, I became curious

about the uniqueness of IT products,

and I want to discover the secrets of

these IT companies’ strategies that have

shaped the business landscape today.”

Zhang’s research focus includes elec-

tronic business strategies, the econom-

ics of information systems and particu-

larly, the pricing strategies for software

and electronic commerce retailers.

ALINA FERECATU

Visiting Assistant

Professor of Market-

ing Alina Ferecatu is

completing a PhD from the ESSEC

Business School in France. She earned

an MS in economics from Shizuoka

University in Japan and a BA in mar-

keting from the Academy of Economic

Studies in Romania. Ferecatu served as

a visiting scholar for the Center and

Laboratory for Behavioral Operations

and Economics (jindal.utdallas.edu/

lboe/) at UT Dallas last year.

She previously served as a trainee

with the European Commission in

Brussels, a sales executive for Atlantic

Tour in Bucharest and Group Incoming

Department in Japan, as well as a pub-

lic relations specialist and marketing

assistant to Biofarm Bucharest. Fereca-

tu, who speaks five languages, also has

worked as an interpreter for the Minis-

try of Foreign Affairs in Romania and

the Aichi World Expo in Japan.

Her research interests include quan-

titative marketing, behavioral decision

making and Bayesian analysis.

ALEX ANGELUS

Alex Angelus, visit-

ing assistant professor

in operations man-

agement, brings a broad background

developing operational management

solutions for industries ranging from

apparel to electronics, railroads to

pharmaceutical products, agricultural

to consumer goods manufacturing. He

has helped develop supply chain opti-

mization solutions, inventory manage-

ment, capacity planning, and invest-

ment and price demand forecasting

for numerous companies in the Unit-

ed States, the Middle East and Asia.

Previously, Angelus served as asso-

ciate professor of operations manage-

ment at Singapore Management Uni-

versity. He is teaching Predictive

Analytics and Prescriptive Analytics.

Angelus earned his PhD from Stanford

University and a BS from MIT.

“UTD’s School of Management has

one of the best OM departments in

the country. I am very excited to be

here, join research projects in the

department and collaborate with my

colleagues.” 3

DEPARTMENTS NEW FACULTY DEPARTMENTS FACULTY NEWS

DEPARTMENTS FACULTY NEWS

Engin CalisirIndranil Bardhan Tom HendersonShawn AlborzLisa Shatz Madison Pedigo


[1]

[4]

[7]

[2]

[5]

[8]

[3]

[6]

[9]

The value and com-

plexity of robust

project management

was illustrated in a

parade of presentations at the

8th Annual UT Dallas Project

Management Symposium held

at the Naveen Jindal School

of Management. The Jindal

School’s graduate program in

project management sponsored

the August 14 and August 15

event in cooperation with the

Dallas chapter of the Project

Management Institute and PM

World Journal.

Highlights for the more than

400 attendees included presen-

tations on the City of Frisco’s

public-private partnerships with

numerous high-visibility sports

teams, Southwest Airlines’ con-

tinued industry-leading growth

and upcoming expansion, and

the Texas Department of Public

Safety’s creation of an enterprise

project management office.

CITY OF FRISCO

The City of Frisco contin-

ues its successful track record

in establishing public-private

partnerships that offer both tax

benefits and leasing and operat-

ing opportunities to businesses,

particularly sports-related firms

that complement the city’s

young “sports-centric popula-

tion,” said Frisco’s Assistant

City Manager Ron Patterson,

BS 1988, an alumnus of the

School of Economic, Political

and Policy Sciences.

The partnerships also meet

the needs of Frisco’s residents,

Patterson said, providing world-

class facilities for schools, youth

teams and more, as well as at-

tracting nearby retail, office and

mixed-use developments.

Frisco is partnering with the

Dallas Cowboys to build a 91-

acre mixed-use development

scheduled to open in 2016 that

will include a multi-use event

center, high school sports facil-

ity and Cowboys practice and

headquarters facility. The part-

nership gives the city ownership

of the facility and allows its

use for graduation and school

sports events and concerts and

community events, while the

Cowboys lease and operate it,

paying those costs. All parties

contribute to the total construc-

tion price tag.

To date, Frisco has helped

build a practice arena for the

Dallas Stars hockey team,

a baseball field for minor

league baseball team the Frisco

RoughRiders and a soccer sta-

dium for FC Dallas — a facility

that also serves as a football

stadium for the NCAA Division

I national championship. The

community shares and uses all

these facilities.

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES

Established in 1971, South-

west Airlines continues to take

the industry by storm, accord-

ing to David Harvey, the air-

lines’ senior director of network

planning and performance.

With the repeal of the

Wright Amendment flight

restrictions on October 13,

Southwest is adding nonstop

service from Dallas to 15

new destinations. Southwest

Airlines also recently added

service to Mexico and parts of

the Caribbean from Houston’s

William P. Hobby Airport.

Additional project-manage-

ment goals include coordinat-

ing and completing a new

highly sophisticated reservation

system, integrating Southwest’s

recent purchase of AirTran Air-

way sinto its system and mod-

ernizing its aircraft fleet.

THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT

OF PUBLIC SAFETY (DPS)

Department of Public Safety

presenters said projects within

the organization’s system were

difficult to track because stan-

dards and methodologies dif-

fered from division to division.

As a result in 2011, the depart-

ment created a new “enterprise

project management office.”

Working in the new of-

fice was challenging and often

required change-management

skills, Amanda Arriaga, chief ad-

ministrative officer, and Jessica

Iselt, deputy assistant director

for policy and planning, said.

The new enterprise office

created a charter, standard re-

porting procedures and forms,

and a required process for every

DPS project.

Three years later, the DPS

has seen increased project suc-

cesses, better visibility of proj-

ects and improved quality plan-

ning, Arriaga said. “We need

to be good stewards of state

money, and we believe these

new changes are enhancing our

ability to do just that.” 3

T exas is big in all sorts of ways — including in energy pro-

duction. Oil and natural gas production lead the way, but

Texas potentially could be the most significant contributor

in the wind energy market as well. Anastasia Shcherbakova, clinical

assistant professor of finance and managerial economics, knows that

with energy as important as it is for Texas, and for the nation, it is

equally important that the Naveen Jindal School of Management fill

the demand for professionals who under-

stand the business of energy.

She coordinates the new concentration

in Energy Risk Management for finance

graduate students. The 18-hour curriculum,

part of the 36-hour master’s degree in

finance, prepares students to take the

national Energy Risk Professional exam.

The Global Association of Risk Profession-

al’s ERP certification exam (www.garp.org/

erp) covers oil, gas, coal and electricity markets, renewable energy,

energy trading, commodity pricing and market risk, business ethics

and more.

“There are more than 500 energy companies in the DFW area,”

Shcherbakova says. Many people in energy careers are near retire-

ment, having entered in the 1970s, when energy was a hot sector.

The subsequent decades offered fewer careers, and fewer people

entered the profession. Now, as energy

again gains importance, positions are avail-

able without candidates to fill them.

Carolyn Reichert, clinical associate pro-

fessor and director of the MS in Finance

Program, says the curriculum addresses en-

ergy-production risk as well as issues related

to managing and anticipating consumption.

“Some companies,” she notes, “are a lot

more exposed [to energy prices] than others.”

“Energy permeates every level of the economy,” Reichert says.

This coursework helps professionals “learn the language of finance”

and then apply it to the energy industry.

Students interested in these classes are from across campus,

Shcherbakova says, noting that geoscience and economics graduate

students are taking energy risk classes as electives. “Things in the

energy field,” she says, “are getting very interesting again.”

T hree Naveen Jindal School of Management degrees have

been certified by the state as Science, Technology, Engineer-

ing and Math — STEM — degrees, bringing to five the num-

ber of such degrees that JSOM offers.

Beginning this fall 2014 semester, the undergraduate and gradu-

ate Supply Chain Management degree programs as well as the BS

in Information Technology and Systems (renamed from Manage-

ment Information Systems) Program hold a STEM designation. Jindal

School’s other two STEM designations are for the MS in Systems

Engineering and Management Program and the MS in Information

Technology and Management Program.

Dr. Shawn Alborz, assistant dean and director of Supply Chain

Management programs, said that in anticipation of the STEM

designation, he ensured each SCM course included such skills as

mathematical modeling or statistical analysis.

Companies seek graduates with

STEM-designated business degrees,

Alborz says, as that ensures quantitative

rigor. Earning a STEM degree also is im-

mediately important for international stu-

dents who can, under visa rules, stay

in the U.S. to work for a domestic com-

pany for up to 29 months.

Dr. Dawn Owens, director of the BS

in Information Technology and Systems

Program, says the designation will help

create awareness for the degree. “We need talented and creative

people in this field,” she says. “There are so many opportunities.”

She is including STEM information in material she sends to high

school students. “There is such a high demand for qualified STEM

workers,” she says, describing Information Technology and Sys-

tems as a bridge between computer science and business manage-

ment degrees.

STEM education has been labeled

an academic priority across all levels

of government in the U.S. The rapid

growth in STEM-related careers, higher

wages for STEM graduates and need

for technical expertise in industries old

and new have all led to an emphasis on

STEM competencies. 3

NEW FINANCE CONCENTRATION KEYED TO ENERGY BUSINESS UPTICK

SCHOOL GAINS STEM DESIGNATION FOR THREE MORE DEGREES

Anastasia Shcherbakova

Dawn Owens

Shawn Alborz

Carolyn Reichert


DEPARTMENTS PROGRAM UPDATES DEPARTMENTS CONFERENCE NEWS

B Y J E A N N E S P R E I E R SIGNIFICANCE

AND INTRICACY

OF VIGOROUS

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

HIGHLIGHTED AT

ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM

By Donna Steph Rian


Ron Patterson

lejandro Jacobo is used to

competition. After all, you

don’t become the fastest

swimmer in Mexico — at least

in the 50-, 100- and 200-meter breast stroke

— without a consuming passion to win. He

has applied that same attitude to entrepre-

neurship, and the result has been

one more accolade for a promising

career — landing a Texas Business

Hall of Fame Foundation Scholar-

ship. He credits the $10,000 award

as the financial push that led him

to decide to enroll in the Naveen

Jindal School of Management’s

MBA Program after earning a mas-

ter’s degree from the Jindal School in innova-

tion and entrepreneurship last year.

“I am humbled by the award,” he says.

“And it’s allowing me to pursue a dream.”

But is this just the next in a long line of

accomplishments? In 2013, he and his partner,

Matthew Hinson, were the winning graduate

team in the UT Dallas Business Idea Competi-

tion that JSOM-based Institute for Innovation

and Entrepreneurship runs annually. They devel-

oped a full-fledged business, Rollout, which

allows architecture, engineering and construc-

tion industries to share paper-free blueprints.

“It’s a major solution,” Jacobo says. “We

talked to customers face-to-face and did

surveys — and I really believe the extensive

research is what made the difference.…Prepa-

ration is so important.”

He credits the Startup Launch Track, a

selective program within the MS in Innovation

and Entrepreneurship Program, for develop-

ing much of his abilities. It has many goals for

students, including launching businesses and

acquiring outside funding. “The classes really

challenged you to think about your vision,” he

says. “To understand customer discovery and

customer validation.”

Dan Bochsler, a senior lecturer in the in-

novation and entrepreneurship program, has

taught Jacobo in multiple classes

and seems almost as excited as he is

by his scholarship and new business.

“Alejandro is a tireless worker who

will do anything to succeed, but also

has an incredible spirit,” he says. “I

remember a judge at the California

Dreamin’ [Entrepreneurship] Com-

petition telling me how he and his

partner were the most prepared out of more

than 40. They seemed beyond impressed by

how they had done their homework.”

How does Jacobo explain his early suc-

cess? “What I try to remember is that you

can’t just memorize your way into getting

people to buy into your business,” he says.

“You have to connect with them and really

want to make them understand. It’s not who

has the most beautiful business plan.”

The Startup Launch Track was recently se-

lected by the Metroplex Technology Business

Council (MTBC) as a finalist for the 2014 Tech

Titans of the Future University Level. JSOM

did not bring home the honor, but that does

not dampen Jacobo’s enthusiasm.

“That this is one of the best places in the

country to learn entrepreneurship,” he says,

“a school that will help you see your vision to

the end.”

There seem to be few obstacles Jacobo can-

not overcome. Whether coming to this country

at 15 without knowing the language to dealing

with some of the toughest customers in exis-

tence as a former car dealer, he has learned not

to take rejection personally and that the next

door knocked on may lead to opportunity.

In a way, it mirrors this thought on swim-

ming his event. “It’s easy to get tired and lose

your best form,” he says. “Only the focused

have a chance.” 3

DEPARTMENTS CONFERENCE NEWS DEPARTMENTS STUDENT NEWS

Corporate board members should embrace digital

technology, harness risks and diversify their boards

if they want to seize new opportunities and help the

com panies they serve succeed in the digital world.

Corporate executives and other experts delivered that message at

the 12th annual Corporate Governance Conference at the Naveen

Jindal School of Management.

Boards must become more diverse, said Monte Ford, former

chief information officer of American Airlines and a director of

Akamai Technologies, Inc. A keynote speaker at the September

10 conference, which was hosted by the Institute for Excellence

in Corporate Governance, Ford said this includes ethnic and

gender diversity as well as finding members with a variety of

backgrounds and experiences.

Boards must also ensure proper representation of “digital

directors,” Ford said. While companies have been beefing up

their management teams with digital experts for several years,

many still lack digital know-how on their boards of directors,

which can mean missed opportunities.

The conference also featured Barry Libert, chairman and CEO

of OpenMatters, and Bill Ribaudo, managing partner and leader

of Deloitte & Touche LLP’s Technology, Media and Telecommuni-

cations. The two presented recent research that indicates financial

statements no longer capture much of the value organizations

create. Conducted by OpenMatters with Deloitte & Touche analy-

sis, the research examined 40 years of data from the Standard &

Poor’s 500 index companies and revealed that digital technolo-

gies are disrupting existing business models and their underlying

sources of value.

The research found that investors assign higher valuations to

organizations that embrace emerging technologies, such as big

data, social media, the Internet of Things and mobility.

Another speaker said that women and minorities remain un-

derrepresented in U.S. corporate boardrooms, hampering compa-

nies’ potential to lead in the global economy.

Ilene Lang, former president and CEO of Catalyst, a research

company that advocates for women and minority directors, told

the audience that more diverse boards, on average, financially

outperform boards with less diversity.

A decade after Catalyst released a study linking gender with

corporate performance, men still occupy the majority (at 80

percent) of all corporate board seats, Lang said. Additionally, in

2013, 70.5 percent of Fortune 500 companies had no women

of color. 3

Monte Ford, former chief information off icer of American Airlines and a current director of Akamai Technologies, Inc.

Bill Ribaudo, managing partner and leader of Deloitte & Touche LLP’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications

Ilene Lang, former president and CEO of Catalyst

IECG Conference:

Adopting Digital Age Business Models Will Improve Shareholder Value By Jill Glass

Alejandro Jacob is among 30 business

students with entrepreneurial skills

and leadership attributes across Texas

awarded a $10,000 scholarship this year

by the Texas Business Hall of Fame Foun-

dation. Recipients will be fêted in Dallas

at a luncheon and dinner November 5.

Since its founding in 1982, the founda-

tion has awarded more than $3 million

in scholarships to “the ‘best of the best’

Texas business graduate students.

Alejandro Jacobo (right) with Matthew Hinson

Dan Bochsler

Standout Competitor Wins Scholarship From Texas Business Hall of Fame BY ERIC BUTTERMAN


Knowing employers look for can-didates who can work in teams and have solid speaking skills, the

Naveen Jindal School of Management Advisory Council two years ago recom-mended adding a second semester of business communications specifically to burnish those traits. Dr. McClain Watson, who directs JSOM’s business communica-tions classes, used these directives in creating the Professional Online Portfolio assignment. POP requires oral presenta-tions, teamwork, technology and profes-sional savvy, wrapped around the core goal — creating a notable résumé for soon-to-be graduating JSOM students.

“There are several things that re-ally appeal to me about this,” says Pat

McCown, a partner at Grant Thornton LLP and JSOM Advisory Council member, who reviewed recently completed POPs. “The video introduction allows you to hear the individuals describe themselves and demonstrate their communication skills.…Seeing the individual’s personal interest allows a more well-rounded view of their personality, and in total, this is a much more holistic presentation model than the traditional resume and cover letter.”

“I found the JSOM portfolios to be impressive — very informative and simple to navigate,” says Daniel Sessa, advisory council member and executive vice presi-dent and chief human resources officer at Lennox International, who also reviewed several POPs. “College students at times

are not as comfortable talking about their accomplishments and relating their skills and experiences to the job being sought. The online portfolio helps to break this paradigm for JSOM students.”

McCown, a 1991 JSOM undergraduate alumnus, can envision taking a POP-type presentation into professional life. “I could see something like this being used by a firm like ours to credential ourselves in client proposal formats, where we tradi-tionally provide a written proposal,” he says. “In an age where we’re all trying to differentiate ourselves, a novel approach to presenting one’s credentials, values and ideas could be a real game changer.” 3

Most Naveen Jindal School of Management stu-

dents don’t realize, upon enrolling in Advanced

Business Communication, BCOM 4350, that

they will finish the semester with a game-

changer of a résumé. The Professional Online

Portfolio, completed in class, could be the most persuasive piece

of their job-hunting arsenal.

Dr. McClain Watson knows the Web is the go-to place for

information. Watson, director of JSOM’s business communica-

tions programs, says that is equally true

for employers. The majority use the

Internet to winnow stacks of résumés

they receive to find a few candidates to

interview. “How do they get from 60 ré-

sumés to six?” Watson asks. “According

to more and more surveys, employers

Google your name.”

The assignment requires students to

create their own POP, hosted by free Web

platforms, such as Wix, Weebly or Moon-

fruit. Each POP must have a PDF of the

student’s résumé, a video introduction

(to give an employer a sense of verbal skills and poise), links to at

least three class or work projects, and a professional-type photo of

the student along with contact information and links to Facebook

and LinkedIn accounts.

Also required are links to at least two professional or personal

interests. These might be video from a study abroad trip or vol-

unteer project or a summary of an internship with photos of the

student on the job.

“The average supply chain major’s résumé and cover

letter looks like 90 percent of other supply chain ma-

jors’ résumés and cover letters,” Watson says. “They

are so vague you can’t get a sense of the person.”

Portfolios are common for liberal and fine arts

majors, but Watson says portfolios for business school

graduates are relatively new. These “e-portfolios” are

used in some busi-

ness schools, but

Jindal School might

be the only under-

graduate program

with a mandatory

e-portfolio that gives students wide lati-

tude in design and content.

Students have found POP helped

them identify their strengths. “I didn’t

think I’d have a lot to talk about, but

that was hardly the case,” says Salik Shariff (salikshariff.weebly.

com), a management information systems major who completed

the class earlier this year. “It allowed me to open up…and basi-

cally forced the shyness out of me.”

The assignment gives dimension to all students. “The POP brings

skills to the table that weren’t apparent in soon-to-be graduating

college students,” Watson says. It gives employers “a 360-degree

sense of contributions” the student could make as an employee.

“Dr. Watson stressed the importance of an online presence,”

says Caleb Ward (clebward3.wix.com/calebward), a finance major

who completed the class last spring semester. “I took this to mean

that first impressions no longer happen when you shake some-

one’s hand, but when they Google your name to see if you may

be a suitable applicant.”

Two years ago, JSOM’s Advisory Council tasked Watson with

developing JSOM students’ speaking and

teamwork skills. The POP assignment ad-

dresses both.

“My biggest concern was

the whole technology aspect of it,

learning

how to

upload

videos and

pictures,

converting

documents,” says junior Poonum Desai

(poonumdesai.weebly.com), who is double

majoring in economics and finance. “I’m

seriously the most

technologically chal-

lenged person you

will ever meet. But

with the help of my

sister and friends,

I got through it.”

That’s the sort of teamwork Watson envisioned.

He says employers want to know three things about people

they hire: That the prospect knows the core functions of the job;

can be trusted; and is interesting to work around. POP helps fill

in those blanks.

There is no requirement the site stay live after the class is over,

but most students keep their sites up, Watson says. Students then

direct potential employers to the site with links from their

LinkedIn and Facebook profiles, and with a link on their busi-

ness cards, cover letters and résumés. And the link works ex-

ceedingly well for text messaging.

“Students, at the start of the assignment, think it’s just a web-

site,” Watson says. “Then you get buy-in as they work on it and

see the potential value. They say, ‘This matters because it’s my

name and my future.’ ”

More than 400,000 business school students graduate each

year. “If all you have is a GPA, résumé and cover letter, you might

get lucky,” Watson says,

about the value of a POP.

“But you don’t want to

have to rely

on getting

lucky.” 3

DEPARTMENTS STUDENT NEWSDEPARTMENTS STUDENT NEWS

SOCIAL MEDIA AND HIRING

f 91 percent of employers use social networking sites to screen prospects

f 76 percent check Facebook; 53 percent Twitter; 48 percent LinkedIn

f 69 percent say they have rejected a candidate based on what they have seen on a social network site

f 68 percent say they have hired a candidate based on what they have seen on a social network site

Source: The Reppler Report, 2011

By Jeanne Spreier

BY JEANNE SPREIER


McClain Watson

Pat McCown

Daniel Sessa

In the ‘Real World,’ Employers Like POP

Online Portfolios Harness the Power of the Internet to Help Students Get Hired

Salik Shariff

Caleb Ward

Poonum Desai


DEPARTMENTS ALUMNI PROFILE

1980sGary Tillett, BS 1982, joined Tampa, Florida-based

Walter Investment Management Corp in March as

executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Prior to that he had worked at Pricewaterhouse-

Coopers for more than 31 years. He most recently

served as a partner in the U.S.

Financial Services sector and

as the New York Metro Deals

Leader. He led the PwC advi-

sory team in assisting Walter

Investment with the acquisi-

tion in 2011 of Green Tree,

a Minnesota-based business services company. Gary

earned an MBA from the University of Manchester

and is a certified public accountant.

Dipak Jain, MS 1986, PhD 1987, was appointed

director of Sasin Graduate Institute of Business

Administration at Chulalong-

korn University in Bangkok,

which he joined in July. A

visiting professor of marketing

at Sasin since 1989, he is the

second director (dean) of the

institute, succeeding Toemsakdi

Krishnamra, who founded Sasin and served as direc-

tor for 32 years.

Dipak continues to serve as at INSEAD, an inter-

national graduate business school based in France,

where he is the INSEAD Chaired Professor of Mar-

keting. He previously served as dean of INSEAD from

2011 to 2013. He also served as dean of the Kellogg

School of Management at Northwestern University

from 2001 to 2009, where he had been a faculty

member since 1986.

“I’m honored and privileged to follow in the foot-

steps of Professor Krishnamra, who has been a mentor

to me for 25 years,” Dipak said about his appointment.

He also said that, he plans to make Sasin one of

the leading business schools in the Association of

Southeast Asian Nations region.

1990sThomas Hunley, MS 1990,

made a decision to transition

from working in informa-

tion technology to working in

finance, which brought him

to the Jindal School, where he

A L U M N I N O T E S

xecutive MBA 2013 alumnus Joseph ( Joe) A. Cazares recently

re-upped to stay on through February of next year as manager

of the Panama Canal Expansion Program.

The massive expansion, a $5 billion-plus project, is mod-

ernizing the commercial waterway by creating a third new

wider, deeper lane of traffic, complete with a complex of locks on both

the Pacific and Atlantic sides of the canal.

A vice president of CH2MHill, a global design, engineering and con-

struction firm based in Denver, Cazares took over as program manager

in December 2012 after having served as the locks construction man-

ager. He has logged more than seven years now in Panama, having orig-

inally arrived to win a contract for his employer to serve as the chief

project adviser. That job entails providing oversight and ensuring work

quality. “We’re also tasked to mentor and to train our counterparts,”

Cazares said, “so that we can work our way out of the job.”

For the Executive MBA Class of 2015, which visited Panama and

toured the construction site during an international study tour in March,

the enormity of the undertaking was not undersold. “I think that ‘over-

whelming’ might be a bit of an understatement,” student Leslie Mitchell

blogged. “I can honestly say that I did not expect the sheer size or scope

of this project.”

The master plan has required extensive dredging and dry-land exca-

vation. Integral to the new lock infrastructure are basins that not only

will use 7 percent less water than their older counterparts but also will

re-use 60 percent of the water each ship requires for transit. And the

locks will function using 16 massive rolling gates, all just under 189 feet

long and averaging between 26 feet and 32 feet in width and 73 feet to

108 feet in height. Also, environmental standards have mandated refor-

estation projects as well as rescue and relocation of wildlife — mammals,

reptiles and birds.

Considerable as these requisites are, Cazares, a veteran engineer

with more than 30 years’ experience, has not found them the most

challenging part of his assignment. Having specialized in large-scale jobs

with complex funding, scheduling and other elements, he is used to the

intricacies as well as the many moving parts and mammoth components

hidden in blueprints.

No, he told Executive MBA Program Director Pamela Foster Brady

in an interview in Panama City during the March tour, his largest trials

have come from dealing with multiple cultures coming together on this

one colossal endeavor. Belgian, Dutch, Italian, Panamanian and Spanish

contractors and workers have been involved. “Then you have Panama-

nians [the country’s residents] themselves,” he said. “And the Panama

Canal itself has the American-based culture derived from the [U.S.]

Army Corps of Engineers,” which played a key role in building the orig-

inal canal. “Then you have us, basically an American-based firm, here.”

The difficulty of all that, he explained, lies in the cultural differences

of doing business. “The Americans have a ten-

dency of going directly from Point A to Point

B, and at times, being incredibly blunt about it,”

he said. “Panamanians have a tendency of going

from Point A to Point B by a scenic route….It

was kind of an interesting cultural clash with that

…and a culture of the Europeans…who thought

they were dealing with a Central American

country that wasn’t as sophisticated as Panama.”

Beyond that, he said, the project has drawn

a lot of senior talent, people “accustomed to

running projects themselves, all having to take

secondary positions or even tertiary positions

that they’re not accustomed to.”

Coming from a Latino background and

speaking Spanish “have been a tremendous help

for me,” Cazares acknowledged.

Another factor “invaluable to us,” he said,

was CH2MHill’s joint venture with the JSOM’s

Project Management Program back in 2007 to

teach 145 canal expansion employees how to

use standardized construction project-management systems. The training,

Cazares said, “gave us an opportunity to provide face time to the client

in an educational setting. So I believe that was very, very much a strong

part of our success.”

The joint venture also motivated him to enroll in the executive

education program that allows students to earn

an MBA with an emphasis in project manage-

ment. And what he learned about organizational

behavior there “allowed me to understand indi-

viduals cross-culturally.”

What the Organizational Behavior course

helped him figure out, he said, was how to

deliver a response across multiple cultures and

many personality types “in a more constructive

manner, so that there was more acceptance,

more cooperation and more productive

efforts….And so, because of that, I think the

barriers came down.”

“It was great having Joe in the program; his

sharing of experience as a senior manager of

complex projects was appreciated by all,” James

Szot, director of the Project Management Pro-

gram, said. “In his cohort group, Joe’s original

motivation was to earn an advanced degree to

enable him to teach at the collegiate level in the

future. However, it was very gratifying to see

that the content and structure of the program also brought him some

immediate benefits.”

An in-demand speaker with a dry, self-deprecating wit, Cazares is

warmly welcomed whenever he returns to campus. View his 2011 Project

Symposium keynote speech at vimeo.com/31491306. 3

ALUMNUS IN CHARGE OF PANAMA CANAL EXPANSION

TACKLES MULTICULTURAL CHALLENGESJO

SEPH

(JO

E) A

. CA

ZA

RES

Executive MBA Director Pamela Foster Brady stands in the basin of the new Pacific-side locks.

Joe Cazares snapped the EMBA Class of 2015 and some canal workers doing the Whoosh, the UT Dallas signature sign.

The new Pacific-side locks under construction

DEPARTMENTS ALUMNI NEWS


DEPARTMENTS PROGRAM UPDATES

received a master’s degree in management and admin-

istrative sciences. Since then, he has established a suc-

cessful career with PNC Bank, where he is the chief

operating officer of branch banking in the greater

Pittsburgh area.

“I have been fortunate to spend most of my

28-year-long career working for two excellent compa-

nies, JC Penney and PNC Bank, “ Thomas says. “Both

organizations have allowed me to maintain a work-

life balance, which I believe is very important. I have

maintained an active role in my children’s lives while

continuing to excel in my career.

In his free time he enjoys traveling, playing golf

and spending time with his wife and children.

Paul Nichols, BA 1995, MBA 1998, is now

president and CEO of Cirasys, a power-conversion

technology startup housed in the UT Dallas Venture

Development Center. Cirasys

is developing advanced capa-

bility and high-performance

power supplies and power

modules based on proprietary

control technology developed

and spun-out from the Erik

Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.

One of the company founders and previously vice

president of marketing, Paul moves into the new role

as another co-founder, Paul Gregory, takes over as

company chairman.

“It’s going to be an exciting and interesting fall as

we finish our product prototypes for customer evalu-

ation in two different power module and converter

markets,” Paul recently wrote.

He closed by noting that “this company could not

have been possible without the help and support of

UTD, and we consider ourselves truly fortunate to

have the university as a partner.”

2000sDavid L. Holmberg, EMBA 2000, was appointed

president and chief executive officer at Highmark

Health and Highmark Inc. in May. Highmark Health is

a diversified health and wellness enterprise based in

Pittsburgh that serves an estimated 35 million people

nationwide. David joined the company in 2007 and

has served in a series of executive positions. Most

recently he was president, Diversified Businesses for

Highmark Inc., where he was

responsible for businesses rep-

resenting more than $3.5 billion

in revenue. Previously, he was

CEO of HVHC, Inc. and chief

executive officer and chair-

man for HM Insurance Group,

United Concordia Dental and San Antonio-based

Visionworks, formerly Eye Care Centers of America.

Earlier, he served as the president of licensed

brands businesses of Cole Vision Corporation and

was an executive vice president of operations of

Jo-Ann Stores Inc. from November 2004 to August

2007. He worked seven years with Zale Corporation,

a specialty retailer of fine jewelry, where he was

named president of Zale Canada Co. in May 1999.

He was with Reeds Jewelers.

Holmberg, a 2009 recipient of the UT Dallas

Distinguished Alumni Award and a 2003 recipient of a

School of Management Distinguished Alumni Award,

established the David Holmberg Scholarship/Fellow-

ship at JSOM in 2013. He is a graduate of the Harvard

Business School Advanced Management Program.

Gigi Bryant, GLEMBA 2002, runs GMSA Manage-

ment Services, a business consulting firm she estab-

lished. “I founded GMSA to assist startup and existing

businesses that want to reach multicultural communi-

ties, services, churches and other organizations in the

greater Austin metropolitan area,” she says. She also

serves as a project management consultant at J.L.

Powers & Associates.

“On a personal note,” she adds, “I spent 12 years

in the foster care system; so I am extremely passionate

about helping youth in the foster care system. In 2004,

I established the Write to Me

foundation to help youth who

have been affected by the fos-

ter system.”

Gigi says she tries to spend

her my free time with her six

grandchildren, and she says,

“my husband, Sam, and I also love to take car trips.”

Gigi was featured in the August 2011 issue of

Austin Woman Magazine. (www.austinwomanmagazine.

com/articles/2011/08).

Michael Grant, EMBA 2003, joined Rouse Prop-

erties in New York City in July as chief accounting

officer. The company, a $2 billion publicly traded real

estate investment trust spun out of General Growth

Properties two and a half years ago, owns 35 shop-

ping malls located throughout

the United States. Because his

new role includes overseeing

Rouse’s property accounting

office in Las Colinas, Michael

will be traveling back to DFW

often for work.

He previously served as senior vice president/chief

accounting officer at Aimbridge Hospitality. He started

his career at KPMG in Boston and Dallas after earning

an undergraduate degree in business administration/

accounting from The University of Texas at Austin.

2010sRay Bariso, EMBA 2014, earned the Practice Head

of the Year award in Ericsson’s 2013 Top Sales Com-

petition. The annual contest recognizes outstanding

sales performances throughout the world. Ray’s

award recognizes high-impact achievements — for

large key deals or major breakthroughs — as well

as achievements in strategic growth areas. Ray led a

team that exceeded its 2013 business goals and out-

performed other teams globally.

Currently vice president and head of North

America Business and Opera-

tions Solutions, he was also

promoted — while pursu-

ing his degree — to Global

Practice head for Ericsson’s

worldwide Operating Support

Systems and Business Support

Systems. His fellow EMBA graduates voted him class

leader. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical

engineering from Old Dominion University.

Nicholas Lorenzo, MS 2014, was appointed chief

medical officer of the online telehealth service-

provider MeMD in March. “I am thrilled to be a part

of this remote treatment model known as telehealth/

telemedicine,” he said. His responsibilities include

oversight of the MeMD’s provider network and

clinical team, evaluation of new treatments and pro-

cedures, development of guidelines for consistency

of care, and developing ongoing strategic initiatives.

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, MeMD

offers access to online telehealth (audio/video) ser-

vices nationwide.

A BS undergraduate of Creighton University,

Nicholas earned his MD at the University of Nebraska

and completed board-certified

clinical neurology

residency and fellowship train-

ing at the Mayo Clinic. He

gained subsequent clinical train-

ing at the University of Kansas

Medical Center. He earned

Certified Physician Executive

(CPE) designation from the American College of Phy-

sician Executives before enrolling in the MS in Health-

care Management for Physicians Program at JSOM.

He previously served as interim CEO and presi-

dent of NeuroTek Medical, Inc., a medical device

company one of whose founders was fellow

UT Dallas alumnus Will Rosellini, a 2003 EMBA,

2003 MS in Accounting and 2008 MS in Applied

Cognition and Neuroscience graduate.

A serial healthcare publishing and technology

entrepreneur, Nicholas co-founded and served as a

CEO/senior executive for Boston Medical Publish-

ing (acquired by McGraw-Hill in 2005), eMedicine

(acquired by WebMD in 2006) and Pearlsreview

(acquired by Gannett Communications in 2008). He

is also the founder (1995) and current CEO and chief

medical officer of Premier Health, Legal and Technol-

ogy Consultants.

DEPARTMENTS ALUMNI NEWS

MORE THAN 14,000 PEOPLE SAW THIS POST….Social media plays an increas

ingly important role in the life of the Jindal

School community. Our Facebook, Instagram,

LinkedIn and Twitter accounts tie us together

instantly, keep us current on news and allow

for some fun, too. MyJSOM, the school’s app,

is useful, too, for finding classes and faculty

members, tracking activities in the building

and more.

A lot of news lately has been about the new

building addition. And its opening, besides being

exciting, has provided a fair share of enter

tainment. Here are some examples taken from

JSOM’s August 11 Facebook post — the one that

more than 14,000 people saw — to creatively

christen the main lobby.

Casey Williams Are those lightsabers hanging from the ceiling???Like · 18

Oliver Baker I definitely like "Jedi Temple" as a name. Like · 13 Robert Spector The gateway. Comets travel the galaxy and need gateways which enable them to continue on their journey. Similarly as to how JSOM continues to grow as a top business school, it also continues to create new gateways (additions to the building) to continue its own success.Like · 14 Joseph Pytcher The Terminal. Where everyone loads up for their classroom and hangs out between "flights."Like · 4 Kelcey Piper The thunderdome!Like · 4

@leorabk: Beautiful new building on campus kinda makes going to class enjoyable!

@xdeliriumtrigger: I'm obsessed with these light sabers. They're purple right now.

@thediwan: Digging the new SOM.

@hlsparks01: Love the new building. So glad I have a class here even though it's not my major!!

...AND FROM INSTAGRAM

If you haven’t already, get social with JSOM at jindal.utdallas.edu/social-media

THE TIES THAT BIND^

social

Naveen Jindal School of Management - UT Dallas

August 11

Here's a first look at the new JSOM expansion lobby. But “lobby” isn't the most interesting name, so what do you think this area should be called? Be creative!

Darren Crone, Wannie Wang, Mary Beth Whitman Goodrich and 284 others like this.

16 shares

2014 autumn volume 18 no. 1 - ut...

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