McCombs School of Business: Email - McCombs School of Business Monthly News

IN THIS ISSUE
MMA Network Accepting Board Nominations
Construction at Executive Education Center Reaches Final Stages
Texas MBA Ranked No. 14 in Forbes

Save the Date! The MBA Business Conference, March 27-29, 2008
Mark your calendars for the 3rd Annual MBA Alumni Business Conference. This year’s program will feature an expanded schedule with roundtables, corporate speakers and an experienced alumni reunion dinner. Learn more.

Don't Miss These Other Exciting Upcoming Dates!

3rd Annual MMA Awards Celebration September 28 Read more...

Reunion 2007, Classes of
1997 and 2002 November 9-11 Read more...

The Wall Street Journal's Ranking System and the Texas MBA Program
The Wall Street Journal recently released its annual ranking of MBA programs at Tower WSJ business schools across the U.S. and the world. As many know, the ranking business is flourishing, and McCombs currently participates in about 30 different rankings, providing information and statistics to a variety of publications and institutions. Each year, however, the WSJ survey in particular raises questions from the UT Austin business school community. Here are the answers to a few of those questions. Get the full story.

MMA Network Accepting Board Nominations
The Advisory Board of the McCombs MBA Alumni (MMA) Network is actively soliciting member nominations. Nominate yourself or another outstanding alumnus/a here. We will review all nominations and make the selections in the fall for the three-year term that will begin in January. Nominations are due November 1. For more information visit the nomination site. We are excited to invigorate the Alumni Board with new members and look forward to your nominations and your participation.

NEW McCombs MBA Alumni Chapters
The McCombs MBA Alumni Network is powerful in its global reach. Each year, new leaders emerge to assume key chapter board positions and, at the same time, alumni recognize an opportunity in their area to create a new chapter. It is to the credit of these alumni that we now have 35 chapters. Our most recent additions include, NW Arkansas, Fort Worth, Phoenix, and Singapore. If you are interested in becoming a chapter leader and helping to grow your network, contact Robin Vallilee.

Executive Education Launches Energy Finance Program in Houston
fed_houston Texas Executive Education will offer an innovative Energy Finance Certificate program at its Federal Reserve Bank campus in Houston (left), beginning this fall. Faculty from the McCombs School of Business, the Cockrell School of Engineering and the Jackson School of Geosciences will partner to teach courses designed to offer executives and managers an in-depth look at economic strategy, business valuation and finance specific to the energy industry. "The program offers a unique opportunity for managers to study current topics in the complex field of energy finance," said Chantal Delys, assistant dean for Texas Executive Education. "We are excited to offer this leading-edge curriculum."
Get the full story.

MBA Program Ranked 16th in the World for Latin Americans
For 2007, the McCombs School's full-time MBA program was ranked No. 16 in AmericaEconomia magazine's list of the world’s best business schools for Latin Americans. The program was No. 16 in 2006 as well. Among U.S. schools, the Texas MBA program was No. 9; among U.S. public schools, McCombs was No. 2 after the University of Virginia.

Full-time MBA Classes of '97 and '02 Register for Reunion, November 9-11
Registration for your 5- and 10-year class reunion is underway and as you make plans to return to Austin, we encourage you to consider the following:
Register Today Be sure to register early so your classmates will see you are coming and sign up too!
Give to Reunion Legacy Join fellow alumni in honoring your MBA class reunion! Make a gift today!
Post Class Notes Share your news for the class newsletter distributed at reunion and online.
Submit Class of 1997 Photos Dig up photos old and new for the '02 reunion slide show.
Submit Class of 2002 Photos Don’t be outdone by the class of '97, submit your memories for your slide show.
For more information, visit the Reunion Web site. We look forward to seeing you in November!

Construction at Executive Education Center
Reaching Finishing Stages
EECC tour Construction of the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center is moving along. The facility is on schedule for a "soft" opening in July of next year, followed by the official opening in August, according to Will Shepherd (right), senior project manager.

McCombs Ranked Highly by Hispanic Business, Fortune Small Business, Expansión
Leeds Academic programs at the business school recently have been touted by three publications in special rankings issues. In Hispanic Business magazine’s annual Top 10 Best Business Schools for Hispanics, the Texas MBA program was ranked No. 2 (Stanford was No. 1); Expansion magazine, a business publication from Mexico, ranked the full-time MBA program No. 23 worldwide in its survey for its Best Global MBAs for Mexicans issue. In Fortune Small Business, McCombs was highlighted in its feature on America's Best Colleges for Entrepreneurs. "With its $100,000 top prize, UT Austin's global Moot Corp business plan contest is among the most respected B-school competitions," said the Fortune story. "For grad students who would rather buy a business than start one, the student-run MBA Investment Fund, a private investment company, completes the necessary due diligence, under the eye of finance lecturer Sanford Leeds (left)." See the Hispanic Business rankings.
See the Fortune Small Business issue.

Graduate Business Council Thanks Tailgate Sponsors
This year, the following companies will participate in the annual MBA tailgate tradition via corporate sponsorship: Heinz, ExxonMobil, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Energy and Weingarten Realty. The McCombs MBA Alumni Network and the Graduate Business Council want to thank the alumni who helped us secure these sponsorships as well as the companies for supporting our MBA Program. Learn more about sponsorship opportunities.

Featured Jobs of the Month
Visit the McCombs Job Board for more information on these opportunities and others posted by McCombs alumni.

Company Position

Amazon.com Financial Analyst (3 openings), Senior Buyer

Chain Lakes Power VP/Director of Marketing

Hewlett Packard Business Financial Analyst

The University of Texas at San Antonio Audit Supervisor, Information Systems or Senior Information Systems Auditor

Texas Executive Education Offers
Energy Finance Certificate
The Energy Finance Certificate Program offers industry executives and managers an in-depth look at the economics, strategy, business valuation and finance that is specific to the energy industry. For more information call 800.409.3932 or visit our Web site.

ALUMNI NEWS

Texas Evening MBA Alumnus Founds Vodka Company
Austin360.com, Sept. 5, 2007
Chad Auler, MBA '03, whose parents were among the first to bring Hill Country wine to the market, recently launched his own beverage company. Savvy is one of a handful of Austin-based distillers producing vodka. Auler got the idea for the company during his last semester in the Texas Evening MBA program. It took another four years to research distilling methods, get all the necessary permits and build a state-of-the-art distillery. Now, Savvy vodka is sold in Austin, and the product will roll out in San Antonio, Dallas and Houston in the next few weeks. "I'm very, very proud of the product," Auler said. "It's been a great experience for me—building a business from start to finish." In the first year, Auler's goal is to sell 5,000 to 10,000 cases of the premium vodka, priced at $20 to $25 a bottle.
Get the full story.

McCOMBS IN THE NEWS

Texas MBA Ranked No. 14 in Forbes
Forbes, Aug. 16, 2007
In Forbes' biennial ranking of full-time MBA programs, McCombs was ranked No. 14 overall and No. 3 among public schools. Forbes bases its rankings on return on investment as decided by e-mail surveys of alumni who graduated five years ago (in this case, the Class of 2002). Forbes compares post-MBA compensation with opportunity costs—i.e., tuition during the program and forgone salary. Salary figures are adjusted to account for cost-of-living expenses and earnings gains are discounted using a rate tied to money market yields. The ranking also looked at the MBA gain as a percentage of expenses; here, McCombs ranked No. 8 overall and No. 2 among public schools at 62 percent. In terms of years to payback, McCombs tied for No. 6 at 3.4 years.
Get the full story.

MBA Graduate Named Among Top 25 Consultants
Consulting Magazine, August 2007
Consulting Magazine named Romil Bahl, MBA '92, one of the top 25 consultants for Romi_Bahl 2007. Bahl is managing director of the California-based Infosys Consulting. The magazine reported that Infosys completes 94 percent of projects on time and within budget, which is about twice the industry average. Get the full story.

Pérez-González Research Links Firm Success to CEO's Personal Life
Wall Street Journal, Sept. 5, 2007
Perez Gonzalez Research from Francisco Pérez-González, assistant professor of finance, examines the personal lives of executives to discover how their businesses might be affected by family tragedies. With two co-authors, Pérez-González referenced Danish government data on thousands of businesses to study the links between family deaths of CEOs and profitability over the course of 10 years. In the paper, the authors find that CEO family deaths are strongly correlated with declines in firm operating profitability, investment and sales growth.
Get the full story.
Read the research paper (pdf).

View more McCombs School of Business News Online...
McCombs Monthly Archives

	Vol. 10, No. 8 Sept. 27, 2007
	Alumni and Friends Links
	Alumni Website Development Update Your Address B-School Alumni Directory McCombs News Texas Exes Online Services

	Alumnus Remains Close to McCombs Jason Watkins MBA '96 In 1996, Jason Watkins, with his classmates and Jim Redden in particular, excitedly initiated a class gift program, the first Leave a Legacy Campaign. Watkins, who served as president of the Graduate Business Council, and his classmates raised more than $26,000 that year to be used for interview changing rooms in the MBA Career Services Center. Today, Watkins is equally enthusiastic about McCombs, the Texas MBA program and the potential for the McCombs MBA Alumni (MMA) Network. "Our network and our association are becoming very powerful, and we need to maintain lofty goals," Watkins says. "We want an alumni organization that rivals Harvard's. Not just the best organization among public universities or the top twenty schools, but the best." The key to accomplishing that goal is through participation, which Watkins knows well. He has served as chairman of the MMA advisory board (and is now in the ex-chairman's circle), and he is currently serving as one of two alumni committee members for the MBA Alumni Endowed Excellence Fund. In addition to those activities, he maintains contact with the school through Leave a Legacy, visiting with current student committee members each year. Watkins' eagerness to give back stems from his experience at McCombs. He describes his classmates and the program as inspiring. When he approached Dean Bob May in 1996 about starting Leave a Legacy, Watkins' hope was that each class would raise more money than the one preceding it, and that's exactly what has happened. This year, the 2007 class raised a record-breaking $209,631, and Watkins is pleased by classes taking the campaign up a notch every year. "I've never spent two years surrounded by such amazing people,” he says. "I remember looking around class one day, and seeing a former Apache helicopter operator and a CPA on one side of me and a pharmacist and Olympic athlete on the other." Watkins himself left the banking industry to pursue his MBA. Today, he uses the skills he acquired at McCombs in marketing and channel management working as a vice president of the Americas Channel Organization with Siemens. His work there involves working with partners to market product lifecycle management (PLM) software, applications that are used by multiple industries for designing everything from iPods to airplanes. Watkins is satisfied with his switch from banking to the software industry, but no MBA could prepare him for what he describes as the "easiest tough job" he's had yet: raising twins. He and his wife, Lorin, welcomed their new additions, Luke and Sophia, two months ago. "We're sleepy, but everyone's doing great," Watkins says.
	Hire McCombs Alumni through the McCombs Job Board Search for a job or promote employment opportunities to both current students and alumni of the McCombs School of Business. 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. If you have any questions, please email us and refer to "Alumni Directory" or "McCombs Job Board" in the subject and content of your message.

	Investment Opportunities Make a gift to the McCombs School Annual Fund and help us achieve our goal of becoming the best public business school in the nation. Give now. The McCombs School of Business 2005-06 Investors' Report is now available online. Visit the home page to view the 2005-06 donors and financial information. Related Links Hermes Society Matching Gift Program Give Online The MBA Alumni Endowed Excellence Fund provides an excellent opportunity for all alumni to give back to the school. Launching new MBA initiatives that will enhance the educational experience of MBA students, this fund is unique in that a committee of students, alumni, and MBA program office staff will work together to determine optimal usage of the funds. McCombs Merchandise
	Bookmark the online store for executive gifts, t-shirts and travel items. Show your school and university pride, whether you're in the stadium or cheering from the couch.