Dr. Clay Mathis to Become the Department Head for Animal Science at Texas A&M University

Dr. Clay Mathis has accepted the position of Department Head of Animal Science at Texas A&M University in College Station and will begin serving in that role in October.

Since 2010 Mathis has served as Director of The King Ranch® Institute for Ranch Management (KRIRM) and Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Endowed Chair.

When Dr. Mathis joined the Institute he quickly established himself as a leader whose focus on the mission and vision of KRIRM not only advanced the Institute’s initiatives, but bolstered the master’s program and broadened its outreach efforts.

Throughout his leadership, he maintained crucial relationships with industry leaders that furthered the reach of KRIRM and through networking opened up opportunities for students to expand their knowledge of the industry as a whole.

“This has been an amazingly fulfilling journey,” says Dr. Mathis. “Nothing has been more satisfying and motivating to me than to watch the growth of our graduate students during the two years they spend at KRIRM, and seeing them succeed beyond their own expectations.

“I see the influence and the positions these alumni hold today, and I think back to the new students that arrived eager to learn just a few years prior. I am proud that the two years these students spent in Kingsville with our KRIRM team was at least a part of the success these students and their families enjoy today.

“Beyond that, I am also proud that these exceptional alumni are modeling excellence in ranching across this nation. It will be exciting to watch KRIRM grow in impact and service through the compelling mission of Sustaining our Ranching Heritage through Education, Innovation, and Outreach.”

Dr. Mathis leaves KRIRM in a strong position. Today, KRIRM is positioned for significant expansion. With renewed commitment from the TAMUK administration for additional positions, and with the continued financial support of stakeholders that invest in the mission, KRIRM will be adding several new faculty positions in the coming year.

These new faculty will help expand the research and outreach of KRIRM, and will certainly help to leverage the teaching and research opportunities made available through the gift of the H.R. Smith Ranch. KRIRM and TAMUK have begun an active search for Dr. Mathis’ replacement.

Dr. Rick Machen, who has been with KRIRM in a faculty position since 2016, will lead the Institute as the Interim Director until the position is filled.

“On behalf of KRIRM staff, students, alumni, and the ranching industry, I extend a hearty thank you to Dr. Mathis for 13 years of leadership and service to the industry. We wish him the best as he embarks on the next chapter of his career,” says Dr. Machen.

“I look forward to the identification and recruitment of the third Executive Director of KRIRM and the continuation of ongoing education, outreach, and innovation efforts the institute is known for.”

To learn more about the position, visit the Texas A&M University-Kingsville Job Board or contact the KRIRM office at (361) 5935401. ▫ sidering only the environmental pillar of these ratings. It doesn’t seem that people have actually looked at [the correlations]. They are surprisingly low.”

He added: “The carbon intensity reduction of green [eg low carbon intensity] portfolios can be effectively cancelled out by adding ESG objectives.”

“On average, social and governance scores more than completely reversed the carbon reduction objective,” he continued. “It can very well be that a high-emitting firm is very good at governance or employee satisfaction. There is no strong relationship between employee satisfaction or any of these things and carbon intensity.”

“Even the environmental pillar is pretty unrelated to carbon emissions,” he said.

Vice-president for ESG outreach and research at Moody’s, Keeran Beeharee, added: “[There is a] perception that ESG assessments do something that they do not. ESG assessments are an aggregate product, their nature is that they are looking at a range of material factors, so drawing a correlation to one factor is always going to be difficult.”

“In 2015-16, post the SDGs [UN sustainable development goals] and COP21 [Paris Agreement], when people began to really focus on the issue of climate, they quickly realized that an ESG assessment is not going to be much use there and that they need the right tool for the right task. There are now more targeted tools available that look at just carbon intensity, for example,” he added.

MSCI ESG Research told the Financial Times its ratings “are fundamentally designed to measure a company’s resilience to financially material environmental, societal and governance risks. They are not designed to measure a company’s impact on climate change.”

Refinitiv told FT that “while very small, the correlation found in this study isn’t surprising, especially in developed markets, where many large organizations — with focused sustainability strategies, underpinned by strong governance, higher awareness of their societal impact and robust disclosure — will perform well based on ESG scores, in spite of the fact that many will also overweight on carbon.”

Global director of sustainability research for Morningstar Hortense Bioy concluded: “Investors need to be aware of all the trade-offs. It is not simple. In this case, investors need to think carefully about which aspects of sustainability they would like to prioritize when building portfolios: carbon reduction or a high ESG rating.” ▫