THE MAGAZINE OF THE M c COMBS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN 1922 CENTENNIAL 2022
Designer Andy Gilmore created this Centennial issue's unique cover illustration. We gave him a tall order: Help us celebrate the past while looking forward. His design captures the spirit of innovation, distinctive ambition, and collaborative energy that has defined our school, students, faculty, alumni, and supporters over a century of relentless progress.
THE FORTY ACRES ARE CALLING Earn your degree in 10 months. Test waivers available to qualified Longhorn alumni. PIVOT YOUR CAREER WITH A MASTER OF SCIENCE DEGREE Business Analytics (New + Online) Business Analytics for Working ProfessionalsFinance IT & ManagementMarketing LEARN MORE AND APPLY. www.mccombsmasters.com
A BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF THE UT CAMPUS IN 1938, WHEN THE TOWER WAS JUST A YEAR OLD. WAGGENER HALL, THE FIRST PERMANENT HOME OF THE BUSINESS SCHOOL, STOOD ALMOST BY ITSELF AT CENTER RIGHT.
START YOUR LEGACY TODAY!
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO LEAVE A LEGACY ?
a global leader
joe BBA Honors ’13 Director of Business Development at McCombs Enterprises and Grandson of Red McCombs
“My grandfather’s game-changing gift is intended to give as many Texans as possible the chance to change the world through business. His vision is being reached today but still needs to be fulfilled to a greater degree, and our family is proud to continue supporting the school’s immediate needs in that endeavor.”
Join the What Starts Here Campaign with your own impactful gift.
– leaving
bill cunningham
shields*
*Joe (left) poses with Red McCombs (center), and former UT Quarterback Colt McCoy (right) AT TEXAS leaving a legacy means more than just a financial contribution. a mark through world-changing ideas, groundbreaking leadership and inspiring vision. From a small shack on campus to in business education, the McCombs School of Business on its innovative roots to continue pushing the boundaries a legacy of great, new and exciting things behind. grateful for today’s leaders that a legacy for tomorrow’s big dreamers to ever-changing world.
Former McCombs Dean and UT President, Current Professor of Marketing at McCombs
has relied
forward, leaving
who are doing just
make their mark in our
“During the last 50 years, I have seen firsthand the School of Business develop from a fine regional school to a world-class institution. The McCombs School of Business cannot continue to produce some of the brightest young minds in the country without the assistance of the private sector. I am very pleased and honored to be able to support the students, faculty, and staff of the McCombs School of Business.”
M c COMBS ,
As we celebrate our centennial year, we are
THANK YOU TO ALL OUR CAMPAIGN DONORS FOR HELPING US REACH MORE THAN $350 MILLION OF OUR $500 MILLION GOAL! YOU ARE HELPING US BLAZE A TRAIL FOR THE NEXT 100 YEARS OF BIG THINKERS . HERE
It means making
COVER AND TOC ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANDY GILMORE McCombs is published twice a year for alumni and friends of the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. DEAN Lillian F. Mills CHIEF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER Ivy Oliver MANAGER, CONTENT STRATEGY Todd Savage ASSOCIATE EDITOR Mary Ann Roser COPY EDITOR Adam Deutsch PROJECT MANAGER Brian Maloney CENTENNIAL CONSULTANT Jim Nicar CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Mark Barron Steve DavidAliceAlbertaSharonBrooksJaysonPhillipsPopoviciWenger ART DIRECTION AND DESIGN Tucker Creative Co. CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Lauren Gerson Phil Kline CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS Matthew Billington Andy MarioGilmoreWagner ONLINE ofbusinessissuu.com/mccombsschool CHANGE OF ADDRESS alumni@mccombs.utexas.edu512-232-2441 FOLLOW US #McCombs100 #WhyMcCombs 08 LETTER FROM THE DEAN All year justTheboundlesshistoryunmatchedhonoringMcCombslong,isitsandfuture.funhasbegun. 10 CELEBRATIONSCENTENNIAL With his latest venture, serial entrepreneur Matt Chasen hopes to ofchasescommutingrevolutionizeashethedreamindividualflight. 64 THINKINGFORWARD 58 NOTESALUMNI thealumniservice,toadvancementsfromandAchievementsaccolades,careercommunityfromacrossdecades.Bold creativity and ofbeenpursuitsvisionaryhavehallmarksourschool.
CONTENTS
M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU _ 07 2022 PREVIOUS SPREAD PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BRISCOE CENTER FOR AMERICAN HISTORY Alumni took what they learned at McCombs and created a legacy. 12 THE BUSINESSFAMILY A leader for the ages, inaugural Dean Spurgeon Bell presided over the school’s excellence.thebeginningshumbleandlaidgroundworkfor 22 THE STORYORIGIN How Peggy Drake Holland, McCombs’ first Black graduate, bravely stood up to racism and blazed a trail, making it easier for those who followed her. 32 THIS MADESTUDENTHISTORY Legendary Dean George futurehigh-techhisandMcCombstransformedKozmetskytheSchoolhelpedmakevisionofAustin’sbusinessareality. 40 CREATING THE AUSTIN TECHNOPOLIS Red McCombs and other visionary donors helped propel the McCombs School forward, setting it on a path for its next century of scholar ship and research. 48 DAYSRED-LETTER
BIRTHDAYS ARE AN IDEAL TIME to take stock of where we’ve been and where we’re headed. We have persevered through two years of pandemic life. We’ve continued to contribute and forge ahead under incredible odds. And now we are here, at the dawn of our school's next century, filled with hope for a bright, bold future. We have set our sights especially high: In 2022, our Centennial year, we are recognizing 100 years of scholarship, community, and cutting-edge business education.
This issue of McCombs is charged with pride and excitement, as we simultaneously reflect on the inspiring past century of work and scholarship while looking forward to the next generation… and the next 100 years.
ILLUSTRATION BY MARIO WAGNER8 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU FROM THE DEAN
We’ve seen groundbreaking companies emerge from dorm rooms and garages. The story of Texas McCombs shares similarly humble—and ambitious—beginnings. When Sturgeon
Bell was tasked with founding a School of Business Administration at UT Austin, he withstood travel complications and financial setbacks before he could properly open the business school’s doors in 1922. In this issue, you’ll learn how this tenacious start created a new generation of business and leadership in Texas, and how those first pinewood shack classrooms led the way to a state-of-the-art business school, with plans underway for a new main building, Mulva Hall, to take us into the next century.
BUILDINGTHEFUTURE
As Texas grows and the nation changes, the business school evolves too, thanks to its dedicated faculty, staff, and alumni, engaged community, and courageous students. One of these students was Peggy Drake Holland, the first Black student to graduate from the business school in 1963. We’re proud to document Peggy’s history-making academic ac complishment and deep resolve, which blazed a trail for Black women in business, and for women in business everywhere.
We opened our doors wide in 1922, and we can’t stop now. We’re one of the leading business schools in the country in one of the most exciting cities in the world. For a century we have witnessed that what starts here changes the world. The next 100 years are ours to imagine.
With my warmest Hook ’em, LILLIAN F. MILLS, Dean, Lois and Richard Folger Dean's Leadership Chair, The Beverly H. and William P. O’Hara Endowed Chair in Business
Of course, Texas also has a rich history of family-run businesses, many of which began right here at McCombs, and we profile five of these amazing family companies throughout the magazine, from Adam’s Extract to Siete Family Foods.
M cC OMBS.UTEXAS.EDU _ 9PHOTOGRAPH BY SASHA HAAGENSEN 2022
McCombs prides itself on evolving with history and staying on the edge of innovation and new practices. In fact, it was the legendary Dean George Kozmetsky who, in the 1980s, first articulated a vision for creating Austin as a “technopolis,” and our feature tracks how that vision became real. We also look ahead to the future with another trailblazer, Matt Chasen, MBA ’04, CEO of Austin-based LIFT Aircraft, who gives us a glimpse of the future of flight travel with eVTOL technology.
Austin, Texas, and McCombs have a legacy of supporting growth and innovation while maintaining a deep sense of history. And as our Centennial year progresses, we will continue to nurture our connections with people and businesses across Texas and the world. We will strengthen our sense of place (one of our defining qualities as Longhorns) and empower people (our students, faculty, and staff) in their innovative pursuits. We will stay open to the best talent, to industry changemakers, and to the evolving world.
For 100 years, the McCombs School of Business has built up leaders as a premier business school at a world-class public research uni versity. To celebrate and recognize these milestones and moments, the school is holding a variety of special events and commemora tions to mark its trailblazing path that began when the School of Business was officially established by the Board of Regents in 1922.
ALL YEAR LONG, M c COMBS IS HONORING ITS UNMATCHED HISTORY AND BOUNDLESS FUTURE
18 CENTENNIAL EVENTS
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION MARCH 31, 2022
Students, faculty, and staff gathered in McCombs’ Hall of Honors to kick off the Centennial year. The event featured cake, historical memorabilia, photos with UT mascot Hook ’Em, and remarks from Dean Lillian Mills and UT President Jay Hartzell. "It's important to know our history in order to proceed forward with accountability and knowledge,” Mills said. “And I’m very proud to say that’s what we’re doing here at McCombs."
A CELEBRATION 100 YEARS
YEARS IN THE MAKING
CENTENNIAL ALUMNI CELEBRATIONS SUMMER 2022
SEPT. 30 – OCT. 1, 2022
AND CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
CENTENNIAL POP-UP EVENT: PIZZA ON THE PLAZA APRIL 29, 2022
The McCombs community will come together again during Homecoming Weekend on Sept. 30-Oct. 1. Activities include a full-day business confer ence with McCombs faculty speakers, a Centennial celebration barbecue tailgate before the home football game against West Virginia, and special receptions for five-year class reunions (classes of ’17, ’12, ’07, etc.). For more information, visit get.mccombs.utexas.edu/2022homecoming
M cC OMBS.UTEXAS.EDU _ 19PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAUREN GERSON 2022
Alumni in more than a dozen cities around the world, from London to the Rio Grande Valley, have been gathering during the summer with their local alumni chapters (New York City pictured below) to celebrate and learn what’s new at McCombs. Dean Lillian Mills, UT President Jay Hartzell, and other McCombs leaders have been representing the school at the events.
HOMECOMINGUPCOMING
As the school year headed into the final stretch of the spring semester, McCombs invited students for an energetic party to celebrate them and this anniversary year. Attendees were treated to pizza and refreshments, swag, and #McCombs100 photo fun.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SIETE FAMILY FOODS
ALL SEVEN MEMBERS OF THE GARZA FAMILY are involved in running Siete Family Foods, which sells its food products around the country: ( from left) Miguel, Rebecca Garza Cuellar, Linda, Bobby, Aida, Veronica, and Rob.
BUSINESSFAMILYTHE
TEXT BY JAYSON
SHARON
ILLUSTRATIONS BY MATTHEW BILLINGTON FROM SIETE FAMILY FOODS TO 7-ELEVEN, M c COMBS ENTREPRENEURS CREATE FAMILY LEGACIES IN THE BUSINESS WORLD
“They want to preserve the company for the next generations. They have every incentive to make sure they do the best they can do and don’t compromise on the consumers,” he says. “They make sure — when introducing new products and promoting them — that they’re not cutting theirPaulbudgets.”Green
“Family-runsize.businesses, if they can last, outperform their public nonfamily business es,” says Green. “In a true family business, there’s a broader sense of building a facility for multigenerational wealth building.”
¶ As Texas — like the rest of the nation — shifted from a dominant farm economy to a more diversified one over the last century, the McCombs School of Business evolved to meet new demands. With its emphasis on entrepre neurship, McCombs has embraced the importance of fam ily businesses and groomed hundreds, if not thousands, of family business owners since its inception 100 years ago.
14 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU
he family farm may be the ultimate and once most-recognized family business, but family-owned enterprises in the U.S. today run the gamut from small companies to multinational corporations.
In honoring the school’s centennial and those who learned here and thrived, here’s a closer look at five successful family businesses created or transformed by McCombs alumni.
¶ Among the businesses are Adams Extract, one of the oldest food-flavoring companies in America, dating to the 1880s, and founded by the father of UT’s first BBA graduate, and a much newer one, Siete Family Foods. Siete was found ed this century by three members of the Garza family, which hails from Laredo. All seven members of the immediate family are involved in run ning the company, which sells its food products around the country.
About 90% of American businesses are family-owned or controlled, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Research suggests that many of these businesses last only a generation, but some, such as Adams, endure for several generations. One driver is the connection family members feel with the business and with one another, prompting them to act in ways that help their company thrive through the decades, according to Althoughresearch.
Jr., an assistant professor of management at McCombs, has been studying multigenerational family businesses for several years. He interviewed business leaders at 25 companies in the U.S. and Europe in 2017 and 2018 and says family-run or family-managed businesses — if they have outside board mem bership — tend to be more profitable and have higher value than publicly traded companies of the same
some believe family businesses are not as effective or as efficiently managed as nonfamily businesses, research at McCombs and elsewhere shows otherwise. Vijay Mahajan, a McCombs marketing professor and the John P. Harbin Centennial Chair in Business, compared the performance of 148 publicly listed family-owned companies with 127 publicly listed nonfamily-owned businesses.
Mahajan’s study found that family businesses outperformed nonfamily companies during the 2001 and 2008 recessions by being proactive.
Right: Co-founders and siblings Veronica, B.A. 03, and Miguel Garza, BBA '09, J.D. '12, found a niche creating a busi ness that specializes in health-conscious Mexi can food sold in grocery stores nationwide.
However, he acknowledges that family businesses have high failure rates. For those companies that do become multigenerational family businesses, many identify closely with their town’s successes and take pride in being leaders. The leaders of many such family op erations are not only McCombs alumni but recognizable names in their communities.
“IF SOMEBODY IS STARTING A BUSINESS WITH FAMILY, THEY SHOULD HEAVILY CONSIDER IT, KNOWING THAT BUSINESS IS DIFFICULT, AND FAMILY SHOULD BE FOREVER,” SAYS MIGUEL GARZA OF SIETE FAMILY FOODS.
H-E-B, Kroger, Whole Foods, Costco, Walmart, and Target. Offerings include tortilla chips, taco seasoning, potato chips, churro strips, cookies, and enchilada sauces. The company’s refried beans launched in April.
SIETE FAMILY FOODS FOUNDED 2014
Miguel Garza credits McCombs for develop ing his creativity, as well as skills in collaboration and presentation, especially creating a mock business for Stephen Walls’ marketing class.
Today, Siete has a 100-person team, but the original seven family members inspired the name Siete. It means seven in Spanish and represents Miguel, along with Veronica as co-founder and company president; their father Bobby Garza, BBA ’76; mother and co-founder Aida Garza; and three siblings, Linda Garza, B.J. ’97, Rebecca Garza Cuellar, B.S. ’06, M.A. ’08, and Rob Garza. All seven left Laredo and now live in Austin, where they get help running the business from in-laws, extended family, and nonfamily members.
“At the same time, I was getting acquaint ed with different individuals building food
Garza says his family’s business has faced the same challenges as any with multiple stakehold ers. But he says for the Garzas, it’s “family first, family second, and business third.”
After graduating from McCombs, Miguel got married, stayed in Austin, and started thinking of a career beyond practicing law.
M cC OMBS.UTEXAS.EDU _ 15 FOODSFAMILYSIETE
After Veronica, B.A. ’03, was diagnosed with three autoimmune disorders, she developed an almond flour tortilla out of necessity. That gave Miguel, a McCombs marketing major, an idea.
Miguel Garza, the brand’s co-founder and CEO, had planned to become a lawyer and return to his hometown of Laredo, where his family lived. Just like his parents and four older siblings, he moved to Austin to go to UT.
Although the gym operated from 2009 to 2016, when the Garzas sold it, that family busi ness prepared them for their next venture, based on another Garza family value: “Together is better.” It’s also the Siete motto: “Juntos es mejor.”
THE GARZA FAMILY
“When I look at how the family played a role, it’s almost hard to think about how it would have been possible without the family,” he says. “If somebody is starting a business with family, they should heavily consider it, knowing that business is difficult, and family should be forever.”
A family member’s illness forever changed the life plan of Miguel Garza, BBA ’09, J.D. ’12, and that of his seven-member family. His sis ter’s experience transformed the family from Laredo gym owners to creators of a nationally recognized Mexican American food brand.
When Siete was just 3 years old, in 2017, Miguel was named to the list of Forbes’ 30 Under 30. In 2021, Siete surpassed $200 million in retail sales.
“I was walking through cafes in Austin and was fascinated by the idea that people were building businesses from behind a MacBook or PC and building multimillion-dollar enter prises,” he says.
AT SIETE FAMILY FOODS, IT’S “FAMILY FIRST, FAMILY SECOND, BUSINESS THIRD”
and beverage businesses. My sister had this product and was already selling it to family and friends and people at the gym,” he says. “Because I was living in between those two things, it was easy for me to see how my sister could transform this product into a business enterprise. I distinctly remember telling her, ‘You are going to regret not doing this way more than you’ll regret giving it a try.’ ”
“In hindsight, I was pretty set that I was go ing to become a lawyer and, therefore, I think I was going through business school to learn as much as I could, only for the sake of learning,” he says. “But when I look back now on Siete, when you are put into a school where everybody is trying to develop and get better and learn, it really just sharpens you as an individual. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by super smart people, so the collaborative learning was even a bigger deal because I was learning from peers.”
Siete Family Foods—known simply as Siete on the label—specializes in making health-conscious foods without dairy, glu ten, soy, or grain. It began in 2014 with just one item, an almond flour tortilla devised by his sister Veronica Garza, who had to change her diet because of a sensitivity to grain. Now, Siete’s products are stocked at 16,000 super markets in the U.S. and Canada, including
“It makes it that much more rewarding be cause you’re doing it together,” Miguel says.
COMMONWEALTH COMPUTER CO. FOUNDED 1995
When William Broadus, BBA ’71, MBA ’74, was about to launch a technology sales company in 1995, he enlisted his daughter’s help for what would become a multigenerational family business, with both generations educated at McCombs.
16 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU IBMWILLIAM:PHOTOGRAPHER;HOWELLKOREYNIKOLE:ANDKARLA
“It meant access for all … for all ‘common’ people to have access to wealth,” says Vaughn, BBA ’96, MSTC ’04, now executive vice pres ident of Commonwealth Computer Co. “He wanted his company to do just that.”
THE FAMILYBROADUS
Broadus, who worked at IBM Corp. for 17 years after graduating from McCombs, helped equip some of the earliest school computer labs during the 1980s. After founding Common wealth Trading Company Inc., doing business as Commonwealth Computer Co., he quickly established it as the go-to reseller of hardware, software, and technology services for gov ernments and schools. The company’s clients include several State of Texas agencies, Bexar County, the City of San Antonio, The University of Texas at San Antonio, multiple Texas A&M University System campuses, and K-12 schools.
FOUNDER’S WIFE AND DAUGHTER CARRY ON LEGACY OF SERVICE AT COMMONWEALTH COMPUTER CO.
Business has picked up in recent months as technology events resume in person. Broadus and Vaughn say they are cultivating several newBothclients.saythe
“One of the mottos of The University of Tex as is, ‘What happens here changes the world,’” says Vaughn, who met her future husband, LaSalle, BBA ’96, while they were both under graduates at McCombs. “And that's literally what we've seen in our own lives.”
roots of the company’s success go back to UT Austin — which not only laid the foundation for William’s successful career but is also where he and Karla met during the 1970s. William had already completed a master’s degree and moved to San Antonio when a mutual friend introduced him to Karla, then an admissions counselor at UT Austin.
After Broadus’ death in 2013, his wife and company Vice President Karla Broadus — who has a background in education, including as a reading teacher, school vice principal, and pro fessor — took over as president. She also kept her faculty post at UT San Antonio until 2020 after more than two decades, most recently as the director of its African American Studies program. She still consults with the program but now focuses mainly on the family business.
Antonio. Vaughn and Broadus carefully vetted the possibilities with the help of an encyclope dia — eventually landing on “Commonwealth.”
Nikole Vaughn, then a McCombs undergraduate, remembers help ing her father research company names during a trip home to San
“We really strive to be a value-added re seller,” Karla Broadus says. “We want to serve you from your first thoughts of buying a sys tem through the sales to the receipt or instal lation (of the system), and then if you need assistance afterwards, come to us.”
Above: (From left) Karla Broadus, her husband, William Broadus, and their daughter, Nikole Vaughn, worked togeth er in the family busi ness, WilliamNikoleComputerCommonwealthCo.Karlaandkeptitgoingafterdiedin2013.
“An icon in the industry, she ignited my passion and intellectual interest in consumer behavior, which is a foundational element of being a marketer,” Jarratt says.
“When running the Florida branch, the thing that helped me most was business law,” he says. “It helped me understand how to acquire prop erty.”Another 7-Eleven executive and McCombs graduate, Marissa Jarratt, BBA ’99, MBA ’04, continues the family’s tradition.
his dad. All earned UT business degrees, joined the same fraternity their father did, and were managers of the football team.
Though no longer family owned or operated, 7-Eleven still reflects Thompson’s entrepreneurial spirit and philosophy.
Thompson says he called on business skills he developed at UT to make 7-Eleven thrive.
FOUNDED 1927
Jere Thompson put his children to work in the business, beginning in elementary school. They rode bicycles to the store and “started out at a nickel an hour and then 10 cents and then a quarter,” he says. “They learned real life and how you greet customers.”
M cC OMBS.UTEXAS.EDU _ 17 INSTITUTIONSEDUCATIONALNON-PROFITFORUSE”“FAIR
Southland Ice Co. of Dallas, which sold blocks of ice before refrigera tors were ubiquitous, evolved into the company that would become the world’s largest convenience store retailer, 7-Eleven, thanks to founder Joe C. Thompson Sr., BBA 1922, and his McCombs-educated sons.
And, wouldn’t you know it, ice is still sold at 7-Eleven and remains an essential ingredient in its iconic frozen drink, the Slurpee. The compa ny, now in 18 countries, with 81,000 stores, is known for its innovative moves: offering to-go coffee cups, having a self-serve soda fountain, and keeping its doors open 24/7.
Joe C. Thompson, namesake of the Thompson Conference Center on the UT campus, had three sons who followed in his footsteps: John, BBA ’48, now deceased; Jere Sr., BBA ’54; and Joe, BBA ’62, called “Jodie” like
The founder Joe C. Thompson’s mark is ever present, says Jarratt, chair of the McCombs Advisory Council for the Master of Science in Marketing program and a McCombs Business Hall of Fame Rising Star.
Although the family sold its interests in 1992 to Ito-Yokado, a Japanese retail chain that re organized to become Seven & i Holdings Co. Ltd., 7-Eleven’s headquarters is in Irving. As the company’s chief marketing officer and ex ecutive vice president, Jarratt credits her MBA in marketing and Professor Julie Irwin with shaping her career.
THOMPSONTHE FAMILY
7-ELEVEN
Above: (From left) Joe and his wife, Peggy, and their two oldest sons, John and Jere. Although it is no longer a fam ily-owned business, 7-Eleven still reflects the educatedhisBBAThompsonofspiritentrepreneurialandphilosophyfounderJoeC.Sr.,1922,andMcCombs-sons.
That inspiration resonates in Joe C. Thomp son’s long-ago challenge, which Jarratt summed up as: “Be the first choice for convenience any time, anywhere.”
AT 7-ELEVEN, SONS FOLLOWING DAD’S EXAMPLE CREATED AN ICONIC WORLDWIDE BRAND
By 1964, national expansion was rolling. “We learned how to franchise,” Thompson says. “Unions wouldn’t unionize a family, so that idea allowed us go to Washington, D.C., where John was stationed during World War II.”
Such family closeness was noted in a 1987 New York Times article, which says, “The Thompsons have managed to run their holdings without the family arguments that have plagued other wealthy clans.”
“His famous quote that we refer to at 7-Eleven is ‘Give the customers what they want, when they want it, and where they want it.’ Nine ty-four years later, our corporate vision is in spired by his guiding principle,” she says.
FOR TIFF’S TREATS HUSBAND-WIFE FOUNDERS, FIRST CAME AN APOLOGY, THEN A BIG IDEA
“We both got our first email addresses at the University of Texas orientation,” Leon says, refer ring to a then-new technology that would become so important to their business. “My introduction to software and computers was at The University of Texas freshman year.”
Now, the couple oversee what has become a Texas staple and is growing beyond its borders. With almost 1,900 employees in five states, the company will open in two new states, Colorado and Florida, this fall.
18 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU TREATSTIFF'S
The couple do not franchise Tiff’s Treats.
Whether Tiff’s Treats becomes a multigener ational family business depends: The couple’s twins are only 7.
“At first, it was about 15 hours a week on the business,” Tiffany says. “By the time we gradu ated, it was 40 hours a week on the business.”
Above: Tiffany and Leon Chen became college sweethearts and launched a much-loved brand of cookies deliv ered warm to your door.
LEON TIFFANY+ CHEN
What he learned at McCombs encouraged the couple to invest in a proprietary technology so that almost all orders are digital, long before online food orders became common.
“We want full control over how we build that brand and experience,” Tiffany says. “As we’re introducing ourselves into more and more areas, we want to be the owners of the full customer experience.”Leonsays they often hear from customers about the special connection they have with the company. “At the end of the day, what sets us apart is that the cookies are the conduit, but it's the experiences and the moments that people were counting on from us.”
For its first decade, the Tiffany of Tiff’s Treats baked the cookies her self. She made the dough with a handheld mixer for almost two years until she got an industrial mixer. That was a game changer, she says.
“We were wildly jumping off a ledge and 100% learning on the fly,” Leon says. Sometimes they learned through failure: A Sixth Street walk-up location in Austin flopped. But most of their ideas succeeded, including being early adopters of online orders.
Tiff’s first corporate order came from a UT department. “That’s how
Leon Chen, BBA ’01, wasn’t planning to start a business when his thengirlfriend-and-now-wife Tiffany delivered a peace offering for standing him up on a date. That little batch of just-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies inspired a big idea that Chen, a sophomore marketing major, couldn’t shake: Who wouldn’t love a warm-cookie delivery?
much and how important the university was to the success of our business,” Leon says, noting how fortunate it was to have early investors with strong UT ties, such as businessman Steve Hicks, a member of the UT System Board of Regents. “There is this Texas connection and always has Investorsbeen.”include a host of well-known Aus tin-based fans, including jewelry designer Kendra Scott and the husband-wife duo of tennis champion Andy Roddick and model-actress Brooklyn Decker.
TIFF'S TREATS FOUNDED 1999
Tiff’s Treats was born that year, in 1999. The company the couple started in his Hyde Park apartment and turned into a business worth over $500 million with more than 80 locations in Texas and beyond has UT ties throughout. “I took some management classes,” Tiffany Chen, B.S. '01, says. “ Leon’s business foundation was really helpful.”
extract called Adamur with just $6.71 worth of materials, according to the company’s web site. At the time, vanilla was sold to pharmacies and labeled “Do not bake or freeze.” His wife, Grace, found her husband’s concoction perfect for baking and declared it “the best flavoring I have ever used.”
Shannon says Adams also was an innovator in cross-marketing. “If you bought Pioneer Mills flour or a bag of Imperial Sugar, there was a high likelihood it had an Adams coupon,” Shannon says. “He was just a smart guy. Fred Adams drove many of the advances in the company that the business today was built on."
Wanting to create a vanilla extract his wife could use in baking, John Anderson Adams began making and selling Green Plant Sarsaparilla
ADAMS EXTRACT FOUNDED 1888
In 1955, Adams built a production facility on Interstate 35 that helped product expansion, including a full spice and seasoning line in 1959.
M cC OMBS.UTEXAS.EDU _ 19
Adams’ sons Fred and Don helped print labels and bottle the product, selling it door to door. In 1905, the family moved to Beeville, Texas, where the company grew. In 1922, Fred bought the business from his father and moved it to Austin, where he built a two-story building downtown. The company website claims the red food coloring it created popularized another new product, red velvet cake.
Today, the company makes hundreds of prod ucts and flavorings. It remained a family-op erated business until a group of San Antonio investors bought it and moved operations from Austin to Gonzales in 2002. In 2012, Valesco Industries, a Dallas-based private equity firm, bought the Companybusiness.President and CEO Dan Shannon, one of the investor-owners, says Fred Adams “was a true innovator.”
SHARON JAYSON, an Austin-based journalist, is a former staff reporter for USA Today and the Austin AdditionalAmerican-Statesman.reportingbyAlice Popovici. ADAMS FAMILY
Fred Adams isn’t a household name. But Adams, the first University of Texas BBA graduate — in June 1917— used the knowledge he gained at UT to create an enduring national brand still found in countless U.S. households.
THE
Above: Fred Adams and his family developed Adams Extract & Spice into a national brand. Adams was the first University of Texas BBA graduate.
“If not for World War II, he would have moved the business nationally,” Shannon says. “He invented a lot of things. He brought the mod ern-day recipe for red velvet to the nation. He invented butter flavor, when in World War II, they rationed butter.”
Now called Adams Extract & Spice and based in Gonzales, about 70 miles east of San Antonio, the company is one of the state’s oldest continuously operated businesses. Its roots reach back to 1888, when Fred’s father, John, founded a vanilla-flavoring company in Battle Creek, Michigan.
Under Fred Adams’ second-generation lead ership, the company thrived, and his son grew up working in the business. That son, John G. Adams, also went to UT, earning a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and designing the four-pack food coloring still sold today.
ADAMS EXTRACT BECAME A KITCHEN STAPLE, THANKS TO UT’S FIRST BBA GRAD
One hundred years ago, the School of Business Administration was created by the UT Board of Regents, with classes held in a pinewood shack. That modest start didn’t stop founding Dean Spurgeon Bell from envisioning the school as a future powerhouse. His grit, high standards, and innovation helped steer the school toward greatness. We reflect on a momentous century, and look ahead with enthusiasm to the next one. Join us. Enjoy the journey. Be inspired. THE FIRST 25: HUMBLEHIGHBEGINNINGS,IDEALS 1922 – 1947 PAGE 22 THE SECOND 25: BUILDINGSTRENGTHACADEMIC 1947 – 1972 PAGE 32 THE THIRD 25: CO-CREATIONBUSINESS 1972 – 1997 PAGE 40 THE FOURTH 25: ENTREPRENEURIALENERGY 1997 – 2022 PAGE 48
DOORSTHEOPENING BYTEXT NICARJIM ISSCHOOLBUSINESSUT’SBORN IN A DEANASETTINGMODESTWITHVISIONARY PAGE POTENTIALLEADERSFOUNDING22LOOKINGBEYONDHUMBLEBEGINNINGSTOENVISIONTHEIMPACTOFABUSINESSSCHOOL“OFTHEFIRSTCLASS.” THE FIRST 25 YEARS BEGINNINGS,HUMBLE IDEALSHIGH 1922–1947
BECOMING INSPIRED
Outside was a vibrant university community of 5,000 students, faculty members, and staffers, housed on the original 40-acre campus in the middle of Austin, then a city of nearly 40,000 people. The university was growing faster than its funding allowed, and inexpensive temporary wooden buildings, each named for a letter of the alphabet, were seen as the fastest way to meet demand. The shacks were purposely left unpainted in the hope that the state would find their appearance too embarrassing and replace them with adequate buildings. One of these simple shacks served as headquarters for the new business school.
Above: Spurgeon Bell was appointed dean of the newly created School of Business Administration in 1922. Despite the humble beginnings, Bell is credited with infusing innovation into the new school’s DNA, a trait persisting today.
While Bell managed a fledgling academic department and coped with primitive class rooms, he had his own academic problem to resolve. He had attended graduate school at UT and Chicago but had not yet completed an advanced degree, and he would need one to remain on the faculty.
For Bell, the meeting must have been highly satisfying. During the preceding 10 years, he had guided a fledgling business program into one of the most successful endeavors on the campus. What today is the McCombs School owes much to Bell, who dreamed of an innovative and first-class business school at the university.
Right: A row of temporary pinewood shacks along Speed way, where Waggener Hall and the McCombs School now stand. The old Law Building in the background was replaced by the Gradu ate School of Business building in 1975.
ness was assigned to G. Hall, a shack placed on the east side of Old Main. On chilly mornings, he arrived early, poked the remaining embers in the potbelly stove, and then gathered fresh wood from behind the building. A leaky roof prompted The Daily Texan to declare G. Hall “unseaworthy” when it rained, “as every small shower subjects the unfortunate students to a bath.”Inaddition, the arrival of business classes drew a mixed response on the Forty Acres. Some professors questioned the idea of business as a legitimate course of study at a four-year uni versity and made their feelings known to Bell.
The idea of a UT business school dates back to 1909, when UT President Sidney Mezes proposed it to the Board of Regents. The regents agreed, but the limited finances available required a modest beginning. A sole professor, Spurgeon Bell, was hired in 1912 to found a department of “business training.” A native of Blanco, Texas, and a 1902 UT graduate in economics and math, Bell had studied and taught at the University of Chicago, served as an assistant editor of The Economist magazine, and was on the faculty of the University of Missouri when he was lured back to Austin with a $3,400 salary.
In spring 1914, the regents approved a year long leave of absence at one-third pay so Bell could attend Harvard University and earn a Master of Business Administration degree. Harvard launched its MBA program in 1908, the first in the world, and was still the only university offering it at the time.
24 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU HISTORYAMERICANFORCENTERBRISCOESHACKS:ANDSPREADOPENING
Previous page: In 1926, business faculty members with expertise in cotton marketing, foreign trade, and accounting sit for an official photo in front of the Law Building. The group included Dean J. Anderson Fitzgerald (front, second from left) and Florence Stullken, an innovative instructor in typing and shorthand and the first woman on faculty (second row, third from left).
he day was a decade in the making. At noon on Friday, Sept. 29, 1922, nearly 300 students and faculty members gathered for the first-ever meeting of the School of Business at The Uni versity of Texas. Although a business department had exist ed since 1912, the UT Board of Regents officially had promot ed it as a separate, stand-alone academic unit on July 12, and this was the first opportunity for the new school community to come together. The school had no permanent home yet, so the group assembled in the auditorium of the Law Building.
Despite the challenges, business classes were instantly popular with the students. A second instructor, John Treleven from the University of Wisconsin, was added.
With everyone assembled in the auditorium, University President Robert Vinson spoke of his excitement about the educational possibilities the new business school offered. “The students through their dean should ask for anything they need,” he offered. Spurgeon Bell, the school’s first dean, boasted that were motivated and eager to learn.
Initially, Bell taught courses in accounting, banking, corporations, and statistics, though the classroom environment was less than ideal. Busi
THE BEGINNING
That summer, Bell, with his wife and young son, moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and settled into an apartment just a block from Harvard Yard. Bell thrived. In a series of letters
“I have a distinct feeling of patriotism and personal obligation to Texas,” wrote Bell, “but if I have impaired my usefulness, or, if [the business program] tends to make me a misfit, I ought to get out of the way.”
He traveled by train to New York and met with bankers on Wall Street, toured factories in Philadelphia, and sought out the business faculty at the University of Pennsylvania to discuss courses in real estate. Bell wrote that the dean of the Harvard Business School “be lieves that within the next ten years there will arise somewhere in the Southwest a School of Business Administration distinctly better than the average, which will draw students from a number of states. He suggests that the Univer sity of Texas should at once lay the foundation for building such a school.”
to new UT President William Battle, some of them 15 hand-written pages, Bell relayed his experiences. The Harvard faculty and fellow students inspired him. He excitedly detailed plans to offer BBA and MBA degrees in Austin and wanted to recruit business leaders from around Texas as guest lecturers. Bell thought undergraduate students needed real business experience to complement their coursework, and he pondered topics such as offering a farm management program to serve the state’s ag ricultural population.
Bell knew the goal was a lofty one and told Battle in a letter that he feared he might not reach it. He confidentially shared his doubts and also questioned his continued standing with the UT faculty.
At one point, Bell offered to resign and re fund his stipend to attend Harvard, “since Texas would not receive a benefit justifying the expenditure.”
M cC OMBS.UTEXAS.EDU _ 25 COLLECTIONPHOTOGRAPHSANDPRINTSBRISCOEBELL:
With the business program booming, change was afoot. By the 1921-1922 academic year, al most 1,500 students out of UT’s total enrollment of 4,000 were taking business classes, taught by 10 faculty members. Though there were only 227 students majoring in business, the program’s phenomenal growth persuaded then-UT Pres ident Robert Vinson to acknowledge that the time had come to create a business school. He recommended that the regents remove the busi ness training department from the College of Arts and Sciences and make it a separate school. The board made it official on July 12, 1922, and Bell was named the school’s first dean. From the start, Bell and the faculty set high standards for the newly minted School of Busi
TURNING VISION INTO REALITY
"When from time to time official duties take me to the palatial offices of the dean of the College of Arts, the dean of the Law School, and the president of the University, I feel like a poor man come to town," he groused.
26 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU PHOTOSCHOOLCOMBSMc
“I am obliged to you for your reassuring note,” Bell wrote back. “I should regard the failure of the venture at Austin as a misfortune to the University as well as a personal calamity.”
By 1919, the business faculty had increased to five, including its first woman. Florence Stullken began a 38-year career teaching typing –required for all business students – and shorthand. A pair of UT law professors volunteered to teach business law courses.
The classes were moved to a slightly larger shack, H. Hall, along Gua dalupe Street where Goldsmith Hall now stands. The new digs had a better roof and steam heating, which relieved Bell of wood-gathering duty, but the subpar facility was still a frustration.
Above: The Class of 1921 poses for a group photo with Victor the dog, an unofficial business school mascot. Although a business de partment had existed at The University of Texas since 1912, the Board of Regents established it as a new school on July 12, 1922.
Right: Dedicated in 1932 and named for Leslie Waggener, UT's first president, Wagge ner Hall was the forbrick-and-mortarfirsthomethebusinessschool.
Battle was quick to respond. “Do not be uneasy about your work here or the way in which it is regarded by the faculty,” he wrote. “You have, both on the score of character and attainments, the entire respect of the faculty and, of course, mine.”
Upon his return to Austin, Bell wasted no time executing his ideas. In spring 1916, his plan to offer a BBA degree was approved. Before the end of the year, Texas became a founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business. On June 1, 1917, the regents authorized an MBA degree, one of the first in the world, joining the ranks of Harvard, New York University, and Boston University.
TRANSFORMATION
At Bell’s direction, the Commerce Club was founded, bringing business leaders to Austin as guest speakers. Meeting monthly, the club became the largest student group on campus.
THE DAILY TEXAN , “AND THE DEMAND FOR THEM IN THE BUSINESS WORLD SEEMS GROWING.”CONSTANTLY
ness Administration. Enrollment was limited to juniors and seniors. The BBA required six months of business experience under a “coor dination” program, similar to an internship today. “Since business institutions cannot be moved bodily into our midst as a laboratory,” Bell explained, “we are sending our students to the laboratory of experience.”
“The efficiency of the students graduating from the School of Business Administration has been ‘noised abroad,’” declared The Daily Texan, “and the demand for them in the business world seems constantly growing.”
Wall Street, their alma mater became more visible.
In 1925, Bell was recruited by Ohio State University to lead its new Bureau of Business Research, but not before he had accomplished many of his goals in Austin. “The growth of the school and its broadening sphere of influence is the result of his judgement, foresight, and untiring effort,” wrote Professor Karl McGinn is, who succeeded Bell as dean. Bell’s inventive approach to teaching, collaboration with Tex as businesses, and pioneering efforts to take business education statewide have all left an indelible impression that has helped shape the McCombs School for a century.
Outside of Texas, Bell strived to enhance the school’s reputation. He often spent summers teaching at the universities of Chicago, Cal ifornia, and Washington to gain experience, compare best practices, and meet the local businessNetworkingcommunity.withhis former Harvard class mates, Bell received requests from New York City banks for recommendations of new Texas graduates. As a few UT alumni found success on
“THE EFFICIENCY OF THE GRADUATINGSTUDENTSFROM THE SCHOOL OF ABROAD,’”HASADMINISTRATIONBUSINESSBEEN‘NOISEDDECLARED
In an innovative move, Bell also partnered with the university’s Division of Extension to provide in-person courses in Houston, San Antonio, and Fort Worth. Members of the business faculty regularly made the hourslong train rides to those cities, especially on weekends, to bring business education to the people across Texas.
JIM NICAR has authored two books about the university, written numerous articles in the Alcalde and other publications, and for decades has conducted historical and the architectural history tours of campus. He maintains the UT History Corner (UTHistoryCorner.com) website.
LEAVING HIS MARK
PHOTOGRAPHS BY PHIL KLINE28 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU
WAGGENER UNMISTAKEABLEHALL: SIGNS OF TEXAS BUSINESS
Answers:1.Buildingstone2.Oil,3.Wheat4.Cattle(aHerefordhead) 5.Mohair(anAngoragoat)6.Grapefruit7.Goatfarming 8.Turkeys9.Figs10.Oranges11.Pecans12.Corn13.Sorghum 14.Sulfur15.Lumber 21 463
Designed by the Dallas firm of Greene, LaRoche and Dahl, and constructed in 1931 for about $350,000, Waggener Hall and its limestone base (quarried from Leuders, Texas), multi colored brick, and red-tile roof fit well with the Mediterranean Renaissance style of much of the campus. The custom Spanish grillwork features renditions of the university seal.
Look up! Just below the eaves of Waggener Hall are 22 oneof-a-kind terra cotta tiles that represent a variety of Texas exports, which unmistakably marked the building as the home of the business school. Unless you looked up as you passed by, you might miss images of oil, cotton, pecans, and cattle, among others, crafted at the Northwestern Terra Cotta Company in Chicago.
Waggener Hall replaced a row of temporary pinewood shacks that once lined Speedway Street, several of which housed the business school. For the first few years, business shared the building with the English and speech departments, along with an anthropology museum on the top floor, but it gradually took over the facility as the departments were provided spaces of their own. Dean John Fitzgerald installed a business library on the second floor, and the building was air conditioned in the 1950s.
The business school called Waggener home for 30 years, from 1932 to 1962, before it moved into the Business-Eco nomics Building, today’s “CBA,” where it now resides.
Take a look at the photos and try to identify the industry with the tile. Answers are below. — JIM NICAR
M cC OMBS.UTEXAS.EDU _ 29 TKCREDIT 5 9 10 14 87 13121511
ANDRESEARCHERS1925PROBLEM SOLVERS
The Bureau of Business Research was established in 1925 to work on practical issues facing Texas business. The bureau published the first issue of the Texas Business Review in 1927, initially offered free to subscribers. An annual subscription fee of $1 was added in 1933; it increased over time. The Review continued in publication until 2011.
THE FIRST 25 YEARS 1922-1947 RESEARCH BY JIM NICAR AND DAVID WENGER
YEARBOOKCACTUSCLASSROOM:PHOTO;SCHOOLCOMBSMHERMES:HISTORY;AMERICANFORCENTERBRISCOETHEFITZGERALD:DEANMAGAZINE;ALUMNIALCALDEMCGINNIS:DEANHISTORY;AMERICANFORCENTERBRISCOETHEBELL:DEANc 30 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU FIRST CENTURYQUARTERDEANSSPURGEONBELL 1922-1925 E. KARL McGINNIS 1925-1926 (INTERIM) J. ANDERSON FITZGERALD 1926-1950 FALL 1922 ENROLLMENTBUSINESSBUSINESSMAJORS (JUNIORS AND SENIORS ONLY) 259 GRADUATE STUDENTS 6 UT ENROLLMENT 4,100 NON-BUSINESS STUDENTS TAKING BUSINESS COURSES 1,500 THE1922PATRON SAINT
EARLY1928
MULTIMEDIA
UT business students unveiled Hermes as the school's "patron saint" in 1922. A god of Greek mythology, Hermes was known for knowledge, diplomacy, and inventiveness. Swiss master carver Peter Mansbendel was enlisted to carve a 36-inch wooden statue of Hermes that is still on display at the school. A class ring design for business students — with a likeness of Hermes on one side — was introduced at the University Co-op in 1950.
Florence Stullken, the first woman on the business faculty, introduced the new "Rhythm Method" of typing instruction using records played on a Victrola in 1928. In the same year, Professor Alonzo Cox traveled to Europe to film cotton import, export, and processing. Cox invited business students to his home to show his films—an early example of multimedia use at the university.
The UT football team was winless going into the final game versus Texas A&M on Thanksgiving 1938. More than 35,000 fans packed Texas Memorial Stadium as an inspired Longhorn defense kept the game scoreless for three quarters. In the fourth, Nelson Puett, BBA '49, dived over the goal line to give Texas a touchdown and eventually the win, a momen tary bright spot in an era marked by dark clouds of economic depression and an approaching war in Europe.
HISTORYAMERICANFORCENTERBRISCOETHETOWER:THEANDROTCNAVALYEARBOOK;CACTUS1939PUETT:NELSONINTERNET;THEFROMIMAGEUSE""FAIRBOOK:PRATHER M cC OMBS.UTEXAS.EDU _ 31
THE1938GRIDIRON HERO
"SINCE
PEOPLE THINK
Finance Professor Charles L. Prather published Money and Banking in 1937. For more than 30 years and nine editions, it was the most widely used banking textbook in the nation.
ADMINISTRATIONBUSINESSEXISTS MERELY TO TEACH 'MONEY MAKING' BY INDIVIDUALS, ATTENTION SHOULD BE CALLED TO THE FACT THAT LEADING SCHOOLS EMPHASIZE
INDIVIDUALRESPONSIBILITYSOCIALOFTHEBUSINESSMAN. " — DEAN J. ANDERSON FITZGERALD
SCHOOL
BUSINESS1944 REPORTS FOR DUTY
“As young men have joined the armed forces, the total registration has steadily dropped. All members of the Navy V-7 unit who were in the School of Business Administration have been called to active duty.” Report from Dean Fitzgerald to UT President Homer P. Rainey in November 1943 MOST A OF THE
THE1937BESTSELLING PROFESSOR
TEXT BY ALBERTA PHILLIPS PEGGY DRAKE HOLLAND, M c COMBS’ FIRST BLACK GRADUATE IN 1963, HOPES TO INSPIRE TODAY'S STUDENTS WITH HER CHANGEMAKING STORY—AND A NEW STUDENT GATHERING PLACE NAMED IN HER HONOR PAGE THESTRENGTHENING33FUNDAMENTALSOFANACADEMICINSTITUTIONOFINTERNATIONALREPUTATIONANDCREDIBILITY. THE SECOND 25 BUILDING STRENGTHACADEMIC 1947—1972
As a junior at Phillis Wheatley High School, in San Antonio, she was selected “W (Wheatley) Club Queen,” akin to homecoming queen.
A new student lounge and exhibit space at McCombs bears her name and tells her story. Unveiled at a dedication ceremony on Feb. 22, 2022, the lounge was envisioned by McCombs’ Black Business Students As sociation as a place where they could feel they belonged, says Leticia Acosta, director of outreach and inclusion in the McCombs undergrad uate program office.
Holland’s journey began in San Antonio, where she was born on New Year’s Day, 1940, to Bertha Mae Knowles Drake and James Robert Drake. Her father worked as a painter, barber, and electrician’s assistant. Her mother, a homemaker and expert seamstress, did domestic work.
In earning her degree on an almost entirely segregated campus in a city partitioned along racial lines, Peggy Holland, BBA '63, carved a trail for other Black students at one of the nation’s top-ranked business schools. Though she says she was stunned by some of the cruelty she encountered at UT, she came equipped with a willingness to challenge authority and demand fairness.
34 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU LIBRARYPUBLICAUSTINCENTER,HISTORYAUSTINOPPOSITEHOLLAND;LEOPONANDPEGGYCOURTESYABOVEANDSPREADOPENING
Peggy Drake met her future husband, Leon Holland, there. Their friendship blossomed, and they attended senior prom together. Both grad uated in May 1956, with Peggy as valedictorian. Leon enrolled at UT, but Peggy, wanting to stay with her recently widowed mother, chose San Antonio College. She was 16.
hen 18-year-old Peggy Joyce Drake arrived at the University of Texas School of Business Administra tion in 1958, she didn’t see a single person who looked like her. As the only Black person — and a woman in the predominantly male business school — Drake en tered UT during a fraught period in its history. UT had dragged its feet on desegregating after the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 ruling, Brown vs. the Board of Education, and did not enroll Black undergradu ates until 1956. Drake was stung by the isolation and racism she encountered in a place of higher learning.
Reckoning with that past in its centennial year, the McCombs School of Business has recognized the experiences of Peggy Drake Holland (her married name) and is honoring her trail-blazing efforts as its first Black graduate.
FROM BOOKWORM TO VALEDICTORIAN
In choosing the two-year San Antonio Col lege, Peggy Holland intentionally bypassed then all-Black St. Philip’s College. She ex plained that her mother instilled in her the value of desegregation, especially taking advantage of opportunities denied her moth er’sAtgeneration.SAC,which had desegregated in 1955, the year before Holland’s arrival, she experienced the sharp edges of early integration.
Previous page: Peggy Drake Holland, pictured at age 18, was her high school's valedictorian. Her mother taught her “that laws existed which granted me the right to attend once-segregat ed education institutions of my choice –if I were qualified."
Opposite: During her years as a student in Austin, the city was the site of protests for racial justice: from students picketing to desegregate movie theaters on the Drag to NAACP-led protests outside Austin City Hall calling for an ordinance banning racial discrimination in Austin public schools (here with civil rights leader and longtime Austin chapter presi dent Volma Overton on April 23, 1964, a year after graduation)Holland's
FORGING A PATH TO UT
Even so, the schools remained segregated, and she went to all-Black public and private schools. She excelled and was nicknamed “Bookworm” by her peers.
“Having been taught at home to have an open mind — and no preconceived opinions nor judgment of individ uals based on skin color — I was greatly disappointed by being met with such unprovoked, unabashed, and unabated racism in such an aca demically esteemed institution,” she recalls. “During the time I spent at The Universi ty of Texas as a student, I experienced the greatest barrage of racism of my young life.”
west— where her parents were born and reared. Hondo, she says, was a close-knit community in which friendships between people of different races were common.
Above: Newly arriving at UT, she was stung by the discrimination she en countered as a student; she later requested her diploma be sent by mail rather than walk commencement.through
Growing up, Holland straddled two worlds: the urban, multicultur al city of San Antonio and the rural community of Hondo — 42 miles
Another safe space was a white church, Uni versity Baptist, on the Drag, whose pastor, Blake Smith, welcomed Black students to worship onThoseSundays.places provided a respite from the ra cial hostilities that shook Holland’s emotional well-being. Ultimately, she took a year off in 1961 to recoup in San Antonio. After working with the San Antonio Housing Authority and teaching at Dunbar, she returned to UT in 1962 to finish her degree.
She and other Black women students found a haven at the segregated Almetris Co-op run by Almetris Marsh Duren. She was “our mother away from home,” Holland says. “You knew that when you walked into 2506 Whitis, you could relax and let your hair down.”
A PLACE TO BELONG
The transition meant leaving San Antonio, which was more racially tolerant than Austin. The capital city had carved out a “Negro district” where Blacks were forced to live.
Holland stood her ground. SAC finally relented, ignoring the require ment. Other episodes of bigotry occurred, she recalls, including a math professor who seated her in a front-row corner desk behind where he stood, intentionally blocking her view of the chalkboard.
pation,” she recounts. “He would select students to discuss the chosen subject. He never called myFromname.”then on, Holland sat in the first row and raised her hand whenever questions were asked.Inanother instance, she compared her an swers on an exam with another student from San Antonio with whom she had studied. She discovered that despite having the same an swers, the white student received a B. Holland was given a D. She went to her professor’s office to discuss the “error in grading” but was told he had left for South America, “even as I saw the door to his office was open and he sat at hisAlmostdesk.” daily, she says she experienced slights because of her skin color.
“When I reported to classes, students refused to sit near me and would also move to another seat if I sat at an available desk near them.”
Overall, Holland says, “I continue to believe that the good persons I’ve met and the positive experiences I’ve had at UT greatly outweigh the negatives.”
Above: The University of Texas was slow to be gin desegregating after the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 ruling, Brown vs. the Board of Education, and did not enroll Black undergrad uates until 1956.
From left: son Kenneth Holland; husband Leon Holland; grandsons Hol land Koepp and Drake Koepp; and daughter Lynne Holland Koepp.
One professor “explained on the first day of class that a significant part of our final grade would be based on classroom discussion/partici
She knew attending UT would be challenging, but she still was caught off guard by the blatant bigotry she encountered from students and“Naivelyprofessors.believing that most people are good, and that education is accompanied by intelligence, I discovered that I had to change my way of thinking,” Holland says.
‘I HAD TO CHANGE MY WAY OF THINKING’
Yet, she experienced acts of kindness from allies — Black and white — who helped her and other Black students on the same journey.
36 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU
None of those challenges thwarted her. Holland graduated at age 18 with an Associate of Arts degree, becoming the first African American student to be inducted into SAC’s national junior college honor society, Phi Theta Kappa. It was 1958. She was on her way to The University of Texas to fulfill a goal of earning a BBA from a prestigious business school.
Still reeling from the racism she had suffered there, Holland opted to have her diploma mailed instead of attending graduation.
Right: A new student lounge and exhibit space at McCombs bears Holland's name and tells her story. Holland is seated with her family behind her during the dedication ceremony in February.
Her mother, she says, taught her “that laws existed which granted me the right to attend once-segregated education institutions of my choice – if I were qualified.”
She recalls that swimming class was mandatory to fulfill a physical education requirement. Though she repeatedly signed up, she was told she would have to take swimming at St. Philip’s. “I told them that I couldn’t understand why they wanted me to go to St. Philip’s, which wasn’t my school, knowing full well why,” she says. “They had never had Black bodies in their swimming pool and didn’t want to taint it in any way.”
Holland knew she was stepping onto a nearly all-segregated campus in 1958, six years before President Lyndon Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act integrating public facilities. The Ku Klux Klan sometimes rallied on Austin streets and the UT campus; minstrel shows were staged annually on campus by the Texas Cowboys.
Holland recalls the time business school personnel management professor Robb Seward stood guard when the KKK massed near cam pus. Seward showed up near Holland’s dorm, watching as the bus picked her up for a class trip to Houston and returning later when she was dropped off.
“WHEN I REPORTED TO CLASSES, STUDENTS REFUSED TO SIT NEAR ME AND WOULD ALSO MOVE TO ANOTHER SEAT IF I SAT AT AN AVAILABLE DESK NEAR THEM.” YET, SHE EXPERIENCED ACTS OF KINDNESS FROM ALLIES — BLACK AND WHITE — WHO HELPED HER AND OTHER BLACK STUDENTS ON THE SAME JOURNEY.
Now, Peggy’s story is gaining traction with the opening of the Peggy Drake Holland Stu dent Lounge at McCombs, in Suite 5.130 of the main business school building. Holland says she is deeply honored and grateful to the McCombs students and the administration team for making this “more-than-memorable” recognition possible.
In 1991, after Leon retired from the military, the couple moved back to Austin, where they still live. As a member of the Austin branch of the Military Officers Association of America, she became the first Black editor of its news letter, steering it to awards from the group’s national headquarters in Washington, D.C. She continued volunteering by making clothing for children in need.
SERVING OTHERS
M cC OMBS.UTEXAS.EDU _ 37PHOTOGRAPH BY LAUREN GERSON IMAGESGETTYPHOTO:TOP
LASTING LEGACY
After graduation in August 1963, Peggy and Leon married and raised two children. Leon served 30-plus years in the military, rising to the rank of colonel. Peggy was by his side for more than 28 of those years and volunteered to help soldiers, including as a Red Cross dental assistant and an English instructor to young soldiers studying for their GEDs.
“It is an attractive and wonderfully wellthought-out display of history,” she says. “It is my fervent hope that some young person will be inspired by my having been here.”
The lounge is just what she wanted as a stu dent: a place where everyone belongs.
ALBERTA PHILLIPS is an award-winning Austin journalist whose career spans more than 30 years.
Peggy Holland has received many accolades, including the Heman Sweatt Award given to
the couple in 2011. In 2010, the couple, along with other pioneering Black alumni, founded The Precursors Inc., to preserve the stories of African American students who were UT Austin pioneers. No one else was telling those stories, she says.
PILOT,
DEAN JOHN ARCH WHITE, 1960-1961 ANNUAL REPORT TO UT PRESIDENT J.R. SMILEY
The business school formally established an executive education program in 1955, drawing students from the oil and gas industry, health care, the financial industry, and government. Courses were two to six weeks long and included classes offered at a local country club suitable for both learning and networking.
PRIVILEGE
THE SECOND 25 YEARS
JOHN ARCH WHITE
EXECUTIVE1955
1958-1966
William Robert "Jack" Spriegel, who served as dean from 1950 to 1958, was a renaissance man with an all-embracing passion for and experience in the arts, sciences, industrial management, and military aviation. Spriegel earned a B.A. in economics, Greek, Latin, and philosophy in 1914, then completed a B.S. in chemistry, physics, and mathematics the following year. He later earned an M.A. in psychology and a Ph.D. in economics and business.
FIRST1949INDUSTRIALIST,PHILOSOPHER,ANDDEANINHERCLASS
1966-1982
Stella Traweek became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in business administration at The University of Texas at Austin in 1949. She joined the school's faculty, teaching business statistics.
“
WITH THE VERITABLE EXPLOSION OF NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN BUSINESS AND IN BUSINESS EDUCATION, THE FACULTY FULLY REALIZES ITS RESPONSIBILITY TO UNDERTAKE A RAPID AND EFFECTIVE PROGRAM OF SELF-DEVELOPMENT.
HISTORYAMERICANFORCENTERBRISCOETHEKOZMETSKY:DEANHISTORY;AMERICANFORCENTERBRISCOETHEWHITE:DEAN YEARBOOKCACTUSTRAWEEK:STELLA 38 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU SECOND CENTURYQUARTERDEANSWILLIAMSPRIEGEL 1950-1958
Spriegel served as an aviator and test pilot during the First World War, then worked in management roles for the Detroit auto industry. The economic urgencies of the Great Depression steered him to a career in higher education. Spriegel was recruited by UT to head the management department in 1948, and became the dean of the College of Business Administration in 1950.
1947-1972
GEORGE KOZMETSKY
In a nod to constant innovation, Professor Ed Cundiff, chair of the marketing department, introduced an experimental classroom in 1971 outfitted with thick green shag carpet and "sitting blocks" designed to promote a relaxed and modern atmosphere for learning.
RESEARCH BY JIM NICAR AND DAVID WENGER
INVESTING1967 IN SCHOLARSHIP
NEW,1962 BIG, AND FAST
GROOVY1971 DIGS
CAMPUS1962 IN THE COLD WAR
UT dedicated the Business-Economics Building in 1962, soon nick named the “Big-Enormous Building”(shown above with Family statue) by students. The building's escalators were the first and fastest on campus but moved only in one direction: up. Students speculated that every class day would end with all students on the top floor.
YEARBOOKCACTUSDIGS:GROOVYYEARBOOK;CACTUSSTATUE:FAMILY
Just after the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the univer sity established 84 nuclear fallout shelters on campus, including in the basement of the Business-Economics Building. Forty faculty and staff members tested the shelters in 1962, lodging inside for eight hours, commu nicating with Austin Civil Defense, preparing meals, and practicing first aid.
The first endowed professorship was established in 1967, the Jesse H. Jones Professorship, with a $100,000 grant from Houston Endowment Inc. The professorship honors the memory of the late Houston publisher and financier who served as the U.S. secretary of commerce during World War II.
The opportunities were so great, he added, that he was surprised it had not already happened.
In the ensuing decades, Kozmetsky helped make that vision happen. “As Austin continues to reinvent itself, all efforts are simply foot notes to the ideas of Kozmetsky,” Butler says.
“His idea was not to lose our best and bright est to Silicon Valley,” says John Sibley Butler, McCombs management professor and longtime Kozmetsky associate. “His vision was, ‘How do we create wealth and create jobs? We do that through science and technology.’”
Among his contributions were elevating the business school to national prominence while serving as its second-longest-tenured dean, from 1966 to 1982; founding the IC2 Institute, a think tank on technological entrepreneurship in 1977; helping recruit to Austin the comput ing research consortium Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp. (MCC) in 1983; launching the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI) and the region’s first venture capital net
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PAGE 41 THE ANDSCHOOLBUSINESSBECOMESANENABLERANDCO-CREATOROFNEWIDEAS,INVENTIONS,MANAGEMENTSKILLS.EFFECTKOZMETSKYTHE HOW A TECH VISIONARY MODERNCREATEANDMTRANSFORMEDcCOMBSHELPEDTHEAUSTIN BYTEXT BROOKSSTEVE THE THIRD 25 CO-CREATIONBUSINESS 1972—1997
That man was George Kozmetsky. He had come to the University of Texas business school in 1966 from his California technology con glomerate, Teledyne. That night, he forecast that what was happening around San Jose, California, could happen in Austin. If local businesses, governments, and the universi ty collaborated to attract manufacturers and nurture entrepreneurs, he explained, Austin could become its own technological center.
It’s hard to imagine a McCombs faculty mem ber or dean with a more lasting influence on the school and his adopted city than the late dean. His combination of vision, innovation, and excellent timing help explain his legacy.
he year was 1971. The phrase “Silicon Valley” had just debuted in the press. In Austin, a group of business leaders were sitting down to dinner at the downtown Ramada Inn to hear one man’s vision of Austin’s tech future.
“He didn’t always know how all the parts would fit together, but he knew he wanted to develop this as an entrepreneurial, technolog ically advanced hub,” says Robert Peterson, McCombs marketing professor and IC2 director from 2013 to 2016. “I would describe George as a visionary.”
THE ROAD TO TEXAS
When Los Angeles erupted in riots in 1965, Kozmetsky was ready to move on. He believed business should solve social problems as well as reward investors. His wife, Ronya, a former social worker, encouraged him to return to academia, just as UT was seeking a business school dean.
Kozmetsky arrived at UT in the midst of a 10-year plan to elevate itself from a regional university to a nationally ranked school. The UT System Board of Regents charged him to do the same for business.
MANAGEMENT
Kozmetsky spent half a century developing his vision before he ever got to UT. Born in 1917 to Russian immigrants in Seattle, he was a medic in World War II, got a Harvard Uni versity MBA, and taught at Carnegie Mellon University before joining the business world as an accountant at Hughes Aircraft.
It helped that, as a fellow businessman, he had the regents’ ears. They created an economic advisory position for him, counseling the board
42 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU OPENING SPREAD PHOTO COURTESY OF THE DOLPH BRISCOE CENTER FOR AMERICAN HISTORY
in Mountain View, California, near San Jose. “He was familiar with the early years of Sili con Valley,” says biographer Monty Jones. “He had seen the intimate relationships between business, academics, and government, and it led him to want to do it himself.”
Previous page: To keep track of his ideas, George Kozmetsky, dean of UT's business school from 1966 to 1982, often wrote on a blackboard as he talked. “He would call me in to take a Polaroid photo of that blackboard so he would know what he had discussed with some one,” recalls Ophelia Mallari, his administra tive assistant.
Right: (From left) Bobby Inman, former chairman and CEO of MCC; Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Inc.; and George Kozmetsky gath er in front of the New York Stock Exchange trading station housed at McCombs. Dell said, "George technology.”otherdonetionDellinvaluablecompetitiveremainstrategiesforcementguidanceKozmetsky’sinmanageissues,workmotivation,andneededtotechnologicallyhasbeeninhelpingComputerCorporagrow—andhehasthesameformanyentrepreneursin
PROFESSOR JOHN SIBLEY BUTLER RECALLS COLLABORATING WITH KOZMETSKY.
work in 1989, while running IC 2; and mento ring entrepreneurs such as Michael Dell and serving as one of his first two directors.
TRANSFORMING THE BUSINESS SCHOOL
He spent 14 years in the Southern Califor nia technology scene. Building computers for Litton Industries inspired him to co-found Teledyne in 1960. His startup rocketed into the Fortune 500, developing navigation systems for U.S. Navy helicopters and electronics for ApolloTeledynemoonshots.alsomanufactured semiconductors
“We were teaching people how to run the Firestone store back home,” says William Cunningham, who succeeded Kozmetsky as dean and was UT president from 1985 to 1992. “George was more interested in how you could create an Apple Computer.”
“WE SAT UP THERE ON THE TOP FLOOR OF M c COMBS, AND HE DREW AUSTIN OUT, THE WAY IT LOOKS TODAY,” BUTLER SAYS.
M cC OMBS.UTEXAS.EDU _ 43ABOVE PHOTO M c COMBS SCHOOL ARCHIVES
BLACKBOARDS
While raising money from business lead ers, Kozmetsky also contributed personally. UT records show that he and his then-named RGK Foundation, which was directed by his wife, gave more than $16 million to business school
To Kozmetsky, the name IC 2 meant Institute for Constructive Capi talism, a concept he’d learned at Harvard.
To keep track of his ideas, he often wrote on a blackboard as he talked. “He would call me in to take a Polaroid photo of that blackboard so he would know what he had discussed with someone,” recalls Ophelia Mallari, his admin istrative assistant.
Peterson puts it more succinctly. “Where we are in Austin today is in part a reflection of George’s vision. Without George, would all of this haveButlerhappened?”doubtsit. “I look around Austin today, when I’m stuck sitting in traffic, and I curse George.”
STEVE BROOKS is a veteran Austin journalist and musician who has written for McCombs since 2010.
“He very much believed in capitalism and wealth generation,” explains Laura Kilcrease, founding director of the Austin Technology Incubator and several of his other initiatives. “He also felt that, where possible, he should participate in helping others. How could we achieve a growing and diversified economy where everyone has jobs and has a style of living that suits them?”
By the time he retired as dean in 1982, the seeds were planted to make Austin the “Sili con Hills,” and the school was on its way up. A nationwide survey of business deans in 1979 rated UT’s undergraduate business program as the fifth best nationally. A separate survey of business professors in 1980 ranked its faculty the seventh best.
He also worked to diversify the faculty and student body. Vijay Mahajan, a professor of marketing, remembers applying in 1972 to be the first Asian Ph.D. student. One staffer ques tioned spending public funds to educate some one who might go back to India. Kozmetsky learned of the discussion and said, “Admit him.”
When Kozmetsky left the dean’s office five years later, it was to run IC 2 full time. He turned his attention to his broader vision: creating what he called the Austin technopolis.
His communication style could be notori ously hard to follow. “George always started conversations in the middle of a paragraph,” Cunningham says. “His mind was racing so fast that, by the time you entered the room, he was halfway through the subject.”
For 14 consecutive summers, he and Kozmetsky presented programs in Japan. IC 2 also put on entrepreneurial workshops in China, Brazil, and Poland; started incubators in India and Kazakhstan; and opened an office in Monterrey, Mexico.
For Kozmetsky, the answer was to build a business ecosystem that cultivated tech entrepreneurs. He spent his last two decades putting pieces into place and seeing them flourish. MCC pioneered cutting-edge computing technologies. ATI nurtured business startups. The Capital Network matched startups with investors. The Austin Technology Council gave the industry a network and a policy voice. And a Master of Science in Technology Commercialization at McCombs trained executives to tap university researchers to move products into the marketplace.
Kozmetsky’s legacy is underscored on the National Medal of Technology the White House awarded him in 1993. It says, “For his commercialization of various technologies through the establishment and development of over one hundred technology-based companies that employ tens of thousands of people and export over one billion dollars worldwide.”
44 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU
With the administration’s support, Kozmetsky recruited faculty members from schools such as Harvard and Stanford University, luring them with research money and endowed professor ships. During his tenure, endowed positions mushroomed from two to 23.
Over time, his thoughts ran further and further beyond the business school. He started IC2 in 1977, describing it as a “think and do” tank. Butler recalls being involved with Kozmetsky in planning the new institute, which Butler would one day lead. “We sat up there on the top floor of McCombs, and he drew Austin out, the way it looks today,” Butler says.
But his vision wasn’t confined to Austin. “At IC2, we always considered Austin an experiment,” says Butler, who directed the institute from 2002 to 2013. “The Austin Model had an international reach.”
A SKYLINE AND A LEGACY
Although Kozmetsky died in 2003, his work lives on. McCombs re mains nationally respected, with its accounting program ranked first in the nation and its BBA ranked fifth by U.S. News & World Report. IC 2 is celebrating its 45th year of researching and catalyzing economic development.Perhapshis most visible legacy is the Austin skyline, transformed by his vision from five decades ago, along with 155,000 regional tech workers now toiling in the technopolis.
on topics from investing university funds to buyingAftersupercomputers.oneboardmeeting, a regent said, “I don’t understand it, but if it’s OK with George, it’s OK with me,” Jones says.
Otherprograms.innovations included a new building for the Graduate School of Business and an Ex ecutive MBA program, letting area executives earn a degree without pausing their careers.
POLAROIDSAND
Business school colleagues remember Kozmetsky’s workaholic routine as more like a CEO than an academic. He regularly came to the office at 4 a.m., leaving the front door locked. People seeking an audience came early, some times tossing pebbles at his window to be let in.
TRANSFORMING AUSTIN AND BEYOND
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Master of Science in Technology and Commercialization (MSTC)
vision of far-sighted dean and Austin entrepreneur George Kozmetsky, MSTC is a STEM-designated, future-focused, transformative experience. You will gain the specialized mindset, research insights, and hands-on skills needed to confidently launch market innovations.
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RESEARCHER1972 AND BRIDGE BUILDER
WILLIAM
JOINING1979 THE CLUB
WITT 1985-1994 THE THIRD 25 YEARS 1972-1997
The school of business acquired Post No. 5 from the New York Stock Exchange in 1980, thanks to a $37,000 fundraising drive by alumni. Now residing in the Hall of Honors, the post was one of the 17 original trading stations installed in 1929.
c
JR.
STUDENTS DON'T REALLY CARE HOW GOOD A TEACHER I AM. THEY CARE ABOUT HOW MUCH THEY CAN LEARN. I TRY TO PROVIDE AN ENVIRONMENT FOR THEM TO GET ON WITH THEIR LEARNING.” R. M DANIEL
ROBERT
The "Century Club" was instituted as an annual fundraising drive for the business school in 1979. Members received different-colored car window stickers each year, becoming a standard sight on the roads around Austin. The club was disbanded in 1997 in favor of funding efforts focused on specific populations in the school.
HISTORY1980 HONORED
— PROFESSOR REUBEN
Management Professor Reuben R. McDaniel Jr. became the first African American appointed to the business faculty in 1972. McDaniel became the founding coordinator of the McCombs Health Care Initiative, leveraging his love of research and sharing insights across academia and the private health care industry. McDaniel passed away in 2016 and is remembered as a deep-thinking scholar, a caring and respected educator, and a bridge builder between the university and professionals in health care.
H. CUNNINGHAM 1983-1985
HISTORYAMERICANFORCENTERBRISCOETHEKOZMETSKY:DEANYEARBOOK;CACTUSMCDANIEL:REUBENYEARBOOK;CACTUSWITT:DEANYEARBOOK;CACTUSCUNNINGHAM:DEAN 46 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU THIRD CENTURYQUARTERDEANSGEORGEKOZMETSKY 1966-1982
“
Two MBA students conceived the idea for Moot Corp in 1984. UT students were invited to pitch new business ideas in a spirit of healthy competition among their peers. The event was hugely popular, quickly growing to include competitor schools from around the globe, and described by Businessweek as the "Super Bowl of World Business-Plan Competition.”
The school created the first legally constituted private investment company in 1994, giving MBA students real-world experience managing investment portfolios. The MBA Investment Fund LLC came to life under the guidance of Finance Department Chair George Gau and Professor Keith Brown. The EDS Financial Trading & Technology Center followed in 1996 with a seed donation of $3 million from EDS and an additional $3 million from other donors.Significant renova tions were made with support from founders and employees of the AIM Management Group, and the renovated AIM Trading Room and Conference Room were opened on October 10, 2002.
Moot Corp was renamed the Venture Labs Investment Competition in 2010 and has spun off a host of other entre preneurship activities and accelerator programs offered by the Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs (JBTVL). Since 2010, JBTVL has helped raise $857 million in investor funding working with 302 accelerator companies.
Pushing for a more global focus, the school introduced substantial changes in the MBA program in 1991, including additional international courses, joint degrees, and informal exchange programs with top European schools. Admission efforts intensified to recruit international students.
NEW1984BIZ SUPER BOWL
GLOBETROTTING1991 DEGREES
RESEARCH BY JIM NICAR AND DAVID WENGER
The Texas undergraduate business program had expanded to more than 9,000 students in 1986, critically stretching classrooms, teachers, and career resources. Dean Robert Witt and his faculty advisers pushed to retool the BBA sequence and reduce admission to about 1,000 new stu dents each year. By Witt's final year as dean, undergrad uate enrollment was a more manageable 4,617 students, with improved faculty-to-student ratios and higher academic outcomes. At the same time, Witt inaugurated the popular Business Foundations Certificate program for non-business majors, the first of its kind on campus, which certified more than 20,000 students during its existence. It has recently transitioned to become the business minor for non-business students which is the largest minor on campus with more than 5,000 students.
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LEANER1985–1994ISBETTER
REAL1994–1996RISK, REAL TOOLS
TEXT BY DAVID WENGER THE ROBUSTFOROPENSUPPORTOFFLOWERINGPRIVATETODOORSBROADERPROGRAMS,RESOURCES,ANDUPGRADEDPOSSIBILITIESFORSTUDENTS,FACULTY,ANDALUMNI. THE FOURTH 25 ENTREPRENEURIAL ENERGY 1997–2022 PAGE 48 HOW 25 YEARS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ENERGY CHANGED THE TRAJECTORY AND BRAND OF BUSINESS AT M c COMBS
The school’s largest donor became a frequent visitor to campus. Speaking and listening to students, he personally kicked off annual stu dent campaign drives and lent his burnt orange influence to encourage other philanthropists to join his vision for the school.
M cC OMBS.UTEXAS.EDU _ 49PHOTOGRAPH BY LAUREN GERSON
Andphilanthropists.justlikethat,the business school gained $50 million, a billionaire supporter, and a new name. “My hope is that this gift will allow the school to be one of the very best in the world, period,” Red McCombs said at the May 11, 2000, announcement of his gift. It soon became ap parent that he was willing to put more than money behind that dream.
correspondence began in the late 1990s be tween Bob May, the McCombs dean from 1995 to 2002, and a larger-than-life true Texas legend in the late 1990s. Billy Joe “Red” McCombs attended UT Austin in the late 1940s and in legendary fashion went on to launch a sprawling portfolio of over 400 business interests, including auto mobile dealerships, communications ventures, professional sports, oil, ranching, and real estate.
May and Faulkner were stunned and near ly speechless. “No strings attached” was an entrepreneurially bold challenge. Most large contributions to the university are earmarked for specific initiatives. McCombs’ offer had no restrictions at all. Monies could be used to fill urgent, immediate needs while also providing matching funds for future projects, sparking previously unthinkable levels of giving from other
At the time, Red McCombs was already a known UT philanthropist, giving $3 million in 1997 for a new women’s softball complex. The dean invited him to speak to students at the busi ness school, and things seemed to click. McCombs left the school “glowing,” recalls May. In 2000, he and UT President Larry Faulkner called on the Texas magnate in his San Antonio office, where McCombs surprised them with an unexpected question. “If you had $50 million with no strings attached, what would you do with it?”
TOTAL MARKET VALUE AWARDS
19,000 50 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU
1928 100
TOTAL FACULTY, STUDENTS, AND PROGRAMS SUPPORTED
Bill Cunningham, dean from 1983 to 1985, describes the early days of the Centennial Endowment campaign. “I remember going to my first Business School Foundation meeting … I was sitting next to the chair man, and he turned to me and said, ‘What’s your goal for the business school?’ I said, ‘Twelve. $12 million.’ There was no science behind that number, but I was going to show the world that I was prepared to do what I could do to make it a better place.”
Private donors became increasingly essential to the school’s rise as the constrained realities of public funding no longer meshed with the founders’ aspirations of creating a “University of the first class.” In 1958, a report issued by the Committee of 75 warned: “While the University Permanent Fund is a tremendous asset for The University of Texas, the almost legendary stories that have grown up around it have worked also to The University’s detriment. To an appreciable extent, private and industrial grants have been discouraged because many think that ‘The University doesn’t need the money.’”
DAVID WENGER was the director of communications at McCombs from 2006 to 2019.
CENTURY PATH FROM
“No electric fans were available in any classrooms,” the new professor re counted. “The accounting library and business administration classrooms were housed in a pine board shack. I conducted an afternoon class in which I perspired so freely that my socks collected salt deposits around my ankles.”
9,300
The school’s early founders probably would be surprised to learn that the vision and generosity of the school’s business partners and alumni — including some who rocketed to fame — were instrumental to the school’s funding and its future.
“RED AND HIS LOVE FOR LEARNING AND THE UNIVERSITY HAD A BIG IMPACT ON OUR FAMILY. THERE’S A GOOD CHANCE WE WOULDN’T HAVE EVEN MADE THE GIFT IF RED HADN’T LED THE WAY.” ROWLING, BBA '76
into chairs and professorships marked a new philosophy of private partnership that changed how the university, private businesses, and philanthropists thought about their relation ship and the possibilities for shared returns onFrominvestment.thenon, new deans bolstered by school development officers assumed duties for private fundraising in addition to running the school. With that added burden came the possibility of accomplishing dollar-intensive goals that earlier educators could not have fancied. The school’s business co-creation skills, fostered under George Kozmetsky, combined with pri vate funding zeal, ushered in the subsequent fourth quarter-century of the business school with a Red-hot bang.
One can imagine Fitzgerald’s amazement were he to stroll through the soaring light-filled atrium of Rowling Hall today or witness a class taught in an adaptable (and comfortably air-conditioned) in-person and remote classroom. No sweaty socks here, professor.
DONORS, CORPORATE PARTNERS, AND MATCHING PROGRAMS
In two years, the school had raised $24 million for endowed faculty positions, including funding for other colleges at UT. This one-time opportunity to transform income from the Available University Fund
— ROBERT
McCombs’ Centennial celebration has happily coincided with our 1,000th endowment, as the Russell Owens’ Dean’s Scholarship was approved by the Board of Regents. McCombs is inspired by and grateful for 100 years of generosity from students, parents, alumni, faculty, staff, and other corporate and institutional supporters.
aid was evident as UT’s centennial approached in 1983, even as strong oil production temporarily swelled the returns on the Permanent University Fund endowment. Then-President Peter Flawn persuaded the UT System Board of Regents to use a portion of the surplus for a matching fund campaign. Private donors could double their gift using university matching funds or create a new endowment of equal size in the same or another college or school at UT.
McCombs’ generous and audacious gift empowered the newly named Red McCombs School of Business to think big while starting a chain reaction that pushed the school to take giant leaps forward during a fourth quarter-century of explosive performance and reputational growth.
19,000
60,000+
Tapping the power of private millions was unthinkable in the early days of the public university. James Anderson Fitzgerald, who was the University of Texas business school dean from 1926 to 1950, arrived on campus to find surprising deprivation.
Decliningfund).state
1,000 ENDOWMENTS BY THE NUMBERS
INDIVIDUAL GIFTS
Previous page: Fire works light the sky over Robert B. Rowling Hall on February 22, 2018, capping grand opening festivities for the new center for construction.andthanMcCombseducation.graduateTexasraisedmore$58millioningiftspledgestohelpfund
Fitzgerald’s pleas for ceiling fans went unfulfilled, as summer school funds, he was told, were barely adequate to meet staffing needs.
FIRST ENDOWMENT ESTABLISHED YEARS OF ENDOWED SUPPORT
In other words, the university had become a victim of its own success. But the need for private investment was soaring as the state’s share of overall funding was falling to today’s level of 23% for state/county sup port, of which 12% is the state endowment, called the AUF (auxiliary university
$245,918,759
A WOODEN SHACKS TO WORLD-CLASS CAPACITY
PRIVATE FUNDING FOR A PUBLIC EDUCATION MISSION
$483,163,639 ENDOWMENT
Red McCombs’ example inspired numerous other individuals, foundations, and corpora tions to support the school in significant ways in the following decades.
McCombs has raised nearly $350 mil lion on a $500 million goal in support of UT’s What Starts Here Campaign, the
Since Red’s gift, the Texas McCombs educa tional mission and quest for excellence have been pushed forward by thousands of contri butions from loyal friends and supporters, in cluding our faculty, students, and alumni. All of this visionary financial commitment has made possible everything from major new academic buildings to innovative research centers to life-changing scholarship programs. Building on these legacies are three transformation al fundraising initiatives. The next quarter century is filled with optimism and promise.
WHAT STARTED WITH RED IS CHANGING THE WORLD
biggest and boldest fundraising effort in the history of UT Austin. More than $100 million of the money raised so far is for direct student support in the form of scholarships and stipends for experiential learning opportunities. The campaign launched publicly in March 2022, and gifts will be counted through Aug. 31, 2026.
A Million for McCombs
The history of the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin isn’t a story about a select few. Thousands have made their mark. You are part of our storied past and the key to our limitless future. Thank you for believing in and contributing to 100 years and beyond.
To support the future of business education at Texas and McCombs, learn more by scanning the QR code below:
WHAT STARTS HERE STARTS WITH YOU
“OUR GOALS ARE CLEAR, AND THE FACULTY, STAFF, AND STUDENTS HAVE CREATED A LEARNING ENVIRONMENT THAT IS UNSURPASSED. IT IS NOW OUR DUTY AS ALUMNI AND SUPPORTERS TO CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS.”
What Starts Here Campaign
Perhaps Dallas businessman Robert Rowling, BBA ’76, expressed it best after he and his wife, Terry Hennersdorf Rowling, BBA ’76, and their family pledged $25 million in 2013 for the new graduate business facility, Rowling Hall. “Red and his love for learning and the university had a big impact on our family. There’s a good chance we wouldn’t have even made the gift if Red hadn’t led the way,” he said.
—RED M c COMBS
M cC OMBS.UTEXAS.EDU _ 51
For the first time in the school’s 100 years, McCombs has received a $500,000 unrestricted gift that will match all donations to the Annual Fund in order to raise A Million for McCombs. This matching gift is an opportunity to be part of Longhorn history, raising $1 million for trailblazing students and faculty at McCombs, from scholarships to student support services.
Mulva Hall Campaign
This facilities project is a pivotal oppor tunity — the new building will define the UT undergraduate business experience for the next generation. Jim Mulva, BBA ’68, MBA ’69, and Miriam Mulva established a $40 million gift for a new undergraduate facility similar in vision and impact to Rowling Hall. Their pledge has inspired additional giving topping $109 million as of 2022, including $25 million from Mindy Hildebrand, BBA ’86, Jeff Hildebrand, B.A. ’81, M.S. ’85, and family, in addition to other early investors giving seven-figure com mitments. Opportunities remain for naming gifts at the $1 million-plus level.
Value-Based
At The University of Texas at Austin’s Value Institute for Health and Care, we focus on improving health outcomes that matter most to patients, relative to the cost of providing care. Learn how to create and lead value-based health care services The Value Institute offers unique interactive programs for health care professionals— providing the tools, real-world insight, and innovative curriculum that enable providers to transform health care delivery. Master of Science in Health Care Transformation •One-year graduate program •Flexible schedule for full-time professionals •Combines online and onsite learning • Learn more: Short-TermHealth-Care-Transformationmccombs.utexas.edu/ExecutiveEducation •Two-day professional education programs •Learn tools and real-world insights from health care leaders •CME credit through Dell Medical School •Learn more: executive-education.valueinstitute.utexas.edu/ Promo code: “McCombs” for 25% discount @UTexasValue Value Institute for Health and Care at UT Austin Contact us at (512) 495-5878 valueinstitute@dellmed.utexas.eduor.
Accelerating Health Care
RECRUITING1998
Corporate recruiting at the school got a much-needed boost in September 1998 with the opening of the Ford Career Center. The school’s previously spartan interview rooms were replaced by 43 executive-quality suites reached through an impressive recep tion foyer, with a well-appointed recruiter lounge and teleconfer encing capability. The following year, 2,000 companies recruited at the school. Job interviews were arranged using the MAXX computer system and a database of résumés and jobs.
ANDEQUITY,DIVERSITY,EMBRACINGINCLUSION
JAMESLYNNKELLYCENTER:CAREERFORDGERSON;LAURENDIVERSITY:EMBRACING 54 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU THE FOURTH 25 YEARS 1997-2022 FOURTH CENTURYQUARTERDEANSROBERTMAY 1995-2002 GEORGE GAU 2002-2008 THOMAS GILLIGAN 2008-2015 LAURA STARKS 2015-2016 (INTERIM) JAY HARTZELL 2016-2020 LILLIAN F. MILLS 2020-PRESENT
GETS CLASSY
FLEXING2006 ENERGY MUSCLES
Texas McCombs hosted the first National Energy Finance Challenge in 2006, an opportunity for students to learn more about the energy industry while giving industry executives the chance to recruit top-performing students from as many as 16 teams representing the country's top MBA programs.
School leaders, students, and alumni united in the fourth quarter century to open the doors wider for a diverse student body. Out reach to underrepresented student populations included the McCombs Future Executive Academy, Discover Yourself in Accounting Majors and Careers (DYNAMC), and Subiendo: The Academy for Rising Leaders. To elevate diversity and inclusion decision-making, an Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion was appointed in 2018, and a Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in 2021. McCombs committed to a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Plan in 2022, guiding future DEI decisions and investments across all the school’s departments and communities. Dean Lillian Mills explains: “Our doors are wide open at McCombs, where our message of ‘You Belong Here’ and the power of alumni connection create seats at every table.”
LANDMARK2020 DEANSHIP
Dean Thomas Gilligan announced the creation of Wall Street for McCombs in 2013, an alumni collaboration designed to open doors for McCombs students interested in New York finance career oppor tunities. The program was renamed New York for McCombs in 2017 to broaden the scope and include private equity, asset management, real estate, accounting, and marketing. Participating students enjoy a 95% full-time job offer rate.
PARTNERSHIPCAMPUSSUSTAINABLE2020
WOMEN2021 IN LEADERSHIP
Texas Executive Education introduced a six-month leadership development program in 2021, Women Who Mean Business, for accomplished women leaders looking to hone their decision-making skills and define their leadership styles.
ENGINEERED2022 FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS
The Canfield Business Honors Program at McCombs and the Cockrell School of Engineering launched a uniquely collaborative dual honors degree in engineering and business in 2022. The program is the brainchild of former dean and now UT President Jay Hartzell and draws upon the close ties fos tered between the schools in technology innovation, entrepreneurship, and operations management.
Professor Lillian F. Mills became the first woman to serve as permanent dean of McCombs in the school's 100-year history in 2020. Mills holds the Beverly H. and William P. O'Hara Chair in Business and the Richard Folger Dean's Lead ership Chair, and previously served as chair of the Accounting Depart ment, raising $500,000 to fund an initiative for underrepresented minority accounting students. As dean, Mills directed the investment of $400,000 in enhanced teaching technology to allow uninterrupted teaching throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, ushering in a new era of teaching methodology.
GERSONLAURENLEADERSHIP:INWOMENGERSON;LAURENMILLS:DEAN M cC OMBS.UTEXAS.EDU _ 55
RESEARCH BY JIM NICAR AND DAVID WENGER
FOR M c COMBS
McCombs and the Moody College of Communication formed the Global Sus tainability Leadership Institute (GSLI) in 2020, a hub for innovation in social and environmental impact, addressing critical sustainability challenges and shaping an inclusive, regenerative global economy and society.
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COME BACK TO THE FORTY ACRES. LEARN MORE AND APPLY. www.mccombsmpa.com FUTUREYOURBUILD A CENTURY EXCELLENCEACCOUNTINGOF Texas McCombs has been paving the road for the modern accountant since 1912. Accelerate your career at the top-ranked accounting program in the country. MEET THREE MASTER IN PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING ALUMNI WHO ARE CHANGING THE WORLD. KELLY STECKELBERG chief financial officer zoommpa’91 CHARLIE ADKINS manager, football analytics & research arizona cardinals mpa ’17 PAMELA COLEMAN financial analyst mpadisney’20
WHAT YOU LEARN HERE TODAY, YOU’LL USE TOMORROW. FOR INDIVIDUALS Two- to five-day classes in leadership, strategic decisionmaking, risk management, finance, and negotiation. FOR ORGANIZATIONS Private classes customized to the specific challenges your team is facing. www.mccombs.utexas.edu/execed
Please send your updates offoralumni@mccombs.utexas.edutopublicationinthenextissue McCombs magazine. Feel free to share news on behalf of fellow graduates. UPDATE US
Stephen Rohleder, BBA ’79, recent chairman, CEO and president of GTY Technology Holdings Inc., was appointed to the board of Cognizant Technol ogy Solutions.
1980s
ALUMNI NOTES
Alice Schroeder, MBA ’80, former CEO and chair of Web Tuner Corp., joined the board of directors of Carbon Streaming, an investment vehicle aimed at reaching a net-zero carbon future. She also serves on the boards of Prudential and HSBC.
Woody Hunt, MBA ’70, exec utive chairman of the board of directors of Hunt Companies Inc., has made a $2.5 million gift for scholarships to The Univer sity of Texas at Austin through the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation. It will help students from the El Paso area attend UT.
Right: Long before the internet, 1970s business students signed up for job interviews on clip boards posted outside the career center.
Above: Nominees for the 1937 "Queen of Finance" pose outside Waggener Hall. Selected by their fellow BBA students, the crowned winner "reigned" over the end-of-year busi ness banquet.
58 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU YEARBOOKCACTUS1966STUDENT:FEMAILEYEARBOOK;CACTUS1937NOMINEE:FINANCE
Left: In the 1960s, all business students combined qualitative research with new com puter facilities to solve business problems.
1970s
2000s
Marc Feliciano, MPA ’93, was named global head of real estate, private markets at Manulife Investment Management. He previously worked at DWS, where he was the CIO of real estate for the Americas.
Michelle McKinney Frymire, MBA ’91, has been appointed to the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board by the U.S. secretary of commerce. She is the CEO of CWT, a business travel platform.
Paul Hill, BBA ’97, joined MicroAgility as director of business development and client relations in its Austin office. Hill has also worked at EMC, Oracle and P2 Energy.
Steve Harris, BBA ’91, joined Alliant’s employee benefits group as its senior vice pres ident. He had been an officer with two insurance companies in North Texas.
Josh Friedman, MBA ’03, has been named Blue Apron’s chief product officer, a position new to the company’s executive team. He had been the head of digital products at the Neiman Marcus Group.
1990s
Raj Subramaniam, MBA ’91, was named president and CEO of FedEx Corp. He had been presi dent and COO. He was elected to the FedEx board of directors in 2020 and will keep that seat.
Manish Seth, MPA ’96, was re appointed to the One-Call Board of Texas by Gov. Greg Abbott. Seth is a partner and founder of Seth & Alexander Advisors LLC and Manish Seth CPA PLLC.
Marissa Jarratt, MBA ’04, chief marketing officer at 7-Eleven, was one of three executives selected for membership to the Path to Purchase Institute Hall of Fame.
Harold Thompson, MBA ’82, former CEO of CallisonRTKL, joined Perkins Eastman as managing principal in the global architecture and design firm’s studio in Dallas.
M cC OMBS.UTEXAS.EDU _ 59 YEARBOOKCACTUS1974 2022
Lance Loeffler, MBA ’04, was named senior vice president of
Justin Rucker, BBA ’02, was promoted to vice president of technical operations planning and performance at Southwest Airlines Co. He has been with the company for 17 years.
company. She is the CEO and director of Bonterra, a public benefit corporation.
Brad Clear, BBA ’97, joined the Marsh McLennan Agency as senior vice president, national claims advocacy leader in San Antonio. He previously held leadership positions at State Farm and USAA.
J.K. Leonard, BBA ’85, opened Leonard Resolution Ser vices PLLC, moving to full-time mediation practice. He had been a full-time litigation and trial lawyer for more than 33 years.
Seth Isgur, MPA ’01, has joined McGinnis Lochridge as a partner in the Houston office. He was previously a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright in its energy litigation group.
Oscar Brown, BBA ’91, was named group chief financial officer at FREYR Battery, a developer of clean, next-gener ation battery cells. He had been a senior vice president with Occidental Petroleum Corp.
Erin Mulligan Nelson, BBA ’91, was appointed to the board of directors for Mavenir software
Austin Rosenthal, BBA ’00, was recently featured in a Texas Monthly article about the “great resignation.” He left his career in finance to start media compa ny Social Musings LLC and to pursue singing.
Sylvia Dion, MPA ’86, was featured in Bloomberg Tax & Accounting Spotlight. She is the founder and managing partner of PrietoDion Consulting Part ners LLC, a state and local tax advisory firm.
Erin Defossé, MBA ’98, has joined Slingshot Aerospace Inc. as COO to lead the commer cialization of the company’s technologies. He comes from Aceable, where he had been COO and chief product officer.
Brett A. Hurt, BBA ’94, CEO and co-founder of data.world Inc., released his book, The Entrepreneur's Essentials, which explores the stages of a startup’s progression. He donated the proceeds of sales to the Kendra Scott Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute.
John Karnes, BBA ’85, was appointed CFO of Quarterhill Inc., an investor in intelligent transportation systems. Most recently, Karnes was CFO of Ontellus, a U.S. health record exchange network.
Deepica Mutyala, BBA ’11, was named one of Time magazine's Next Generation Leaders for 2022. She is the founder and CEO of Live Tinted, a andcommunitymulticulturalaboutbeautyculture.
Kathryn McKeon, BBA ’05, was appointed chief marketing offi cer of Vital Farms, which offers a range of ethically produced foods nationwide. She has been with the business since 2016.
60 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU
ALUMNI NOTES
Jonathan Felix, MBA ’11, was named a principal at BDC Advisors, a national health care strategy consulting company. He joined BDC from Deloitte Consulting, where he was a senior manager in strategy and operations.
Jennifer Harris, BBA ’06, state program director for Connected Nation Texas, was reappointed to the Governor’s Broadband Development Council.
Milagros Silva, MBA ’07, joined Schroders, an asset man agement company, as the sales director for the U.S. offshore team. She had been working at Unicorn SP.
YEARBOOKCACTUS1965
Sunny Sajnani, BBA ’06, joined Institutional Property Advisors, a division of Marcus & Millichap, as a senior manag ing director. He previously led Metropolitan Capital Advisors as a principal and director.
Below: In 1962, Dean John White invested $75,000 in an IBM 1620 data processing computer, a room-size machine. All business students were required to learn the Fortran language and gain computer outIBMexperienceprogrammingusingthe1620withpunch-computercards.
Sean Scott, MBA ’05, chief product officer of PagerDuty, wrote an article for The New Stack website about how busi nesses need to accelerate their incident response to meet the expectations of consumers.
2010s
stream Partners. She joined the firm in 2019 and was most recently senior vice president for finance and sustainability.
Halliburton Co.’s Middle East North Africa region. He had been executive vice president and CFO at the company.
Lindsey Jensen, BBA ’04, has been named CFO at Charlotte’s Web Holdings Inc. She had been the vice president for finance, sales, and operations.
Kristen Shults, MPA ’08, was appointed senior vice president and CFO for Western Mid
Matt Kessel, MBA ’11, has joined MyLand Company as vice president of operations, environmental health, and safety. He had been senior vice president for regional operations at RWE Renewables.
Julian Dunning, BBA ’15, was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 tech visionaries for 2022. He is one of the co-founders of Truffle Security Co.
campaigns, digital and partner marketing at Confluent, a data streaming company.
TEXAS HOMECOMINGMcCOMBSWEEKEND
Andres Barrios, MBA ’12, was highlighted in Forbes Mexico for his company, Ancana, which was named a Top 30 Promising Company of 2022. Ancana is a marketplace where people buy vacation homes.
Jocelyn Sexton, MBA ’14, has joined Growth Acceleration Partners as vice president of marketing. She most recently led global corporate
marketing and FuelingcommunicationsexternalatDoverSolutions.
Paula K. Shireman, MBA ’18, was named executive associate dean of the Texas A&M Univer sity College of Medicine. She had been an academic vascular surgeon and physician-scientist at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Caroline Stevens, BBA ’14, was featured in JD Supra’s Upand-Coming Women in PE to Know. She is an investor at MPK Equity Partners, a Dallas-based private investment firm.
Scottie Scheffler, BBA ’18, won The Masters Tournament for golf in April. He was the third former Longhorn to win the Masters, joining Ben Cren shaw (1984 and 1995) and Jordan Spieth (2015).
Chelsea Hohmann, BBA ’13, was featured in JAXenter.com's “Women in Tech” series. She is an engineering team leader and
Jordan Bookstaff, BBA ’14, was promoted at Hillwood Development of Dallas to open its Houston office. He has been with Hillwood for six years.
Jonathan Sterling, BBA ’12, was named a Texas Rising Star for 2022 by Super Lawyers — an achievement awarded to only 2.5% of eligible attorneys. He is with Brown & Fortunato’s Corporate Group in Dallas.
manager for Stoplight, an API design platform.
2022
John Richards, MBA ’14, has joined Awardco as its new CFO. He moved to Awardco after spending nearly 11 years in Domo Inc.’s financial leadership.
Rachel Truair, MBA ’16, was promoted from senior direc tor to vice president of global
Sept. 30 – Oct. 1, 2022 conference | centennial celebration tailgate | reunion
All business school alumni are invited to Texas McCombs Homecoming Weekend Events include a half-day business conference with outstanding McCombs faculty, a centennial celebration BBQ tailgate before the home football game against West Virginia, and special receptions for five-year class reunions (classes of ’17, ’12, ’07, etc.). Reconnect with your classmates, network with fellow alumni, celebrate 100 years of McCombs, and get back into the classroom! LEARN MORE AND REGISTER HERE: get.mccombs.utexas.edu/2022homecoming
A s a Texas McC ombs alumnus, you already know the power of a degree from Th e Universit y of Texas at Austin. Continue your journey as a Longhorn at on e of our top-ranked MBA programs on campuses in three major cities. •Full-Time MBA – Austin •Evening MBA – Austin •Executive MBA – Austin •Weekend MBA – Dallas/Fort Worth •Weekend MBA – Houston WANT TO EARN A WORLD-CLASS MBA? With options in Austin, Dallas, and Houston, choose a program that works for you. TexasMBA.com @UTexasMBA TexasMBA@mccombs.utexas.edu or 512-471-7698 if you’re interested in pursuing your MBA or know someone who might be a good candidate. CONTACT US LEARN MORE FOLLOW US
As a lifelong fan of science fiction and space-age travel, Matt Chasen is using his engineering and business degrees to solve ev eryday transportation problems here on Earth.
How did McCombs help you launch uShip?
How did you see the business opportunity in personal flight?
The entrepreneurship curriculum at McCombs is outstanding. I took New Venture Creation taught by Professor Gary Cadenhead and literally wrote the business plan for uShip as part of this class.
If it’s the right idea, it’s inescapable. It possesses you in a way that you can’t not do it. You’ve got to understand that in all likelihood you’re not going to be successful, and so there’s a combination of stubbornness and commitment to an idea in the face of over whelming odds.
Texas does a great job bringing in inspirational speakers, company founders, and successful alumni. Bill Gurley, MBA '93, a partner at venture capital firm Benchmark, spoke to the venture fellows of which I was a member. I walked him to his car and gave him the uShip pitch, and ultimately one of the other Benchmark partners wound up doing our Series A.
SOLD ON THE FUTURE
As Texas McCombs looks back at a century of innovation, we close this issue with Chasen’s forward-looking approach to business.
How have you decided which ideas to pursue?
I’ll tie it back to a quote I remember Herb Kelleher, the founder of Southwest, say in a McCombs talk: “You’ve got to have that big vision, but you’ve got to act small.” The most important thing is to take that first step. Prove that you’ve got a product people want, that you’re solving a problem, and investors will invest. A major part of the role of entrepreneurs is selling people on the future.
— Todd Savage
Chasen founded the online shipping marketplace uShip as a McCombs MBA student. He later started a city-to-city rideshare platform called Hitch, and four years ago launched his most ambitious endeavor, LIFT Aircraft, which promises autonomous personal flight. LIFT’s HEXA aircraft is an all-electric single-passenger ultralight “multicopter” that takes off vertically and looks like a small helicopter with 18 smaller propellers. He hopes it will revolutionize commuting and short-distance travel, up to 15 miles, and envisions creating “vertiports” during the next five years in 25 locations around the world, offering short rides as entertainment.
Do entrepreneurs need a sci-fi future vision?
What I’m best at is figuring out how to go from 0 to 1. A lot of people think they can go from 0 to 10 all at once, and it’s enormously dif ficult. I’m good at figuring out whether it’s a regulatory approach, a product approach, or a go-to-market strategy that has a high probability of success.
What do students need to prepare for a future of technological innovation?
For ultralights, you don’t need a pilot’s license to fly. There’s this wonderful opportunity to let people experience flying who aren’t interested in spending the time, resources, and developing the skills needed to fly a traditional aircraft. It lined up with this new technology of drone flight controls and electric multirotors where you don’t need those skills. The computer is flying. You’re telling it where to go, and there’s a regulatory path to enable this whole new world of aviation for the everyday person.
What makes you a good entrepreneur?
You can literally come out of business school and create a company that topples the whole industry because you approach the problem differently. Certainly, any McCombs student can do it because they’re already selected to be super bright and ambitious leaders just to get into the program. All they need is the confidence, the insight, and the belief that they can do it.
What inspired you here?
64 _ M c COMBS.UTEXAS.EDU Serial entrepreneur Matt Chasen, MBA ’04, looks skyward with LIFT Aircraft—and the promise of personal flight for all For an expanded conversation with Matt Chasen, scan this QR code.
FORWARD THINKING 2022
Lois and Richard Folger Dean's Leadership Chair
As we celebrate 100 years of shared history, we are excited to continue building the next century of McCombs connections and community.
We’re pleased to introduce McCombs Connect, the new online home for Texas McCombs alumni, students, faculty, and staff focused on networking, career support, job opportunities, and mentorship.
Find your community by joining McCombs Connect today and stay connected to our alumni career resources and updates.
The Beverly H. and William P. O'Hara Endowed Chair in Business
Lillian F. Mills, Dean
WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN US
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN McCombs School of Business 1 University Station B6000 Austin, Texas 78712 NON-PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID BURLINGTON, VT 05401 PERMIT NO. 19
