mccombs magazine fall 2015
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THE MAGAZINE OF THE McCOMBS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
f a l l 2 0 1 5
THE EYES OF TEXASARE ON WALL STREETP. 18
Holly McMullan, MBA '04 and head of North American business development at Apollo Global Management, is one of a growing number of alumni helping students navigate the formidable world of New York finance.
yELECTEDALUMS yGENDERBELIEFSAND THEWAGE GAPyAT THE OFFICE WITH REDMcCOMBS
Big ideas start with knowing who has the big ideas.
Now offering classes in Leadership & Influence, Strategy
and Finance. Enrollment now open. www.mccombs.utexas.edu/execed/modexec
1 (888) 996-7508
#McCOMBSMAG 1
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y D E P A R T M E N T S
McCombs is published in the fall and spring for alumni and friends of the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.
DIRECTOR OF
COMMUNICATIONS
David Wenger
EDITORIAL MANAGER
Todd Savage
EDITOR
Molly Dannenmaier
ART DIRECTION/DESIGN
Lindsay Tucker Design
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Kim Brown, John Burrows, Adrienne Dawson, Samantha Harris, Gayle Hight, Priscilla Mosqueda, Chuck Salter, Jeremy M. Simon, Matt Turner, Veronica Vasquez, Selah Maya Zighelboim
CONTRIBUTING
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Jennifer Bertrand, Kenny Braun, Amy Mikler, Jessica Milligan, Matthew Salacuse, Jeff Wilson, Sarah Wilson
CONTRIBUTING
ILLUSTRATORS
Matthew Billington, Patrick Hruby, Dave Plunkert, Mario Wagner
ONLINE
today.mccombs.utexas.edu/magazine
CHANGE OF ADDRESS
FOLLOW US
facebook.com/utmccombsschool twitter.com/utexasmccombslinkedin:
http://bit.ly/UTexasMcCombs
EDITOR’S NOTE: Several correc-tions have been made to this online version of the magazine since the print edition went to press. On pages 1 and 24, the spelling of writer Priscila Mosqueda’s name has been corrected; on page 8, the Ethics Unwrapped web-site address has been corrected; and on page 37, the date of the first pour of concrete at the new Rowling Hall site has been corrected.
RESEARCHIdeas at Work: Faculty research productivity ranks No. 1. 16. Insights: Brains on incentives and Citizens United consequences for executives and shareholders.
COMMUNITYGatherings: Alumni events and celebrations.40. Up Close: An entrepreneurial general, an actress who marketed her way to Hollywood, a health care executive focused on millennials.44. Alumni Notes
BOTTOM LINE
y F E A T U R E S
A WALL STREET STATE OF MINDDrawing on a group of elite alumni, McCombs is out to make the highly competitive world of New York finance more accessible to new graduates. BY CHUCK SALTER
A DAY AT THE OFFICE WITH RED McCOMBS 88 years old and still working six days a week, the Texas billionaire has no plans to slow down. His secret: Never take work home with you. BY JEREMY M. SIMON
ENERGY SYNERGYMcCombs energy industry experts talk pricing prediction models, entry-level career opportuni-ties, and collaborative partnerships.BY PRISCILA MOSQUEDA
EXPLAINING THE WAGE GAPDeeply rooted, often unconscious beliefs about gender can cause women to make career choices that leave them in second place.BY ADRIENNE DAWSON
ROWLING RISINGThe future of business education emerges from an 85-foot-deep, Texas-size hole at the corner of MLK and Guadalupe.BY TODD SAVAGE
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LETTER FROM THE DEAN
NEWSShort Takes: MBA students make global connections in Ghana, Modern Executive Series introduced, space entrepreneurship program launches, and more. 6. Ethics: Ethics Unwrapped embraced by educators worldwide.9. Politics: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, State Rep. Eddie Lucio, and more McCombs alumni in office.12. Hiring: After seven years, Dean Thomas Gilligan has left McCombs. Here’s what happens next.
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markets need our graduates’ skills and talent now more than ever.
And finally, with the departure of Dean Tom Gilligan for his new position at Stanford Univer-sity’s Hoover Institution, you may be wondering how the school will go about the process of choosing his successor. (Hint: I will not be a candidate. I agreed to take the role for a short period with the understanding that I could get back to teaching and research when we find a great new dean.) In “Searching for a New Dean,” we map the steps that lead to becoming dean of one of the most prominent business schools in the world. The pursuit is underway.
In this issue you will see that progress never ceases on campus, our professional alumni network has never been stronger or more engaged with the school, and big dreams are being pursued with hard work. My father would be pleased.
LAURA T. STARKSDean ad interim and Charles E. & Sarah M. Seay Regents Chair in Finance
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
We sought out the magazine’s namesake on the 15th anniversary of his $50 million gift to the school and found the prolific entrepreneur at work as usual. Spend “A Day at the Office with Red McCombs” to discover what keeps him energized at age 88 and to meet the mem-bers of his close-knit inner circle.
For insights into how alumni support drives positive outcomes, read our cover story, “A Wall Street State of Mind.” A group of alumni, students, and faculty members have joined together to form Wall Street for McCombs, which has revitalized our job-seekers’ efforts and success in entering the formidable world of the New York investment community. Financial
WAS RECENTLY asked to recall a memorable lesson from my father, and my thoughts turned to a plainly worded principle that has guided my life and ca-reer. He always told me that
with enough effort I could do or be anything I desired.
Most of us in the McCombs community believe similarly and can point to the hard work, investments, and choices we’ve made in pursuit of our dreams. Educational insti-tutions also must follow the same pattern to achieve their missions.
If you’ve visited the campus recently, you may have seen the awe-inspiring construc-tion underway for the new graduate business building. Peruse this magazine’s photo essay, “Rowling Rising,” to understand the grand scope of this project. Greatness requires a great venue, and Rowling Hall, made possible through donations from the Rowling family and other generous donors, will provide a place for faculty and students to achieve all of which they are capable. In addition, the future renovations to our current buildings, which will become Mulva Hall, thanks to the donations of the Mulva family, also will be central to advancing the McCombs School of Business. Such significant plans are made possible because of our community of faculty, alumni, students, staff, and supporters who believe this school has the ability to change the world, influence business thought, and educate generations of leaders.
Alumni and supporters are key to our com-munity, and this magazine is created express-ly for you, and those like you, whose lives have been positively affected by the school. I hope you will enjoy this freshly redesigned biannual offering with the absolutely simple yet distinctive name: McCombs.
McCOMBS: FROM THE DEAN
Believing and Doing
PHOTOGRAPH BY AMY MIKLER2 TODAY.McCOMBS.UTEXAS.EDU
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NEWS: SHORT TAKES
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Postcards from GhanaA dozen MBA students accompanied Marketing Professor Raj Raghunathan on a 10-day Global Connections trip in May to the West African country of Ghana. Before going, the students were given lessons on the history and culture of Ghana, which Raghunathan describes as an African “gateway country,” in part due to its English-speaking inhabitants. While there, McCombs students visited the Bank of Ghana and Unilever, as well as meeting with local nonprofits and entrepreneurs, including at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology and the MEST and Hub Accra incubators. Rupa Caramelli, MBA ’16: “The most memorable business lesson from my experience in Ghana was drawn from the Ghanaians’ massive amount of entrepreneurial spirit and enthusiasm to improve their future. The power of pos-itive self-talk will get you through the hard times in developing any business idea.”
TEXAS MBA JUMPS INTO TOP 15 The Texas MBA Program landed
at No. 14 in the nation and No. 3
among public schools in Forbes
magazine’s ranking of MBA
programs. McCombs climbed
seven spots from its 2013 standing,
jumping ahead of Michigan, Virginia,
UCLA, and Indiana. McCombs is
now the third highest-ranked public
school, behind Berkeley and the
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill. The ranking measures
the value of the MBA degree based
on return on investment, comparing
salary to educational investment.
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MODERN EXECUTIVESWhat a difference a week can
make. A new series of five-day
classes geared toward immersive
learning kicks off this fall at Texas
Executive Education at McCombs.
The Modern Executive Series offers
an in-depth look at the challenges
of the modern business world with
programs in leadership and influ-
ence, strategy, and finance. The
program promises high degrees of
collaboration and networking with
other professionals.
TAILGATINGTexas MBAs put their brainpower to
work on a pressing issue for all UT
alums: tailgating. Last fall, to better
understand the fan experience, Texas
Athletics enlisted the MBA program
to help conduct surveys and focus
groups. Results indicated that Texas
fans are willing to pay for improved
on-campus tailgating options.
NEWS: SHORT TAKES
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Summer at GoogleManagement Professor Ethan Burris spent the summer at Google as a faculty-in-residence member for the company’s People & Innovation Lab (PiLab), a part of its People Analyt-ics group. Burris designed and executed research projects related to managing employee voice — ideas and feedback given by employees. Employees at Google have a more ac-tive voice than those at many other companies, and Burris investigated why Google employees feel more empowered to speak up (and whether there are pockets of employees who aren’t heard) to help the company retain that culture as it continues to grow. After he compiles and reviews the data, Burris will serve in a consulting role. Besides publishing his research, Burris expects to share it with students in his classes.
Taking the Stage Investor Bill Gurley, MBA ’93, was one of more than a dozen McCombs alumni who spoke at South by Southwest in March. He talked with writer Malcolm Gladwell of The New York-er in a lively conversation that moved from wasteful spending in health care to millennials’ ambivalence toward car ownership. Gladwell introduced Gurley, clad in Longhorn shirt and cowboy boots, as “the world’s tallest venture
capitalist.” Gurley is a partner at capital venture firm Benchmark, where he has invest-ed in Twitter, Yelp, and Uber (where he is on the board). The big question during the Q&A: Do you think we’re in a tech bubble? Gurley: “We’re in a risk bubble... There is no fear in Silicon Valley right now. I do think we’ll see some dead unicorns this year.”
ALMOST 100• 99 Ph.D. students enrolled in the McCombs School of Business in the academic year 2014-2015.
CHANGES AT THE TOPAfter seven years leading the
McCombs School of Business,
Dean Thomas Gilligan departed
at the end of August for a new
job as director of the Hoover
Institution, a think tank based at
Stanford University. Under his
leadership, McCombs boosted
its standing and raised $186
million to build the new graduate
building, Rowling Hall, to open in
2017. In recognition of Gilligan’s
service, friends and alumni of
McCombs donated more than
$1.3 million to establish the
Gilligan Scholars Program, which
will offer four Endowed Presi-
dent’s Scholarships to incoming
freshmen every year, one of the
highest levels of scholarship
given across the university. “The
creation of the scholars program
is not only to show our sincere
appreciation for all Tom has done
for McCombs and the university
but also to continue attracting
truly outstanding students to
our school,” said John Adams,
chair of the McCombs Scholars
Program. While a search is un-
derway for Gilligan’s successor,
Laura Starks has assumed the
role of interim dean beginning
Sept. 1. Starks most recently
served as the school’s associate
dean for research and director
of the AIM Investment Cen-
ter, which integrates financial
research, investment education,
and practice at UT.
McCOMBS BY THE NUMBERS
1stFor the 11th time in 14 years,
McCombs ranks No. 1 across all three
of the 2015 rankings of the Public
Accounting Report (PAR) in
undergraduate, master’s and Ph.D.
$114,388The average base
starting salary of the full-time
MBA class of 2015.
94%of graduates from the
full-time MBA class of 2014
had job offers within three
months of graduation.
105countries are currently home
to McCombs alumni.
92%of students from 2014-2015
found Ethics Unwrapped helpful
in understanding and applying
ethics concepts.
17,069 Total square footage in classroom space
at McCombs School of Business.
1st
$114,388
94%
105
92%
17,069
New FrontiersYou can always count on McCombs classmates to be future CEOs or startup founders. Now you may just see a fellow alum in space. The first of its kind in the coun-try, the new space entrepreneurship degree program was launched at McCombs this spring. Offered by the Master of Science in Technology Commercialization (MSTC) program, it’s not exactly astronaut training, but students are working to identify cutting-edge technol-ogies with market potential. “We thought that Austin could do in space what it did successfully in computers, software, gaming and, more recently, biomedical,” says MSTC Director Gary Cadenhead.
Texas 4000 McCombs students cycling 4,000 miles from Austin to Alaska in the annual cancer research fundraiser Tex-as 4000 got more than wilderness training this year. Eric Hirst, associate dean for graduate programs and a Texas 4000 board member, provided management and leadership training. Hirst: “The program is about more than fundraising and a very long bike ride. It’s about becoming a leader and a better person along the way.” Faculty spoke on negotiation, communication, and trust, aimed at helping the students on the 70-day trek. IC
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PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLAR UT Energy Poll Director Sheril
Kirshenbaum was selected this
year as one of 60 participants in
the inaugural class of Presidential
Leadership Scholars, a presti-
gious half-year program that
put her face-to-face with former
U.S. presidents and seeks to
develop scholar leadership skills
by analyzing decision-making
moments in recent presidential
administrations. The participants,
representing a wide range of
disciplines, from science and
academia to law and military
affairs, learned about leader-
ship at a series of meetings held
at presidential libraries across
the country. Speakers included
former presidents Bill Clinton
and George W. Bush and senior
administration officials such as
former Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Treasury
Secretary Henry Paulson. “These
are people who you either stud-
ied or learned about, but it’s very
different to talk to them on a per-
sonal level, one-on-one,” Kirshen-
baum says. “You’re reminded that
they’re human like we are, and
even if our politics are different,
they’re interested in what’s best
for everyone.” As director of the
Energy Poll, Kirshenbaum leads
a groundbreaking public opinion
tool that twice a year gauges
people’s sentiments about
energy consumption, pricing,
development, and regulation.
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6 TODAY.McCOMBS.UTEXAS.EDU
ETHICS TO GOMcCOMBS’ ONLINE ETHICS UNWRAPPED
PROGRAM EMBRACED BY EDUCATORS WORLDWIDEby Samantha Harris
OUR YEARS AGO, a business professor and a filmmaker embarked on a hopeful experiment. Robert Prentice, chair of the Department of Business, Government and Society at McCombs hired film producer Cara Biasucci to create a first-of-its-kind business ethics education program. It would be free of charge, avail-
able online, and built on a foundation of web-based videos. The impetus for this program was a $500,000 anonymous donation
to McCombs, with a mandate that the money be used to advance ethics education. The contribution came in the wake of business ethics scan-dals from Enron and WorldCom to the devastating misdeeds of Bernie Madoff and Jack Abramoff in which the business world seemed to be the stage where the most unthinkable of ethics dramas played out.
So, even though ethics is a subject traditionally taught in philosophy or religion departments, the time seemed right to reach a wider audience of students with the principles of ethical decision-making.
Biasucci was an ideal person to lead the program. She is a documentary filmmaker and teacher, who worked previously as a media production instructor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Bowdoin College and an M.F.A. in film and media production (UT ’99), she brought exactly the kind of background to the task that Prentice wanted. She says she was captivated by Prentice’s straightforward, entrepreneurial approach to disseminating guidance about practical morality to a mass audience.
“It’s unique for a business school to be spearheading this effort,” says Biasucci, “because traditional business education has focused students on the bottom line, often causing the ethical dimensions of business decisions to be overlooked.”
At the time of the donation there were few ethics videos available, and they were generally of poor quality, very expensive, or both, she says. So, with the goal of successfully reaching the generation that grew up on YouTube, Biasucci produced her first series of short, high-quality, easily digestible ethics videos and launched the Ethics Unwrapped website in fall 2012.
Since then, Biasucci has produced 48 videos and related teaching
tools. They have garnered numerous awards and been increasingly adopted into the curricula of institutions across the world. Top users of the videos and curriculum materials outside UT Austin now include New York University, Indiana University, Pennsylvania State University, Michigan State University, and the University of South Wales in Australia.
Ethics Unwrapped viewership has more than doubled each year with nearly 300,000 YouTube views to date. The majority of the videos range from five to 10 minutes in length, featuring a blend of animation, expert content, and student commentary to explain how ethics concepts are manifested in their own life experiences.
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ABOVE: The Ethics Unwrapped video series features students discussing how ethics concepts play out in their own lives.
NEWS: ETHICS
Each video presents a specific concept of behavioral ethics ranging from role morality, conformity bias, and ethical fading to incre-mentalism, loss aversion, moral equilibrium, and overconfidence bias. One series includes a case study on former lobbyist and convicted felon Abramoff, and another, called Giving Voice to Values, is based on a pioneering cur-riculum by Mary Gentile, a leading research scholar in management education and lead-ership development.
Schools and professors across the UT campus are working with Biasucci to introduce Ethics Unwrapped materials into their curricula. The
Colleges of Liberal Arts, Fine Arts, Education, Undergraduate Studies, and Communication at UT all utilize Ethics Unwrapped videos and teaching tools.
Associate Professor Minette Drumwright from the College of Communication ties Ethics Unwrapped videos to current events, uses them in both her 300- and 30-person classes. She assigns videos for viewing outside the class-room and then discusses the concepts during the next class or uses the beginning of a video as a discussion starter.
“From a professor’s perspective, Ethics Un-wrapped makes it feasible for those of us outside an ethics discipline to explain complex ethics concepts,” says Drumwright. “People usually think of ethics as boring and dry, but these videos make it interesting and applicable to people’s daily lives.”
TOOLS TO TACKLE EVERYDAY SITUATIONS
THE TRADITIONAL MODEL for teaching eth-ics is rooted in the belief that human beings are rational, says Biasucci. But research has shown we’re anything but. Rather, we often have an instinctive or emotional reaction, then we rationalize our decision to make it fit the circumstance.
“Ethics Unwrapped aims to make people aware of their own psychological biases and prevalent social and organizational pressures and equip them with the tools they need to tackle everyday situations — whether that’s an overbearing boss, a make-or-break exam, or an aggressive sales target — and respond ethically,” says Biasucci.
According to Prentice, who serves as the faculty director of Ethics Unwrapped, “re-search shows that most of us want to be good people and think of ourselves as good people, often not realizing that like everyone else, we frequently depart from our own moral standards.” Absent education, Prentice says, “most people are not prepared to cope with the social and organizational pressures and
“People usually think
of ethics as boring and dry,
but these videos make it interesting and
applicable to people’s daily lives.”
#McCOMBSMAG 7
NEWS: ETHICS
specific courses. And because the program operates on a
shoestring budget, Biasucci is always look-ing for the next round of funding. “We have a long list of topics we would like to cover, and I would love to be able to do all of what we’ve envisioned — and more.”
To learn how you can support Ethics Unwrapped visit ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu. For information about serving on the Ethics Coun-cil, contact [email protected].
cognitive biases that make it difficult for even the most well-intentioned people to always do the right thing.”
So far, it’s been successful: 92 percent of students surveyed find the videos helpful in understanding complex ethics concepts. “That is a pretty powerful statement to me,” says Biasucci. But she isn’t content to stop there. Next year, she plans to add a robust ethics glossary to the program’s website and develop more resources for instructors to help them integrate ethics directly into their
BELOW: Filmmaker Cara Biasucci has produced 48 Ethics Unwrapped videos for McCombs since she started four years ago. The series has garnered numerous awards and been increasingly adopted into the curricula of universities and companies throughout the world since its introduction.
PHOTOGRAPH BY SARAH WILSON8 TODAY.McCOMBS.UTEXAS.EDU
“Research shows that
most of us want to be good people and
think of ourselves as
good people.”
NEWS: POLITICS
Hook ’em! For the 7th year in a row @UTAustin McCombs School of Business is ranked #1 for Accounting Degree Program.
2:30 PM - 25 Feb 2015
Gov. Greg Abbott@GovAbbott
PROFILES IN POLITICSTHE NATION’S ATTENTION HAS TURNED TO POLITICS IN THE LEAD-UP TO THE 2016 ELECTIONS. IN THAT SPIRIT, MEET McCOMBS ALUMNI WHO HAVE SUCCESSFULLY PUT THEMSELVES BEFORE THE VOTERS. HOW DID BUSINESS EDUCATION PREPARE THEM FOR POLITICS?by Gayle Hight
EXAS AND POLITICS always make for big news. When the former state attorney general Greg Abbott was elected last November to lead the country’s second-most populous state, he made headlines
as the first person in a wheelchair elected to serve as Texas governor. Abbott, BBA ’81 Finance, can claim another first, too: He is the first governor of the state to graduate with a business degree from The University of Texas at Austin. (He’s the first Longhorn to hold the office since Dolph Briscoe left office in 1979.)
A native Texan, Abbott was born in Wichita Falls and raised in Duncanville. After graduating from UT Austin, he earned his law degree from Vander-bilt University. Prior to his election to three terms as attorney general, he served as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court and as a state district judge in Harris County.
While Governor Abbott, a Republican, has been in office for just under a year, last June he approved
a plan aimed at attracting nationally recognized researchers to higher education institutions across Texas: the Governor’s University Research Initia-tive. During the bill signing on the campus of UT Austin, he said the long-term investment in Texas’s higher education system “will be the compelling force in driving innovation, advancing our higher education system to unprecedented levels, and spurring our state’s economic development engines to fuel future growth in the Lone Star State for generations to come.”
The funding is aimed at attracting the best and brightest to Texas — established star faculty and researchers as well as “the up and coming, those who will be the next generation of Nobel Laureates and National Academy members,” Abbott said.
The McCombs School of Business clearly has a supporter in the Governor’s Mansion. Earlier this year, when the school was once again ranked No. 1 in accounting, Governor Abbott was quick to retweet the good news (see above).
T
LLOYD DOGGETT{ BBA ’67, J.D. ’70
U.S. House of Representatives
(D-35th District), Central Texas
Year elected: 1973
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Why I got into politics: While
attending the UT School of Busi-
ness, I was active in debate and
served as student body president.
Many of the issues being debat-
ed then — Medicare, trade, and
limitations on American foreign
military involvement — continue
today. During my time at UT,
I became increasingly interested
in issues affecting education and
students. All of these experiences
working with able, energetic stu-
dents and learning from commit-
ted faculty helped me decide to
get more directly involved. At 26,
I achieved an unexpected victory
to become the state senator rep-
resenting Austin and five Central
Texas counties.
Proudest legislative achieve-
ment: I successfully offered the
“More Education” tax credit that
provides students and their fami-
lies with a tax cut of up to $10,000
over four years as reimburse-
ment for tuition and other higher
education expenses. I worked
to encourage entrepreneurship
and business incubators, includ-
ing increasing credit access for
small businesses and long-term
investment in transportation and
#McCOMBSMAG 9
infrastructure. I also am a strong
advocate for federally funded
research at UT so we can contin-
ue our high-tech and renewable
energy leadership.
Business school prepared
me for: The business school helped
prepare me for law school, and
continues to assist me as I serve on
the House Ways and Means Com-
mittee, with jurisdiction over tax,
trade, health care, and other issues
related to my degree.
KEVIN P. ELTIFE{ BBA ’81
Texas State Senate (R-District 1)
Hometown: Tyler, Texas
Year elected: 2004
Why I got into politics: Years ago
I ran for city council in Tyler be-
cause city officials told me “no” on
a construction variance. It wasn’t
that they told me “no,” it was how
they told me. I thought they should
have been more customer-friendly.
I later served as mayor of Tyler and
ran on wanting to put a business
plan in place for the city. We cut
the property tax rate in half, paid
all of the city’s debt, and imple-
mented a cash pay-as-you-go sys-
tem for improvements. I’m known
as sort of a maverick Republican.
I don’t care who’s on the other
side of an issue or about polling
or political correctness.
Proudest legislative achievement:
In the 2013 legislative session,
I championed craft beer legisla-
tion (Senate Bills 515, 516, 517, and
518) that opened up the craft beer
industry in Texas. The legislation
will have an enormous economic
impact in Texas, creating many
thousands of new jobs and access
to the state’s multi-billion dollar
beer market. This past session, I’m
most proud of Senate Bill 339, the
cannabis oil bill for epileptic chil-
dren. A lot of people were surprised
we could get that passed and then
signed by the governor, but we did.
Business school prepared me for:
I took a business law and con-
tracts class. I learned more in that
class than any other and almost
went to law school because of it.
Now I’m chairman of the Senate’s
Business and Commerce Com-
mittee. We see 90 percent of the
business issues in Texas before the
committee — health insurance,
workers’ comp, TABC, to name a
few. My business education and
background in commercial real
estate play an important role in
analyzing business issues.
MARION GREENE{ MBA ’99
Hennepin County Commissioner
(D) and former member of the
Minnesota House of Representa-
tives (2010-2012)
Year elected: 2014
Hometown: Minneapolis,
Minnesota
Why I got into politics: I can’t
say I’ve always wanted to run for
office. I thought that most people
who run for office have long-
term roots in an area. My parents
served in the United States For-
eign Service. I moved a lot as a kid,
so I don’t have those roots. Later
on after I got involved in my com-
munity, it became apparent to
me that serving in politics made
sense and that I would enjoy it. I
felt I had something to give.
Proudest legislative achievement:
I was involved in crafting the ini-
tial legislation to set up Minneso-
ta’s health care exchange, part of
the Affordable Care Act. We had
a few hiccups — like every state
that set up its own exchange
— but in general, Minnesota is
considered a success. The other
legislation I’m most proud of is
my work on funding an all-day
kindergarten in Minnesota. In
business school language, the
return on investment for spend-
ing on small children is incredible,
especially for children who are at
risk. I also really pride myself in
trying to engage my community
in government. I think back to
marketing and communicating
to people in different ways. So,
it’s email, social media, old-fash-
ioned letters, getting out there
and talking to groups, and finding
ways to engage people so that
it’s a two-way street.
Business school prepared
me for: Professor Jim Fredrick-
son (Management) pushed us
to think and called on us to use
our common sense as leaders.
He brought together what we
needed to learn intellectually
with what it means to be a human
being who is doing business with
other human beings.
EDUARDO ANDRES “EDDIE” LUCIO I I IBBA ’01, J.D. ’05
Texas House of Representatives
(D-38th District)
Year elected: 2007
Hometown: Brownsville, Texas
Why I got into politics: My dream
was to play professional golf after
graduating from McCombs. By the
time I was a senior, I realized that
was not going to happen. So I de-
cided to go to law school. This
was at the time tuition dereg-
ulation for higher education in
Texas was being debated. Some
students realized I had a dad at
the Capitol (State Senator
Eduardo Andres “Eddie” Lucio Jr.)
and insisted that I get involved. I
said, “Guys, that’s my dad’s thing. I
don’t do that.” But when I got into
the weeds of it, I started to really
like policy. That was the gateway
into politics for me.
Proudest legislative achieve-
ment: I focus on water policy
and veterans’ affairs. We passed
House Bill 4 last session, a broad
state water plan/funding source
called the SWIFT program. I think
it’s going to be the most lasting
piece of legislation. From a busi-
ness standpoint, water is really the
basis by which any community
can sustain itself.
Business school prepared me
for: Herb Miller (Marketing) was
so dynamic and interested in the
success of his students. He taught
me the art of self-promotion.
NEWS: POLITICS
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I remember leaving McCombs
feeling empowered to go out
and conquer the world. My first
political election was right out
of law school. I was 26 years old
with no professional experience
and four strong opponents. What
I had that my opponents didn’t
was no fear to walk into a room,
shake every hand, and tell voters
what my plans were and that I
was committed to serving them. I
learned how to do that from Herb
Miller. We still keep in touch after
all these years.
ELLEN GALE TROXCLAIR{ BBA ’07 International Business
Austin City Council, District 8
Year elected: 2014
Hometown: Highland Village,
Texas (near Dallas)
Why I got into politics: I enjoyed
the policy side of politics when I
worked at the Capitol but never
thought I would run for office
myself. When the Austin city
council elections came up, with
the new single-member district
structure, my husband and I were
looking for someone to support
and didn’t find anybody who we
were excited about. I thought if
I’m not willing to run, then I can’t
complain. I felt that I could make a
difference if I put myself out there.
People feel like they have to be
a certain age or have to have ac-
complished certain things in life or
have a certain amount of money
to run for office. Well, let’s just say
none of these things are true. I’m
the youngest Austin city council
member ever to be elected — and
also by the slimmest margin of
victory ever. I was 29 when I won.
People might not have taken me
seriously, but at the same time
there are people who think we
need a younger generation to
have more of a voice in the direc-
tion of our government.
Proudest legislative achieve-
ment: The cost of living is far
outpacing increases in salaries in
Austin. Property taxes have gone
up tremendously. So Austin’s
increasingly high cost of living
was my first priority when I was
elected. Austin is one of the few
cities in Texas that did not have
a homestead exemption. My first
resolution as a council member
was to look at the homestead
exemption law for the state of
Texas. We passed a 6 percent
exemption, with the plan to im-
plement the full 20 percent over
the next three years.
Business school prepared
me for: Going to school, there
were classes that you enjoyed and
some that were hard to get up
and get yourself to. But I think all
of the classes I took provided me
with a well-rounded education.
Accounting was not one of my
favorite classes, but I learned how
to take a hard look at issues and
analyze budgets, and now I have a
reputation for being very detailed
and analytical. Today there’s a lot
of conversation about whether
government should be more
like business. When I was at the
legislature, I saw how a business
perspective could add value,
especially in efforts for advancing
the common good.
PRACTICAL POLITICS• Alumni gave credit to their McCombs education —
remembering courses and professors — in preparing them for the business of working in elected office.
Anne M. Ballantyne (BBA ’72 , MBA ’74), Mayor, Terrell Hills, Texas; Bascom W. Bentley (BBA ’74), District Judge, 369th Judicial District, Anderson County, Texas; Drew Darby (BBA ’69, J.D. ’71 , UT School of Law), State Representative, District 72-San Angelo, Texas House of Representatives; Malcolm P. Duncan Jr. (BBA ’75), Mayor, Waco, Texas; Ruben Hinojosa (BBA ’62, MBA ’80 UT Pan American), U.S. Representa-tive, District 15-Edinburg, U.S. House of Representatives; Donald Huffines (BBA ’81), State Senator, District 16-Dallas, Texas Senate; Thomas I. Jackson (BBA ’73), Vice President, Board of Trustees, Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District, Texas; Jarom Tefteller (BBA ’04), City Council Member-At-Large, Gilmer, Texas; Sergio Muñoz Jr. (BBA ’04), State Representative, District 36-Palmview, Texas House of Representatives; James Jackson Napper (BBA ’89, J.D. ’92), County Attorney-Lamesa, Martin County, Texas; Walter “Four” Price (BBA ’90), Representative, District 87-Amarillo, Texas House of Representatives; Beau Ross (MBA ’88), President, Eanes Independent School Board, Westlake, Texas; Rodney Satterwhite (BBA ’66, LLB ’69), District Judge, 441st Judicial District, Midland County, Texas; Maurice C. Superville (BBA ’84, J.D. ’89), County Judge, Lamar County, Texas; and James D. Yarbrough (BBA ’77), Mayor, Galveston, Texas.
Elected AlumsFROM BUSINESS SCHOOL TO
THE BALLOT BOX: A ROLL CALL OF ALUMNI IN HIGHER OFFICE
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ABOVE: At least half a dozen McCombs graduates work at the Texas State Capitol.
#McCOMBSMAG 11
The search committee reviews the slate of candidates generated by
RRA, and identify a subset for first round off-campus interviews.
I LLUSTRAT ION BY PATRICK HRUBY12 TODAY.McCOMBS.UTEXAS.EDU
NEWS: HIRING
An important note: The work of the search committee follows strict rules to protect the confidentiality of all candidates throughout this process. Committee members are prohibited from disclosing the names or any details regarding the candidates.
SEARCHING FOR A NEW DEANA BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK AT THE PROCESS TO RECRUIT AND
SELECT THE 11TH DEAN TO LEAD THE McCOMBS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
Phase 2 (early Fall)
Phase 4 (early Spring)
All of the McCombs commu-nity is welcome to give input, either by directly contacting a member of the search com-mittee or sending an email note to RRA at: [email protected]
They will also put forth names of potential candidates, both internal and external.
The search committee reviews the complete files of each candidate.
President Fenves joins the search process. He attends this meeting to
hear directly from the search committee about the strengths and potential
weaknesses of each candidate.
He works subsequently with RRA to conduct a final round of
comprehensive background checks.
Phase 1 (Summer)
Phase 3 (late Fall)
Dean Thomas Gilligan announced Feb. 20
that he would end his seven-year tenure
as dean on Aug. 31 for a new position as
director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford
University.
The committee creates criteria to guide RRA in its efforts to generate a slate of candidates: personal qualities and characteristics; professional roles and accomplishments; and perspectives on particular issues.
Multiple forums will be created to allow members of the McCombs
community to meet the candidates, ask questions, and provide feedback
to the search committee.
Laura Starks is named interim dean on March 26 by then provost and now UT
Austin President Greg Fenves.
International executive leadership and search firm Russell Reynolds
Associates (RRA) is conducting the search
for a new dean. The firm has led numerous searches at UT Austin,
including the search that led to Gilligan’s hire.
A search committee of 18 people is formed, includ-ing eight faculty from all McCombs departments, one staff member, three
students (BHP, MBA, Ph.D.), four members of the Mc-Combs Advisory Council,
and two UT administrators.
Four phases will unfold over the next half year.
President Fenves then makes his decision about which candidate to extend the offer to lead McCombs.
President Fenves announces the decision
to the McCombs community and the
wider public.
ALL THE DEANS WHO HAVE COME BEFORE• Spurgeon Bell (1912-1925) • J. Anderson Fitzgerald, (1926-1950)• William R. Spriegel (1950-1958)• John Arch White (1958-1966)
• George Kozmetzky (1966-1982)• William H. Cunningham (1982-1985)• Robert Witt (1985-1995)
• Robert May (1995-2002)• George Gau (2002-2008)• Thomas Gilligan (2008-2015)
The search committee
discusses feedback from off-campus
interviews and cre-ates a short list of
candidates to invite for on-campus
interviews.
#McCOMBSMAG 13
RESEARCH: IDEAS AT WORK
HE McCOMBS SCHOOL OF
Business faculty is ranked No. 1 in the world among public business schools for research productivity according to the 2015 Top
100 Business School Research Rankings from the University of Texas at Dallas.
UTD tracks faculty publications in 24 leading business journals over a five-year period and awards points based on university affiliation at time of publication. The current ranking covers the years 2010 to 2014, during which McCombs’ faculty authored 241 articles among these A-list journals.
If private schools are included in the mix, McCombs slides only to fifth place behind these prestigious heavyweights: 1) Wharton, 2) Harvard, 3) MIT, and 4) NYU.
That ties the highest rank McCombs has achieved in the 11-year history of the survey. Last year McCombs pulled ahead of private heavy-hitters Chicago, Stanford, and Duke. This year it ousted Michigan from the top five to claim the top public-school rank.
According to Laura Starks, dean ad interim of McCombs and prior associate dean for re-search, two key incentives give our professors a leg up research-wise: summer grant money and extra research time during the long semesters.
Over the past decade, the school has used time and money for research “to attract the best and brightest among new instructors,” says Starks. The enticements designate McCombs as
“a place where research is taken seriously and where the administration creates a welcoming environment to foster it.”
While all faculty members are eligible to apply for the benefits, two groups receive them automatically: new tenure-track hires and newly tenured professors. The former re-ceive them as an expectation of their promise; the latter as a reward for their hard work and proven talent.
Starks points to myriad other factors that support research around the school. Research excellence grants, awarded to those with prom-ising ideas, defray costs for experiments, re-search assistants, and travel. Extensive data-bases provide access to invaluable, hard-to-get data. Research centers provide funding for
certain areas of investigation. Finally, the vi-brancy of the Ph.D. programs — 100 doctoral students across five departments — adds to the research fervor and intensity.
“Being at the forefront of research speaks not only to McCombs’ prestige among business faculties but also to our potential impact on industry and society,” says Starks.
World-class research has practical impli-cations for students. “A powerhouse research institute provides the venue for our students to be exposed to the cutting-edge ideas and innovations that will be driving the economy of tomorrow,” she says. “Students who study with knowledge leaders are better prepared for the challenges of an increasingly dynamic and sophisticated business world.”
McCOMBSRESEARCHERS LEAD THE WORLDMcCOMBS FACULTY OUTRANK ALL OTHER PUBLIC BUSINESS SCHOOLS IN RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY by Matt Turner
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IT’S TOUGH AT THE TOP• Over the last decade, the average number of articles published
in a five-year window by UTD’s top-10 business schools has risen 46 percent. McCombs’ average rose by 72 percent.
ANDREW WHINSTON{ First to publish a book on electronic
commerce — in fact, said to have coined
the term “e-commerce” — and recently
identified as the most influential research-
er in the field of management information
systems by the highly regarded h-Index,
Andrew Whinston has long been one of
the school’s most prolific researchers.
Whinston is a professor of information
systems, computer science, and eco-
nomics who holds the Hugh Roy Cullen
Centennial Chair in Business Administra-
tion. He is a pioneering researcher in the
fields of internet security, social networks,
information management, and online con-
sumer behaviors. He was honored in 2009
with the Career Award for Outstanding
Research Contributions at UT.
As director of the Center for Research in
Electronic Commerce (CREC), Whinston
researches digital technologies as they re-
late to business, markets, and consumers.
He has advised more than 100 graduate
students and written more than 25 books
and 400 articles for refereed publications.
According to Google Scholar, they have
been referenced more than 10,000 times.
At the CREC, Whinston is the lead inves-
tigator for the popular SpamRankings.net,
a site that publicly ranks organizations
that are unwittingly doing the worst
spamming — as an incentive for them to
tighten security measures, for which we
can all be grateful.
SHERIDAN TITMAN{ Known the world over as co-author of
the groundbreaking textbook Financial
Markets and Corporate Strategy, Sheridan
Titman is one of the nation’s most influen-
tial researchers and experts in the fields
of corporate finance and investments.
His special interests include energy, real
estate, and capital markets.
Titman is a professor of finance at
McCombs where he holds the Walter W.
McAllister Centennial Chair in Financial
Services. He has been the director of
the Energy Management and Innovation
Center and a member of the Real Estate
Finance and Investment Center.
A past president of both the American
Finance Association and the Western
Finance Association, Titman has served as
editor or associate editor of many of his
field’s most prestigious journals such as
the Journal of Finance, Review of Finan-
cial Studies, and Journal of Financial and
Quantitative Analysis.
In addition to two other books on finan-
cial management and valuation, he has
published many book chapters and more
than 100 academic and professional arti-
cles. He also contributes regularly to the
general business press on energy policy.
Titman has worked in Washington D.C.
as special assistant to the assistant secre-
tary of the Treasury for economic policy.
He is a research associate of the National
Bureau of Economic Research.
SUSAN BRONIARCZYK{ Marketers and brand managers need
to understand why we buy certain
products, how we feel about them,
and what influences our decisions.
Unraveling these mysteries is Susan
Broniarczyk’s specialty.
Broniarczyk is a professor of marketing
and holds the Susie and John L. Adams En-
dowed Chair in Business. She is an acclaimed
researcher and writer on brand loyalty and
strategy, product assortment, marketing
theory and practice, retailing strategy, con-
sumer behavior and motivations, and mar-
keting science. She has also looked at how
consumers make decisions about everything
from gift-giving to retirement plans.
Broniarczyk’s research has been
published in the leading journals of her
field such as the Journal of Consumer
Research, Journal of Marketing Research,
and Journal of Consumer Psychology. She
also has served on the editorial boards
of these journals. Her scholarly work has
earned her numerous awards, such as an
early career award and two best article
awards including the Journal of Marketing
Research’s O’Dell Award for long-term
significance to marketing theory and prac-
tice. She became president of the Society
for Consumer Psychology in 2014.
Beyond academia, her research has
been featured in such publications as
Time, Business Week, and U.S. News
and World Report.
Prolific and Influential: A Few of McCombs’ Most Prominent Thought Leaders
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RESEARCH: INSIGHTS
THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON INCENTIVESsubjects were asked to review the proposals a second time, but with a different payment scheme attached. This time they were of-fered a bonus if they made the most profit-able investment choices. When offered this performance-based incentive, the rational regions of subjects’ brains became activated, the emotional regions remained subdued, and subjects were 25 percent more likely to choose the better investment. — Adrienne Dawson
make investment decisions based on proposals submitted by these fictional co-workers. How successful their investment choices were had no bearing on whether or not they would re-ceive the flat $25 payment. White found test subjects’ brains showed heightened activity in emotional regions, indicating that their feelings about the colleague whose propos-al they were evaluating were affecting their decision-making process. Later, the same
CAN RESTRUCTURING how a manager is compen-sated help that manager make better decisions and fewer expensive mistakes? Accounting Assistant Professor Brian White decided to use an fMRI machine to find out.
White presented test subjects with pro-files of fictional work colleagues — some of whom were portrayed as friendly and others unlikeable. Subjects entered the scanner and were told they’d be paid a fixed $25 wage to
I LLUSTRAT IONS BY MARIO WAGNER16 TODAY.McCOMBS.UTEXAS.EDU
Emotional regions of the brain light up when research subjects are offered a flat fee for carrying out a set of business
decision-making tasks. But when subjects are offered a performance-based bonus, the rational regions of their
brains light up, and they make better decisions.
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IN ITS CONTROVERSIAL 2010 Citizens United decision, the Supreme Court held that com-panies can spend unlimited funds from their general treasuries to finance elections. Critics warned that the subsequent rise of super PACs would give businesses carte blanche to lav-ish money on corporate-friendly candidates. Until now, however, no one has examined whether unlimited corporate funding for political candidates can be proven to influ-ence the legislative decision-making process.
Timothy Werner, assistant professor in the Business, Government, and Society De-partment, recently looked at 38 states that
allowed independent corporate campaign expenditures before the Citizens United rul-ing and found a direct link in those states to a higher number of anti-takeover laws enacted. Such laws benefit executives at the expense of shareholder interests. This link was seen only when state legislators were actively facing competitive elections however, suggesting that legislators facing election competition tend to enact laws favorable to those most likely to offer the most financial support to their campaigns. On the other hand, in states that had banned corporate contributions, the more competitive the electoral environ-
ment, the less likely politicians were to enact anti-takeover statutes. This indicates that legislators in states where giant corporate donations weren’t possible tended to enact legislation more favorable to the average citi-zen than to big business. Because most voters don’t pay attention to takeover laws, though, Werner looked for a possible link between corporate campaign contributions and is-sues voters do traditionally care about, such as inequality and minimum wage rights. He found no connection, suggesting that when voters are silent about a topic, corporate money speaks loudly. — Adrienne Dawson
CITIZENS UNITED PROTECTS EXECUTIVES
DEFINITION: ANTI-TAKEOVER STATUTE• A set of state regulations that aims to prevent or deter
a company from attempting to initiate a hostile takeover.
#McCOMBSMAG 17
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George Ackert, BBA ’91 and a senior managing director at
Evercore Partners, is one of the 15 members of the Wall Street
for McCombs Board.
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#McCOMBSMAGALUMNI 19#McCOMBSMAGALUMNI 19#McCOMBSMAGALUMNI 19#McCOMBSMAGALUMNI 19
H A WALL STREETSTATE OF MIND
DRAWING ON A GROUP OF
ELITE ALUMNI, McCOMBS IS
OUT TO MAKE THE HIGHLY
COMPETITIVE WORLD OF NEW
YORK FINANCE MORE ACCESSIBLE
TO NEW GRADUATES.
by Chuck Salter | photographs by Matt Salacuse
#McCOMBSMAG 19
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MATTHEW SALACUSE20 TODAY.McCOMBS.UTEXAS.EDU20 TODAY.McCOMBS.UTEXAS.EDU
lsa, Texas, is a world away from Wall Street. Physically, they’re separated by nearly 2,000 miles. With around 5,600 residents, the South Texas border town is one-
sixth the size of Goldman Sachs, the quin- tessential Wall Street investment bank. Jake Foley, BBA ’88, MPA ’88, grew up in Elsa and knew nothing about finance when he arrived in Austin. His father was a police officer, his mother a teacher. Coming from a one-bank town, Foley thought that banking meant “tellers and drive-through windows.”
Today, he knows a great deal more. He’s a managing director at Houlihan Lokey, a mid-cap boutique investment bank in midtown Manhattan, where he advises companies on highly complex transactions — mergers, acquisitions, and so on — and in some cases, multi-billion-dollar transactions. How a kid from Elsa and a graduate of the then-new MPA accounting program prevailed on Wall Street, scaling some of the world’s biggest investment banks — Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank — is no doubt inspiring for to-day’s McCombs students and graduates.
But Foley believes that his journey also il-lustrates a fundamental challenge for them: the lack of “a natural, frictionless pathway to find your way to New York,” he says on a re-cent afternoon, sitting on a couch in his Park Avenue office. Coming from McCombs, he had no prior exposure to Wall Street, no network helping him to navigate its marble halls, no mentors nudging his resume into the right hands. “I didn’t understand how to work my way in,” he says.
Now Foley, 50, is determined to build that ideal pathway for others. Over the past two years, he has joined forces with a dozen like-minded alumni from New York finance’s inner circle. As a group — the Wall Street for McCombs Board is the official name — they have begun collaborat-ing with the business school to help graduates and students develop a richer understanding of that labyrinthine world, become more com-petitive candidates, and ultimately thrive on the job. By ramping up the Wall Street presence on campus, McCombs and these executives hope to entice more MBAs and BBAs to follow suit. Likewise, they’re confident that raising the school’s profile in New York will boost re-cruiting in both directions: more top students for McCombs and more top firms interested in them. Another happy byproduct: the fundraising potential for McCombs itself. (The group’s first project is a scholarship.)
As former Dean Tom Gilligan wrote on his McCombs blog in December 2013, when he an-nounced the creation of Wall Street for McCombs, “Our audacious goal at the university is to change the world, and one cannot hope to do that without exercising influence in the center of the world. With that reality in mind, the Eyes of Texas are upon Wall Street.”
Like other business schools, McCombs saw banking hires plummet after the 2008 financial crisis. But even as the sector recovered, interest in New York finance lagged in Austin. Last year, just 6 percent of its MBA graduates took jobs in the Northeast, less than half the total six years earlier. Banking as a whole experienced the same decline. Wall Street isn’t the automatic draw that it is at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Business School, or the NYU Stern School of Business. McCombs students have other opportunities, many irresistibly closer, from Austin’s entrepreneurial scene to finance jobs in Dallas and Houston.
Also, to the uninitiated, New York — and Wall Street, in particular — can be daunting, to say the least. Newcomers see a hyper-competitive field crowded with Ivy Leaguers where the reward for getting hired is working 100-hour weeks on endless Excel financial models and being on call 24-7, just to advance. It’s the ultimate game of survival in one of the world’s most expensive cities.
“A lot of my friends here have no interest in New York,” says Hallie Lynch, MBA ’16, who grew up there. “It feels really inaccessible. It intimidates them. You need to demystify it and provide a foothold into the Wall Street scene.”
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ABOVE: Jake Foley, BBA ’88, MPA ’88, and managing director at Houlihan Lokey, grew up in Elsa, Texas, pop-ulation 5,600. When he graduated from McCombs, he had no connections or experience on Wall Street.
“YOU’RE HERE FOR A REASON”A foothold, a frictionless path — it begins
with something as simple as an email. Annie Bernica, BBA ’17, arrived in New York
this past June with two friends in a city of more than eight million people. And neither was in-terning with her at the alternative investment management firm Apollo Global Management. Nonetheless, when Bernica showed up for her first day of work, she logged into the firm’s email system and found a friendly email, from a fellow Longhorn no less: “Let’s meet.”
Holly McMullan, MBA ’04, a senior leader at Apollo and a founding member of the Wall Street for McCombs Board, invited Bernica to her office. With a stunning, 34th-floor view of Central Park as a backdrop, they chatted over coffee. McMullan inquired about Bernica’s school, her impressions of New York, and her budding interest in finance. For her part, Mc-Mullan shared how she wound up the head of business development for North America at Apollo, which manages some $160 billion in client assets. “I fell into it,” she says of New York finance. Raised in England, she moved to the U.S. after college and started out at a Dallas hedge fund. She pursued Manhattan on her
own, feeling every bit an outsider.Now that McMullan is on the inside, she can help someone like Bernica. “The first thing I did
was think she will need to get a job next year,” says McMullan, “so I reached out to three alumni from Texas at Goldman and Evercore [Partners] and said, ‘Can you meet with her this summer?’”
That outreach to fellow board members turned Bernica, 21, into a very different prospective banker, from a lone UT intern in a Harvard-dominated 34-person group to one with impressive connections in New York finance. “They haven’t necessarily sat me down and given me advice,” she says of McMullan and the other alumni. “It’s more them being a friend, saying, ‘You’re smart, you’re here for reason.’”
Any finance hopeful in Manhattan needs all the help he or she can get. New regulation and tough markets have forced the sector to contract, making an extraordinarily competitive market even more so. According to a study by the London research firm Coalition Ltd., the number of bankers, traders, and other front-line jobs at the world’s biggest investment banks shrank 20 percent over the last five years. Although Silicon Valley is an increasingly popular option, New York is tougher than ever to break into.
Would-be bankers at McCombs are hindered by an additional obstacle: geography. According to the recruiting startup Vettery, seven of the 10 largest investment banking analyst classes last year came from Northeastern business schools. Wharton, as usual, dominated with a third more than the next school, NYU. McCombs ranked in the mid-teens. The University of Michigan was the only top 10 program not on the East Coast.
A four-hour flight from New York to Austin hardly sounds prohibitive, but that, coupled with the lack of a robust pipeline, gives recruiters pause. If you’re pursuing finance and go to Austin for your MBA, the thinking goes, you’re probably considering Dallas or Houston. Consequently, the banks don’t focus on Texas, creating a potential drag on admissions. “You need an alum in the seat [in New York] saying, ‘You’ve got to look at Texas,’” says McMullan.
BELOW: Holly McMullan, MBA ’04 and head of business development for North America at Apollo (left), reached out to Annie Bernica, BBA ’17, on her first day this summer interning at the firm in Manhattan.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MATTHEW SALACUSE
“I KNOW THEY CAN MODEL AND APPLY FINANCE THEORY TO THE NUMBERS
AND DO THE ACCOUNTING,” SAYS PAUL AARON, BBA ’85. “THE KEY IS
GETTING MORE OF THEM HERE.”
Typically, the McCombs students who do reach Wall Street take an unpaved road. Despite the resume reviews and mock interviews in the financial boot camp Training the Street, many navigate it on their own, without a network to make introductions and create a roadmap to getting hired. That was true 24 years ago for George Ackert, BBA ’91, a senior manag-ing director at the boutique investment bank Evercore Partners who is part of Wall Street for McCombs. “I didn’t know what invest-ment bankers were until I’d been a lawyer for a year,” he says one recent night at the prestigious University Club near his midtown Manhattan office. “I realized that’s what I want to do.”
And it remains largely true today, underscor-ing the need for an improved McCombs-Wall Street connection. The board, after all, is still new. Thomas Hamilton, MBA ’16, came to McCombs determined to work on Wall Street even though returning to his hometown of Houston would have been easier. “I wanted
to do something different,” he says. He landed a prized investment banking internship this past summer at Barclays with the help of his own network, which coached him for “superday,” the all-day interview marathon for finalists. “I spoke to my veteran network of former naval officers,” says Hamilton, who served six years in the service prior to business school.
In fact, that sort of support epitomizes what Wall Street for McCombs aims to provide.
“WE SHOULD DO MORE”THE EARLY WORK ON BUILDING a bridge between New York finance and McCombs began several years ago with Dean Gilligan. Initially, he approached local alumni to help organize fundraising events in the city to counteract the university’s decrease in state funding. The get-togethers were successful, not simply in raising millions but in reconnecting alumni to the school. Certainly, some finance executives were already engaged with the school individually. But there was little coordination among alumni, or between them and the school.
So when Paul Aaron, BBA ‘85, a partner at Goldman Sachs, suggested to Gilligan that well-placed alumni on Wall Street come together to lead the effort, the dean was eager to collaborate. “The genesis of the idea was looking at other schools that have a lot of Wall Street professionals and seeing how much connectivity there is — these well-oiled machines,” says Aaron, chairman of Wall Street for McCombs. “We didn’t have that.” He only knew a handful of alumni on Wall Street; Gilligan’s list included more than 50.
The two recruited a dozen other top finance executives to create a new board and formalize the alumni support and networking. The call to action — that the school and its successful alumni should do more — resonated. “If you find a Texas alum here, they will be helpful,” McMullan says. “They understand how hard it is.”
The board’s 15 members began meeting twice a year at MSD Capital, the Michael Dell investment firm on Fifth Avenue where Howard Berk, BBA ’87, is a partner. Early on, they decided to create a new half-tuition McCombs scholarship. (The $125,000 raised so far is on pace to double this year.) Requiring a financial contribution from board members gives them skin in the game as well as a tangible goal. At meetings, they hear from McCombs — typically the dean, a leader in the develop-ment office, and a faculty member —about the latest efforts to prepare students for New York finance. The executives discuss how to be more visible, more useful. Most are now regulars on the school’s Manhattan tours and some, like Ackert, routinely visit the school to spend time with students and faculty.
Despite working for competing banks and firms, the members have begun conducting networking events for McCombs students as a group. The first, held last fall at the Wayfarer, a restaurant near Central Park, drew about 60 students, who mingled with board members. “It creates a different dynamic when all of us are together as UT grads,” says Aaron. “It’s a more informal setting where [students] can ask whatever they want.” New York’s financial sector can seem like a foreign country, with its own language (and acronyms), mores, uni-
BELOW: Thomas Hamilton, MBA ’16, was determined to land an internship this summer on Wall Street. It would have been easier to return home to Houston, but he landed a prized spot at Barclays.
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WALL STREET FOR McCOMBS BOARD Formed in 2013, the alumni network draws from executives at Wall Street’s best-known banks and firms. “When you get all these people together who care tremendously about the school and help-ing students,” says board member George Ackert, “good things can happen.”
forms, and hierarchy — not to mention the various branches of finance. “If you didn’t grow up in or go to school around New York,” says McMullan, “you probably don’t know what a private equity analyst does versus a banking analyst versus a capital mar-kets analyst or a hedge fund analyst.”
Aaron and the others insist that McCombs stu-dents have the necessary intellectual firepower, toughness, and skills. Once they get in the door for summer analyst internships, they’re in the running for getting hired when they graduate. “I can’t think of a UT grad within investment banking at Goldman who hasn’t gotten an offer,” he says.
Yet it’s clear that in interviews, McCombs stu-dents, especially undergrads, often lack a deeper, more nuanced understanding of Wall Street that comes from being steeped in it.
“When Wharton kids come in, they’ve benefited from all the soft stages of pre-recruiting, this incred-ible exposure to bankers, alumni, in the pipeline,” says Foley of Houlihan Lokey. “The types of ques-tions they ask are of a greater depth. They’re not educating themselves on the rudimentary parts of your business. They have a more refined point of view on your go-to-market strategy. That’s what you’re up against — students who have one more degree of insight.”
OPENING EYES AND MINDSA WALL STREET PIPELINE might attract more stu-dents like Lynch, the second-year MBA from New York. Fresh off several years at the e-commerce startup One Kings Lane, she arrived at McCombs last year without a career plan. She wanted to learn about business and explore her options, with one caveat: she wasn’t going into finance.
But then Lynch met a fellow MBA student fresh off a New York internship in private wealth banking who helped her see that there’s more to finance than investment banking. Working with clients sounded similar to her role as a furniture buyer
working closely with vendors. She contacted a major Wall Street bank and eventually landed a summer internship in private banking this past summer in New York and Dallas. About her first year at McCombs, Lynch says, “I wish I had been given a better understanding of what finance means, what all you can do on Wall Street.”
Members of Wall Street for McCombs are convinced that more exposure to New York fi-nance will win over other new converts, just as they were won over earlier in their careers. The actual day-to-day, high-stakes intellectual work was a revelation. “When I talk to the students at UT, I tell them I have this great luxury of going to work every day surrounded by the smartest economists, research analysts, and [equity] prod-uct specialists,” says Aaron, who advises some of the largest industrial companies in the world. “It’s incredibly exciting.”
The board and the school want more than greater access to job opportunities. They want to ensure that students succeed after they’re hired. There’s some self-interest here, of course. The alumni hope that the new pipeline creates access to McCombs’ top talent for their firms. “I know they can model and apply finance theory to the numbers and do the accounting,” says Aaron. ”The key is getting more of them here.”
Bridges take time to build, whether they’re physical or metaphorical. Nearly three years in, Wall Street for McCombs is making strides. Between the scholarship fund, the student re-ferrals, and the new sense of connectivity among New York alumni as well as with the school, the evidence is mounting: the approach works. Alumni elsewhere are noticing — and interested.
“What we’re hearing,” says Emily Doran, se-nior associate director of development at Mc-Combs, “is why can’t we do this for San Francis-co? Houston? Let’s get this right and recreate it in other places.”
Chuck Salter is a senior editor at Fast Company in New York.
PAUL AARON, BBA ’85
Partner, Goldman Sachs Chairman of the Wall Street for McCombs Board
GEORGE ACKERT, BBA ’91
Senior Managing Director, Evercore Partners
MAX ALPER, BBA ’98
Managing Member, Mirrorlake Investors LLC
TERENCE BALAGIA, MPA ’07
Vice President of Investment Manage-ment Division, Goldman Sachs
HOWARD BERK, BBA ’87
Partner, MSD Capital LP
JAKE FOLEY, BBA ’88, MPA ’88
Managing Director, Houlihan Lokey
JOE HILL, BBA ’75
Partner and Executive Committee Mem-ber, Halcyon Asset Management LLC
JOHN LANCASTER, BBA ’90
Partner, Riverstone Holdings LLC
CHRIS MANNING, BBA ’90
Partner, Triatlantic Capital Partners
SKIP MCGEE, J.D. ’84
Co-founder and CEO, Intrepid Financial Partners
HOLLY MCMULLAN, MBA ’04
Head of Business Development for North America, Apollo Global Management
MATT OLIM, BBA ’98, MPA ’98
Investor, MSD Capital LP
DWIGHT SCOTT, MBA ’89
Senior Managing Director and Head of Energy Practice, GSO Capital Partners LP
GAVIN WOLFE, BBA ’89
Managing Director, BOFA/Merrill Lynch
TED WANG, MBA ’96
CEO, Puissance Capital Management
“I KNOW THEY CAN MODEL AND APPLY FINANCE THEORY TO THE NUMBERS
AND DO THE ACCOUNTING,” SAYS PAUL AARON, BBA ’85. “THE KEY IS
GETTING MORE OF THEM HERE.”
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HOUSTON MAY BE THE NATION’S ENERGY
CAPITAL, BUT AUSTIN IS THE PLACE WHERE ENERGY
LEADERS ARE CREATEDby Priscila Mosqueda | photographs by Amy Mikler
WITH ROUGHLY ONE-THIRD of total U.S. crude oil and natural gas production, Texas is front and center of the energy industry at both the national and global levels. Graduates of The University of Texas at Austin hold positions in every realm of energy leadership, from geoscience and pet-rochemical engineering to energy law, policy, executive management, and finance.
And with two different undergraduate en-ergy concentrations, four different energy-fo-
cused master’s programs, and an executive education energy series for industry employ-ees, the McCombs School of Business is at the forefront of energy education at UT.
“There’s no better place to be if you’re inter-ested in energy than the University of Texas,” says David Spence, McCombs professor of Business, Government and Society.
Whatever sector of the energy business McCombs graduates enter, however, it’s a noto-
riously cyclic industry that has seen significant shifts during the last decade, from the spread of fracking to technological advances in re-newables. Rapidly falling oil prices last fall and early this year forced energy companies to cut spending significantly, leading to some 70,000 layoffs in 2015 in the United States alone. Even with such volatility, many McCombs energy experts say the field still offers strong career options for young graduates.
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Rob Jones, BBA ’80, MBA ’86, of Shell Midstream Partners LP in Houston, and former McCombs energy executive-in-residence, says graduates of McCombs’ energy-focused degree programs are still in high demand despite the industry’s recent volatility. IC
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LATE LAST YEAR, oil prices fell from one of their highest points ever — around $100 per barrel — to less than half that in the space of a few months. The future began looking less sunny for companies that had invested billions in drilling and fracking.
The oil industry breathed a collective sigh of relief when crude prices began rising again early this year, but as August’s price drop can at-test, the road to recovery is unsteady. McCombs researchers Jim Dyer and Joe Hahn recently published a study in Energy Economics that projects it will be several years before we see the price per barrel back up in the $100 range, but it’s a realistic long-term view.
Their “cone of uncertainty” forecast tool is a remarkably accurate hybrid of two models — one typically used for valuing assets in the financial markets, and the other the funda-mentals of oil supply and demand.
“The picture looks pretty stable,” explains Hahn. “The industry is robust enough that new graduates with this kind of specialized knowledge will still see doors opening to them.”
Rob Jones, BBA ’80, MBA ’86, is on the board of directors of Shell Midstream Partners, LP. He says that even in periods of contraction, energy companies focus on the long-term. “In my experience, they consistently invest in tal-ent, notably developing their next generation of commercial and technical leaders.”
“UT is a great resource for these compa-nies. Our graduates have invaluable knowledge about oil and gas exploration and energy policy, finance and supply chain management.”
Energy markets have always fluctuated, but Ehud I. Ronn, McCombs professor of finance, whose research focuses on the valuation of energy commodity-contingent securities, says the question is how to most effectively analyze those fluctuations.
“Currently, for example, the upward-slop-ing price curve we are experiencing is a clear manifestation of an especially weak oil market, an indicator that we can expect an eventual recovery to normalcy at higher prices,” he says.
“Our students learn about the signals en-ergy markets convey and how to use them in making better hedging decisions and correct valuation assessments,” says Ronn, who teach-es energy finance.
In addition to mastering asset valuation and risk management, McCombs’ energy fi-nance students also learn about fossil fuel exploration, production, and distribution, says John C. Butler, associate director of UT’s Kay Bailey Hutchison Center.“Taking courses outside the business school allows students to get deep expertise in hands-on energy disci-
plines — not just moving things up and down the supply chain, but why this pipe needs to be at this location at this time in the process,” says Butler.
ALONG WITH NATURAL GAS, wind and solar are the two fastest-growing energy sources in the U.S. Texas leads the nation in wind capacity and is ramping up its utility-scale solar: In 2014, the state saw a $252 million investment in solar, a 45 percent increase from the previous year.
When these technologies first emerged, many were skeptical that their costs could ever be competitive. “But now solar, in particular, has gotten very inexpensive,” says Spence. Wind needed the push from tax credits in the past to make it competitive, but now it is “very close to parity with other fuels,” says Spence. A U.S. Department of Energy report found that the cost of wind turbines has dropped between roughly 20 and 40 percent since 2008.
That means that the rapidly growing renew-able energy industry needs more people who understand emerging technologies and how to manage businesses that are on the cutting edge in the field. McCombs’ CleanTech MBA
NEW KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON CENTER FOCUSES UT ENERGY EXPERTISEThe new Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Business at The University of Texas at Austin, fosters collaboration across disciplines and allows students to draw on expertise across various schools, all with the goal of better preparing those who want to enter the energy field. The center sponsors research, hosts conferences of international energy experts, and encourages collaboration by developing interdisciplinary curricula. The center also is hosting a new journalist-in-res-idence program with Wall Street Journal reporter Russell Gold blogging weekly about key energy topics.
Former U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, JD ’67, and president of the Texas Exes, spoke in February about the importance of the new center.
WHAT DO YOU HOPE THE KBH CENTER WILL ACCOMPLISH? “The first opportunity will be to further encourage and support research that is truly cross-disciplinary, bringing together the best thinking in law, public policy, business, and engineering. So academic research is a big priority.”
HOW DO YOU VIEW UT’S ROLE AS A LEADER IN ENERGY EDUCATION?“The university is breaking new ground in energy leadership, and it’s clear that we should have a center for energy in business and law. We are the flagship university with innovative energy research and energy spe-cific curriculum, and you would expect all of these offerings to be at The University of Texas.I am very excited about it, and I think that we have an opportunity to be the place where anyone who wants to know how to manage energy production or manage an energy company will know they need to go to The University of Texas.”
HOW DO YOU SEE McCOMBS’ ROLE IN THE KBH CENTER?“I don’t think anybody would question that we have the strongest energy reputa-tion in the business school as well as the law school. Our professors have written the textbooks on the subject. So it’s a won-derful synergism between McCombs and UT Law, with the added component that energy and Latin America are so crucial in today’s world.” — David Wenger
offers students a unique education in alterna-tive energy, including classes in wind energy law and climate change policy.
Understanding renewable energy sources is particularly essential now, when world leaders are preparing for a potential transition away from traditional fuels. In June, G7 leaders agreed to phase out fossil fuels by the end of the century. Shell joined five other European oil majors in calling for governments to imple-ment a carbon emissions pricing system. No U.S. oil majors signed the letter, but President Barack Obama introduced a plan to cut carbon emissions in the U.S. by 30 percent by 2030.
If his new Clean Power Plan survives the years of legal challenges that are beginning now before the plan is even finalized, Spence says refineries could be targeted next. That would be years down the line, but these are the kinds of scenarios Spence speaks about in his classes to prepare students for long-term
changes in the energy field.At the same time they are learning from
Spence, McCombs energy students take cours-es in other schools across the UT campus. They have access to geosciences professors who study reservoirs and engineering pro-fessors who are figuring out the best ways to tap those resources. They learn the basics of energy law from professors at one of the top law schools in the country and remain informed about global energy policy through the LBJ School.
Yet at the center of all this interdisciplinary knowledge, “economic analysis is the filter for all of it,” says Finance Professor Sheridan Titman. “Engineering and science are required to understand the physical characteristics of the project — and the law puts constraints on what can be done, where and when — but it’s economic analysis that links everything and examines the impact on the bottom line. That
ability to analyze an energy project’s viability from a business perspective is what we provide here at McCombs.”
Priscila Mosqueda, BA ’12 Journalism, covers energy, the environment, and crime in Texas and Mexico.
CLOCKWISE FROM LOWER LEFT: Associate Professor Joe Hahn studies oil prices over time; Finance Professor Ehud I. Ronn researches energy valuation; Professor Jim Dyer developed a “cone of uncertainty” forecast tool with Hahn; John C. Butler is associate director of the KBH Center; Professor David Spence is an ex-pert in energy law; Professor Sheridan Titman says economic analysis is central to all energy disciplines.
McCOMBS’ ENERGY-FOCUSED BUSINESS DEGREE PROGRAMS
McCombs offers an energy management program (which recently received formal accreditation from the American Association of Professional Landmen) for both business and non-business undergraduates, as well as a bachelor of business in finance with an energy concentration. The school’s energy-focused master’s degrees include a master of science in finance with an energy concentration, an MBA in finance with an energy concentration, a Cleantech MBA, and a three-year Dual Energy Earth Resources/MBA, a multidisciplinary dual degree program that spans the Jackson School of Geosciences, the Cockrell School of Engineering, the McCombs School of Business, and the LBJ School of Public Affairs.
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News of the workshop went viral — it was ridiculed nationwide by media outlets ranging from the Washington Post to Fast Company.
For Management Assistant Professor Emily Amanatullah, who was interviewed by many media outlets following the fiasco, the ill-con-ceived training seminar is just more evidence supporting her research.
“It boils down to the idea some people have that women and men are inherently different and that they should be treated different-ly,” she says. “What we find is that even though wives earn more than their husbands in about a third of dual-income households and women represent the majority in some professions, many people are slow to accept these changes.” Amanatullah attributes this to gender determinism — the belief that a person’s gender dictates behavior — and it may be the basis for many of the choices we make, even on a subconscious level.
Amanatullah’s research frequently explores gender issues in the workplace, from the backlash women receive when they negotiate higher salaries to the dilemma they face of being perceived as either likable or competent (but rarely both). In her latest study, she exam-ines why it is we struggle with gender inequality in the first place.
With co-authors Catherine Tinsley at Georgetown University and Taeya Howell, a doctoral graduate from McCombs now at New York University, Amanatullah conducted detailed online assessments with more than 1,500 men and women from across the United States, ages 18–69, both married and single. They identified two sets of partici-pants: undergraduates from a large, public university and respondents (average age, 35) from a major marketing research site.
They wanted to know if gender determinism could be a reason why a wage gap still exists and explored how individuals’ beliefs about
omen aren’t good with numbers, they don’t read reports, and they ask too many questions. That’s according to a consultant who was invited to coach Austin city employees in March about how to work with the newly elected female-majority city coun-cil. He explained that women “don’t process things the same way” men do and that he himself learned how to interact with female leaders by taking cues from his 11-year-old daughter.
gender influence salary preferences and career choices. In short, who wants to be the family’s primary breadwinner?
Men. While that may not be surprising, consider this: Women, regardless of age, education, race, or marital status, were more likely to prefer their husband or future spouse to bring home the higher salary. This preference held constant whether the women had (or even wanted) children.
“We thought that at some level, this must be a desire for financial security so women have the choice to opt out of the workforce to care for children, but we found no connection,” Amanatullah says.
What they did find was that gender deterministic views correlated with stronger preferences for a male breadwinner, both among men and women. Further, gender determinism directly correlated to the kinds of work men and women seek. In one study, 175 male and female respondents answered questions about their income, their partner’s salary, and their jobs. Women with high gender determinism scores were more likely to work from home (either full- or part-time) and earn less money than their low-scoring peers. Conversely, men with high scores were more likely to work outside the home and agree with statements such as, “It would bother me if I made less than my spouse.”
The researchers’ goal was to understand how innate beliefs about gender direct our choices even when, as a society, we’re striving for
equality — and it’s what differentiates their work from past studies. In previous research, people were asked to respond to statements such as “A woman’s place is in the home” or “men make better leaders,” but this overlooked the subtle distinction that while people may not identify with outmoded gender roles, they may still believe there is something tangibly different about men and women, explains Amanatullah.
“We were curious about the loosening of gender roles in our society and had a prediction that even though we see more evidence of female breadwinners and male caretakers, there may still be rigidity in the way people think about gender,” she says.
Justine Tobin, BBA ’83, and her husband, David, have never felt pressure to conform to traditional roles. At its highest, her salary has been eight times greater than his. Justine, an investment banker, held executive positions with Goldman Sachs, Solomon Brothers, and Bank of America before launching her own firm nearly 15 years ago. At times, her salary has dwarfed David’s income as an architect, but even 20 years ago, the couple didn’t mind. “It wasn’t a big deal,” says Justine. “People noticed I made more, but everyone also knew it was just because of the business I was in.”
For David, bringing home only one ninth of the couple’s income meant he had free-dom to pick and choose his projects with-out feeling like he was jeopardizing his family’s wellbeing, which had grown to
include their first child, Hannah. “It reached a point where it made no difference if I worked for a firm or not. Her salary allowed me to go off on my own,” says David.
The opportunities were good and the money was better, but being a female breadwinner in a male-dominated industry doesn’t come without backlash — something Amanatullah points out is common when people violate traditional gender stereotypes. “I look back and realize why secretaries treated me the way they did. Either I was making too much money or I was competing against her boss,” says Justine, who adds that she’s lost her job three times during her career — once for each child she’s had and always within months of giving birth. “Knowing I was the primary breadwinner and also at risk for being discriminated against as a woman added an interesting dimension. Maybe that’s why women want spouses who earn more than they do? Men don’t encounter sexism at work,” she says.
And that gets to the heart of what Amanatullah hopes people can learn from these findings. The beliefs we hold about gender — and, therefore, ourselves — are learned during childhood and through adolescence. From the dad who always pays when the family dines out to the mom who always picks up a sick or injured child from school, certain expectations are established early on that are difficult to shake as we enter adulthood. Difficult, but not impossible.
“Acknowledging this may help us be more deliberative in the way we process people and events so we can rise above the mental shortcuts that come with stereotypes and, instead, treat people as individuals rather than as members of a particular social category,” says Amanatullah.
“I don’t think biology or even socialized patterns of gender dictate how people can and should behave. However, as a scholar of gender, I know that not everyone shares my viewpoint. Many still believe that men and women are inherently different,” she concedes.
But as long as we view ourselves differently, we reinforce that we need to be treated differently. And even though women expect to earn the same salaries as their male colleagues, their preference to earn less than their husbands could be partly to blame for the persistent wage gap.
For Justine and David, they’re in their 50s and just getting started. “We each think we have about 20 or 30 years left in our careers,” she laughs. “We love what we do, and we don’t intend to retire.” But, she says, they’re also at the point now where they don’t even know who makes the most money in any given year. “We just keep going, but by no means are we keeping score,” she says. In truth, they never have, and for couples that challenge the status quo, chunking the scoreboard from the outset might be the biggest victory.
Adrienne Dawson is the editor of Texas Enterprise, an online publication that showcases McCombs faculty research.
LEFT: Justine Tobin, BBA ’83, and her husband, David, challenge stereo-types about who should be the breadwinner.
“THE KEY TO GENDER DETERMINISM ISN’T THAT WE THINK WE HAVE SPECIFIC ROLES
TO FILL, BUT RATHER THAT WE THINK WE’RE INNATELY DISSIMILAR. ”
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NO ONE WOULD FAULT Red McCombs for opting to retire. At age 88, McCombs is a Texas entrepreneurial icon whose legendary knack for deal-making has made him the 324th richest person in the United States, according to Forbes. As a young man, his first auto business venture was a Ford dealership in Corpus Christi. From there he formed an empire of auto dealerships before moving into energy, real estate and broad-casting. He co-founded Clear Channel Communications. He’s bought sports teams including the Corpus Christi Clippers, Minnesota Vikings, Denver Nuggets, and San Antonio Spurs. Most recently, his investments have expanded to include Austin’s Circuit of the Americas racetrack, the private security firm Academi, and Texas resort developments in Austin, Canyon Lake, Rockport, and Port Aransas.
He is also widely known for his philanthropy. In 2000, the billion-aire and his family donated $50 million to the business school at The University of Texas at Austin, which now bears his name. His family foundation makes more than 300 gifts yearly.
With his daughter, Marsha Shields, groomed to step in as his successor, McCombs could certainly choose to rest. But at the start of a workweek this past summer at McCombs Enterprises in San Antonio, McCombs is at his office as usual, with no plans for slowing down.
Six days a week, he still works full-time, surrounded by trusted em-ployees, some of whom have been with him for decades. He continues to make deals, mentor protégés, and keep a surprisingly hectic yet largely unstructured daily calendar.
“The routine is that we don’t have a routine,” says McCombs. “It’s better to leave lots of room for the unexpected. Generally, 80 percent of my day is unscheduled, but I always have lots to do. It works out really well.”
His office at the McCombs Plaza building just north of downtown San Antonio is packed with vintage Western paintings, walking sticks, saddles, and antique firearms. His full collection of Old West artifacts (not all of which are on display) numbers more than 7,000 items and is considered one of the most extensive in the United States.
RIGHT: Red McCombs at work, surrounded by Old West artifacts, sports
memorabilia, personal keepsakes, and an inner circle of trusted employees.
88 YEARS OLD AND STILL WORKING SIX DAYS A WEEKby Jeremy M. Simon | photographs by Sarah Wilson
A Day at the Office with
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McCombs says. “I’ve never done business at home, and I’ve always been a six-day-a-week worker. When I leave the office to go home at the end of the day, I’m 100 percent committed to enjoying my family. And in the morning when I leave the house and start toward the office, I’m 100 percent excited about what I’m going to do when I get here.”
y SUZY THOMAS, PERSONAL ASSISTANT WHEN RED McCOMBS hired Suzy Thomas 43 years ago, he gave her half an hour on a Sat-urday morning to get to the office. “I told him I’d be right there, but it took me more like 35 minutes because I had to dry my hair.” She was in the shower when he called to say the job he had interviewed her for was hers, but only if she could start right away. That was in June 1972. She’s kept his office humming ever since, organizing his appointments, correspon-dence, and travel, and taking on an array of unorthodox assignments as well. “I’d only had a couple of other jobs before this one,” she says. “I got bored with each of them within a year. But when I started working for Red, I quickly learned that any day I might end up doing just about anything.” She remembers McCombs
asking her to inventory the hundreds of ani-mals on his ranch, from tagging their ears to taking their pictures. “Red sent me to livestock photography school in Colorado to learn how to take photos of longhorn steers and other farm animals.” She even learned to photograph pigs. “You’re literally down on the ground, on your elbows, getting the shot,” she recalls.
y JOE SHIELDS, GRANDSON, ANALYST JOE SHIELDS, BBA Honors ’13, is both an em-ployee and grandson of Red McCombs — with the hair color to prove it. “I guess I’ve been part of the team my whole life,” he notes. “From birth, I was hired and haven’t been fired yet, which is nice.” After graduation from the McCombs School of Business with a bachelor’s degree in finance, Shields went to work at Cir-cuit of the Americas for a year before returning to San Antonio to work for his grandfather. Although both Shields and McCombs put in similar hours, there are distinct differences in their use of technology in the office: You won’t find McCombs communicating via email or text, Shields says, “but I’d argue that he gets a whole lot more done without a computer or a cell phone than I do with technology.”
McCombs’ longtime personal assistant, Suzy Thomas, works just outside his office. Across from her desk, dozens of framed photos sit waiting to be hung. “There’s not enough room to display all of them at the same time, so we rotate them every six months or so,” she says.
McCombs sits at a massive desk next to a TV tuned to CNBC, surrounded by photos of family members and famous friends and other mementos from a lifetime of building busi-nesses and nurturing relationships. Sunlight streams in through his sixth-floor windows that overlook a golf course and, beyond that, a view of the city.
It’s certainly hard to imagine him ever retir-ing to a hammock with a view of the beach. For one, such a move would mean stepping back from his position as an influential decision- maker. “I’ve always wanted to be in a place where I can have a say about what’s happening and what’s going to happen,” he says. “If I didn’t come to work, what would I do?”
Maybe part of the reason McCombs enjoys working so much is that he fully leaves the office behind at the end of the day. He doesn’t take his work home with him. He doesn’t own a cell phone or use a computer.
“I center on what I’m doing at the moment,”
y RAD WEAVER, CEO, McCOMBS PARTNERS McCOMBS LEARNED about Rad Weaver, BBA ’98, through a Ford scholarship essay in which the young man described how his father’s recent death had affected his family. Weaver applied for the scholarship to cobble together the funds to pay for college while also helping to support his family. Even though Weaver had earned a UT baseball scholarship as well as the Ford scholarship, it wasn’t enough, so McCombs took the young athlete under his wing and offered him an hourly job washing cars and picking up mail. Weaver continued that job throughout college during his sum-mer and winter breaks. After Weaver grad-uated from UT, McCombs gave him greater responsibility within the organization. One of those early roles required Weaver to trim business opportunity proposals down to a single page and present them to McCombs. “I often found myself trying to hone a 500-page business plan into that one page. If I couldn’t clearly articulate the value proposition, then we passed. Either I didn’t understand it well
y HARRY ADAMS, EVP, REAL ESTATE, DEVELOPMENT A GRADUATE OF West Point, Harry Adams served in the Army for six years after college, then spent several years in the homebuilding industry before going to work for McCombs. In the Army, he worked under some highly distin-guished officers who went on to become three- and four-star generals, but he says it wasn’t until he began working for McCombs that he saw the quality of leadership he experienced in the military. “If you judge an entrepreneur not on the size of one company or one great accomplishment,” Adams says, “but instead on literally hundreds of companies that have been successfully run, not 10 or 20 years of success but 50 years of success, and then you look at what any single individual from Texas has done for their people and their employees and the local institutions — schools, universi-ties, cities, or state — I think history will tell that the scope of Red McCombs’ leadership is unparalleled.”
Jeremy M. Simon is the editor of the McCombs Today news website.
enough or it was too complicated,” Weav-er says. “Red gets to the heart of the matter quickly. He has an amazing talent for doing that in any business, social, or family situation.”
y TIM CLIVER, COO, AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS TIM CLIVER HAS seen how McCombs inspires loyalty through his interactions with em-ployees. “From the porter sweeping floors to the president of the United States, he treats everyone the same way and speaks to them genuinely,” Cliver says. In the late 1990s, when McCombs bought the Minnesota Vikings, Cliver accompanied him to a pre-season foot-ball game. “The driver picked us up early and we got to the stadium at 2 p.m., even though the game wasn’t until 7 p.m., because Red was so excited,” Cliver says. McCombs invited the driver to join them in the owner’s box, where they met the team’s general manager. “The general manager says, ‘This guy can’t come into the owner’s box.’ And Red said, ‘Yes, he can.’ He made the general manager stand up and the driver sat in his seat.”
McCombs staff members tend to be loyal long-timers. LEFT TO RIGHT: Suzy Thomas (43 years with McCombs), Joe Shields (grandson), Rad Weaver (21 years with McCombs), Tim Cliver (34 years with McCombs), and Harry Adams (three years with McCombs).
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THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS EDUCATION IS EMERGING FROM AN 85-FOOT-DEEP, TEXAS-SIZE HOLE AT THE CORNER OF MLK AND GUADALUPE
by Todd Savage | photograph by Jeff Wilson
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BY A RECENT COUNT, 50 construction cranes loomed over booming Austin, Texas, and at least nine of those towered over the campus. Two cranes went up last spring at the southwest gateway to the university, at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Guadalupe Street. In the coming months, they will begin raising a gleaming new addition to the university’s skyline: Robert B. Rowling Hall, an ambitious, state-of-the-art building to house the Texas Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in Technology Commercialization programs. When it opens in 2017, Rowling Hall will double the Texas Executive Education space and, in conjunction with the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, increase the convention and conference activities at the university. Years in the planning, the building has been conceived to embody the latest thinking on learning, innovation, and applied experience. Eric Hirst, associate dean for graduate programs and the school’s project head for Rowling, paints a picture of a bold future for McCombs. “Rowling Hall is going to be a game changer,” says Hirst.
y THE BUILDING: 504,000 square feet, including 203,032-sq.-ft. academic building, 94,000-sq.-ft. expansion of the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, and 401 parking spaces.
y BUILT TO HOUSE: Graduate classrooms, graduate student study and breakout rooms, MBA graduate program administration, ca-reer services, and research centers. Plus a special events terrace, community boardroom, accelerator lab, and ballroom. The number and variety of collaborative spaces are meant to foster purposeful interactions, Hirst says.
y OPENING DATE: Late spring 2017.
y COST: $186 million, of which $59 million raised through corporate and individual gifts.
y NAMESAKE: Robert Rowling, BBA ’76, his wife Terry Hennersdorf Rowling, BBA ’76, and their family gave the initial gift of $25 million toward the new building.
y PRONOUNCE IT: RO-ling.
y DESIGN: Jacobs/Ennead Architects, New York-based firm spe-cializing in educational and public institutions, including the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas; Stanford Law School’s William H. Neukom Building; and the new Cockrell School of Engineering building under construction at UT.
y VISION: Years of thought about the future of business educa-tion have guided the design. A key focus is on creating a place for collaboration and a hub of activity that will attract thought leaders from both campus and the city.
y SHOWCASE: Transparent spaces on the ground floor will make the activity of marketing labs and research centers visible to everyone entering the building.
y FLEXIBLE SPACES: The building was designed with diverse spaces geared for flexible interactions and brainstorming — with a goal of adapting to teaching pedagogy as it evolves in the future. There will be conference rooms, flat classrooms with adaptable seating, circular spaces, and casual areas for invention and personal reflection. In 50 years, Hirst says, “we probably won’t have another building, but we’ll teach differently. We’re going to be able to adapt.”
y MOONTOWER CAFE: Kenneth Jastrow, BBA ’69, MBA ’71, and Susan Jastrow gave $2 million toward the building and a one-year tuition scholarship to a student who came up with the best name for the café. Mackswell Dickson, MBA ‘16, pitched the winning entry, a nod to Austin’s iconic light towers.
y AMOUNT OF DEBRIS REMOVED: 225,000 tons in 15,000 truckloads
y FIRST POUR OF CONCRETE: Fall 2015
y NUMBER OF CONCRETE TRUCKS TO POUR THE FOUNDATION: 3,800
PROJECT SITE: http://projects.dpr.com/utrbrh/WEB CAMS: https://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/Tech/Media-Services/Rowling%20Hall%20North%20CameraDOWNLOAD: iPad app on Robert B. Rowling Hall at the iTunes store
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1 ALUMNI BUSINESS CONFERENCEMARCH 6, 2015“The Next Frontier for Texas Business” was the theme of the McCombs Alumni Network’s 10th Annual Alumni Business Conference. Chair of the Finance Department and Professor Jay Hartzell (far left) leads a panel on commercial real estate with Jack Fraker, vice chairman and managing director, CBRE Capital Markets, and the first executive-in-residence for McCombs’ Real Estate Finance and Investment Center (REFIC); Patton “Pat” Jones, principal, ARA Real Estate Investment Services; and Colby Mueck, managing director, HFF LP.
4 McCOMBS APPRECIATION DINNERMARCH 27, 2015Hortencia Campbell, BBA ’15, performed at the annual event honoring loyal supporters who have benefited students and faculty through their contributions.
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ADVISORY COUNCIL SPOUSE PROGRAMMARCH 27, 2015 Christie Skinner (seated, third from right), wife of Dean Gilligan, joined spouses of McCombs Advisory Council members on a visit to the Texas Capitol and a tour of the Governor’s Mansion, now occupied by McCombs alumnus Greg Abbott, BBA ’81.
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ROWLING HALL GROUNDBREAKINGNOVEMBER 7, 2014Associate Dean for Graduate Programs Eric Hirst; former Dean Tom Gilligan; former Re-gent Bob Rowling, BBA ’76, whose gift of $25 million launched the campaign to fund the construction of the building; former Univer-sity of Texas at Austin President Bill Powers; Maureen McCaffery, MBA ’15 and Graduate Business Council president.
3 HALL OF FAME CELEBRATIONNOVEMBER 7, 2014McCombs inducted four prominent business leaders into the Hall of Fame: Dan Burck, John Goff, Dick Evans, and Woody Hunt. Dean Gil-ligan also recognized the 2014 alumni Rising Stars, Scott Mattei and Vivek Shah, for their early accomplishments. Pictured: Bob Zlotnik BBA ’75 , MBA ’80, Mattei, Shah, and Gilligan.
A REVIEW OF McCOMBS CELEBRATIONS, HONORS, AND ALUMNI EVENTS.
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10 KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON CENTER FOR ENERGY, LAW, AND BUSINESS INAUGURAL GALA AND SYMPOSIUMFEBRUARY 19-20, 2015The newly formed collaboration combining the resources and missions of energy initia-tives from the McCombs School of Business and the School of Law was named for former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas. The center, which kicked off with a gala and one-day symposium, sponsors research, hosts lectures and conferences, and develops innovative cur-riculum and learning opportunities leading to energy careers. Pictured: UT School of Law Dean Ward Farnsworth, McCombs Associate Finance Professor John C. Butler, Hutchison, KBH Center Director Melinda Taylor, and former McCombs Dean Tom Gilligan.
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SEATTLE MBA TREKJUNE 10, 2015Seattle alumni, led by chapter president Kalin McKenna, MBA ’11 (left, green scarf ), met with MBA students and staff visiting area companies. Staff included Karen Gilbert (left, in purple), MBA employer and alumni engagement offi-cer; Tina Mabley (back row, fifth from right), assistant dean and full-time MBA program director; and Eric Hirst, associate dean for graduate programs (front row, far right).
9 McCOMBS ALUMNI HOUSTON CHAPTER EVENTJULY 16, 2015The Houston Chapter’s “Welcome Interns” event was hosted by Aaron Lyons (seated, far right), MBA ’11, owner of the Houston restau-rant Dish Society, and attended by Co-President Nikki Hanley (seated, 2nd from right), BBA ’04, and BBA/MPA board member Andrew Vo, BBA ’95 (standing, far right).
6 CORPORATE RECOGNITION LUNCHAPRIL 24, 2015Three companies and one individual were honored for their exemplary contributions to and participation with the McCombs School of Business: Southwest Airlines (Outstand-ing Corporate Partner), KPMG (Trailblazer Award), Shell (Outstanding Executive Educa-tion Partner), and Laurence Pope of Halliburton (Outstanding Corporate Champion). Pictured: Dean Gilligan (center), Mark Shaw of South-west (4th from left), who accepted the Out-standing Corporate Partner Award on behalf of the company, and other Southwest executives.
7 TEXAS 12 DINNERAPRIL 23, 2015Alumni gathered at McCombs Marketing Lecturer Steven Brister’s home in Austin for the inaugural Texas 12 evening at which six MBA students connected with six alumni over dinner.
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With children ages five and three years old, Hurst says adventurous vacation are on hold for now, but he looks forward to showing them the world when they are older. “We’ve got offices all over the world, and every employee is encouraged to take a month and go work in a different office,” says Hurst. “So we’ve talked about moving the family to Sydney or moving the family to France or moving the family to Singapore just to go experience the different offices of HomeAway but also to experience a different way of living.”
With a job like his, there’s a world of possibility. — Selah Maya Zighelboim
School of Business. Hurst and his wife wanted to raise their children in Austin, where they both had family.
His first tasks included overseeing HomeAway’s e-commerce and organizing the company’s initial public offering, which made $216 million. He also put a lot of effort into in-creasing the site’s vacation market service of-ferings, including car rentals, event tickets, and partnerships with other online travel services like Expedia and Kayak.
In his new position Hurst will continue to oversee e-commerce, and will head efforts to drive long-term growth.
HURST COMES HOMEy J E F F H U R ST, B BA ’ 01Chief Strategy Officer, HomeAway
GROWING UP, HomeAway Chief Strategy Officer Jeff Hurst didn’t travel much. Family vacations consisted of occasional ski trips in Colorado. That all changed, though, when he took a trip with some friends to Costa Rica soon after graduating from McCombs.
Hurst, who majored in finance and business honors, loved the change of scenery that Costa Rica offered, and was fascinated by the local culture. Soon after the trip, he began working for McKinsey & Company in San Francisco, a job that required frequent travel. “My wife and I started trying to see the world bit by bit,” Hurst says. “Then as I got further along in my career, the vacation idea became more or less, ‘What’s next on the bucket list?’” He traveled to Chile, Vietnam, and Turkey, enjoying the opportunities to unplug from his busy life.
In April, Hurst’s combination of wanderlust and business acumen came together when he was named chief strategy officer at HomeAway, the world’s leading vacation rental company, headquartered in Austin, with more than a million vacation rental listings in more than 190 countries. HomeAway offers online ac-cess both to the people who want to list their second homes or apartments as short-term vacation rentals and those who are interested in staying in them.
As a travel aficionado who has stayed in guest houses on many of his own vacations, Hurst says HomeAway is a perfect fit. Since it started in 2005, HomeAway has grown rapidly, acquir-ing other companies such as VacationRentals.com and BedandBreakfast.com.
Hurst began working at Austin’s HomeAway headquarters in 2010, taking the position of global director of strategy after a decade of living in San Francisco, working for McKinsey and earning his MBA at Stanford Graduate
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MARKETING HER WAY TO HOLLYWOOD y T I YA S I R C A R , B BA ’ 0 4Actress
TIYA SIRCAR HAS DANCED since she was two years old, acted since she was seven, and known she was destined for the silver screen as long as she can remember.
Now, she is the star of Miss India America, an independent feature film screened to outstanding reviews at film festivals across the world after it premiered in February. The comedy — about an over-achieving California teenager, Lily Prasad (Sircar), registering for the Miss India Golden
HEALTH IT LEADER FOCUSES ON MILLENNIALSy J O N M E RT Z , B BA ’ 93Vice President, Marketing, Corepoint Health
AS A FARMER’S SON, Jon Mertz was raised to value hard work. Today, he has taken that ethic to a new level, as vice president of marketing for Corepoint Health. He joined the executive team when the company was in its early growth stages, re-branding it and spearheading market development.
His efforts paid off. Corepoint has been rec-ognized as the category leader for the past six years by KLAS, an organization highly respect-ed for the accuracy of its health information technology ratings system.
Corepoint provides health care data integra-tion products, system upgrades and solutions, and staffing services to hospitals, clinics, and labs. “Since healthcare has made significant strides using electronic health records, today there is tremendous opportunity for exchange and analytics,” says Mertz.
When Mertz is not busy overseeing Core-point’s marketing, he manages Thin Difference, a website dedicated to developing leadership among millennials. His book Activate Leader-ship: Aspen Truths to Empower Millennial Lead-ers offers guidance to Generation Y. “Millen-nials inspire me because they understand the role of purpose in work and business,” Mertz says. “They are driving positive change in the workplace.” — Veronica Vasquez
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State pageant in order to win back a boyfriend who has left her for an airheaded beauty queen — has received numerous festival awards, in-cluding a best actress award for Sircar from the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.
During her decade in show business, she has made hundreds of television and film ap-pearances. Other recent roles include Sabine in the Disney series Star Wars Rebels, Neha in the film The Internship alongside Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, and Allie on the TV series The Crazy Ones with Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Coming from a high-achieving family of uni-versity professors, Sircar says she entered The University of Texas at Austin feeling she needed more than a theater education. Though her parents never pressured her to take on a second major, she wanted her college choices to make her parents proud. “I also wanted to challenge myself and do something that’s super out of the box for me, which my business degree totally was,” Sircar says. She decided to major in both business and theater, choosing marketing as her business degree specialty so she could learn to position herself as an actress.
Her time at McCombs ended up giving her more than an academically rigorous experi-ence — it also served as her bridge to the larger world. For her internship, she worked at Austin talent agency BLVD, which ended up serving as her first agent. Through the business school’s study abroad program, she attended university in Paris. While there, she got a summer job as a tour guide in Rome, and was able to pay her own way for three months in Italy before re-turning to Austin for her senior year. She credits McCombs with giving her the confidence to live and travel abroad and later to pursue an acting career.
After graduation, Sircar spent a year working in sales at Dell in Austin to build a nest egg, then moved to Los Angeles to focus on her acting career. “I think I have that special viewpoint where I can be creative and be an artist. But my business background is where my creative and strategic sides came together,” she says. “Because of my McCombs education I’ve been able to successfully pursue the creative career I have always wanted in a very strategic way.” — Selah Maya Zighelboim
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sulting opportunities in the augmented-reality market. He got his start in the field by creating a business plan when he competed in the Texas Venture Labs Competition. Welch says he looks forward to a future where augmented reality will be “a key element of people’s on-line lives and a primary means of interaction, information gathering, and commerce.” — Veronica Vasquez
STARTUP SPECIALIST HAS PASSION FOR CHANGEy KAT I E M AY, B BA ’ 8 9 , M BA ’ 9 4CEO of ShippingEasy
WHEN KATIE MAY JOINED ShippingEasy as CEO in 2012, moving the headquarters to her hometown of Austin and kicking off the aggressive growth efforts following the young company’s founding in Sydney, Aus-tralia, she had already proven her mettle with startups.
Her first venture into that world was in 1999, when after working for three years as a management consultant for Booz, Allen & Hamilton in Melbourne, she decided the time was right to leave big consulting and enter the rough and tumble of the startup world.
She joined the executive team at seek.com.au as head of marketing and spent six years leading it through its initial public offering, which ended up being the most successful internet IPO in Australia to date.
She then founded kidspot.com.au, the larg-est website for mothers in Australia and New Zealand, selling it to News Corp. in 2011.
FROM AIR FORCE TO AUGMENTED REALITYy B I L L W E LC H , M STC ’ 1 5 Retired Air Force Brigadier General AS A BRIGADIER general in the United States Air Force, Bill Welch spearheaded American operations in South Korea, developing frequent emergency plans to deal with North Korean threats.
“There was constant crisis and a lot of stress,” says Welch about his military career. “I loved it.”
When he retired from the military at 57 years old, his affinity for dynamic opportunities led him straight to the McCombs School of Busi-ness.
“I knew I wanted to be back in a classroom,” says Welch. “When I discovered the Master of Science in Technology Commercializa-tion program at McCombs, it fit exactly what I was looking for, which was the oppor-tunity to sharpen and expand my current business skills.”
With 30 percent of the class of 2015 com-posed of current or veteran service members, the one-year MSTC program is well-suited for those like Welch looking for a bridge from the military to the private sector. The program accommodates people leaving or still working in the military by offering flexible scheduling, and allowing students to continue fulfilling current duties and responsibilities. Students may attend classes in person or watch them by live teleconference or recorded video.
Now armed with a formidable McCombs toolkit after graduation from the MSTC pro-gram Welch is pursuing entrepreneurial con-
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Her newest venture, ShippingEasy, is an online tool that offers the lowest postage rates and the ability to plug in existing UPS/FedEx accounts for online sellers.
“ShippingEasy uses predictive analytics to recognize historical patterns and then apply those patterns to future decisions,” says May. “We literally take the human out of the shipping decision-making process, which saves time and eliminates errors.”
May is a proven executive in startups from early stage to exit, with deep experience in online and offline brand building with both very large and extremely small marketing budgets, including the identification and embedding of strategic alliances.
She is an experienced mentor, adviser, and entrepreneur — playing an active role as an advisor to a range of early-stage ventures, primarily in the media and internet sectors, capitalizing on startup, strategy, and mar-keting skills.
May’s business career began at McCombs, where she majored in accounting as an un-dergraduate. After working as a CPA for Arthur Andersen and KPMG, she decided accounting could not satisfy her creative urges and returned to McCombs to pursue an MBA. She moved to New York to work in a rotational brand management position at Philip Morris, but her life changed drastically when she became engaged to an Australian and moved to Melbourne.
In Australia, May quickly realized that she would have to adjust her business skills. “The Australian market was very different,” she says. “My marketing experience was not suitable for even the most junior role.”
May found work at Booz, Allen & Hamilton as a management consultant and learned “10 years’ worth of structure, strategy, and leadership in only three years’ time” while also discovering her passion for startups.
Looking back now, May credits both her business degrees for achieving success. “The curriculum and content were progressive and my fellow students stretched me,” May says. “My years at McCombs allowed me to mature and to realize the importance of embracing change and continuing to learn.” — Veronica Vasquez
TAX EXECUTIVE PROVIDES RETURN ON INVESTMENT TO ALMA MATER y S U S A N W H I T TA K E R , M PA ’ 7 7Vice President of Tax, First Group
SUSAN WHITTAKER, MPA ’77, vice president of tax at First Group, accepted an appointment by UT Austin’s President Greg Fenves to serve on the UT Institutional Audit Committee.
Whittaker’s three-year term began Sept. 1, and entails meeting quarterly with the committee to research risk assessments and review audit findings for the Forty Acres, Intercollegiate Ath-letics, J.J. Pickle Research Campus, McDonald Observatory, and the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, Texas.
The committee’s goal is to protect the university against fraud, misstatements of money, se-curity breeches, and any other major risks.
Whittaker spent nine years at Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) which recruited her straight out of graduate school. She switched gears in 1986, taking on the role of director of tax at Laidlaw Inc., a Canadian company that was expanding in the United States. The company was bought out eight years ago by FirstGroup and she became vice president of tax. — Kim Brown
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Please send your updates to [email protected] to be published in the spring is-sue of McCombs magazine and online at McCombs Today. Feel free to share news on behalf of a fellow graduate.
1950sDan Burck, BBA ’56, received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Alcalde for his business leadership. During his life, Burck has served as chancellor of the University of Texas System, vice president and founding director of ESPN, and on the boards of various organizations.
1960sJames Langdon Jr., BBA ’67, was honored by the Alcalde with the Distinguished Alumnus Award for his work in the ener-gy sector. Langdon has repre-sented oil and gas companies in Europe, China, Russia, and the Middle East.
1970sWoody Hunt, BBA ’66, MBA ’70, will be inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame on Oct. 28 in Houston. Hunt is the executive chairman of Hunt Companies.
Kelly Rushing, BBA ’67, MBA ’71, joined U.S. Capital Advisors’ Wealth Management group. Rushing, who has more than 40 years of experience as a financial advisor, will oversee the team.
Marye Tharp, BBA ’70, MBA ’74, published Transcultural
Marketing, a book analyzing different marketing strategies for nine American subcultures. Tharp is a professor of market-ing at The University of Texas at San Antonio.
David Shepherd, BBA ’72, is the founder and owner of entreBOOKS, a growing online library of the most useful books for small business owners and entrepreneurs as voted on by their peers. Shepherd’s company appeared on Steam Feed, a digital hub for startups.
W. Thomas Reeder, Jr., BBA ’72, MBA ’82, was nominated as director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation by President Barack Obama. PBGC insures the defined- benefit pensions of approximately 44 million Americans.
Ed Tonkon, BBA ’78, rang the opening bell of the NASDAQ on April 6. The ceremony cele-brated the one-year anniversary of Zebra Technologies Corpo-ration and announced the ac-quisition of Motorola Solutions’ Enterprise Business.
Charles Holley, BBA ’79, CFO of Walmart, was featured in a CFO magazine cover story. In the article, he discussed the transitions that the company is going through to place more emphasis on e-commerce and customer experience.
1980sBilly Hibbs Jr. BBA ’80, was elected chairman of the Bicycle Advisory Committee for the Texas Department of Transpor-
tation. Hibbs was appointed to the committee in 2014, after an extensive cycling career that included state and national mountain biking championships.
Jay Garcia, BBA ’81, joined Marquette Business Credit’s marketing team as senior vice president, regional portfolio manager. His job will be to over-see Marquette’s loan portfolio in the Dallas and Atlanta offices.
Bobby Francis, BBA ’82, presented two topics in July at the Correctional Management Institute of Texas Conference: “The Case Against Legalizing Marijuana” and “A View from the Bench.” Francis is a senior state district judge and presides over a full-time drug treatment and rehabilitation court.
Tony Furman, BBA ’82, was appointed to the board of advisors for the Internation-al Factoring Association, the largest trade association for the commercial finance industry. Furman is the co-founder and president of the Interstate Cap-ital Group of Companies.
Andrew Jacobs, BBA ’82, president and CEO of Capstead Mortgage Corporation, rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange in celebration of 30 years of listings on the exchange. Of the 47 companies listed on the NYSE in 1985, only 12 still exist.
Peter Zandan, Ph.D. ’82, MBA ’83, was appointed to the Pres-idents’ Circle at the National Academy of Sciences in Wash-ington, D.C. The Presidents’
Circle serves as the ultimate authority of science and public policy and advises the president and Congress on these matters.
Joan Lamm-Tennant, Ph.D. ’83, was named CEO of Blue Marble Microinsurance, which provides insurance to skilled laborers living in poverty throughout the world. Blue Marble Microinsurance starts its first venture this fall.
Lynn Utter, BBA ’84, delivered Montgomery County Commu-nity College’s 2015 Commence-ment address on May 21 in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. Utter serves on the board of directors for WESCO International and was most recently president and COO of Knoll Inc.
Brian Till, MBA ’85, began a new job as the James H. Keyes Dean for the College of Business Administration and the Grad-uate School of Management at Marquette University. Till came to the job from his position as dean of Xavier University’s Wil-liams School of Business.
Janet Moran, BBA ’88, pub-lished Scent of Triumph, a novel about a French perfumer who flees World War II Europe to begin a new life in Los Angeles. Moran is a fragrance and beauty expert who has written about these topics for publications such as Cosmopolitan.
Mary Scott Nabers, MBA ’89, was one of 1,000 leaders from a variety of industries invited to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative conference June 8-10 in Denver, Colorado. Nabers is the president and CEO of Strate-
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gic Partnerships, the co-founder of Gemini Global Group, and the author of Collaboration Nation.
1990sSteven Sheaffer, BBA ’90, was named the new CFO of Circular Energy, a solar design and installation company based in Austin, Texas, offering solar panel systems, electricity plans, and energy monitoring services.
Richard Szelc, MBA ’90, was named the No. 1 financial advisor in Texas and No. 53 financial advisor in the country by Barron’s. Szelc works as a managing director for Neu-berger Berman.
Derek Chapin, BBA ’92, became the COO and CFO of Vinli, a device that turns a car into a “smart car” by making it a Wi-Fi hotspot and giving the car access to apps that provide safety and entertainment. He previously served as the COO and CFO of A Mediocre Corporation.
Stephanie Barko, BBA ’93, started an app called DIY Book Platform, which helps authors through the publishing and printing |process. Barko, a literary publicist, created the app to help writers she has had to decline.
Brad Clark, MBA ’93, joined Innovari as its director of program operations. In this position, he will lead the global delivery service team, man-age customer experience, and develop ways to maximize customer benefits.
Steven Foresti, MBA ’93, was appointed to the role of chief investment officer for Wilshire Consulting. He comes to this position as former managing director of the same company.
Brett Hurt, BBA ’94, was highlighted in an episode of Startup Slingshot, a podcast that inspires, trains, and supports en-trepreneurs by uncovering busi-
ness strategies, providing adviso-ry services, and joining alongside entrepreneurs through hands-on consulting. Hurt is the owner of Hurt Family Investments, an organization that helps establish and scale businesses.
Dan Laufer, MBA ’94, Ph.D. ’02, head of the School of Mar-keting at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, served as the guest editor in April on a special issue of the managerial journal Business Horizons devoted to the topic of crisis management. Dr. Laufer, a global expert on crisis man-agement, invited academic experts from different disci-plines (management, marketing,
Susan Thomson, BBA ’99, is the producer of
two documentary films in production: TOWER,
about the heroes and survivors of 1966 UT Tower
shooting, and a film about 40 years of Austin City Limits, the longest-running music series on
TV. TOWER, which alternates between archival
footage and first-hand accounts presented as
rotoscopic animated re-creation, is expected to
be broadcast on PBS in time for the 50th
anniversary of the tragedy.
Thomson is meeting with potential investors,
philanthropic donors and strategic partners to
help complete the film. The trailer is online at
towerdocumentary.com.
Before moving back to Austin, Thomson
spent more than 12 years as a media consultant
in Dallas, Los Angeles, and London, with roles in
strategy, operations, and distribution at Lehman
Brothers, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, Andrew
Lloyd Webber’s “Really Useful Group,” and
the BBC. She co-founded and co-produces
FilmMatters, a dialogue that focuses on the
use of film to encourage social change.
46 TODAY.McCOMBS.UTEXAS.EDU
COMMUNITY: ALUMNI NOTES
communications, and public relations) to submit articles about emerging topics that are of particular interest to companies. He also serves on a panel of experts providing comments on best practices in crisis management for The Wall Street Journal.
Tom Ennis, MBA ’96, rang the NASDAQ bell on Aug. 5 to honor the IPO of his compa-ny, Amplify Snack Brands. After taking over the Chica-go-based company in 2014, Ennis changed the name from SkinnyPop and moved the headquarters to Austin.
David Craig, MSTC ’97, received the Outstanding Alumni Honor Award from the Dwight Look College of Engi-neering at Texas A&M Univer-
sity. Craig works as director, engineering and supply chain, intelligent production systems for Baker Hughes and has co-authored three U.S. patents.
Kurt Kane, MBA ’98, was appointed by The Wendy’s Company to the newly created position of chief concept offi-cer, responsible for all North America marketing and inno-vation efforts for the Wendy’s brand. He came to this role from his job as global chief marketing and food innovation officer at Pizza Hut Inc.
Cindy Lo, BBA ’98, had her company, Red Velvet Events, recognized as one of the best places to work in 2015 by Meetings and Conventions magazine. Lo is the owner and events strategist.
Brian Livingston, BBA ’99, was appointed president of Texadelphia. Livingston also serves as CEO of Celebrity Café & Bakery.
Jonathan Sprinkles, BBA ’99, published Presentation Power, a book of tips on public speaking. Sprinkles has hosted workshops on public speaking since 2007, and he has appeared on CNN, Fox, and ABC.
2000sChristine Ha, BBA ’01, pre-sented “How the Blind See the World” about the importance of making the world more accessible for people with dis-abilities at TEDxUCSD. Ha is the season-three winner of the competitive cooking reality TV series Masterchef.
April Underwood, BBA ’01, was appointed the first head of platform at team collabo-ration platform Slack, where she is responsible for platform products, partnerships, and developer relations at the San Francisco-based startup. Ear-lier this year, Underwood and five other former executives from Twitter launched #An-gels, an angel investing group focused on backing early-stage teams tackling big problems.
Carol Pierce Goglia, MBA ’01, received both the pres-tigious DFW AMA Marketer of the Year award and the national PRNews Nonprofit PR Award for the North Texas Giving Day campaign, which raised $25.2 million in 17 hours for 1,351 nonprofits. Goglia and her team were also recognized
Jason Atkinson, BBA ’93, biked the 400 miles
from London to Paris to raise money for the Multiple
Sclerosis Society of the UK. Atkinson is a managing
director for Russam GMS, which aims to raise more
than $150,000 for multiple sclerosis over the next
two years. He is on the organization’s board and
actively engaged in fundraising.
“It is a cause very close to my heart and so the pain
and physical demands had to be put to one side,” he
says of the ride. “Would I do it again? No! Next stop
is a more gentle 20-mile walk along the Thames in
London as part of the MS Walk 2015.”
#McCOMBSMAG 47
FALL 2015
Lex Hochner, MBA ’12, was
named to the steering com-
mittee of UTHealth Lumi-
naries, a volunteer group of
young leaders that identifies
and champions fundraising
initiatives on behalf of UT
Health Science Center
at Houston.
Hochner, an associate
with Haddington Ventures in
Houston, is an energy invest-
ment expert who focused on
energy finance at McCombs.
He and his wife, Kitty, recent-
ly hosted an event at their
Houston home to celebrate
the Luminaries’ fundraising
efforts on behalf of the Texas
School Ready! project.
with two Telly Awards for videos they created for Communities Foundation of Texas.
Bart Reynolds, MBA ’01, was appointed president of Seaspan Marine. In this position, he is responsible for short- and long-term success of the business and for developing strategies and providing leadership around customer relations.
Kristin White, MBA ’01, published a book entitled It’s the Student, Not the College: The Secrets of Succeeding at Any School — Without Going Broke or Crazy to help families with the college applica-tion process. White is the founder and director of Darien Academic Advisors, an education consulting business.
Chris Carter, BBA ’02, MPA ’02, was promoted to managing partner at Natural Gas Partners. In this role, Carter oversees NGP’s investments in addition to evaluating new investment opportunities.
Cara Whitehill, MBA ’02, launched Traxo for Busi-ness, a business-to-busi-ness version of Traxo’s itinerary management and data aggregation technology. Traxo, an electronic travel organizer, was founded by two other McCombs alumni, Andres Fabris, BBA ’95, and Andy Chen, MBA ’03.
Katie Gray, BBA ’03, was honored by the Texas Exes with the Texas 10 award for teaching. Gray is a senior lecturer in the Information, Risk and Op-erations Management De-partment at the McCombs School of Business.
Nathan Staggs, MBA ’03, was named CEO of Pauls Valley General Hospital in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. Staggs comes to this position with a history of turning around fortunes for struggling hospitals.
Alissa Bayer, MBA ’04, the founder and owner of the spa milk + honey, opened the company’s fifth and largest spa in Hous-ton. Bayer opened the first location of the spa in 2004 in central Austin.
Aron Susman, BBA ’06, MPA ’06, raised $2 million this past year in seed fund-ing for TheSquareFoot. Susman is the CFO and co-founder of the compa-ny, which offers an online search engine for commer-cial real estate.
Rob Wu, BBA ’06, MBA ’06, the CEO of CauseVox, had an infographic about how to launch a crowd-funding campaign featured in Mashable. CauseVox is an online crowdfunding tool for nonprofits.
Mark Rogers, BBA ’07, received an innovative teaching grant from Texas International Baccalaure-
ate. Rogers, who teaches math at Meridian School in Round Rock, Texas, plans to use the grant to buy a DJI Phantom 3 UAV drone so his students can use it to model trigono-metric functions.
Karen Cheng, BBA ’09, made a YouTube video about “donut selfies,” which Beats By Dre chose for its global campaign #SoloSelfie. Cheng now works as a viral video consultant.
Michael Westgate, MBA ’09, was appointed vice president of marketing at RealMassive, a commercial real estate data provider. Previously, he worked as head of marketing at W20 Group, where he oversaw marketing strategy, audi-ence analytics, and digital communication.
Zach Watkins, MBA ’09, was promoted to director of data operations at Real-Massive. He came to this role from his job as launch manager at the company.
2010sTania Rodriguez, MBA ’11, spoke at TEDxTulum about sustainable business models. She is the found-er of Green Habitat Co., which creates energy efficient, sustainable learning facilities for rural communities.
48 TODAY.McCOMBS.UTEXAS.EDU I LLUSTRAT ION BY DAVE PLUNKERT
NE OF THE PERKS OF MY JOB as director of the Ex-ecutive MBA program is watching our students and alumni fulfill their dreams. This summer I heard from a recent graduate who started her career as a museum curator, went through our program, and now leads a tech industry office of 500 people. An-
other alumnus recently told me that the company he founded after graduation had just received an investment of more than $1 million.
Yet another graduate of our program told me how marginalized he had been at his job but how McCombs changed his fortunes. He was now an executive at the company he had planned to leave. He told me this from a phone on the company’s corporate jet.
For many of our students, two years at McCombs is a profound inflec-tion point in their lives, and I am lucky enough to have a front row seat.
Yet The Wall Street Journal, Atlantic, and other media outlets report that the U.S. has a glut of MBAs.
How to reconcile that with the stories of hundreds of students each year who pass through our doors and experience such incredible trans-formation? The reason, I believe, that McCombs graduates rise above the “glut” has to do with the difference between a degree and an education.
Dr. David Jemison, my predecessor as director of the Texas Executive MBA program, tells a story he heard from Isidor Isaac Rabi, the Nobel Laureate in physics. “After school my mother didn’t ask me what I learned that day. She always asked me, ‘Did you ask a good question today?’”
Asking good questions, or different questions, requires one to think differently. And therein lies a fundamental difference between a degree and an education.
People who speak more than one language think differently de-pending on the language they happen to be speaking at the time. Rote memorization rarely produces fluency. Thinking differently requires full immersion; knowledge accumulation does not.
I have a set of framed photographs of my family on my desk. Changing the frames would not only change the appearance of the set, but also the appearance of the photographs themselves.
First semester MBA students generally come to us with four frames: an industry frame, a cultural frame, a profit-and-loss frame, and a functional frame (accounting, marketing, operations, etc.). And it is through these four frames that they view the world’s business problems.
The alumni I talked to this summer were successful because of the way they approached the world. They were successful because they immersed themselves in class material long after they completed their homework. I watched them struggle with diverse, often opposing opinions, not necessarily to discover the right answer, but to embrace simultaneously aspects of each.
Stretching oneself can be excruciating, or at least much less enjoyable than applying skills one has already mastered. But by doing so these students were able to add dozens more frames through which to view the world’s business problems; and these frames remain long after specific knowledge fades. Perhaps this is what Albert Einstein meant when he said, “An education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”
McCombs is full of students who naturally immerse themselves in the totality of their educational experience. As an elite business institution, McCombs still produces graduates whose degrees and educations are highly valued in the marketplace. Our high-caliber graduates aren’t victims of the MBA glut. When they come together here as students, the amplification of everyone’s frames is exponential. The results are pretty remarkable.
John Burrows is director of the Texas Executive MBA Program at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.
McCOMBS: BOTTOM LINE
OARE THERE TOO MANY MBAS?
FINDING NEW FRAMES THROUGH WHICH TO VIEW THE WORLD HELPS McCOMBS GRADUATES RISE ABOVE THE “GLUT” by John Burrows
LEARN HOW YOU CAN GIVE BACK AT WWW.MCCOMBS.UTEXAS.EDU/INVEST-IN-MCCOMBS
GOING GLOBAL, STAYING CONNECTEDMARISSA JARRATT has a question for every McCombs graduate. “Has your UT business education made a difference in your life?” Jarratt interned with PepsiCo Frito-Lay the summer of 2003 and never looked back. “I remember pinching myself thinking, ‘I can’t believe I can get paid to do this.’ ” she says. Since then, she has rebranded Cheetos, rebooted Rold Gold, and taken on global marketing. And she still makes time to stay involved at McCombs, from serving on the MBA Alumni Board and doing UT recruitment for her company to making a practice of generous financial giving.
“I’ve always been passionate about McCombs. It doesn’t end once you graduate.”Marissa Jarratt, BBA ’99, MBA ’04Senior Director of PepsiCo Global MarketingMcCombs Volunteer and Donor
T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F T E X A S A T A U S T I NMcCombs School of Business1 University Station B6000Austin, Texas 78712
TED WANG grasps the power of alumni who give back. “My studies and career were transformed by Texas graduates who contributed so much to my MBA experience. It left a lasting impression.” When Wang made partner at Goldman Sachs in New York 10 years after graduation, he established the Goldman Sachs/Ted Wang Scholarship Endowment. Since then, he has funded four different scholarships benefitting 15 students and is a donor to the Wall Street for McCombs Endowed Dean’s Scholarship in Business.
GENEROSITY RECEIVED, REMEMBERED, AND REPAID
“When I was a student, I benefitted in so many ways from the generosity of alumni. Now it’s my turn.”Ted Wang, MBA ’96CEO of Puissance Capital ManagementMcCombs Volunteer and Donor
LEARN HOW YOU CAN GIVE BACK AT WWW.MCCOMBS.UTEXAS.EDU/INVEST-IN-MCCOMBS
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