IN THIS ISSUE Sports and Leadership: 6 alums on how athletics shaped their careers PLUS Multi-tasking on the Job Flexible MBAS for Working Professionals Marketing to the Next Generations
THE MAGAZINE OF THE McCOMBS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
EVERY DAY SAM EHLINGER, BBA ’21 AND LONGHORN STAR QB, GETS IN THE ZONE AS STUDENT-ATHLETE P. 18
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2. LETTER FROM THE DEAN
14. IRS Data: U.S. firms haven’t been sending most of their earnings abroad to dodge taxes. 16. Collective Ownership: Entrepreneurs can inspire new venture teams by seeking input — with boundaries.
3. NEWS
Short Takes: Dean Hartzell meets alumni in Europe, new master’s in health care launches, McCombs duo leads student government, and more. 6. Hall of Famers: Distinguished alumni and supporters are honored with prestigious McCombs designation. 8. MBA Investment Fund: For a quarter century, students have had a chance at managing real-world investments. 12. Brand Ambassador: Emily Reagan, MBA ’99, takes the helm of the school’s marketing efforts as the first chief marketing officer.
13. RESEARCH
Organ Donation: A simple rule change could boost the number of usable organ donations.
39. COMMUNITY
Talent Pipeline: College path cleared for students in a partnership between McCombs and Ernst & Young. 42. Frank Cross in Memoriam: Prolific business law professor was renowned for both research and teaching. 43. Gatherings: Alumni events and celebrations.
44. ALUMNI NOTES
MULTITASKING ON THE JOB
Employees who like to juggle projects have advantages in the workplace. BY ST E V E B R O O KS
WORKING PROFESSIONALS
Flexible MBA options draw job enhancers, switchers, and explorers. BY M A RY A N N R O S E R
BEYOND NUMBER CRUNCHING
Big data and artificial intelligence create new opportunities for the profession of accounting. BY J U D I E K I N O N E N
C O V E R P H OTO G R A P H E D B Y J E F F W I L S O N
Emily Reagan MANAGER, CONTENT STRATEGY
Todd Savage EDITOR
Molly Dannenmaier
ART DIRECTION/DESIGN
Tucker Creative Co. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Steve Brooks, Judie Kinonen, Megan Menchaca, Mary Ann Roser, Sloan Wyatt
y F E AT U R E S
BY TO D D SAVAG E A N D M A RY A N N R O S E R
CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
Jeremy M. Simon
Generation Gap: Consultant Jason Dorsey is helping companies find the pulse of millennials and Gen Z.
Sam Ehlinger, BBA ’21, UT’s star quarterback, balances the demands of football with the rigors of McCombs. Plus: Alumni athletes share lessons learned from competition.
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.
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
48. BOTTOM LINE
SERIOUS BUSINESS
FALL 2019
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CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Dennis Burnett, John Davidson, Lauren Gerson, Thaddeus Harden, Summer Miles, Jeff Wilson CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS
Vidhya Anagarajan, Peter Hovarth, Roberta Maddalena, Gabriel Silveira, Chia Chi Yu ONLINE
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McCOMBS.UTEXAS.EDU 1
McCOMBS: FROM THE DEAN
The Future of Leadership: Collaboration — and all the unknowns that are certain to come with it. We look to our past to gain a foothold. We look to our accomplished community to offer wise counsel. And, we are mindful that unanticipated disruptions in higher education will never cease to offer fresh challenges. The leadership and teamwork needed to accomplish our ambitious goals are at the heart of what makes our institution so unparalleled. We are a community of highly accomplished collaborators. We find our strength in working together, and in so doing, we empower each other to achieve so much more than we ever could on our own. This issue explores stories of how at McCombs, leadership and teamwork are inextricably interconnected. Our cover subject, Sam Ehlinger, BBA ’21, Texas’s most accomplished quarterback in a decade and a serious-minded business student as well, is on pace for challenging many long-held Longhorn records. He has also been recognized for his ability to motivate and encourage both his teammates and his classmates. “It’s important to have a heartbeat for what others around you need,” he says. Ju st a s member s of a sports team need to be able to react swiftly to each other’s moves, members of work teams need to respond to the rapid changes that technology is bringing to their industries. This is especially true for the profession of accounting, where new data analytics and artificial intelligence tools are upending the way business gets done. Nichole Jordan, BBA ’95, national managing partner of growth and performance at accounting firm Grant Thornton, discusses how she sees the industry shifting as a result. And faculty members of McCombs’ No. 1 T T E X AS M c C O M B S , W E A R E A L WAYS B U I L D I N G TOWA R D T H E F U T U R E
2 M c C O M B S .U T E X A S . E D U
ranked Accounting Program share how their updates to the curriculum reflect the new realities of the profession. At the same time McCombs’ academic departments are working to make sure the curriculum prepares students for state-of-theart business practice, internal operations at the school are evolving as well. Last year, I appointed McCombs’ first chief marketing officer, Emily Reagan, MBA ’99, to integrate our marketing strategy and resources across the school. She has been hard at work devising a plan for building a national and global brand image to compete with our elite peers in business education. This issue of McCombs includes a story about her objectives and accomplishments thus far. Finally, in the midst of all the preparations we are making for the future, we also think it’s important to remember and honor the significant accomplishments of our past. In this issue, we look back at the history of the MBA Investment Fund, one of the first legally constituted private investment companies to be managed by university students. Earlier this year, the fund celebrated its 25th anniversary. Many of the founding investors and previous student managers came back to campus to celebrate the extraordinary efforts of so many committed individuals who have continued to make the fund one of McCombs’ most amazing success stories. We are honored to be a part of so many important journeys that have had such a significant impact on people’s lives and careers. At the heart of all of them is the connection we all share through McCombs. It is a community of leaders who know we are stronger when we work together. Our knowledge that we are part of such a winning team is what makes our bold future possible.
JAY HARTZELL Dean and Centennial Chair in Business Education Leadership
P H OTO G R A P H BY D E N N I S B U R N E T T
NEWS
POCKET PRAIRIE BBA STUDENT CHAMPIONS TEXAS ECOSYSTEM ON CAMPUS
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AT I V E P L A N T S S U S TA I N L I F E .
Jack Rouse, BBA ’21, is working to share that message with the Forty Acres. As a student leader with the Campus Environmental Center, Rouse helped create a 1,200-square-foot model Blackland Prairie — a vanishing Texas-only ecoregion named for its rich, dark soil. Only 1 percent of the unique ecosystem remains, and what’s known as the HalfPint Prairie at Dean Keaton Street and University Avenue educates visitors on native plants and their benefits, such as saving water, reducing urban heat, and supporting local insects. “It’s not only something aesthetic that people can enjoy, but it really adds some utility to campus,” Rouse says. The project, which has already been recognized by the National Wildlife Federation and Monarch Watch, began last year with a proposal to the Green Fund, which finances sustainability-related projects from the UT community. “It’s been really rewarding,” says Rouse. “We didn’t need a lot of people to make such a big, lasting difference on campus.”
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Transforming Health Care A new master’s degree program is preparing students to implement value-based health care advances. The M.S. in Health Care Transformation has nearly 50 students enrolled in its inaugural class, including third-year Dell Medical School students and mid- to senior-level health professionals. The interdisciplinary curriculum combines education in analytics, design, business, and leadership to equip graduates with skills to create and drive change within their organizations.
McCOMBS STUDENT VISITS JAPAN SUMMIT
With an eye toward global change, Muhannad Alsharekh, MPA ’19, represented his home country of Saudi Arabia at the Y-20 Summit this May in Tokyo. Ahead of the G-20 Osaka Summit, he and other young delegates discussed issues and submitted policy proposals to Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Alsharekh’s ideas considered the future of work and international trade. As a group, the Y-20 attendees addressed global challenges, including the climate crisis.“The positivity and determination of youth proves we can harmoniously and ambitiously seek global change, something our leaders have recently struggled to do,” Alsharekh says.
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DNA DATA POWERS WINNING BEAUTY PROPOSAL
EUROPEAN TOUR In July, Dean Jay Hartzell traded the Texas heat for some European cool. The dean spent a week abroad meeting with McCombs alumni and donors. He also appeared at a pair of Texas Edge events: In Paris, Hartzell was joined by Accounting Professor Jeffrey Hales and Senior Vice Provost for Global Engagement Sonia Feigenbaum to discuss sustainability and the France-UT endowment, as well as recognizing two grant awardees. Pictured: In London, the dean addressed entrepreneurship and social innovation with Hales; head of origination for Vitol Group Chris Bake, BBA ’88; and BBA ’21 students Mary Catherine Arnott and Allison Cowie, McCombs’ Outstanding Student and winner of the BBA Community Values’ Study Abroad Award.
Driven by their idea to customize skincare using DNA information, Hannah Fawcett, BBA ’20, Rahul Das, BBA ’21, and Jenna Zhang, BBA ’21, took first place at the L’Oreal 2019 National Brandstorm Competition in New York City. The team proposed that L’Oreal apply 23andMe’s DNA genetic testing services to create personalized products for health-conscious consumers. The students benefitted from the coaching of Senior Marketing Lecturer Stephen Walls, and had a good experience working together on the concept. “We had great team chemistry, and it showed during our presentation and enthusiasm for our idea,” says Das.
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McCOMBS BY THE NUMBERS
Winning with Ethics
Ethics Unwrapped is proving the means justify the ends. The Texas McCombs program, which teaches the science of everyday ethics through video, has earned more praise for its efforts. The program won Telly Awards for three videos, a silver CASE award for animation, and the Reimagine Education bronze award in business education. Ethics Unwrapped videos are now included in the PBS Learning Media website, used nationwide by K-12 teachers.
100,300 The Number number ofof living living McCombs McCombs alumni alumni
crossed the 100K threshold for the first time with spring 2019 Commencement.
12,988 Number of UT Austin students enrolled in McCombs programs (degree and
HEALTHY ADDITION TO THE FACULTY
N ew M a n a ge m e n t Le c t u re r Marissa Duswalt Epstein is bringing some lessons in nutrition to McCombs this fall. The director of UT’s Nutrition Institute, Epstein served at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and on former First Lady Michelle Obama’s staff as associate director of the Let’s Move! initiative on childhood obesity. Epstein is teaching classes on nutrition innovation and entrepreneurship, including an MBA course in nutrition entrepreneurship.
non-degree) in 2018-2019.
LEADING STUDENT GOVERNMENT Amie Jean and Camron Goodman (pictured left to right), both BBA ’20, were elected as UT’s student body president and vice president, respectively, becoming the university’s first all-black executive alliance. The duo’s campaign platform proposed offering training in classroom diversity inclusion to faculty and sexual assault prevention to student organizations, expanding the SURE Walk safety program, and creating a non-traditional student resource center. “McCombs has definitely taught me the benefits of problem solving, thinking outside the box, and the power of a team working together,” Goodman says. Their campaign team included diverse students from across campus. “Seeing everybody work towards these common goals and make something is probably the most beautiful experience I’ve had,” he says.
6,548
Number of students enrolled in McCombs degree programs in 2018-2019.
No. 5
Rank of BBA program among undergraduate business schools, according to 2020 2020 U.S. U.S. News News & & World World Report. Report
No. 2
Rank of the MS Business Analytics program among U.S. “big data manage-
ART AWARD
ment” programs, according to 2019
Next time you’re in Rowling Hall, be sure to admire the building’s award-winning artwork. José Parlá’s mural Amistad América was named one of the 50 outstanding public art projects created in 2018 by Americans for the Arts, through its Public Art Network. The sprawling 4,000-square-foot work, which welcomes entrants to the Zlotnik Family Ballroom, can be viewed in the underground level of the graduate business building. So head down — and look up.
Eduniversal Eduniversal Best Best Master’s Master’s Ranking. Ranking
No. 4
Rank Rank among of schools schools with with best best professors, professors, Princeton Review, 2019 edition.
McCOMBS.UTEXAS.EDU
5
NEWS: L E AD E RSHIP international experience as a member of multiple Senate committees.
HALL OF FAMERS
NILOUFAR MOLAVI
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AND SUPPORTERS ARE HONORED WITH PRESTIGIOUS McCOMBS DESIGNATION
E
VERY YEAR, TEXAS McCOMBS
honors several distinguished alumni and friends of the school by inducting them into the McCombs Hall of Fame, the highest honor given by the business school. The Hall of Fame was established in 1983 to recognize the university’s centennial celebration and honor former students, faculty, and supporters who have advanced humanity and made outstanding professional contributions to the business community. This year’s honorees are Philip Canfield, Antonio Garza, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Niloufar Molavi, and J. Marc Myers. The 2019 honorees were recognized at a dinner and program Nov. 7 in the Zlotnik Family Ballroom in the school’s graduate programs building, Robert B. Rowling Hall.
Mega Broadband Investments. During his 30 years in the business world, Canfield has played a leadership role in multiple successful high-profile investments. He is a member of various councils at the University of Chicago and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Foundation.
J. MARC MYERS ANTONIO GARZA
Antonio Garza, BBA ’80, is the former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and secretary of state of Texas. He studied finance as an undergraduate and received his J.D. from Southern Methodist University School of Law. He is now the counsel at White & Case in Mexico City. Garza has provided his insight to CEOs, investors, and entrepreneurs for decades and serves on multiple corporate and university boards. He was previously the chairman and president of the Texas Exes. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON
PHILIP CANFIELD
Philip Canfield, BBA ’89, is the managing director of the private equity firm GTCR. He holds a finance degree with high honors from what’s now known as the Canfield Business Honors Program, renamed in his honor last year. He also holds an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is a director of Cision, Inteliquent, Lytx, and
Niloufar Molavi, BBA ’91, MPA ’91, is the global and U.S. energy leader of Pricewaterhouse Coopers. After beginning her career as an energy tax partner, she was promoted to greater Houston market managing partner and eventually joined the firm’s U.S. leadership team as chief diversity officer in 2009. Molavi serves on the McCombs Advisory Council and the Awty International School board.
Kay Bailey Hutchison is the U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. She began her career in politics as a member of the Texas House of Representatives shortly after earning her B.A. and J.D. degrees from UT Austin. During her time as the first female U.S. senator in Texas history, she served as the fourth-ranking member of the Republican caucus and gained
Marc Myers, BBA ’69, MBA ’74, is president of Myers & Crow Company. He was president of the Dallas Industrial Division of Trammell Crow Co. and a member of the management board and has served on the boards of the Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, the Baylor Foundation, and Special Camps for Special Kids. He is also an inductee into the Dallas Real Estate Developers’ Hall of Fame. RISING STARS
Each year at the Hall of Fame Ceremony, McCombs recognizes exemplary early-to-midcareer alumni as Rising Stars. This year’s honorees include Kovid Gupta, BBA ’10, director of investor relations and human resources for Indus Management Group; Lance Loeffler, BBA ’99, MBA ’04, executive vice president and chief financial officer for Halliburton; and Carlos Whitaker, MPA ’00, managing director of global markets for Credit Suisse.
Left to right: Phillip Canfield, BBA '89, Antonio Garza, BBA '80, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Niloufar Molavi, BBA '91, MPA '91, and J. Marc Myers, BBA '69, MBA '74. These alumni and supporters were inducted into the McCombs Hall of Fame for their professional contributions to the business community.
6 McCOMBS.UTEXAS.EDU
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STUDENT INVESTMENT A QUARTER CENTURY ON, THE McCOMBS MBA INVESTMENT FUND CONTINUES TO GIVE STUDENTS A CHANCE AT MANAGING A REAL-WORLD PORTFOLIO
D
ISTINGUISHED FINANCE PROFESSOR
Keith Brown chuckles recalling the sales pitch to potential investors that he and former dean George Gau, then chairman of the Finance Department, formulated in 1994, when they set out to offer McCombs MBA students a rare opportunity — the chance to manage real investments. “Our message to potential investors was basically, ‘The organization doesn’t exist yet. When it does, we won’t have any facilities. We haven’t picked the students who are going to manage this yet, but when we do, they won’t have any experience,’” Brown says, laughing. “‘But hey, invest with us!’” Their hope was to raise $500,000 to launch one of the first legally constituted private investment companies to be managed by university students. Remarkably, it worked. The MBA Investment Fund LLC closed in December 1994 with $1.6 million from 34 investors. This year, the fund — started with a $30,000 pledge from Jim Mulva, BBA ’68, MBA ’69, former chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips — is celebrating its 25th anniversary at about $31 million. The fund is part of the McCombs AIM Investment Center, created with an endowment from the founders of the AIM Management Group, Gary Crum, MBA ’72, and Bob Graham, BBA ’69. An additional AIM endowment supports the operation of the trading room in which the MBA Investment Fund’s student managers trade. Other early supporters, like Ralph Thomas, BBA ’66, MBA ’68, former senior vice president at Fayez Sarofim & Co., and Scott Caven, BBA '64, managing director at CIBC Private Wealth Management, were an integral force behind the formation of the MBA Investment Fund. “Bob, Gary, Ralph, and Scott, among others, gave guidance and advice over the last 25 years that were absolutely crucial to the success of the fund,” Brown said. “George Gau was also a
8 McCOMBS.UTEXAS.EDU
tremendous champion. The fund really wouldn’t have happened at all without his initiative.” In the years that followed, fund students have continued to distinguish themselves as some of the most highly sought money managers in the business. “People who have gone through the fund are far better trained on the process than students we’ve hired from anywhere — including those from the private top 10,” says Caven. He recalls a summer at Goldman Sachs, where he was a vice president at the time, when five MBA Investment Fund students held internships alongside eight interns from Harvard. At the end of the summer, Goldman Sachs offered all five of the Texas students jobs, but asked only one of the Harvard students to return. “They talk the talk and walk the walk,” Caven says. The fund’s success over the years mirrors the perseverance of the market itself, explained
Ray Nixon, MBA '77, chairman of Nixon Capital and past chair of the McCombs Advisory Council, in a keynote address to former fund managers, investors, and industry advisors who reunited during a 25th anniversary celebration in April. Nixon noted that since the MBA Investment Fund’s launch, the S&P is up almost seven-fold. “Despite all the various leaderships, wars, cyber and terror attacks, regulations and rate volatility, booms and busts, the U.S. stock market not only survived, it thrived,” Nixon said. Riding those ups and downs every year were teams of about 20 MBA students chosen by the fund’s president and CEO, both McCombs faculty members. “There’s a very rigorous selection process,” says Clemens Sialm, McCombs professor of finance and economics, who has served as the fund’s CEO since 2017.
LEFT TO RIGHT: Sylvie Crum, B.A. '74; Distinguished Finance Senior Lecturer Sandy Leeds; University Distinguished Teaching Professor Keith Brown Brown; Ralph Thomas, BBA '66, MBA '68; and a full house of supporters listen to Ray Nixon, MBA '77, deliver the keynote speech at the MBA Investment Fund 25th Anniversary Dinner held at Rowling Hall in April.
Successful candidates are driven achievers with exceptional GMAT scores and perfect grades, says Finance Lecturer Greg Alves, fund president since 2016. During interviews, Sialm and Alves assess reasoning skills, but they also look for humility. Says Alves: “I’m looking for somebody who’s really gifted, and who also lifts up their teammates.” The student managers work in four sector teams with about four colleagues, and the dynamic often generates “fast and lasting friendships,” says Brown, who was president and CEO for 17 years before shifting to the advisory board in 2017. Such was true for Travis Cunningham, MBA ’19. “You have a team, so it’s not all on your shoulders,” he says. “Spending long nights putting together pitches and practicing and rehearsing and rehashing, embedding. I feel like I could reach out to any of them.” Brown says these friendships can spawn a deep loyalty to the program, and over the years many former managers have reconnected with the fund by serving as advisors — part of the system of checks and balances. Before any stock becomes part of the portfolio, advisors listen to pitch presentations and counsel teams toward the right kind of research. Robert Mueller, MBA ’95, and UBS managing director for private wealth management, was part of that original 1994 class. He was the first former manager to serve as an advisor. Mueller recalls the fund’s first year, operating out of a room the size of a janitor’s closet with a desk and a couple of computers during the infancy of the internet. “I think the big moment for all of us was placing that first trade,” he recalls. “We were all in the room, and it was old school — we picked up the phone and we called a stock broker.” Many students from that original 1994 class attended the reunion in April. Says Sialm, “When we started planning the event, we were not sure whether 20 or 30 people would show up.” But nearly 150 people attended, including some of the investors who bought Brown and Gau’s scrappy sales pitch 25 years ago — and who still invest with the fund. Brown, Crum, Gau, Graham, and Thomas all received special thanks at the reunion for their long-term support. “These are people who truly loved the university and are dedicated to the academic achievements of our students,” Alves says. — Judie Kinonen
POISED for the FUTURE IN THIS EXCERPT FROM HIS KEYNOTE SPEECH AT THE MBA INVESTMENT FUND'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY, RAY NIXON, MBA '77, REFLECTS ON THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE AMERICAN MARKET to take a step back together to reflect, especially given how much anxiety there seems to be about the future. We’re living in a time of immense uncertainty. There are trade wars, investigations, and predictions of environmental calamity on the horizon. Tensions at home and abroad are uncomfortably high. Questions about our national identity loom, as it appears capitalism itself will be on trial in the upcoming election. Technology is rapidly advancing beyond what we can imagine — and although we largely feel it will be for society’s betterment, we also know it will come with many unintended consequences. It’s normal to wonder, “How will our country and economy fare in the coming years with all the challenges that appear poised to confront it?” When there is a great deal of uncertainty about the future, it’s not a bad idea to look back at history for insight and direction. I’ve been thinking back on what we’ve been through in the markets and world since this MBA investment fund began, and I’ve been I T ’S A G O O D T I M E FO R US
reminded of just how extraordinary a journey it’s been. I’ve also been reminded of some of the things that helped us navigate it successfully, bringing us where we are today.
I’ve been thinking back on what we’ve been through since this MBA investment fund began, and I’ve been reminded of just how extraordinary a journey it’s been. There is no perfect system, but the great strength of American capitalism is that it enables someone with a vision to bring forth a product that is better for society
ABOVE: In his keynote speech, Ray Nixon, MBA '77, discusses how how the free market system continues to thrive — despite economic booms and busts, natural disasters, and changes in political administrations and agendas.
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Finance Professor Clemens Sialm, MBA Investment Fund CEO (left), and Finance Lecturer Greg Alves, fund president (front right, grey suit) with current second-year MBA Investment Fund students.
— something that improves our overall standard of living and that is practiced under a rule of law. Generation after generation we’ve seen our free market system generate growth that provides people with jobs and real opportunities to provide and advance. It allows our nation to handle extreme change, new problems, and to move forward in a way that adopts new technologies. Our free market continues to be a wonder to behold! And yet, its blemishes are real — though they are largely the result of bad actors. Who can forget the damage done by Bernie Ebbers on Worldcom? Or Bernie Madoff and his pyramid scheme? Or even the colorful “Chainsaw” Al Dunlap when he ran Sunbeam? Before Al came along, we all knew two inventory accounting methods: LIFO (Last In, First Out) and FIFO (First In, First Out). Then Al’s deceptive imagination created a third: FISH — First In, Still Here. But while the bad actors cause real damage, steal headlines, and have more movies made about them, they neither define nor dominate our free market. Brilliant capitalists do — people like Warren Buffet and Jack Bogle of Vanguard, who, as I mention them remind me of the long-running debate between active and passive investing. Exceedingly generous people do — including Gary Kelly and Jim Mulva, former chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips, who are as committed to giving their wealth back to the world as they are to defending capitalism. And there
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are many more like them than we realize, who are responsible for so much we benefit from. Just take a walk around campus and you’ll see signs of them all over the place, as you go by the Cockrell School of Engineering, Dell Medical School, the Steve Hicks School of Social Work, and, of course, the McCombs School of Business. These are the people who give our free market its character, conviction, and compassion, who are passionate about seeing the fruits of their success reinvested in worthy things. And they are also a big reason for my optimism and confidence for what lies ahead. As much we would like to predict the future, it is never quite clear. We know great companies will continue to appear and booms are surely on the way; but we also know that busts will follow, and difficult surprises lie ahead, too. We don’t know what they are. We don’t know who will be running the country two years from now or how world events will redirect the story; we just know that they will. What I do feel very confident about is that American businessmen and women will adapt through whatever macro environment they are given to deal with. I’m also confident they’ll be successful, and one of the main reasons for that confidence are places like The University of Texas at Austin. Bob Rowling, whose name is on the hall we sit in tonight, has said many times, “The great equalizer, no matter where you start, is education.” I couldn’t
agree more. When capitalism works well, it actually becomes true that no matter where you start from in society, it does not dictate where you finish. If we are serious about that being true in this country, then our universities are critical. Schools like Texas know their responsibility to care for, impact, and serve the society of which they are a part. They understand their unique role to not only equip young leaders with the right foundation, but to also make them aware of societal gaps they can close through their work and service. It’s not just about improving our own personal outlook, but becoming equipped to go out and do the same for others. That’s a torch we are counting on you to carry — and I am speaking to all of the students here tonight. Opportunities will continue to abound for students like you to go out and make a difference and transform our country — that I am absolutely confident about. We may not know what the next 25 years is going to bring, but there’s no question in my mind that the direction of this great state will be shaped in part by this great university. And as Warren Buffet said to me two years ago, “So goes Texas, so goes the United States, period.”
FOR THE FULL SPEECH, GO TO http://bit.ly/raynixon
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BRAND AMBASSADOR EMILY REAGAN, MBA ’99, TAKES THE HELM OF THE SCHOOL’S MARKETING EFFORTS AS FIRST CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
T
HE MARKET FOR
E D U C AT I O N
is rapidly changing, and Texas McCombs is undertaking a major new initiative to increase its standing among top business schools worldwide. Soon after stepping into his role, Dean Jay Hartzell determined that the business school needed a robust marketing operation to support this ambitious goal. That led to the creation of the role of chief marketing officer, a new executive-level position overseeing the brand, marketing, and communications strategy for the school. Heading up the new effort is Emily Reagan, MBA ’99, a marketing professional with more than 20 years of experience in consumer and business-to-business marketing, most recently as senior vice president of integrated marketing with Austin-based Bazaarvoice. She has extensive strategic management experience in the marketing field, including senior-level positions with agencies and retailers across the country. She also has deep ties to the school both as an engaged alumna and as former chair of the McCombs
MBA Advisory Board. Now, more than 18 months into the role, Reagan is building new marketing capabilities and culture at McCombs that reflect the best practices in academia and industry. When Hartzell introduced Reagan to the McCombs community last year, he explained his goals for the role and why she was a great fit for it: “The CMO position was established as a core element of our strategic plan, to integrate our marketing strategy and resources across the school to the end of creating a national and global brand image to compete with our elite peers in business education. Emily is a proven leader in building brands, driving marketing strategies, and optimizing customer experiences in both consumer and business-to-business environments. Her senior leadership will ensure that our marketing systems, talent, and goals are fully aligned with our powerful new brand position: ‘Human Centered. Future Focused.’” Reagan, who grew up in a family of educators, says the timing was right for her to make the move to McCombs. As a marketer, she was drawn to
A former chair of the McCombs MBA Advisory Board, Emily Reagan was a familiar face at Texas McCombs before she took on her new role as McCombs’ first chief marketing officer.
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the school’s assets: “Beautiful new building, the amazing faculty and their research expertise, the student experience, and valuable alumni network.” Her passion is obvious when she talks about the McCombs brand. “From a marketing perspective, I’m like a kid in a candy store,” she says. Since she arrived, Reagan has crafted a marketing plan supporting the dean’s ambition to make Texas McCombs a top 10 business school. She arrives at a time of great change in higher education, with new education models and globalization of learning. “How universities and schools compete and market to students is changing,” Reagan explains. “Students today are vastly different and technologically enabled in a way we've never seen before. Their expectations for what they want out of their educational experience are shaped by tech companies and consumer brands, which have a high bar. We have a great opportunity to meet them there.” Toward that goal, Reagan is leading the buildout of whole new digital operation, including a new website and the integration of such marketing tools as Salesforce and Marketo to better identify and communicate with prospective and current students, alumni, and corporations. Combined with new advertising messaging on a national level, the overall goal is to build the school’s brand by elevating the story of McCombs. Creating a CMO position is a new trend among top business schools, and was something Hartzell knew McCombs needed for the school to meet his strategic objectives. “Business education, particularly in the top 20 world where we compete, is very undifferentiated,” Reagan says. “We've started a journey — beginning with the research and positioning work we did — to tell a compelling story and create an experience that truly set us apart from our competitors. My biggest challenge is thinking about how to do that. I’m thinking about how we can show up in a way that feels cohesive and relevant to the people we want to attract — students, faculty, staff, and businesses,” Reagan says. What can alumni expect from the value of their degree? “Assuming my team’s efforts and the efforts of our strategic plan are successful, we will have elevated our status and brought more value to their degrees,” says Reagan, “and ensured that the best and brightest leaders of tomorrow are coming here to get an education.”
FALL 2019
RESEARCH
DONOR PRIORITY A SIMPLE RULE CHANGE COULD BOOST THE NUMBER OF USABLE ORGAN DONATIONS V E R Y D AY, P AT I E N T S O N
transplant waiting lists in the United States die before an organ becomes available. But Ronghuo Zheng, McCombs assistant professor of accounting, discovered that a modification to a proposed rule could swell the pool of usable organs. Nobel Prize-winning economist Alvin Roth’s proposed donor priority rule encourages donor registration by giving transplant priority to donors. But Zheng and two colleagues spotted a drawback in Roth’s plan: Highrisk individuals would have the highest incentive to register, because they are most likely to need a transplant in the near future. What if newly registered donors must sit out a freeze period before qualifying for priority treatment? That might discourage high-risk donors. The researchers created a simulated organ market, refining their model with feedback from physicians and researchers. They found that a three-year freeze would boost social welfare by $235 million annually. “It ensures the organ supply is higher without compromising its quality,” says Zheng. Without the freeze period, the priority rule would have a net societal cost of $76 million a year. The lower quality of organs would offset the gain from having more of them.
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RESEARCH: BIG IDEAS
THE BIG SHIFT: MORE CORPORATE CASH FLOWS INTO THE U.S. THAN OUT DESPITE POPULAR BELIEF, ALL U.S. FIRMS HAVEN’T BEEN SENDING MOST OF THEIR EARNINGS ABROAD TO DODGE TAXES, FINDS A STUDY USING IRS DATA by Steve Brooks RECENT YEARS, ONE OF THE MAJOR
exports of U.S. businesses has been cash. Several reports, such as one by Bloomberg News, have tallied more than $2 trillion of earnings stashed in foreign subsidiaries in countries with lower corporate tax rates. So it might come as a surprise that over a decade, American businesses brought more money into the country than they shipped out. That’s one conclusion from new research by Lillian Mills, accounting professor at Texas McCombs, and two recent McCombs doctoral accounting graduates, Lisa De Simone and Bridget Stomberg. Analyzing corporate returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service, the researchers found that U.S. multinationals imported $1 trillion from offshore affiliates, while they exported $830 million. Close to two-thirds of all returns showed more money coming in than going out. Those businesses tended to be older and larger ones, which built U.S. factories and headquarters decades ago. “They still have their headquarters and some assets and information technology here, so they’re getting payments from related parties overseas,” says Mills. Their report — one of the few to use IRS data on the subject — paints a detailed picture of how domestic firms shift income in and out. It has implications for the latest tax reforms, which aim to prevent more earnings from leaving the country. The research also offers clues to help IRS auditors spot international tax dodgers. “We wanted to find out what’s different about firms that have more outbound payments, compared to firms that don’t,” says co-author De Simone, Ph.D. ’13,
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who is now an associate accounting professor at Stanford University. TAPPING TAX RETURNS
Many earlier studies on income shifting had always suffered a handicap. They relied on public financial statements, which gave sketchy accounts of foreign operations. Mills, a part-time consultant for the IRS, got access to a more complete source: confidential corporate tax returns. The data came from Form 5471, Schedule M, which lists net payments between a U.S. firm and all its subsidiaries around the world. The researchers offset aggregate inbound and outbound transactions to classify the firm by the degree of its net inbound or outbound transactions. What’s more, the form breaks payments down into 26 categories. That allowed Mills to explore not just their size, but which kinds of transactions were most significant. She joined with two doctoral researchers who were working on the problem. De Simone, who had formerly given international tax advice at Ernst & Young, and Stomberg, Ph.D. ’13, now an associate accounting professor at Indiana University in Bloomington. The trio examined 4,266 tax returns from 1,000 companies with at least $10 million in assets, from 2005 to 2014. Some of their key findings: Outbound payments often bring manufactured goods into the U.S. Inventory was the largest single category of payment, thanks to the growth of offshore supply chains. Over 10 years, the average U.S. firm bought a net $38 million in manufactured goods from its affiliates.
Foreign affiliates pay U.S. parents for services. But those corporate offspring rewarded their American parent companies in other ways. They paid an average $56 million in rents and royalties and another $74 million in dividends. “Companies’ operations in the U.S. are providing services for the company as a whole, things like research and development and managing cash,” De Simone says. “Their operations in other countries have to compensate them for those services.” High-tech firms send funds outbound. Firms with net outbound payments were concentrated in the technology sector. Their outflow averaged $44 million a year. In addition to payments outbound from the U.S., high-tech companies also earn profits overseas that they keep there. That’s probably because so much of high-tech manufacturing and markets are international, Mills says. “They want to keep their profits overseas to reinvest overseas.” Tax rates matter. The companies with the highest outbound payments also saved the most on taxes. They paid 14.5 percent less on foreign income than on U.S. income. For other firms, the gap was only 11.2 percent. That confirms the influence of tax rates on income shifting. “A lower tax differential reduces the incentive to ship money overseas,” De Simone says. Thus, we might see less outbound shifting after tax reform dropped the U.S. rate to 21 percent. EVADING AUDITORS
The researchers expected that IRS auditors would pay extra attention to the companies that sent the most cash overseas. They found the opposite: Such firms drew fewer audits than average. They made up 37 percent of all returns, but only 34 percent of those audited. Those companies were mostly smaller ones, the researchers note. They may have been overlooked because, historically, the IRS has trained its guns on larger corporations. But that strategy is changing. In recent years, IRS auditors have focused on certain categories of payments that are ripe for abuse. One such area is transfer pricing, in which a company can circumvent regulations by selling a product to a foreign subsidiary for an artificially
For more stories based on faculty research and insights from Texas McCombs, visit Big Ideas at https://medium.com/texas-mccombs
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Over a decade, U.S. businesses brought more money into the country than they shipped out, according to new Texas McCombs research.
low price. The subsidiary sells it for a much higher price and reaps most of the profits, thus shifting earnings out of the U.S. Targeting specific kinds of payments rather than just large taxpayers makes sense in an era when Congress has cut budgets for tax enforcement. “IRS resources have plummeted since the financial crisis,” De Simone says. “If their pie is getting smaller, there’s only so much they can do.” NEW INCENTIVES TO KEEP CASH AT HOME
Although net payments were inbound for most of the years studied, the balance was gradually tipping the other way. In 2005, firms overall had
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net inbound payments of 3.3 percent of worldwide sales. By the study’s final year in 2014, net payments were outbound, at 0.7 percent of sales. So it’s timely that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 includes several carrots and sticks to discourage income-shifting: • It cuts the corporate tax rate from 35 percent down to 21 percent, giving businesses less reason to evade Uncle Sam’s reach. • Several new kinds of taxes will hit U.S. companies if their overseas payments exceed certain thresholds. • As for the $2 trillion that’s already offshore, firms have to pay a one-time tax on it, of up to 15.5 percent, no matter where in the world it is. Says
Mills, “Once you’ve been taxed on it anyway, there’s no additional friction in bringing funds back to the U.S.” In the long run, the new tax law should be good for companies because it will allow them to move more of their cash back home if desired. “Reducing the tax on bringing funds back home gives more flexibility to companies,” Mills says. “They can pay dividends, they can buy back stock, or they can make investments in capital stock and people here in the U.S.” “Using IRS Data to Identify Income Shifting to Foreign Affiliates” was published in the June 2019 Review of Accounting Studies.
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RESEARCH: BIG IDEAS
THE STARTUP IS OURS, BUT THE IDEA IS MINE ENTREPRENEURS CAN INSPIRE NEW VENTURE TEAMS BY SEEKING INPUT — WITH BOUNDARIES by Jeremy M. Simon ICTURE TWO STARTUP FOUNDERS,
each leading a newly established team tasked with launching the entrepreneur’s idea. The first entrepreneur lets the team members know their input is always welcome: No change to the business concept is off limits. The second entrepreneur, however, doesn’t want any team input: The team’s job is to simply execute the entrepreneur’s vision. Which approach is best for inspiring a feeling of collective ownership — and driving eventual startup success? The answer is a combination of both, according to new research from Steven Gray, assistant professor of management at Texas McCombs. “To get others to feel like, ‘This startup is really ours,’ the team needs to have their fingerprints on the idea,” Gray says. “Not just building it up as it currently stands, but actually shaping, maneuvering, and influencing some aspects of the idea.” Such requests for team input on the startup idea are labeled “help-seeking” behaviors. But being too open to team input has its drawbacks. If they want to prevent disagreements, the entrepreneur must set boundaries around soliciting feedback on those parts of the idea they want to keep unchanged. The researchers call these “territorial marking” behaviors. They were found to be beneficial for startups. “Team members respond positively to a leader who sets clear boundaries,” Gray says. STUDYING STARTUP TEAMS
To reach these findings, Gray and his coauthors, Andrew Knight and Markus Baer from Washington University in St. Louis, looked close-
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ly at entrepreneurs and the new venture teams assembled to launch their ideas. “Our study was really trying to peer into those first days, weeks, and months to get a sense of what types of challenges teams are wrestling with,” Gray says. They also wanted to examine entrepreneurs’ feelings of psychological ownership, often exemplified through the use of language when describing personal attachment to their creative ideas (such as describing a startup as “my baby”). The researchers conducted their first study at Startup Weekend, a series of worldwide entrepreneurship competitions, by collecting such quantitative data as surveys, video pitches, and judge ratings from 89 teams. They explored how entrepreneurs’ help-seeking and territorial marking behavior affected the team’s feelings of collective ownership and, ultimately, the team’s performance in the competition. Entrepreneurs fell into one of four behavior types: About a quarter kicked off their team’s work without having any initial group conversations around the startup idea; a quarter proactively solicited input on all aspects of their idea; another quarter engaged in “territorial marking” behavior, inhibiting team member input on the startup idea; and the final quarter struck a balance, being simultaneously collaborative on some parts of the idea (e.g., product design) while also being protective of other parts of the idea (e.g., target market). The team leaders minimized conflict by having up-front conversations. They encouraged collective ownership by soliciting team input. And despite the researchers’ predictions that help-seeking behavior by startup founders might “over empower” team members to make unso-
licited changes — potentially causing conflict with the entrepreneur — the researchers found that such behavior actually lessens team conflict. STARTUP STORIES
For the next phase of their study, the researchers interviewed and observed participants (students, faculty, and community members) in the Hatchery, a Washington University startup program. The researchers wanted to hear multiple perspectives on precisely why these two behaviors impact new venture teams. They were able to do just that. In a series of interviews and observations, the researchers were able to pin down how these two behaviors affected the startup team. For example, one of the founders was a scientist who discovered a compound that generates a low-grade electric charge when it touches human skin. She was also a fitness enthusiast, and wanted to put the unique material into fitness trackers so the devices could self-charge as people wore them. But before the entrepreneur established any boundaries or solicited team input on certain parts of the idea, her team began proposing a range of other uses for the new material, like self-charging headlamps for cave exploration. The scientist grew unhappy with this new, unwanted direction. “She was very frustrated by this, and eventually it soured the team,” Gray says. The group disbanded soon after. But other founders established clear boundaries early on. Another entrepreneur wanted to create a fun, outdoor activity community for white-collar workers. He was clear about keeping those elements unchanged, regardless of the potential for greater profits. Nevertheless, he asked for team input on elements like the marketing plan. “He articulated what was off-limits but also what could change,” Gray says. The business eventually launched successfully, before this among less than half of the program’s startups to do so. WHY BOUNDARIES HELP
How do the researchers explain the benefits of boundaries? They believe setting limits achieves two important functions for early-stage teams. The first was something the researchers expected. “It was mainly about helping team members avoid conflict with the entrepreneur, even when
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The benefits of boundaries: Steven Gray, assistant professor of management, believes setting limits achieves two important functions for early stage startup teams.
they’re just trying to figure out what’s okay and what’s not okay,” Gray says. “It’s articulating that so team members don’t step on the entrepreneur’s toes.” Teams find it easier not to cross any boundaries when they’ve first been clearly marked. Second, somewhat unexpectedly, the researchers found that establishing limits signals the entrepreneur’s psychological investment to new team members. When an entrepreneur shows they care deeply about an idea (or part of an idea), their team notices. “It tells you that I’m bought in, I’m sold, I’m committed to this. So you should be too,” says Gray. Team members are therefore more willing to invest, including their time and resources, in order to turn the idea into a reality. Entrepreneurs can also reduce conflict by approaching the team for their input. “It creates an expectation among new team members that
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any time that idea is going to change, the entrepreneur will be the one who initiates those conversations,” Gray says. The team becomes less likely to take it upon themselves to make unapproved changes. The findings suggest advice for entrepreneurs. First, clearly establish what’s allowed and what’s not. “Articulate that very early on to your team,” Gray says. For team members, Gray recommends being cautious about making unsolicited adjustments to the idea, since they could produce conflict with the entrepreneur. If something designated off limits must be changed for the survival of the business, team members need to come prepared with more than just a rational explanation. “It’s about the bond or personal feeling that the entrepreneur has to that thing, and being sensitive to that,” Gray says.
DIVIDING THE PIE
To explain his findings, Gray uses the metaphor of dividing a pie. Entrepreneurs should offer some pieces to the team (help-seeking), but also keep some for themselves (territorial marking): If the founder gives their team everything, they’re left with nothing and might feel unhappy. It’s a process of give and take. The best entrepreneurs can strike the balance. “It’s somebody who’s a little bit assertive and directive but not overly so, and somebody’s who’s a bit collaborative but not overly so,” says Gray. “That’s really the blend that you’re trying to find as an entrepreneur.” “On the Emergence of Collective Psychological Ownership in New Creative Teams” was published in Organization Science.
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SERIOUS SAM EHLINGER, BBA ’21, UT’S STAR QUARTERBACK, BALANCES THE DEMANDS OF FOOTBALL WITH THE RIGORS OF McCOMBS by Todd Savage
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treads up the slow-rising hill along 21st Street from Moncrief Training Center to the CBA building at McCombs. It’s a well-worn path for the Austin native, connecting two places where he spends many hours on campus. He begins his mornings with a workout in the football training center, pushing past a door greeting players with a placard reminding them that EVERYTHING MATTERS and down hallways decorated with trophies from past championship seasons and displays heralding legendary Longhorns. Ehlinger, who took over as starting quarterback last year and led Texas to its best season in a decade, spends hours a day at the training center, working out, meeting with players and coaches, reviewing film of opposing defense for next week’s game, and getting massages and other post-workout treatments. Up the hill at McCombs, he’s sitting in business classes or huddling with other student entrepreneurs on a start-up project. Then he’s back to the team for practice, more care for his body, and then studying with his teammates in the football academic center. “It’s all about compartmentalizing,” Ehlinger says. “Once I put the football stuff behind me, then I’m focused on school. It’s a busy schedule from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. It’s the only way really to do it.” And yet Ehlinger says he sees football and business as complementary pursuits. “The atmosphere created by the professors as well as the students at McCombs is parallel with how successful athletes succeed on the field. Everyone in that class is working to be the best. Everyone is working to learn as much as possible. When I leave the football facility to go to class, I’m still around that competitive environment, so nothing really changes. I come back to training, and I’m still in a competitive mindset.” For Longhorn fans, Ehlinger’s biography is well-known by now. Since taking over as starting quarterback last season, he emerged as a leader and face for Texas football. This year, he was named one of five team captains, his face was on the cover of magazines, from Austin Monthly to Sport Illustrated, and he’s on pace to challenge many longheld Longhorn records for passing and touchdowns. Early season buzz had already talked up Ehlinger for Heisman consideration. Ehlinger has been observing and studying UT football all his life. IVE MORNINGS A WEEK , SAM EHLINGER, BBA ’21 ,
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Both UT alumni, Ehlinger’s parents grew up dressing him and his siblings in burnt orange and taking them to games. His father died suddenly when Sam was 14, and he went on to play football at Austin’s Westlake High School. “Even through the tough times, The University of Texas has always been a source of happiness for my family and me,” he wrote to his 65,000 followers on Twitter, where he’s identified as “Quarterback/McCombs Business Student.” Ehlinger was drawn to the business school based on what he heard growing up. “Observing what successful people were doing, I gathered some information and heard how prestigious the McCombs School of Business at UT was. My dad was a lawyer, and he said never to go to law school,” Sam says with a grin, “so I think that led me to business.” His younger brother, Jake, is a freshman at McCombs and a walk-on with the team. Ehlinger says he thrives in his business classes because he can already see the real-world application of everything he’s learning. “It’s also exciting to be connected to the McCombs name and be learning things that will help you be successful in the future,” he says. Like other ambitious business students, he has already started a company, with two other McCombs students. “Through McCombs I’ve made incredible connections with successful business people,” Ehlinger says. “I can apply every single class that I’m taking to my own company and just run scenarios through my head and apply it in a real-world sense instead of just seeing it in the book and trying to remember it.” What he has already learned is how to handle the media spotlight with the criticism and adulation that comes along with it. He works hard to stay in the present, whatever the task before him. “When I’m in the facility working out, that’s all I’m focused on. That’s the same way I am when I go to class. You have to be locked in. You have to stay focused or you’re going to miss some important information. If I want to succeed in football and I want to succeed in school, then I’m going to have to work hard in both of them. I don’t really have an option.” Leadership is a key skill, whether guiding an offense on the field or directing an organization. Ehlinger has been praised for his ability with a diverse range of players on the team. Why does he think he has been so successful in this area? Explains Ehlinger: “The only way to have a great relationship with someone is to be equal. That seems elementary, but if you show anybody any sign that you’re higher up in a job than someone else, you’re automatically discredited.” He also understands that you have to connect with people to build a bond. “My life story with my father passing away, that’s obviously one of the tougher things that you’d have to go through in life, and so people respect that I’ve done that and still work very hard. They understand that not everything has been easy for me in life, and you have to connect and relate to people in order to lead them.” What does he consider a good leader or leadership? He doesn’t subscribe to the “it’s lonely at the top” idea of being a leader. “I believe if you’re a leader, it should be the opposite of lonely, because you’re always bringing people along with you,” he says. “Leadership is having a heartbeat for what others around you need, and everybody is different. You never know what’s going on in their heads and so you have to go into it with an open and equal mindset.”
Making the daily transition from football training to business classes is natural for Longhorn starting quarterback, Sam Ehlinger, BBA '21: "When I leave the football facility to go to class, I’m still around that competitive environment. Everyone is working to be the best."
P H OTO G R A P H B Y J E F F W I L S O N
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LEADERSHIP LESSONS
McCOMBS ALUMNI SHARE INSIGHTS ABOUT HOW PARTICIPATION IN ATHLETICS HELPED PREPARE THEM FOR SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS CAREERS
WHITNEY ALLISON, BBA ’10 CYCLING ENTREPRENEUR S TA R T E D S P O R T 18, as a freshman. Y E A R S O F PA R T I C I PAT I O N Still at it. I’ve just wrapped up my 14th cycling season, seventh as a professional, most recently with Hagens Berman-Supermint. C U R R E N T J O B Co-founder of Bike Sport LLC, with husband, Zack, offering bike clinics, bike fittings, and camps. Also, marketing director for Source Endurance LLC, and I handle marketing for FoCo Fondo, an annual gravel ride.
L E S S O N S L E A R N E D I was one of those people who was terrified of failing. Entrepreneurship wasn’t even part of my vocabulary. Through cycling, I have become more comfortable with trying and failing, but I don’t think you ever totally overcome the fear of failure. Another lesson: Race after race, you’re experimenting to see what works. The best way to be in business is making calculated guesses. Nothing is guaranteed. There will be disappointment, but failure always gives you the opportunity to learn something. H O W B U S I N E S S E D U C AT I O N M AT T E R E D We did a ton of group projects. You try to figure out how to work with each person's strengths to make a really good team.
H O M E Fort Collins, Colorado.
SPORTS LEADERSHIP AT McCOMBS
W H AT Y O U VA L U E M O S T A B O U T Y O U R S P O R T The team aspect. When you have a group of women physically working toward the same goal, there’s something really powerful about that.
While McCombs students have always distinguished themselves as athletes, the school is now giving academic attention to the business of sports. Over the last year, the McCombs Center for Leadership and Ethics has developed a sports leadership track, with a number of high-profile initiatives, including the hiring of NBA analyst and writer Kirk Goldsberry as a faculty member, sponsoring an event series on the business of sports, and developing new projects with both professional and collegiate sports teams and media organizations. Explains Ethan Burris, professor of management and the center’s faculty director: The business side of sports is huge. Sports also offers a lens through which we can look at societal problems and issues that affect business more broadly, from race relations to issues of privacy and health data. Finally, a lot of our students want a career path into sports, either going to work for a professional sports team or a company Nike or ESPN.”
A L L I S O N : S N OW Y M O U N TA I N P H OTO G R A P H Y
M O S T M E M O R A B L E AT H L E T I C E X P E R I E N C E Last year, at the Winston-Salem Cycling Classic, the biggest one-day professional race, we were the underdogs. It was pouring rain, and you couldn’t see anything. Everybody was all in, and we won by an inch. Everybody was crying.
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JEFF BUTLER, BBA ’14 WHEELCHAIR RUGBY ENTREPRENEUR S TA R T E D S P O R T When I was 13, I broke my neck. That’s what enabled me to play my sport, starting at age 15. H O M E Austin. Y E A R S O F PA R T I C I PAT I O N Still playing and was a Paralympic silver medalist in Rio in 2016. I’ll be going to tryouts in December for the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo. I anticipate being on Team USA Wheelchair Rugby. C U R R E N T J O B Product manager for VMI (Vantage Mobility International), which converts vans to be wheelchair accessible. I have a patent pending that keeps other vehicles from parking too close.
SAM ACHO, BBA ’10, BUSINESS HONORS PROGRAM FOOTBALL PHILANTHROPIST S TA R T E D S P O R T Sixth grade, in Dallas. Y E A R S O F PA R T I C I PAT I O N I’m going on my ninth year as a professional. I spent four years with the Arizona Cardinals and four with the Chicago Bears. After my injury last year (torn pectoral muscle), I was released from Chicago and am a free agent. C U R R E N T J O B Vice president of the NFL Players Association. We’re negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement. It wasn’t until this year that I’ve understood I’m well-equipped for this kind of work. I love being able to help the guys, and when I’m done playing, I’d like to find some way to work with the NFL or the players. Also, vice president and on the board of Living Hope Christian Ministries [founded by his parents, who came to the U.S. from Nigeria]. My parents go back every year on medical missions, and I started going when I was 15. About two years ago, we opened a medical center. One of my passions is raising money for this.
W H AT YO U VA L U E M O S T A B O U T YO U R S P O R T I love what it allows me to do. I’m almost 30 years old, and I’m fortunate to be able to travel the world and compete at the highest level. M O S T M E M O R A B L E AT H L E T I C E X P E R I E N C E It was during the Parade of Nations, the opening ceremonies in Rio (2016 Paralympics). In the tunnel, the entire U.S. delegation was chanting, “USA!” It was the most surreal moment, knowing that I had achieved this goal I had set at age 15. This realization washed over me, “Oh, my God, I’m here.” L E S S O N S L E A R N E D The way that I have achieved my athletic goals has been very measured and very tactical. I had this big lofty goal as a 15-year-old and the approach that I have always taken is, I set a big goal and then spend some time analyzing where I am and where I want to be. I set smaller goals to get me there, each step of the way. H O W B U S I N E S S E D U C AT I O N M AT T E R E D In business school, you learn finance and marketing and a lot of hard skills, but what you learn most is how to work with people. The lessons you learn about interpersonal dynamics and how to manage expectations of teammates are all applicable to team sports. I learned a ton about teamwork in business school.
H O M E New York City. W H AT Y O U VA L U E M O S T A B O U T Y O U R S P O R T Relationships. My teammates and I wanted to work on a solution to crime and shootings in Chicago. We found five organizations that work with kids and raised $827,000. I love being around a group of guys and rallying together around something we care about as a team.
AC H O : B RU C E Y E U N G ; B U T L E R : K E L LY G U M B E RT
M O S T M E M O R A B L E AT H L E T I C E X P E R I E N C E Last year, after getting injured, it was realizing I’m more than a football player, I’m more than an athlete. L E S S O N S L E A R N E D Teamwork. A lot of people don’t understand what it means to be a teammate. They think of it as sacrifice. After being injured in 2018, instead of wasting that time, I decided I’m going to be a good teammate to these guys, I’m going to be a good friend. H O W B U S I N E S S E D U C AT I O N M AT T E R E D I thought negotiations were about fooling someone, but they’re not. It’s about being honest, being yourself, being genuine. M c C O M B S . U T E X A S . E D U 23
DALLAS GRIFFIN, BBA ’07, MBA ’09 FOOTBALL ENERGY INVESTMENT BANK DIRECTOR S TA R T E D S P O R T I started as a guard on the offensive line in sixth grade in Katy, Texas. I played fullback and tight end before switching to center as a sophomore in high school, a position I held throughout the rest of my football career. H O M E Houston. Y E A R S O F PA R T I C I PAT I O N 12 years, including UT. C U R R E N T J O B Director at the energy investment bank Simmons Energy, a division of Piper Jaffray. W H A T Y O U V A L U E M O S T A B O U T Y O U R S P O R T You’re always preparing for these fourth-quarter situations when you’re exhausted and have nothing left to give, but you still have to take the ball down the field and score. You can’t afford to give anything less than a perfect effort. It’s you and 10 other teammates who are all struggling side by side with a common goal. Learning how to fight in situations like those and making great effort a habit are such valuable lessons for athletes and future business leaders.
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M O S T M E M O R A B L E AT H L E T I C E X P E R I E N C E You train so hard and for so long with your teammates that they become an extended family. You develop a bond that’s hard to replicate. The grueling nature of the game, the shared pain, and the shared experience create something that’s pretty unique. L E S S O N S L E A R N E D I wasn’t the strongest or the fastest, but at Texas something that the coaches hammered into my head was that I was the only one who could control my effort level. I could decide that I’ll never quit and that I’m willing to outwork every one of my opponents every day. On the football field, you had to develop this mental toughness; that’s definitely something that I’ve carried into business. If you want to be the best, waking up willing to work harder than everybody else every day is a pretty good start. H O W B U S I N E S S E D U C AT I O N M AT T E R E D While at Texas, I felt that the rigor of the business school was a great complement to what I was doing on the field. Whether getting ready for an opponent or an exam, preparation was the best way to put yourself in position to succeed. Of course, as a former football player years later, my business education is paying more dividends than many of the skills I worked so hard to hone on the football field.
EMILY BEHNCKE, MBA ’13 SOCCER MARKETING STRATEGIST S TA R T E D S P O R T Since I was 3 or 4. It’s in my DNA. My grandfather and father played soccer, and my brother played professionally. H O M E New York City. Y E A R S O F PA R T I C I PAT I O N Played professionally in Sweden for a season; still play for fun. C U R R E N T J O B Director of event strategy, Anheuser-Busch. W H AT Y O U V A L U E M O S T A B O U T Y O U R S P O R T The connection to my family, my history, my past. When I step on the field, I feel like I’m where I belong. And I love the relationships you form. My closest lifelong friends were connections through soccer teams. When you shed blood, sweat, and tears with people, there are bonds there. M O S T M E M O R A B L E AT H L E T I C E X P E R I E N C E In the Elite Eight, we played Washington State, and they were really good. We played at Princeton, and my brothers flew in from California and Texas, and my parents, who were at every game, were there. I scored a goal within minutes. When I saw my friends from campus and my family, it made me feel like we could do it all. L E S S O N S L E A R N E D You need grit and tenacity to get to the highest levels in sport, and you have to work harder and want it more than anything else. It taught me a lot about work ethic, failure, and success. I had some great wins and losses. It’s what you learn from them and how you react that’s important. H O W B U S I N E S S E D U C AT I O N M AT T E R E D In Luis Martins’ Leading People and Organizations class, I learned so much that is applicable both on the soccer field and at Anheuser Busch about how to motivate teams and build a culture of risk-taking. We grew up trying to achieve perfection. But when we try not to make mistakes, we're also missing opportunities to get better.
CHRIS McCOLPIN, BBA ’02, MPA ’02 BASKETBALL COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE FINANCE PROFESSIONAL STARTED SPORT In the third grade, at my school in Carrollton, Texas. YEARS OF PARTICIPATION I continued playing through high school and college. C U R R E N T J O B Senior director at JLL [Jones Lang LaSalle], a commercial real estate services firm. H O M E Austin. W H AT Y O U VA L U E M O S T A B O U T Y O U R S P O R T The team atmosphere is amazing, A basketball team is a close-knit group. Being part of the Texas basketball family, those relationships have continued to grow. We just had a team reunion. I'm sure the fact that I played basketball at UT helped me in my career. M O S T M E M O R A B L E AT H L E T I C E X P E R I E N C E We were fortunate to go to three NCAA tournaments, and to win the Big 12 championship in March 1999, my first year at Texas.
B E H N C K E : B E V E R LY S C H A E F E R
L E S S O N S L E A R N E D Teamwork is hard work. When you’re part of the team and playing at a high level of basketball, you’re playing with guys from completely different backgrounds. You have to be able to adapt and relate to different kinds of people. H O W B U S I N E S S E D U C AT I O N M AT T E R E D Every client is different: You have to be understanding of different folks and try and put the right team together to be successful, deal by deal. Preparation is always key. — INTERVIEWS BY MARY ANN ROSER
ART BY FIRST LASTNAME
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MULTITASKING ON THE JOB
EMPLOYEES WHO LIKE TO JUGGLE PROJECTS HAVE ADVANTAGES IN THE WORKPLACE by Steve Brooks | illustration by Vidhya Nagarajan
treasures the occasional day when she can stay at home and work on a single project. But her office is never far from her mind or her inbox. ¶ “While I may be focused on one task, I closely monitor the emails coming in,” says the manager at Deloitte Consulting in Dallas. “There might be something urgent from a client.” ¶ She’s accustomed to performing several jobs at once, otherwise known as multitasking. In the words of Janet Dukerich, management professor at McCombs, Simon is being polychronic. ¶ In new research, Dukerich finds a variety of benefits to being polychronic, especially in the beehive of the modern-day workplace. It’s not just being able get a lot done. It positions a person at the center of office social networks. ¶ “Being central to a network has advantages, because you’re often privy to information before others,” she says. “Information is power in most organizations.” ¶ It can also help to move more quickly up the career ladder. “You’re often seen as a key player, as one of the go-to people,” she says. LISA SIMON, MBA ’14,
INVIGOR ATING — OR ANNOYING? Dukerich came to the subject through personal experience. Besides teaching, she recently served as senior vice provost for faculty affairs at UT Austin. To see that faculty policies were applied fairly across campus, she dealt with people at 19 different colleges and schools. “Multitasking is something I am used to doing on a daily basis,” she says. “I like to move around from task to task.” But even while she enjoyed the constant juggling her executive position required, its demands kept her from having as much time as she would have liked to focus on research. Now that she’s taken on a different role in the provost's office — vice provost for advocacy and dispute resolution — her administrative responsibilities will only take 50 percent of the time they did previously. She says she’s looking forward to the opportunity to getting back to her research. That puts her, she says, in the middle ground between polychronic and its opposite: monochronic. “People high in polychronicity like to have many tasks going on simultaneously,” Dukerich says. “They can shift from one task to another very easily. They actually prefer that. Monochronic people find that very annoying. They like to start one task, finish it and pick up another.” On a deeper level, Dukerich adds, they have clashing views of time. Polychronic people see it as cyclical, with several cycles happening at once. Monochronic people see it as linear, a sequence of one event after another. Her mixed feelings got her wondering how other people felt about juggling multiple jobs, and how it might affect their status at the office. M c C O M B S . U T E X A S . E D U 27
To find out, Dukerich collaborated with faculty colleagues Fabiola Bertolotti and Elisa Mattarelli, both of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. They contacted an Italian business that was a fertile ground for multitasking. It worked on alternative fuels for motor vehicles, in a country where 1.3 million of them run on natural gas. That meant a host of research and development teams, with workers overlapping among them. The researchers asked 71 employees to fill out a questionnaire. Participants scored their own preferences — for or against multitasking — on a scale from 1 to 7, with 7 the most favorable. Using the same scale, they rated how strongly the firm expected them to juggle jobs. The results showed that the employees leaned slightly toward multitasking. But the company’s expectations were even stronger. On average, participants scored their own affinities at 4.0 and the company’s at 4.6. The employees were also well connected. The average worker served on five teams and communicated with 23 colleagues. But t hose who rated t hemselves high on multitasking turned out to be the most connected. They communicated more with co-workers. A worker whose taste for multitasking was 1.25 points higher than average was 55 percent more likely to be someone whom colleagues sought out for advice.
“People who are highly polychronic like it when people come to them for advice,” Dukerich says. “They enjoy being interrupted, as opposed to people who shut the door and say, ‘Please do not disturb me until I get my work done.’”
If a worker wants to move ahead more quickly, she adds, they should seek opportunities to join more teams. “If you want your name out there, one way to do it is to multitask,” she says. “As a colleague of mine says, ‘it’s not who you know, it’s who knows you.’”
ONE TASK OR MANY?
A POLYCHRONIC PERSONALIT Y
Neither orientation is right or wrong, according to Dukerich. What’s important is that managers don’t assign multiple projects without taking the person into account. “Individuals will flourish better if they’re paired with compatible projects,” she says. “Some projects require lots of interaction, in an open office space where people are frequently bombarded with interruptions. For some individuals, that’s acceptable and desirable. “For others, having a space where they can shut the door is preferable, at least part of the time. If they’re being overwhelmed by interacting with people on a continuous basis, they may not be as effective in terms of performance.” Job seekers, too, should compare their appetites for multitasking with the demands of the company. “Organizations have different cultures,” Dukerich says. “You should look for a congruence between your personal preferences and the expectations of the organization.”
In today’s frenetic workplaces, several recent McCombs alumni say that Dukerich’s findings reflect their own experiences. Kevin Zlotnik, MBA ’15, fits the polychronic profile. “I’m lucky to be able to multitask,” he says. “I’d get bored if I had to show up for work and do the same thing over and over.” His family business, BZMZ Interests of Houston, gives him ample opportunity. As vice president of development, he ping-pongs between overseeing a minor-league baseball team and underwriting investments in other companies. Supervising the baseball team, with scores of employees and thousands of customers, gives him a feeling of connection. “You have to get out of the executive office and talk to everybody, or you don’t know what’s going on,” he says. “Otherwise, people don’t feel comfortable knocking on your door.” Zlotnik is so used to interruptions that he gets nervous when he has none. Recently, he recounts, “I was on an airplane, and I had to be off the laptop for an hour. I felt anxious.”
Ashley Loney, BBA ’06, managing director of resources at Accenture in Austin, says multitasking doesn’t come naturally, but that techniques like bullet-point notes help her keep her many projects on track.
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Lisa Simon, MBA ’14, a manager at Deloitte in Dallas, likes both multitasking and focused work. She juggles multiple projects and teams using collaborative online applications like Google Docs.
P H O T O I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y P E T E R H O R VAT H
GIVING YOUR BEST 85 PERCENT Simon, the manager at Deloitte, is closer to the middle of the spectrum. Her job requires her to be polychronic, involved with up to eight projects and teams at any given time. “We live in a world where you almost can’t focus too hard, because things happen so fast around you,” she says. “You have to have the flexibility to quickly shift your focus where it’s needed.” Simon has devised her own systems for making it easier. One is to have her teams collaborate, using online applications like Microsoft OneNote or Google Docs. “For the few seconds that I have to pay attention to that project, I know where to go to get the latest and greatest information,” she says. “It helps my mind switch gears more quickly.” When she wants to minimize interruptions, she works from home. The rest of the time, though, she enjoys being in the nerve center of activity. “You’re the one who’s responsive, resourceful, and willing to share with others on a timely basis,” Simon says. “Because of that, more people are interested in working with you.” But she adds, “I sometimes wish my job required less multitasking. I want to give everything I’m responsible for 100 percent of my attention, but often I have to settle for 75 to 85 percent of my attention.”
“IF YOU WANT YOUR NAME OUT THERE, ONE WAY TO DO IT IS TO MULTITASK... IT’S NOT WHO YOU KNOW, IT’S WHO KNOWS YOU.” JANET DUKERICH, PROFESSOR, MANAGEMENT
LE ARNED FLE XIBILIT Y Multitasking hasn’t come naturally to Ashley Loney, BBA ’06. But as managing director of resources at Accenture in Austin, she’s discovered that it can be learned.
Keven Zlotnik, MBA ’15, vice president of development for BZMZ Interests of Houston, is a natural multitasker. He’s so used to interruptions he says he gets nervous when he has none.
“I’m an introvert in my core,” she says. “But as I’ve progressed in my job, I’ve learned to focus on 10 different things at a time with 10 different groups of people. Now, I feel like I thrive in a flexible environment.” One thing that’s helped is taking concise notes. “I don’t recall levels of details,” Loney says. “If I have to switch between 10 different projects, I can look at two or three bullet points, and it brings everything back to me.” Over time, that networking has helped her get ahead faster. “The more teams you’re on, the more exposure you have to leadership,” she says. “If you’re only involved in one project, people start to ask, ‘Are you really making the impact you could?’” When Loney comes back to McCombs to recruit talent, she looks not just for good grades but for multitasking skills. “Out of the gate, at Accenture, you’re going to be juggling a couple of projects,” she says. “So we look for people who have had multiple things going on at once. We value someone who works while they’re going to school, because the ability to balance priorities is very important.” As Loney has become more polychronic, it’s even bled into her personal life. “I cook a lot, and my goal is to have everything finished at the same time,” she says. “I multitask 10 different things, and I make sure that it all comes together at the end.”
Janet Dukerich, professor of management at McCombs, says that people who work on many projects simultaneously are positioned more centrally in office social networks — a career advantage.
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WO R K I N G P RO McCOMBS’ FLEXIBLE MBA OPTIONS DRAWS JOB ENHANCERS, SWITCHERS, of Austin, the McCombs Working Professional MBA program catalyzed a job F switch to a coveted role and a salary that tripled in three years. ¶ For Bryan Berens, MBA ’19, of Dallas, the program opened the door to a consulting job at the firm where he most wanted to work. ¶ And for Jasmine Crespo, MBA ’19, of Houston, it launched a journey of self-discovery that led to a career change and a job she loves. “It’s easily the best decision I ever made,” Crespo says. All three say what they gained from the program went beyond advancing their careers and increasing their paychecks. O R AM Y NASO N , M BA ’ 1 9,
They learned important truths about themselves, made lasting friendships, and had experiences that broadened their world, including a required week abroad to see how other countries do business. “It was a tough two years in a lot of ways,” Berens says, referring to juggling a full-time job, rigorous schooling, and personal time that inevitably took a back seat. But it also was incredibly fun, he says. “I went in with a desire to learn and some vague ideas about where I wanted to go professionally. I left with lifelong friendships, greater clarity regarding my career goals, a new job that I'm extremely excited about, and far more learning than I could have imagined.” Many schools offer flexible options for professionals who want an MBA but don’t want to exit the workforce for two years. While full-time student MBA enrollments are flat nationwide, demand is growing for working professional MBA programs and specialized business master’s programs in technology and other fields, according to the business school accrediting agency AACSB International. The agency’s data show that 75 percent of the 517 schools worldwide responding to the organization’s survey offer at least one MBA option for working professionals. Of the same
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group, 21 percent offer at least one executive MBA program for upper-level business leaders. McCombs offers both options. The Executive MBA program is geared to older working professionals with more years in the workforce and attracts about 50 to 60 students a year. The Working Professional program is geared toward younger workers. It draws about 235 entering students a year and is consistently ranked among the top 10 programs by U.S. News & World Report. Although both programs offer general business curricula, the Working Professional MBA students dive more deeply into specific business roles and functions, while Executive MBA students gain more of a big-picture view, says Joe Stephens, senior assistant dean and director of the Working Professional and Executive MBA programs. In Houston and Dallas, Working Professional MBA students attend classes every other Friday Opposite right, clockwise from upper left: Amy Nason, MBA '19, was able to catalyze a job switch that tripled her salary because of the McCombs Working Professionals Program. Bryan Berens, MBA '19, parlayed his background in education into a new career in consulting. Jasmine Crespo, MBA '19, made a career leap from a small family firm to a global consulting company. Senior Assistant Dean Joe Stephens says demand is growing for the program.
O F ESS I O N A L S AND EXPLORERS by Mary Ann Roser | photographs by Summer Miles
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evening and all day that Saturday. In Austin, students attend every Monday and Tuesday evening. All of the students take the same core courses as full-time McCombs MBA students.
WEARING DIFFERENT HATS The program attracts three kinds of young professionals: career explorers, career changers, and career enhancers. “The students are constantly applying what they’re learning in real time,” Stephens says. That was the beauty of the program for her, says Nason. “I would go to class on Monday and apply it on Tuesday. I used that MBA from day one.” A Kansas City, Missouri, native, Nason received her BBA at La Salle University in Philadelphia and moved to Austin with her husband in 2015. She landed a job with software giant Oracle Corp. in business development, cold-calling 50 to 100 prospective customers a day and celebrating when one agreed to meet. She liked Oracle but wanted a change, and the idea of getting an MBA moved from the back of her mind to the front. She didn’t look much beyond the Austin program. “There’s something about the UT vibe,” she says. Nason started the program in January 2017. Even before classes began, being accepted helped her leverage a project manager promotion at Oracle, she says. Then, a leadership course at McCombs primed her for another move up, to regional manager of business development. “In this program, I learned that I like to wear multiple hats,” Nason says. “I like to change things.” During her second school year, another company came knocking: Genpact, a professional services firm. The company recruits McCombs MBAs, but she initially declined an interview, saying the job sounded too vague. Genpact came back with a better-defined role — and a more attractive salary, she says. For her job interview at the company’s New York headquarters, Nason was told to prepare a 15-minute presentation on a topic she was passionate about. She had spent two years polishing her presentation skills at McCombs and was psyched. Using pictures and diagrams, she talked about making pizza the way her Italian grandmother did. It was entirely different from the business talks most applicants give, and Nason nailed it. She started her new job months before she even graduated — with a vice president title. Now she divides her time
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MBAs BY THE NUMBERS WORKING PROFESSIONAL MBA Program length: 2 years in Houston and Dallas; 2.5 years in Austin Average age: 30 Minimum work experience required: 2 years Average work experience of students: 8 years Established: 1999, Dallas 2000, Austin 2005, Houston EXECUTIVE MBA Program length: 2 years Average age: 37 Minimum work experience required: 8 years Average work experience of students: 14 years Established: 1981, Austin
Sources: Stefani Sereboff, director of working professional and executive MBA career management; Joe Stephens, senior assistant dean and director of the Working Professional and the Executive MBA programs
between consulting and sales and is on Genpact’s leadership training track. Company executives often seek her feedback, and, Nason says, “they take your opinion very seriously.” Her salary has risen three-fold since she made sales calls at Oracle. “There’s no way I would make what I’m making today without that MBA,” she says.
MOVING UP AND OUT In the past couple of years, more than 70 percent of McCombs Working Professional MBA students made a job change during the two years they were in the program or within three months of graduating, says Stefani Sereboff, director of working professional and executive MBA career management. On average, their salaries jump about 30 percent, while the number of people switching careers is rising too, she says. Like Nason, Berens, 29, also switched companies. A University of Arizona graduate with a bachelor’s degree in history, he taught with Teach for America and then moved to a job with the Dallas Independent School District in 2014, analyzing teacher recruitment, selection, and evaluation systems. “I realized I knew very little about running large organizations,” he says. He thought an MBA would broaden his perspective; he looked into Southern Methodist University and UT Austin before deciding on McCombs. It had the academic rigor and emphasis on peer connections he wanted, Berens says. Not long after he enrolled, he left the school district to become director of programs and innovation at Teach.org, which helps aspiring teachers navigate their path into the profession. Learning a new job and being in school again was an adjustment and “certainly not for the faint of heart,” says Berens. He’s also married and took on an optional MBA project in which he worked with a consulting firm for eight weeks. “It was a third full-time job,” counting school, he says. “You don’t sleep much when you’re in these programs,” says program director Stephens, who graduated from a similar program in St. Louis. “I can relate to these students. It’s hard.” But despite the demands on his time, Berens loved working on a team and found it to be “an incredibly joyful, fulfilling experience.” It also clarified what he wanted to do after graduating: work as a consultant. Working professionals get unlimited access to career consultants at McCombs, Sereboff says. The students receive a curriculum guided by a career management framework that includes assistance with resumes, branding, and interviewing skills. They also get access to successful alumni, interested employers, and networking opportunities, she says. Berens took advantage of the on-campus recruitment service and zeroed in on a few consulting firms, with Boston Consulting Group topping his list. He met with a BCG
In 2019, the McCombs Dallas/Fort Worth Working Professional MBA program moved its headquarters from UT Southwestern to a sleek new 17,000-square-foot space in The Centrum. The Uptown Dallas space is ideal for meetings and events, making it easier to foster strong relationships with alumni, business leaders, and prospective students.
consultant in Austin, which led to a series of interviews with the firm and, ultimately, a job offer he accepted. It’s in the firm’s Dallas office, a two-minute walk from home. “There’s no universe where I’d get an interview at BCG without the MBA program,” he says. His 100 percent pay jump will help him pay off his program loans faster. Ten or more years ago, most working professional MBA students had their tuition paid by their companies, Stephens says. But after the recession hit in 2008, that flipped, with the vast majority of students now paying their own way. Last year, McCombs began offering $10,000 scholarships each for 30 Working Professional students, with awards based on merit and consideration given to need, Stephens says. Program officials hope the scholarships, along with more targeted recruitment and events, will bring in more women and other underrepresented groups. Women students average between 20 and 35 percent of the total, while underrepresented minority enrollments have been as low as 5 to 7 percent and as high as 15 to 18 percent, depending on the city, Stephens says.
SELF-DISCOVERY Like Berens, Crespo, 27, was ready to explore career options, but she wasn’t sure what she wanted. She just knew she hadn’t found her passion and wanted to be happier. After graduating from St. Edward’s University in Austin with a BBA in 2012, Crespo
struggled to find a niche, she says. She first worked for a family friend’s small financial firm but longed to be in the corporate world. She got her wish, landing an accounting job with an oil and gas company. But accounting wasn’t her passion, nor did she see room to advance. She had thought about getting an MBA and decided it was time. She looked at Rice University and McCombs, and “truly fell in love with UT,” she says. “I was going to be part of the full network and everything UT has to offer. I drank the Kool-Aid and I didn’t want to put it down.” Like Berens and Nason, Crespo had to turn down personal invitations to make room in her life for school and work. “I missed a few trips, birthday parties, and the occasional date,” she says. Yet, she loves school and “I don’t regret one minute of it,” Crespo says. “It’s fun and it’s an adventure.” In one of her favorite classes, she learned that companies were crafting work environments to make employees happier. That “flipped the
switch” for her, causing her to focus more on what was important to her, professionally and personally, she says. “The program forces you to analyze everything as a whole,” Crespo says. “In more ways than one, the MBA totally changed my life.” A McCombs career adviser introduced her to the global consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal, and nearly five months before graduating, she started a management job there. “I’m enjoying it very much,” she says. “It all ties back to the class I loved during school.”
S U P P ORT T H E WOR K I N G P ROF E S S IONA L M BA P RO G R A M S U P P ORT T H E WOR K I NG P ROF E S SIONA L M BA P RO GR A M Only a handful of students receive financial support from their employers. The majority are left with significant student loan debt upon graduation. To provide assistance, Texas McCombs is raising funds for merit-based fellowships with a strong consideration for need. This encourages stronger applications, attracts more diverse students, and helps the school increase the program’s size and impact. For every dollar donated, the program will match it 1-1. To contribute, go to http://bit.do/WPMBA or call 512-232-2493.
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DATA ANALYTICS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ARE REDEFINING THE PROFESSION AND McCOMBS IS KEEPING PACE by Judie Kinonen | illustration by Roberta Maddelena photograph by Thaddeus Harden
Nichole Jordan, BBA '95, says new technologies are rapidly transforming the accounting profession.
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stereotype of the solitary accountant walled up in a cubicle and poring over spreadsheets for eight hours a day was always a little dubious. But industry expert Nichole Jordan, BBA ’95, says new technologies that are rapidly transforming the accounting profession have shattered the image of the bean-counting accountant on a mundane career path. ¶ A CPA and member of the McCombs Accounting Advisory Council, Jordan is also national managing partner of growth and performance at Grant Thornton. “I see new staff coming to the firm with the desire and ambition to contribute at a higher level — to do the more strategic and analytical parts of the job,” she says. ¶ Her own role with Grant Thornton sends her all over the world, meeting with business management teams and boards to listen to their concerns and introduce them to new technologies and digital strategies. address these trends in the classroom at McCombs is top priority, says Department Chair Michael Clement. “My main concern right now is to make sure our students can thrive in the world of big data,” he says, noting shifts in the curriculum are starting in the Master’s in Professional Accounting program, with reverberations in the undergraduate and doctoral programs likely in the near future. All three programs have topped the national rankings for so long that it is hardly news anyD E C I D I N G H O W T O P R O P E R LY
more. Clement vividly recalls a day in 1980, his senior year at Baruch College in New York City, when he walked past a bulletin board listing the top accounting programs in the country. “UT Austin was No. 1, and then I noticed that half of my textbooks were written by UT faculty,” he recalls. Again this year, the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programs at McCombs ranked No. 1 in U.S. News & World Report. The undergraduate program has held the first- or second-place spots on that list for a straight 28 years, the
master’s degree for 26, and the doctoral program for an 11th year. But Clement attests that there’s a revolution afoot, leaving the department no time to rest on its laurels. “There’s a lot going on in the industry, and we want to give our students the tools so that when things change, they can adapt to those changes,” he says. To that end, the MPA Program recently adopted a proposal requiring every course within the next two years include content on data analytics, says MPA Program Senior Director Stephen Smith. T H E W E I G H T O F D ATA
is not the idea of analyzing data — the difference is in the type of data itself. Typically, accountants are trained to handle and analyze structured data that can be easily organized and searched. But in this era of big data, accountants must also manipulate unstructured data that appears in myriad formats and without pre-defined models. Unstructured data is more challenging to organize and search. Big data is causing disruption in many industries, but deciding what it means for accountants is a bit of a moving target, says Smith, who is in close communication with industry partners about how they are coping with these new forms of information. They tell him that the skill of data cleansing is among an accountant’s greatest assets today. In the past, an auditor calculating interest expense on loans at a bank would simply sample — taking, for example, 100 out of the possible 1,000 loans and manually calculating the interest. “If you didn’t find any problems for those hundred loans, then you assume the whole interest exW H AT ’ S N E W I N AC C O U N T I N G
Department Chair Michael Clement remembers noting that UT Austin's accounting program ranked No. 1 when he was in college in 1980.
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P H OTO G R A P H BY L E A H OV E R ST R E E T
pense line on your income statement is okay,” department chair Clement says. But today, there’s no need to sample, he says. “Now I can do that calculation for all thousand loans and know for sure that the interest calculation is correct.” Beyond that, today’s auditor may be asked to produce a report that includes information from several different sources. It could be customer information in one file, loan descriptions in another, Clement says. “In order to combine all those different sources into a single, usable source, you have to have solid data manipulation and data cleansing skills.” The ability to test every transaction has other repercussions too, says Jeff Johanns, senior lecturer at McCombs and a former partner and assurance risk management leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “If you’re testing 100 percent of transactions rather than sampling, instead of five exceptions, you may have dozens of exceptions,” he says. “Now what? What does that mean to you as an auditor? These are the things that we have to train accountants to deal with. Just because the software produces this beautiful graph is meaningless if the accountant doesn’t know what to do with it.” “ TE LLI N G A S TO RY ” W I T H D ATA
an accountant’s job is answering the question, ‘What is the data telling us?’” says Smith. That’s the important question, says Jordan. “Technology is crunching the numbers to a greater extent and making it possible for us to be more strategic and analytical when it comes to identifying patterns in the data,” she says. “The job becomes more about understanding the real performance of the business.” These are skill sets already addressed in several McCombs MPA courses, including Information Technology for Accounting Control — a requirement for all MPA students — taught by Patti Brown, MPA ’89, who joined the faculty as a lecturer in 2011. Brown says her teaching approach is twopronged: introducing the technology tools and business process methodologies, and then providing students with large volumes of real data in case studies in which they can apply the technology tools to gain insights from the “SO MORE AND MORE
P H OTO G R A P H S BY L AU R E N G E R S O N
TOP: MPA Senior Director Stephen Smith stays in close contact with industry partners in order to better understand how big data disruptions are transforming the profession. BOTTOM: Patti Brown, MPA '89, uses a hands-on approach for teaching accounting because it instills confidence in her students.
M c C O M B S . U T E X A S . E D U 35
available in many other accounting master’s programs — and in Brown’s class they begin with data from a national coffee shop chain. Using Tableau, students go beyond number crunching and learn to “tell a story,” Brown says. “Often, in academia, students are focused on getting the ‘right answer,’” she says. But in this coffee shop case, she asks them to identify three areas that the company should focus on for profit maximization. “So, I'm not looking for one specific right answer,” she says. Instead, students are challenged to use their critical thinking skills, Brown says. “Why did the coffee shop spend this much in marketing in the Northeast? Why did green tea in the South not do as well as the Northeast? I want them to tell the story and point out the different insights that they've gained through their analysis.” It’s not exactly the type of task accountants are traditionally known for, but it’s not a huge stretch either, says Kristina Zvinakis, senior lecturer and assistant department chair. Critical thinking skills have always been a hallmark of McCombs’ MPA program and one reason it is consistently ranked No. 1 in the nation, she says. SOFT SKILLS STILL APPLY THE DISRUPTION IN ACCOUNTING mirrors what has
Senior Lecturer and Assistant Department Chair Kristina Zvinakis said that critical thinking skills are a hallmark of McCombs' MPA program.
data. “It’s very hands-on to help students gain confidence in working with various technologies,” she says. Students in her class learn SAP, Tableau, Microsoft Access, and Power BI, but hers is not a static curriculum. “Given that the technolog y and emerging technologies are rapidly changing, I constantly have to
36 M c C O M B S .U T E X A S . E D U
look at what I'm offering in the course,” says Brown. “I stay connected to partners in public accounting and large companies that are hiring our students to understand what technology they're using and how to best prepare our students.” MPA students work with real industry data from the SAP University Alliance, which is not
happened in other fields, Jordan says, and it’s no cause for alarm for those willing to adapt. “Technology will change, but not replace, the accountant’s job,” she says. “An accountant paired with artificial intelligence or machine learning-enabled technology is a winning combination.” In fact, for new accountants, proficiency in technology and critical thinking is not more important than the skills Jordan says she most remembers learning from her time at UT: teamwork and communication. “The ability to build relationships will definitely become more important than it is today,” Jordan says. “I think that because of artificial intelligence, the mundane and the more basic types of work will become more automated in our profession. This means we can focus on other important things.” With new technologies doing more of the tedious work, the accountant of the future will have more freedom and flexibility. Says Jordan: "Your ability to go down the hallway and talk to the CFO and engage in a great C-suite conversation, ask the right questions, and seek to understand and be curious will be very, very important skills.”
P H O TO G R A P H B Y L A U R E N G E R S O N
COMMUNIT Y
TALENT PIPELINE COLLEGE PATH CLEARED FOR STUDENTS IN A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN ERNST & YOUNG AND THE DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTING
BY JUDIE KINONEN
G
ROWIN G U P IN RU R AL E AS T TE X AS ,
Nohema Mendoza, BBA ’17, MPA ’18, says her college aspirations were planted early by parents who had emigrated from Mexico as young adults. Her father earned his GED and worked in the trucking business, and her mother completed one year of college in Mexico, but Mendoza, who now works in assurance with Ernst & Young in Dallas, says her parents had high academic hopes for their three children. “As a child, I remember my mom would sit down with me and do math problems,” Mendoza says. “It was just molded into who I was, that I was going to graduate from high school and go to college — even though the path may not have been super clear.” Clearing that college path for students like Mendoza is the mission behind a six-day summer camp offered through a partnership between Ernst & Young and McCombs’ Department of Accounting. Now in its 15th year under Ernst & Young’s sole sponsorship, the camp — Discover Yourself in Accounting Majors and Careers (DYNAMC) — is an all-expenses-paid program for about 50 rising high school juniors and seniors. > Taylor Sisson, Ernst & Young Austin audit partner, welcomes 2019 DYNAMC participants on a visit to EY’S office in downtown Austin.
Mc COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU 39
C O M M U N I T Y: PA R T N E R S H I P Students of all backgrounds may apply, while the program strongly encourages applications from outstanding African-American, Latino, and Native American students, first-generation students, and those who have overcome social or economic hardship. McCombs' Director of Undergraduate Recruitment and Scholarships Charles Enriquez has run the program since 2006. He says the camp plays an important role in filling the recruiting pipeline — from high school to college to Ernst & Young — with top accounting talent. More important, it fills a need in the field of accounting at large. “EY has been very open to say, ‘We really just want to see these students going into accounting. If we get our share, great. If not, that’s okay.’” EY campus recruiter Valerie King, who works with Enriquez to organize the camp, agrees. “EY is deeply committed to expanding access to professional services careers to students of all backgrounds,” she says. Only around 1 percent of CPAs are black or Native American, and about 3 percent Latino, according to a 2017 report published by the Association of International CPAs. The report also showed that only about 12 percent of students majoring in accounting were among these three underrepresented groups. Even while these disparities persist, gifted high school math students today may not hear about business careers from their guidance counselors, says Enriquez. “Everybody is really pushing STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) nowadays. So a lot of students are told, ‘If you’re good at math, go and be a doctor, be an engineer, do research for science. We’re trying to say, ‘There’s also business.’” To that end, DYNAMC campers attend lectures from professionals in the field and from McCombs’ accounting faculty on a variety of topics — including tax, finance, business ethics, forensics, and entrepreneurship — to gain an idea of the breadth of the major. Meanwhile, they meet with a group of about eight teammates to prepare for a case competition judged by executives from Ernst & Young. Students also attend panel discussions with Ernst & Young staff and tour the Austin office. Says King: “By providing an introduction to all of the career opportunities and dispelling
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many of the myths associated with accounting, we believe we can attract more talented underrepresented students to a great profession.” DYNAMC alumna and accounting major Davionne Needom, BBA ’20, MPA ’21, says the experience vastly broadened her perspective. “There are a lot of myths about accounting, and I’d heard people say, ‘Accountants just sit in a cubicle all day and crunch numbers,’” says Needom. “But being with the professionals coming in and touring the EY office, that’s when I started to learn what you could do with this degree and where you can go. There’s so much more than what the myths entail.” Alexandra Webb, BBA ’15, agrees. “What impacted me most was hearing from the professionals — people I identified with, who were
doing well in life — explaining what they do every day,” she says. That exposure to a variety of career paths in accounting and to critical business skills — group projects, presentations, and networking — helps attract talented students to the profession while giving them a taste of college life, King says. “The program makes being in the halls of a top-flight institution of higher learning a reality and not just a concept,” King says. “By having students spend a week in the dorms and attend sessions both on campus and in corporate settings, it brings their opportunities to life.” Such was true for rising senior Mendoza, who describes her DYNAMC week as “eye-opening.” “I was just being introduced to a whole different world,” she says. “I knew it existed, but
Rising high-school juniors and seniors from across Texas who have overcome social or economic hardship attended the 2019 DYNAMC six-day summer camp to learn about careers in accounting.
FAL L 2019 I didn’t really know how attainable it was or how it would feel to be there and have all these people supporting me.” Indeed, DYNAMC is designed as a steady support beyond those six days, providing mentors and community for campers who go on to apply and gain acceptance to McCombs. That first year at McCombs can be uniquely daunting for some of these students, Enriquez says. “They’ve always been the top students in their school. Now they’re in a program where everybody else is as strong as they are, and they’re struggling,” he says. For first-generation college students who call home for advice, their families may not know to suggest talking to the professor during office hours, or seeking out tutoring. Beyond these practical obstacles, many DYNAMC st udents come from Houston, Dallas, the Rio Grande Valley, or other majority underrepresented communities, says
“What impacted me most was hearing from the professionals — people I identified with, who were doing well in life — explaining what they do every day.” Alexandra Webb, BBA ’15
Enriquez. “Then we bring them to a place like UT Austin where they’re definitely the minority. Realizing that you might be one of the few, if not the only, student who looks like you in that classroom. There becomes a sense of, ‘Do I belong here?’” So fostering that sense of belonging is key for DYNAMC staff, Enriquez says. “We tell our students, ‘You attended the program in high school and now that you’re here as a freshman, that camp didn’t end.’” Former campers often find each other on campus and forge friendships on that foundation, he says.
DYNAMC participant Lillian Parker and her team present to a judging panel of Ernst & Young partners during the DYNAMC Accounting Challenge.
In fact, a number of DYNAMC alumni return to the camp as student counselors. They stay in the dormitories with the campers, guide them through their case project, and answer their many questions, says Webb, who worked as a counselor the summer after her freshman year at McCombs. “These high schoolers didn’t know what college was like or what it’s like to take real business courses,” she says. “My little group of campers, we were always up late just talking. I added them on social media, and most of them still talk to me to this day.”
Webb and Mendoza have come full circle now — from DYNAMC campers to McCombs students to EY representatives talking with campers this summer. Says Mendoza, “I got to answer all of their questions, and it was just truly astounding to see how much I had changed. “I kept imagining myself in their shoes about seven years ago, and it just made me very grateful for everything, grateful for this program. I wanted to be an example for them to make them realize, ‘I was you seven years ago, and this could be you in the future. You can do it as well.’”
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C O M M U N I T Y: I N M E M O R I A M
REMEMBERING FRANK CROSS PROLIFIC BUSINESS LAW PROFESSOR WAS RENOWNED FOR BOTH RESEARCH AND TEACHING FRANK CROSS, ONE OF THE MOST PROLIFIC
business law scholars in the country and a beloved longtime member of the Texas McCombs faculty, died April 27 at age 63. Cross was the Herbert D. Kelleher Centennial Professor of Business Law. He retired in 2015 after 35 years at McCombs. “He was a highly respected professor and colleague, and his service to and support of McCombs made a lasting impact on our school and community,” Dean Jay Hartzell said in an email tribute to Cross following his death. “Frank will be missed by the faculty, staff, and students.” During his time at the business school, Cross received multiple teaching awards, including the Joe D. Beasley Award for Teaching Excellence and the Golden Key Honor Society Outstanding Teacher Award. He also published more than 100 law review articles in dozens of prestigious law reviews and journals, as well as numerous academic books and textbooks. “He was the star researcher in our department,” says Robert Prentice, chair of the Business, Government, and Society Department. “He published more top articles than anyone in the history of business law professors and all the business schools around the country. Nobody has ever come close to touching the number of good articles that Frank put out the door.” Cross earned his master’s degree from Harvard Law School and his bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas, where he won the National Debate Tournament with classmate Robert Rowland in 1976. At UT, Cross held joint faculty appointments in the schools of business,
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Business, Government, and Society Professor Frank Cross is remembered for his thorough research, gifted analysis, sense of humor, and engaging teaching. According to Department Chairman Robert Prentice,“I think he was an inspiration for a lot of folks.”
law, and liberal arts. He previously held visiting professorships at Duke and Northwestern. “He didn't believe in the conventional wisdom,” Rowland says. “His ability to learn and his intellect made him a major scholar. I think that everybody who ever worked with him recognized his great intellectual gifts. Genius isn't too strong a word in this case. Everybody felt that way because it was true.” When he wasn’t teaching or researching, Cross enjoyed drinking wine, smoking cigars, and having a good meal with his friends and family. He also loved baseball and the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team. His colleagues, friends, and students mourned him deeply, saying they remembered him not
only for his thorough research and gifted analysis, but also for his sense of humor and engaging lectures. Despite his battle with the neurodegenerative disease adrenomyeloneuropathy and his use of a wheelchair for the later part of his life, Cross never missed a day of his business law and torts classes. “Everybody could see that he faced really serious physical challenges and yet he was in class every day and teaching. I think he was an inspiration for a lot of folks,” Prentice says. “I don't think I would have had the courage to face what he faced every day for years and years. And yet he never complained. He loved to research and write, and he did that every day.” — Megan Menchaca
C O M M U N I T Y: G AT H E R I N G S
A REVIEW OF McCOMBS CELEBRATIONS, HONORS, AND ALUMNI EVENTS 1
BAY AREA ALUMNI RECEPTION JANUARY 14, 2019 The Bay Area for McCombs Board and the Texas McCombs Alumni Network hosted a reception for McCombs alumni and MBA students who traveled to California on a career trek. Students visited with alumni about living and working in the Bay Area. 2
7 TH ANNUAL EXECUTIVE MENTORSHIP DINNER FEBRUARY 7, 2019 Alumni served as mentors and hosted tables of high-achieving students at the 7th Annual Executive Mentorship Dinner. Created by the McCombs BBA Advisory Board, the dinner was sponsored by the Tonkon Family Endowment. Pictured: Ed Tonkon, BBA ’78, addresses the attendees.
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TEXAS McCOMBS SUMMER CELEBRATIONS JUNE 6, 2019 Summer celebrations in 15 cities nationwide, as well as in London, were hosted by the Texas McCombs Alumni Network, and welcomed new graduates and interns to each city. Next year’s summer celebrations will be held in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, northwest Arkansas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Denver, Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, Washington D.C., New York City, and London. Pictured: Dean Jay Hartzell shares updates on strategic initiatives with alumni in Houston.
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Dean Jay Hartzell and a delegation of leaders from the university spent a week in Europe meeting with alumni and supporters. In London, the group discussed entrepreneurship and social innovation at a Texas Edge event. Pictured (from left) singing The Eyes of Texas: Hartzell; Matt Hansen, BBA ’98; Professor of Accounting Jeffrey Hales; Provost Maurie McInnis; and McCombs student ambassador Mary Catherine Arnott, BBA ’21. 3
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COMMENCEMENT 2019 MAY 24, 2019 McCombs’ 2019 commencement festivities included ceremonies for 1,859 students across all degree programs. Pictured: Graduates of McCombs MS programs outside Rowling Hall after their ceremonies.
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C O M M U N I T Y: A L U M N I N O T E S Paul Willson, BBA ’88, has been
Please send your updates to alumni@mccombs.utexas.edu for publication in the spring issue of McCombs magazine and online in the alumni news section of the McCombs website. Feel free to share news on behalf of a fellow graduate.
1970s Chris Harte, MBA ’75, was
named by Travis Audubon as the 2019 Victor Emanuel Conservation Hero, which honors leaders whose work has inspired community involvement and environmental awareness. He was given the award for his work for more than 30 years to restore prairies and savannah.
1980s James Schellhase, BBA ’81, MPA ’81, was appointed
executive chairman of McCarthyFinch, an innovator of AI solutions. Schellhase also has served as CEO of DiscoverReady, as a global executive with IBM, and as a partner of Techxas Ventures and Austin Ventures. L’Sheryl D. Hudson, BBA ’86, MBA ’91, was named a
Visionary Woman of Houston by Defender Network. Hudson serves as the CFO for Equus Total Return Inc., where she manages funding investments and financial reporting.
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appointed CFO of Compeat, a leading provider of integrated restaurant accounting, back office, workforce, and intelligence management software. Brett Whitmire, BBA ’89,
was appointed as CFO of semiconductor manufacturer Diodes Inc. He has been with the company for eight years, previously working as the corporate controller and principal accounting officer. Whitmire has 30 years of industry experience in financial planning and analysis.
1990s Jeffrey Kreger, BBA ’90,
was named executive vice president and CFO at VITAS Healthcare, a provider of endof-life care based in Miami. Before joining VITAS, Kreger was senior vice president, CFO, and treasurer at Aegis Therapies in Dallas.
Arthur Mills IV, BBA ’96, MBA ’04, joined the New Teacher Center’s executive team as the chief operations officer. The NTC is a national non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring educational equity and improving student learning by developing educators and leaders. Mills also founded the Mills Management Group, a targeted boutique consulting firm.
Jim Arens, MBA ’93, was
named president of the Trust Company of Oklahoma, the oldest and largest independent trust company in the state. Arens also serves as chief investment officer and as a member of the company’s board of directors. Shannon Young, BBA ’93,
was appointed executive vice president and CFO of Talos Energy, an independent oil and gas company focused on offshore exploration and production. Prior to joining the company, Young served as a managing director at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and as an
investment banker at Morgan Stanley. Pete Bartolotta, MBA ’94,
joined Reed Smith as a partner in its energy and natural resources practice. Before becoming a lawyer with the firm, Gutierrez had an 11-year career in corporate and investment banking. Eileen Krauth, MBA ’94, was
named deputy county manager of Elbert County, Colorado. Krauth has more than 25 years of experience in local and
state government, and previously worked as a city council administrator for the city of Colorado Springs. Paul Cavazos, MBA ’96, was
named chief investment officer of American Beacon. Previously, Cavazos worked at DTE Energy as CIO and assistant treasurer. In 2014, Chief Investment Officer magazine presented Cavazos with the CIO Industry Innovation Award. Brian Gourley, BBA ’96, was promoted to partner and chief
FAL L 2019 of strategy and business development at IdealSpot, a research platform for local markets. His responsibilities will include product and data-science strategy, directing an engineering team, raising capital, and managing investor relations.
Jason Ryan, BBA ’98, was
named general counsel and senior vice president of CenterPoint Energy Inc., an energy delivery company. Ryan is tasked with overseeing regulatory services, government affairs, corporate governance, and securities and commercial law.
Park Pu, MBA ’97, was named
head of investment banking at JPMorgan’s brokerage unit in China. Pu worked previously for Rothschild, an independent financial advisory group, where he served as the head of investment banking. Sarah Boyd, MBA ’98, started
a new position as director of product marketing at Experian, a consumer credit reporting company. Boyd has worked in the marketing industry for 20 years, where she previously served as principal and marketing strategist for Confido Marketing and director of marketing for Proven IT Finance. Evy Engrav, MBA ’98, was named human resources director at the Minnesota Department of Health. In her new role, Engrav will oversee HR programs and manage teams overseeing training and development, compensation, and talent acquisition. David Gilman, MBA ’98,
became a partner at ClearView Healthcare Partners, a boutique consulting firm. Gilman takes this role after serving as global head of business development and licensing and portfolio management for Novartis Oncology, which researches and develops treatments for cancer.
David Zahn, MBA ’99, was
named vice president of marketing at Ambyint, which develops devices to monitor, control, and optimize performance for oil and gas companies. Zahn previously served as managing principal for the Akash Group and as vice president of Global Marketing for P97 Networks.
2000s Justin Kentor, BBA ’00, has
joined Varsity Brands as chief of strategy and business. Kentor is responsible for the company’s strategic integration of new initiatives, in addition to overseeing the growth and execution of business strategies.
Kathy Goldenberg BBA ’82, was elected president of the New Jersey State Board of Education. Goldenberg has served on the New Jersey State Board since 2017, where she was previously the vice president. She also was vice president and president of the Moorestown Board of Education.
Michael Mithoff, MBA ’00,
has joined Americana Partners as managing director and head of private equity. He advises families on portfolio allocation and management, specifically with respect to alternative investment strategies. Previously, Mithoff worked at HighTower Texas (formerly Salient Private Client) as a managing director. George Bayer, MBA ’01, was
appointed senior director of strategy, growth, and service delivery at Cobec Consulting Inc., a management consulting company. In his new role, Bayer
will design and direct strategic growth for Federal Aviation Administration business and other external Cobec businesses. Eduardo Marcos, MBA ’01,
was named one of Diversity MBA’s Top 100 Under 50 Emerging Leaders. Marcos is the managing director of Advantage Partner Marketing and president of AA Vacations at American Airlines. Stephen Woods, MBA ’02,
was named vice president of finance for Eyecare Services Partners. During his tenure in
the financial services industry, Woods has served as vice president of finance for Evolution Health and director of financial planning and analysis for Jordan Health Services. Ben Ellis, MBA ’03, was
selected as CFO of the Texas American Resources Company, an oil and gas exploration and production company. Ellis will oversee all finance, fundraising, and midstream business development, and lead the company’s future acquisition strategies.
M c C O M B S . U T E X A S . E D U 45
C O M M U N I T Y: A L U M N I N O T E S tions, marketing, research, and accounting teams. Anderson Price, BBA ’05, MBA ’11, was named president of Bona Fide Botanicals Inc., a botanical extraction lab that focuses on wholesale and direct-to-consumer wellness products. Price is also the president of Hawkins Family Partners, a family-owned business in Austin. Nancy Spencer, MPA ’05, was
appointed vice president of finance for Aceable, a mobile education platform. She previously served as an operational controller at Google and a senior manager in assurance services at Ernst & Young. Julie Voss, BBA ’91, was appointed executive director of Susan G. Komen Houston’s board of directors. Voss has more than 25 years of development and leadership experience from her time at major nonprofits and foundations, including the Boys & Girls Club of America and the American Cancer Society.
Michael Senftleber, MBA ’06,
was named executive vice president of product for Arrive Logistics, a technology-powered transportation service provider. Senftleber has 20 years of experience in product strategy, vision, and leadership.
Mandy Price, BBA ’03, was
Joe Dowdle, BBA ’04, was
Kirk Goehring, BBA ’07, was
featured in Forbes as a cofounder of Kanarys, the first social enterprise technology platform aiming to foster collaboration between companies and employees on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.
promoted to senior vice president and chief operating officer of Jones Energy Inc. Goehring has served in various operating, corporate development, and finance roles at the company for more than six years.
Scott Silvas, BBA ’03, was
named senior vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.'s Austin office. Before joining JLL, Dowdle was principal of Dowdle Real Estate, where he focused on hotel site selection and consulting. He also served as director of MDL Consulting Inc.
named market president of Fifth Third Bancorp, a diversified financial services company. Silvas comes to the role from JP Morgan Chase, where he served as executive director and managing market executive for the Houston middle market group.
Corby McWilliams, MBA ’04, was named the chief operating officer for Trademark Property Co., a commercial real estate agency. Previously, he was the chief operating officer at AQUILA Commercial LLC, where he managed the opera-
David Wedemeyer, MBA ’10,
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2010s was selected as assistant vice president for Telehealth Provider Plus at HCA Healthcare. The Fortune 500 company operates more than 170 health care facilities around the country.
Blaine Britten, BBA ’11, has
been hired as vice president of digital marketing for Stirista, a digital marketing agency. In his new role, Britten will pursue acquisition opportunities and ensure the growth of the company’s digital program. Patrick O’Berry, MBA ’11,
was named a senior finance manager of physical stores at Amazon. During his tenure with the company, he has also been a senior finance manager for Prime Video content acquisition and a senior financial analyst for Amazon Fresh. Orion Suydam, MBA ’11, has
joined RiskLens as vice president of products. Orion has more than 14 years of experience in executive management of enterprise software products and cybersecurity, working at security vendors such as Forcepoint and TippingPoint. Daniel Amodio, MBA ’13, was promoted to senior team manager at Charles Schwab in San Francisco. Previously, he worked as a senior manager of corporate financial planning and analysis for McKesson, a Texas-based medical distributor. Heather Hubbard, MBA ’14,
was named a “Woman in Private Equity to Know” by law firm McGuireWoods. Hubbard is a partner at Valesco Industries Inc., where she oversees new business development, financial analysis, transaction mechanics, and reporting for the private equity fund.
FAL L 2019 Flavia de la Fuente, MBA ’15, began a new position as senior associate at BuildGroup, an Austin-based software holding company. De la Fuente is tasked with analyzing the financials, contracts, and products for potential investments. Claire Arthurs Kart, MBA ’15, joined O(1) Labs as its head of marketing. She previously served as head of community for Ripple, a blockchain technology-based payments company, and as director of marketing at Sofi, an online personal finance company. Martin Spears, MBA ’15, was hired as software product owner at ClearCorrect, a manufacturer of clear aligners teeth straighteners. Spears has more than 20 years of experience in technology services, including positions as solutions architect and senior consultant for Praecipio Consulting. Robert Hallenbeck, MBA ’11, was named a “Waste360 40 Under 40” award recipient. He was given the honor for his contributions to the National Waste & Recycling Association and the Solid Waste Association of North America. He serves as a manager of corporate venturing at Waste Management, a Houston-based environmental services company.
Rachel Miller, MBA ’14, launched
Bloodscore, an interactive wellness platform to help people take control of their health. The startup provides do-it-yourself home lab tests and delivers personalized wellness improvement recommendations. Ryan Crawford, MBA ’15,
was named principal of edu-
cation practice at WittKieffer, a global executive search firm. Crawford will assist with the recruitment of leaders across the academic landscape. Before joining WittKieffer, he was a partner at the education-focused executive search firm Storbeck Pimentel and Associates.
Alex Gupta, MBA ’16, was named a vice president at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Gupta came to the job from his role as assistant vice president of GE Capital. Abhinav Jain, MBA ’16, was named vice president at CSL Capital Management Houston, an oilfield service-focused private equity fund. Jain previously served as an advisor for multiple companies, including Drill2Frac Corp., Infrastructure Networks Inc., and Corva. Alex Barry, MBA ’17, has rejoined Mercer Capital as vice president of the Dallas office. Barry most recently served as
an investment banking associate at Citi’s global energy group in Houston. Graham Caywood, MBA ’17, was promoted to analytics and business strategy manager for the consumer strategy and planning group at Dell. He is also the co-founder of TransitScreen, which serves companies with real-time displays of transportation options in a specific area. Ashley Chen, BBA ’17, founded the Exponentialists, which aims to empower young people in low-resource communities to achieve success through entrepreneurship. Chen is also an associate product marketing manager for Google. Brittany DiPaolo, BBA ’17, started the nonprofit organization No Kids Fight Alone to raise money toward childhood cancer research and treatment. Joined by Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez, DiPaolo sells gymnastic leotards as well as T-shirts and donate 100 percent of profits to the Gill Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders. Jenny Jacobi, MBA ’18, was one of five Austinites named as a director of the Texas Lyceum, a statewide nonprofit organization that cultivates leaders. Jacobi received the award for her work as senior director of content for Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, an Austin-based cinema chain. Russell Lafitte, MBA ’18, was promoted to senior analyst of corporate finance at Devon Energy, a company focused on hydrocarbon exploration.
M c C O M B S . U T E X A S . E D U 47
M c C O M B S: B O T T O M L I N E
GENERATION GAP SPEAKER AND RESEARCHER JASON DORSEY EVANGELIZES TO COMPANIES ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING MILLENNIALS AND GEN Z by Megan Menchaca
and tactics that worked five years ago and certainly 10 years ago are failing today. Smart companies are changing how they recruit, retain, and develop talent. Marketers are adapting how they message and what they offer. Every generation brings something valuable and important to the table. Understanding these generational differences in the workforce and marketplace allows you to determine how you want to adapt in a way that brings out the best of each generation. W H AT A D V I C E D O YO U H AV E F O R P E O P L E W H O A R E T R Y I N G T O B E T T E R R E A C H A YO U N G E R A U D I E N C E ?
ASON DORSE Y, ’ 9 6 , WAS AN 1 8-YE AR- OLD McCOMBS BUSINESS
Honors junior when he wrote a book designed to teach his generation how to prepare themselves for today’s workforce. It didn’t take long for Graduate to Your Perfect Job to become a bestseller and for Dorsey to reach audiences of millions through appearances on TV morning programs and 60 Minutes. He credits much of his success to other inspiring entrepreneurs as well as his professors at McCombs. Dorsey, 41, is now the president of the Center for Generational Kinetics, where he leads original research and is a keynote speaker focused on generational change, particularly for much talked-about millennials (born 1977-1995) and Gen Z (born 1996-2012). He discussed his research and career with McCombs.
The best advice I have is to step back from what you think to be true about millennials or Gen Z and look at the latest research. There are a lot of stereotypes about the generations that aren't true and too many people manage and market based on those stereotypes. It’s much easier once you're willing to see that you have your own generational preferences and they have their own generational preferences. One's not right or wrong, but there are specific things you can do to bring them together. What's exciting is that everything we're talking about is measurable, and when executives and leaders see that it works, they can build on that momentum. That's critically important right now.
W H AT A R E S O M E C O M M O N M I S C O N C E P T I O N S A B O U T M I L L E N N I A L S AND GEN Z?
People think millennials aren't working, but the truth is millennials are the largest generation in the U.S. workforce and the largest generation of managers. When people say that millennials are broke and not really spending enough, the reality is that millennials outspent every other generation last year. There's also this perception that Gen Z is out there spending all their money, but our research shows 12 percent of Gen Z is already saving for retirement. They are trying to graduate with less student debt and think they're going to have to work longer and harder to be successful. W H Y D I D YO U D E C I D E T O B E G I N R E S E A R C H I N G T H E S E G E N E R AT I O N S ?
I was speaking to the boards at various companies, and they would say all these very negative things about millennials. Not knowing any better, I said, “Well, do you have any data that can help me better understand what's going on?” The reality was that the data didn't prove what was generally assumed. In fact, it often showed the opposite. I believed that if we could present factual strategies and tactics that bring out the best of each generation, we'd do a real service for every generation and for communities, companies, and the world. Now, we're able to bring research-based insights to executives, entrepreneurs, and business leaders so that they can make informed and accurate decisions. W H Y I S I T I M P O R TA N T F O R C O M P A N I E S T O F I N D W AY S T O R E L AT E T O MILLENNIALS AND GEN Z?
It's absolutely critical for companies, because what executives, corporate boards, and institutional investors are now seeing is that the strategies
48 M c C O M B S .U T E X A S . E D U
Jason Dorsey is on a mission to bust misconceptions about the rising generations entering the workforce.
GOOD BUSINESS Lamar Johnson has a deep-seated love career at Procter & Gamble, he returned to offer McCombs MBA students hands-on experience working with top consumer brands. He also made a plan to invest in scholarships and world-class education at his alma mater. McCombs School of Business, you education and help UT students reach so make your plans to change the world today.
To learn more about the impact and tax-wise benefits of planned giving, visit mylegacy.utexas.edu or call 800-687-4602.
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A gift through our estate plan made great sense for my wife Debbie and me because of the tax advantages for us and future financial support for UT — the place that truly changed my life.” LAMAR JOHNSON BBA ’70
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