Tag Archives: Business Honors program

BHP Alumna and COO of Knoll, Inc. Shared Insight with Current Students

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Lynn Utter, COO of Knoll, Inc. and Director of Wesco International, Inc. came last Wednesday to speak at the sophomore lyceum course. Through her back-and-forth banter with Dr. Prentice, the former ERB BHP alum enthralled students with humorous anecdotes and words of wisdom learned from her prolific business career.

Utter graduated from the Business Honors Program, and went on to earn her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She then worked in management consulting for five years. Utter said consulting provided a great opportunity to explore different career opportunities; however, “I’m a doer,” she affirmed. That drive to act, landed her in a VP slot for the Frito-Lay warehouse located in Denver.  Afterwards, she worked for Coors Brewing Company and soon became the company’s Chief Strategy Officer. She now works as President and COO of Knoll, Inc., a modern furnishings and design company, and serves as a director on the board for Wesco International.

Across her diverse career journey, Utter has learned many lessons. One she learned while overseeing warehouse workers for Frito-Lay, was to listen before speaking and be open-minded and fair. She said it is important to establish credibility and make some tough decisions. While working for Coors, she improved the firm’s all-important bottling and canning plants by setting up joint ventures with the best firms in the world in those industries. By bringing in the partners, she helped Coors grow tremendously. Then she went on to work with architects and designers as President and COO of Knoll, Inc., stating that it was a great opportunity to lead such a large company that had a great brand and valued people.

During the Q&A session with the students, Utter took different questions concerning leadership and her career. She believes everyone is born with a “leadership muscle,” but like any muscle, you have to exercise and develop it. One student brought up the subject of the glass ceiling and how it had affected Utter. Utter stated how it was difficult at times, mentioning she has worked with 50+ white males who said they never worked with a woman before. She overcame this by “establishing credibility and promoting change from within.” In one of her anecdotes about a leadership program she partook in while in school, she said the program asked, “What do you want to do with your life?” “Honest answer,” she affirmed, “I wanted to run my own company.”

In her closing remarks, and throughout the presentation too, Utter stated how the students should seek out “people you can confide in, and confide in them.” “I’m all about people,” she said. “The companies that motivate their people are the ones that win.” Utter further stressed to each of the students that they should use their networks and develop the relationships with the people sitting next to them in the room. “Ya’ll are part of BHP. That’s something to be proud of. Don’t turn that off. You guys are going to graduate. Don’t lose track of each other. Find your friends and colleagues to take that journey with you.”

One student asked what legacy she would hope to leave behind. Utter replied that she hopes to leave a legacy where [she and her company] gave back to the community. She challenged the students, “What legacy do you want to leave?”

Written by BHP Sophomore Dennis Phelan

Dell CFO Brian Gladden Opens Up to BHP Students

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Brian Gladden worked for GE for 20 years before being wooed away by Michael Dell himself to become CFO of Dell. Gladden spent time visiting with BHP students last week during the sophomore lyceum course. He shared a bit about his background at GE, where he held roles in internal auditing, finance, operations management, and finally as a CEO for GE Plastics. He said he is proud of the fact that he took the plastics business to a place where there was value for GE, selling it for more than anticipated. Once it sold, he stayed on for a bit until receiving a call from a recruiter about the CFO opportunity with Dell.

Gladden said he was initially hesitant about taking the opportunity because of the liabilities and responsibilities that go along with being the CFO of a public company, but ultimately the opportunities were so compelling that he made the decision to move to Austin and take the position. Coming in, he said he built his team to make sure he had good people around him who could teach him more about the areas he didn’t know. “Curiosity is important,” he told the students. “Don’t be afraid to ask dumb questions. Understand how it works, and why it works, so that you know as much as you can about the business and can respond to people’s questions.” Heeding his advice, our students asked Gladden a barrage of questions on a multitude of subjects, and he answered each one thoroughly and without hesitation, wowing everyone with his breadth and depth of knowledge.

One area of Dell’s growth that Gladden has been largely responsible for is their venture into mergers and acquisitions. Around five years ago Dell started investing in other companies, a strategy which he pushed to Michael Dell, and has acquired at least 25 companies since that time. “Think about acquisitions as a portfolio. Some are going to excel and some aren’t. We have to have a lot of bets going at the same time to have confidence that in the aggregate, we will deliver on your financial goals.”

Another strength that Gladden has brought to Dell is operational expertise. Part of his job is to provide a reality check for new ideas and initiatives. He asks the questions like how much will it cost, and what are the operations necessary to make this happen? He pointed out that stretching yourself and delving into new territories is a good thing, but that it can’t take up so much time that you aren’t doing what you need to do. One way that he keeps from getting too off track following new initiatives is to align his calendar with his business priorities. He actually takes the time to work out how many days per month he wants to spend on specific priorities and he audits his time monthly to make sure he is on track.

One of his priorities is developing the next generation of leadership for Dell. “Leadership skills have to evolve and be adapted to the current situation and environment. People build different skills in different situations,” he said. He went on to explain that this is why at Dell they push employees to move to new positions with new teams in different environments. As a top leader at Dell, Gladden said he is keenly aware of all that he is responsible for and the scrutiny that goes along with his position. “I try to set a great example for my employees and make sure that the company is growing and increasing profits for shareholders.”

Alumni Spotlight: Jonathan Morgan – Principle at Brown Bear Capital

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Jonathan Morgan

 

Jonathan Morgan, BHP ’98, had his mind made up while in school to move to New York and work in investment banking. A BHP and Finance major, Morgan is now Principal at Brown Bear Capital in New York City. His path to the Big Apple included stops in Asia, Europe, and Wharton, as well as many valuable lessons along the way. We sat down with him to learn more about his career path.

 

Talk a little bit about Brown Bear Capital Management and your role there?

Brown Bear Capital Management manages a $100M hedge fund. We are a small shop, with only three people. The company launched in 2008 with 10 investors. I came on in 2009 to serve as lead analyst and trader. I mainly cover industrial companies and invest across the capital structure (credit and equity) looking for cheap or expensive securities. Most large funds have separate research analysts and traders, so my position now is a hybrid where I do both.

What has it been like transitioning to a small shop?

There are positives and negatives. I have more bandwidth in a smaller shop. I have learned a lot and it is easy to get the boss’s attention. What I suggest is done, as opposed to my last position, where everyone was trying to get time in front of the decision makers. As a small fund though, you don’t get as much attention from Wall Street. At a big fund you are invited to more conferences and meetings with bank analysts and company management. We don’t do as many trades, so it is more difficult to get their attention. The resources are a lot less as well. I have to wear more hats and work on the business as well as everything else. At this point in my career though, it is good because it is hands-on experience for how to run my own shop if I want to go down that road in the future.

What was your career path leading up to your current position?

I majored in BHP and Finance. Pretty early on I decided I wanted to go to New York and do investment banking. I had some offers with big companies, but I ended up going directly to a private equity shop in Dallas called Lone Star Funds. A good friend of mine from BHP had gotten me an internship there, and they ended up offering me a job. They were a small fund at the time managing about $400 million. They have grown significantly since then and now manage $33 billion. I was with them for five years. At the time, 80% of their business was in Asia. I mainly worked with real estate investments and company buy-outs. I went to Korea for two years to look at new deals, oversee the due diligence process, and oversee the asset managers. I then went to Europe for a while.

After that, I went to get my MBA at Wharton. Shortly after graduation I moved to New York and went to work for Avenue Capital Group, a large high-yield credit fund. It was a big move to go from private equity to a hedge fund in public markets. I worked for the European fund and spent lots of my time in Europe buying corporate bonds for companies that are likely to default or had already. It was a typical Wall Street experience. I worked there for a couple years and learned a lot about securities trading and got sector experience. I learned how to look at company structure and see what is attractive and what isn’t.

From there I went to One East Partners, a fund launched in 2006. I joined about 6 months after it launched. It was a newer fund and I was only the fifth analyst hired, so it was a bit of a gamble. I was making a bet that they would be able to grow the fund. Unfortunately, they took a hit in 2009 and were down about twenty percent like everyone else. Because they were a newer fund, they had trouble rebounding. I left about that time to join Brown Bear.

What was daily life like in these jobs?

When I was in Korea, we had a lot of strict deadlines, so I was working some all-nighters and at one point worked 45 consecutive days. So in many ways it was similar to the hours a typical I-bank analyst would work. With hedge funds, it isn’t as deadline intense, so I was actually working less hours. Hedge fund hours are pretty much 60 hours a week normally. That said, there are times when it is a high pressure environment and you are working at a fast pace in a very intense environment.

What skills have you found particularly valuable when making trading decisions?

Having a broad understanding of accounting and finance is very important. Intermediate accounting was one of the most useful classes I took. I think students need to go beyond what they learn in the classroom and figure out how they can apply it. When they interview for investment banking, they will be competing with grads from ivy-league schools, which don’t have undergraduate business programs. When companies see that a student went to UT, they are going to ask them accounting and finance questions since they should have that background. They need to be ready to answer those questions. They should be able to look at a company’s financial statements and break them apart.

Many BHP students find Texas jobs easier to come by than NYC positions. As a BHP alum in NYC, what advice do you have for students who really want to work in the Big Apple?

When you are a sophomore or junior, start figuring out where you want to go and how you are going to get there. Ask the people who are recruiting what stands out on a resume so that you can get the interview. Tailor your resume to what the companies are looking for. That goes for applying to MBA programs too. The BHP alumni network really helped me and got me my first job. I kept in touch with my classmates who went into investment banking and networked with them so they could help me. I also think getting an internship in New York will help a lot. Find companies that have UT alums because they will value the UT brand. Also, have a good reason why you want to work in NYC because recruiters may ask that.

Reflecting back on your time at UT, was there anything you would have done differently?

I would have taken advantage of the greater UT community. I would have taken classes in stuff I didn’t maybe have an interest in to expose myself to it. I was very tied to the business school and wish that I would have done more outside of it, like taking on a minor in something else, or joining some other clubs. Anything you can do to broaden your experience outside of business will set you apart from others and enrich your college life. I also wish I had spent more time exploring Austin.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Be willing to take risks. When I joined Lone Star, it was a risk. I turned down some of the bigger banks and took a chance. Working for them gave me the opportunity to live in other places, which was a great experience. Be very comfortable with who you are working for. Working for the right boss, who is invested in helping you grow, is very important. Ask who you will be reporting to, because that is huge.

President of Chevron Energy Technology Company, Paul Siegele, Shared Challenges of Oil Business with BHP Students

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Being the President pf the Chevron Energy Technology Company is no easy task, but Paul Siegle loves the challenge. He took a job as a petroleum geologist with Texaco after graduating in 1980. Texaco was later acquired by Chevron and Siegle worked his way up from petroleum geologist to his current role, moving all over the U.S. and world in the process, including five stints in Houston.

The son of a Lutheran preacher who grew up in a small town in North Dakota, Siegle never imagined he would be in the field of oil and energy. A geology professor he had his freshmen year of college sparked his fascination for geology and led him to pursue the field of study. “There is a lot of risk and excitement in the field,” he said.

Heading up Chevron’s strategy involves a long-range outlook and knowledge of an overwhelming amount of variables. The three main components of his job include looking at the financial side of research projects to see what research is actually affecting their bottom line; protecting their intellectual property; and making bets on technology that keep the company profitable in the long-term using the current outlook, or what he describes as “skating to where the puck is.”

Being in the oil business also requires a thick skin and an ability to bounce back from failure. Siegle explained that most of the time in the oil exploration business, you aren’t going to find oil and you are going to spend a lot of money looking for it, but sometimes you find a well that is so big it more than makes up for the time and money spent drilling the ones that came up dry. Siegle was fortunate enough to have been a part of such an occurrence during an assignment in the Gulf region, and said that the string of discoveries was rare and ultimately catapulted his career at Chevron.

It wasn’t just good fortune that led to his climb up the ladder. Siegle shared some words of wisdom with the students on how to be successful. “Do the best you can with the job you are given and the rest will take care of itself,” he said. “Be open to opportunity, and willing to move around if you can. Treat people well. Be accountable for your leadership responsibilities, and work hard.” When asked about his personal leadership style, he said he likes to empower his team, adding that there is a fine line between empowerment and abandonment. “Lead by example and know your team well enough to know if someone needs help.”

Fielding questions from the audience, he addressed ethical issues in the oil business. “We operate at the confidence of the public. We get results the right way. We don’t expect results at any cost.” Siegle said Chevron’s strong ethical standard has been very important to him personally and that he is very proud of the company’s social responsibility program, which invests in the communities where they operate.