McCombs Alumni Network News

Dan Robinson, MBA ’88, lives in Houston and is a partner at Ernst & Young, where he has worked since graduating with his MBA. Robinson started at Ernst & Young when the company was still known as Arthur Young. He left when the company was sold to Capgemini in 2000, but several years later Robinson rejoined Ernst & Young to recreate the consulting practice within the company.

Robinson is also a member of the executive committee of the McCombs Alumni Network Advisory Board. He is working with the committee to increase giving to the McCombs School by recapturing alumni who have lost touch with the school and getting them involved with the network again.

Why did you choose McCombs?
McCombs had the best executive program back in 1986, when I started looking at executive programs. I also had a little bias because my wife and her entire family are UT grads, so there was a little pressure to remain burnt orange even though I had gone to Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. as an undergraduate.

I think the quality of the professors and frankly, the quality of the students that were in the class, working with and challenging the professor, added a lot to the MBA program that you couldn’t have gotten anywhere else.

Has your career played out the way that you expected?
I actually changed careers after completing my MBA, which was not why I went in and did [the program]. But I did, and it turned out to be a great choice.

I was an engineer in a production plant in Houston when I went in, and afterwards I got into the consulting business. My change of career actually came from one of my fellow students. He was a senior manager at Arthur Young, and he said, “Dan, they’re looking for guys like you. Why don’t you come on over?” So I did.

What convinced you to make that decision?
Consulting as a business is different every time, whether it’s different industries or different client problems. The broadness of the MBA program opened my eyes up to the fact that as an engineer I was very narrowly focused. I came out with a very solid problem-solving capability, but knew nothing about finance or accounting or anything like that. So this all of a sudden broadened my horizons and gave me that opportunity to change careers.

What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Actually I wanted to be a veterinarian. However, most of the veterinarian colleges are state-supported, and they look down on out-of-state students. So when I started looking around during my second or third year of college to see where I might go, there was only a very slim chance that I might get into any of them. So, I enjoyed engineering and I decided to just stick with that.

Tell me a bit more about your work with the executive committee.
I’m on the giving portion of the committee so we’re trying to maintain the giving process for the students who are graduating now, but we’re also trying to figure out how to reach back to the people that we’ve lost over the years and put in process a play to recapture their participation as alumni.

Only 84.5 percent of the cost of the school is covered by graduate and undergraduate tuition and program fees. That’s a big deal, and there are classes that have completely disappeared off the radar screen, so we’re just trying to start by getting them involved and giving them something that they might want back so that they will then give something to the university, whether it’s time or effort or money.