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 IN THIS ISSUE
Class of 2007 Reflects on McCombs Experience
Faculty Honored with Awards
How Can Public Business Schools Compete with Private Schools?
Don't Miss These Exciting Upcoming Dates!
CLASSES OF 1997 and 2002: Save the Date!
Mark your calendars for November 9-11, 2007 to reconnect
with your classmates at your reunion.
We look forward to seeing you in Austin in November! |
Class of 2007 Reflects on McCombs Experience and Shares Future Plans
 This year, hundreds of students from the Class of 2007 graduated from McCombs with BBA, MPA, MBA or Ph.D. degrees. Here are stories of some of those graduates, including Jasmine Liang (right), as they begin the journey toward becoming leaders in the business world. Read the Profiles.
MBA Student Mabry Plays “Grade the Trade” on CNBC
 First-year MBA student Nelson Mabry appeared on CNBC’s Fast Money program May 4. In a segment called “Grade the Trade,” Mabry and three additional MBA students from other leading business schools were given hypothetical scenarios and asked to suggest stock trades based on the information. Appearing via Web cam, Mabry, a manager of the MBA Investment Fund was asked what trades he would make if “Spider-Man 3” cleared $180 million the first weekend and Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” flopped later this summer. Nelson said he didn’t believe Disney would get hurt if “Pirates of the Caribbean” was a bust because the company generates revenue from many other places. He also said he’d buy Hasbro based on strong “Spider-Man 3” toy sales. The hosts gave Mabry an “A-” for his trades.
Watch the segment (registration is required).
Take Our Survey Regarding Online Networking Resources
In an effort to continue to provide an alumni network that is valuable and easily accessible to you, we are conducting a short survey to gather your opinion regarding online networking resources. Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts. Your feedback will help us create a stronger McCombs MBA Alumni Network. Take the survey.
Three Faculty Members Earn Title of Senior Distinguished Lecturer
 As of Sept. 1, 2007, Rick Byars of the Department of IROM and Bob Duvic (right) and Jim Nolen of the Department of Finance will be promoted to the rank of distinguished senior lecturer, which is a new level of recognition for faculty at the university. Congratulations to all on this well-deserved promotion.
McCombs School of Business Teaching and Research Awards 2006-2007
 The following McCombs faculty were honored at a luncheon May 10 for their teaching and research excellence: Raj Raghunathan, marketing, CBA Foundation Research Excellence Award for Assistant Professors; Kyle Lewis (top left), management, and Bob Parrino, finance, Award for Research Excellence; George Huber (bottom left), management, Career Award for Outstanding Research Contributions; Jim Fredrickson, management, Joe D. Beasley MBA Teaching Award; Frenkel Ter Hofstede, marketing, Hank & Mary Harkins Foundation Award for Effective Teaching in Undergraduate Classes; Lorenzo Garlappi, finance, Trammell/CBA Foundation Teaching Award for Assistant Professors; Gaylen Paulson, management, Fawn & Vijay Mahajan Teaching Excellence Award for Executive Education; and Keith Brown, finance, Excellence in Education Award. The following Ph.D. students also won teaching awards and were honored at the same luncheon: Joseph Goodman, marketing, and Michael Crawley, accounting, Fred Moore Assistant Instructor Awards for Teaching Excellence.
Meintrup Tapped for Assistant Director for International Students in MBA Career Services
David Meintrup has joined the MBA Career Services department as assistant director for international students. Meintrup will be responsible for international students from the point of admission through graduation, including orientation, education programming and career coaching. Meintrup came to Austin from St. Louis where he most recently worked at Impact Group, a company that focuses on career transition assistance for relocating employees and their spouses. He has worked with internationals from more than 30 countries and has lived and worked in Latin America.
McCOMBS IN THE NEWS
How Can Public Business Schools Compete with Private Schools?
BusinessWeek Online, April 30, 2007
 Many state business schools are having a tough time competing for top talent with their private rivals. At the McCombs School, Dean George Gau (right) has succeeded by putting an added focus on for-profit endeavors, most notably, non-degree executive education. When Gau became dean at McCombs in 2002, 15 percent of the school’s budget came from the Texas Executive Education’s open enrollment programs. Today, that figure has doubled to 30 percent. “A big chunk of my faculty’s salaries is being paid by the customers of executive education,” Gau said.
Get the full story.
Tetlock Op-Ed: When Gambling is Good
The Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2007
Assistant Finance Professor Paul Tetlock co-authored an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in which he examines the value of information markets. Excerpt: “Imagine the president had a crystal ball to predict more accurately the impact of broader prescription coverage on the Medicare budget, the effect of more frequent audits on tax compliance—or even the consequences of a political settlement in Iraq on oil prices. Now, stop imagining: Such crystal balls are within our grasp. But they can’t be used without running a gauntlet of federal and state regulation. The crystal balls are called prediction markets or information markets, and they help forecasters, for example by allowing traders to vote with their money on the future unemployment rate or the winner of the next presidential race.”
Get the full story.
Auditing Rule is Put at Risk by Texas Bill
The New York Times, May 18, 2007
 Texas lawmakers are on the verge of rejecting a requirement that state and local governments disclose the cost of the healthcare they have promised to retired employees. Until now, most governments have been using pay-as-you-go accounting, which does not show the benefits’ total cost. This method shows only how much a government spends each year to buy health care for its retirees—not the value of the benefits coming due in the future. “Politicians don’t want to deal with the problem,” said Michael Granof, McCombs accounting professor. Granof said state lawmakers were betting that by the time rising health care costs became unmanageable, they would no longer be in office and could not be held accountable. Get the full story (subscription is required).
MBA Alum Builds Robots to Protect Soldiers
Boston Globe, May 14, 2007
After the death of his son in Iraq, Brian Hart, MBA ’84, and his brother Richard started Black-I Robotics Inc. to find ways to save soldiers’ lives. His latest invention is the LandShark, a six-wheeled, 250-pound robotic vehicle that can remotely detonate a bomb or probe a roadway for booby traps without risking a soldier’s life. His robot costs half as much as robots currently used by the military. “Richard and I started this company when we watched on CNN a lance corporal push a bomb off the road with his Humvee, and it blew up,” Hart said. “That was it. We started buying parts the next day.” Get the full story.
MBA Alum Helps Musician Revive Band’s Profits
New York Times, May 16, 2007
As a musician and road manager with Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, Peter Schwarz, MBA ’01, was surprised to learn how his wife’s MBA education could be applied to running a band. He left the Playboys and went to the McCombs School to get an MBA degree of his own. Now Schwarz’s job is to apply “straight M.B.A. stuff” to Ray Benson’s 37-year-old western swing band Asleep at the Wheel. “My job is to guide him in what ideas are going to stick,” Schwarz said. “How big is the audience? Is there money in it? In the music business, there really isn’t that rigor.” Since he became the band’s business manager, Benson credits Schwarz, with helping his band find a new audience, winning new critical acclaim and reinvigorating its music sales. “We are still pinching ourselves that we are in a growth stage,” Schwarz said. (Editor's note: The New York Times story says Schwarz got his MBA at Harvard, however, he is in fact a Texas MBA alum. He attended Harvard as an undergraduate.) Get the full story (subscription is required). |
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Vol. 10, No. 5 June 7, 2007 |
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Recognizing the Value of a Strong Alumni Network
Marissa Jarratt
MBA '04
BBA '99
BA '99
Marissa Jarratt understands the strong impact alumni have on McCombs. She got her first taste as a student serving on the Graduate Business Council as the alumni affairs chair.
“I initially became involved with alumni as a student because I felt it was important to broaden my own network and learn how I could be a better alum,” says Jarratt.
Upon graduating, alumni participation has been a priority for Jarratt. She currently serves as President for the Dallas-Fort Worth MBA Alumni Chapter, where she finds ways to increase the chapter’s number of active members and create a stronger network. Her desire to remain an active alum stems from the great experiences she had as a student.
“McCombs has personality. The traditions, the faculty and my experiences with my peers were fantastic and when I moved to Dallas, I wanted to stay connected to all of that,” says Jarratt.
With help from alumni, Jarratt formed the foundation for her current career. As a first-year MBA, Jarratt was interested in taking the Customer Strategy course, which required an internship or practicum with sponsoring companies as a class prerequisite. One of those companies was Frito-Lay. After visiting with a McCombs alumna from Frito-Lay, Marissa became interested in the company, interviewed with them, and landed a summer internship. Upon graduating she accepted a position with Frito-Lay. There, she feels a similar association to that of the camaraderie she felt at McCombs.
As a Marketing Manager for Cheetos, Jarratt is responsible for developing consumer promotions, in-store programs and new product innovation for the $1.1 billion brand.
From working with the entertainment industry—Cheetos just finished a partnership with Dreamworks in which the brand celebrated the release of Shrek The Third by launching Baked! Cheetos Color-Changers, which turn one’s mouth Shrek green—to working with the PepsiCo International marketing team to develop a new spicy flavor inspired by a popular product in Mexico—the creative aspect of marketing is what attracted Jarratt to the field.
She uses that same creativity to attract more alumni participation within the Dallas Fort Worth MBA Alumni Chapter, which received an Outstanding Chapter Award in 2005 for its Executive Speaker Series.
“I was the beneficiary of other alumni helping me,” says Jarratt, “And for me, there’s nothing more fulfilling than helping someone else succeed. I’m able to do that as an alum by recruiting from McCombs on behalf of my company and by strengthening the Alumni Network—whether by helping to raise money for the MBA Endowed Excellence Fund or getting other alumni involved in the DFW chapter.”
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Both the Alumni Directory and the McCombs Job Board are accessible through your UT EID (University of Texas Electronic Identification). Click here for more information on finding your UT EID, or contact the Registrar's office at 512-475-7656.
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Last Updated
Wednesday, July 23, 2008