San Antonio chapter leaders, Dan Crites and Hunter Stanco, have spent the last few years revitalizing their chapter through supportive leadership and an assortment of engaging activities. With a focus on improving the local business ecosystem, Dan and Hunter have strengthened the Texas McCombs Alumni Network in San Antonio and its connection to the school. They recently took the opportunity to reflect upon their successes as chapter leaders and to share their goals for continuing the chapter’s meaningful programming.
Please talk about why you stepped up as leaders for the McCombs San Antonio Alumni Chapter and your general experience as leaders.
A little over three years ago, we attended a local Professor Speaker Series event with John Doggett. The alum that coordinated the event at the time recognized the need for a stronger Texas McCombs presence in San Antonio. Realizing the chapter had gone dormant, we sought to fill the leadership void with the intent to rebuild the Texas McCombs network and create a positive impact on the San Antonio community.
While he was an undergraduate in Austin, Hunter was the associate editor for The Daily Texan. Hunter frequently judges the final round of the Evening MBA Capstone Challenge and maintains close relationships with McCombs leadership both in Austin and San Antonio.
Dan served over 8.5 years of Active Duty in the US Navy as a naval flight officer, enjoying multiple operational deployments as well as US Army and Air Force cross-service assignments. Dan is also a recent alum of Leadership San Antonio (LSA) Class 300 sponsored by the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Describe a recent chapter event or activity that you thought went well.
In late 2017, we hosted what we like to call one of our “Education Series” on the topic of Blockchain. We try to focus on emergent and potentially disruptive technologies impacting the San Antonio business ecosystem while featuring subject matter experts from McCombs faculty, alumni, and local business leaders. With the Blockchain event, we felt we were well ahead of the buzz in educating our community. In fact, the same forum was replicated later by the school in 2018 when they hosted a Blockchain conference using the same panelists. Here is a quote from one of our attendees:
I attended the McCombs School of Business event today at the Witte, and enjoyed the company of an impressive group of individuals. I must admit that I did not comprehend much of the presentation (too deep for me), but I am pleased to be exposed to the subject of Blockchain because I can now ask my son or my grandson to explain to me what this means, and when it will be coming down the road.
How have you personally benefited from being a part of the Texas McCombs Alumni Network?
The Texas McCombs Alumni Network has allowed us to expand our personal and professional networks beyond what we could have arguably achieved through other business networking organizations. We have remained attuned to what is occurring at the McCombs School and built stronger relationships because of it.
How would you recommend that alumni get involved with their local chapter?
It’s never too early to start. One way we have been encouraging alumni to get involved is before they even graduate. We have been leveraging the Working Professional Program Directors to promote our events and have seen strong attendance from the current students who have proven to be engaged and eager to get others involved.
What are your chapter plans or goals for the future?
Create a vibrant and involved chapter with community leadership opportunities and a well-defined succession plan. One of our more ambitious goals is to generate traction for an annual fundraising event dedicated to local initiates with ties to Texas McCombs.
