Four Recent Alums Share Experiences in Dell Development Programs

The BHP is pleased to have Dell as a corporate partner this year. Dell has employed many BHP alumni over the years. BHP alumnae Casey Lehmann has worked there two years and says, “It is a great company to work for that empowers future leaders to collaborate with global teams, develop ideas and run with them.  There’s a work hard, play hard mentality, focused on driving for results through collaboration, leadership, and engagement.  The culture is also very open and encourages getting to know people from across the globe and outside of your day-to-day job.”

There are several development programs throughout Dell that focus on providing college graduates with a breadth of experiences that they can take & build upon in their future career.  These programs typically provide you with exposure to the senior leadership team, as well as mentoring, networking, community service & teambuilding opportunities.  Four recent BHP grads took the time to share their experience in development programs at Dell.

 

Mandy Ellison

Graduated 2010, MPA and Business Honors

Global Audit and Transformation (GAT)

Working on the Global Audit and Transformation team at Dell has given me the opportunity to learn various parts of the business through diverse assurance and internal consulting engagements that typically last 4 months each.  Past projects have included mapping the end-to-end sales process, reducing complexity in server manufacturing, realigning call center key performance indicators, auditing services revenue recognition and testing the India balance sheet accounts.  During my two years, I have travelled to the Philippines, India and Brazil to assist with training and engage in regional projects.  Working at Dell is a great fit for me because of the opportunity to work on challenging, cross-functional projects with global teams.

 

Elyse May

Graduated 2010, Marketing and Business Honors

Commercial Leadership Development Program (CLDP)

The Commercial Leadership Development Program was an amazing opportunity straight out of undergrad that truly set me up for success and enabled me to excel in my career early on.  The program is 2 years long and consists of four, 6 month rotations, starting in sales, and then allows you to drive your career based on where your personal and long term career goals lie. My four rotations were consumer sales, Dell@ marketing and sales support lead, media planning budget manager, and small office business planning. Through my four rotations, I got to launch a new channel, understand how Dell spends our marketing dollars, and the intricacies of putting together actions to drive strategy. The structure of the program is great because it allows you to see firsthand the collaboration across the business units and helps you understand how sales, marketing, operations, finance, and all other business functions are intertwined. In addition to your everyday job, the program provides you with brown bags with the senior leadership team, mentoring with CLDP alumni, and other development opportunities that allowed me to build my professional network.

 

Rachel Robinson

Graduated 2010, Finance and Business Honors

Finance Development Program (FDP)

I am a recent graduate of Dell’s Finance Development Program (FDP), a 2-year rotational program designed to develop future leaders through a breadth of experiences and MBA-style coursework. The program offered me several great opportunities, including a one-year international assignment in Singapore. Working in Asia really strengthened my global skills and enhanced my understanding of Dell’s supply chain operations. I have now joined the Global Audit and Transformation (GAT) team, where I will continue to gain breadth and international work experience as well as develop my controllership skills. I love working for Dell because I’ve been given roles with large scope areas early in my career, and I’m constantly challenged to learn about different areas of the business. Dell is truly a great place to work!

 

Casey Lehmann

Graduated 2010, Finance and Business Honors

Finance Development Program (FDP)

I also participated in Dell’s Finance Development Program, and completed four six-month rotations throughout the Finance organization.  Each role (Services Finance, Software Pricing, Treasury & Global Operations) was very different and allowed me to explore what I liked and didn’t like about each area of the business.  In addition, I was able to grow my business & financial acumen through the curriculum & simulations the program provided.  I was also able to get involved in extracurricular activities, such as on-campus recruiting & planning networking events with executives early on in my career.  Since graduation, I have joined the Integration Management Office (IMO) at Dell, focusing on integrating the companies we have recently acquired.  Dell has been a great fit for me, because the support & encouragement from the leadership team throughout the company inspires me to put my best foot forward & learn something new every day.

Connect with us!

Twitter: @CareersAtDell

LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/company/dell/careers

Facebook: Facebook.com/delluniversityrelations

Dell.com: Dell.com/careers

Mandy_Ellison@Dell.com

Elyse_May@Dell.com

Rachel_Robinson@DELL.com

Casey_Lehmann@DELL.com

Michael Massetti of AMD Shared Insight Into the World of Supply Chain Management

Michael Massetti, Corporate Vice-President of Supply Chain for Advanced Micro-Devices (AMD), gave the BHP sophomores a taste of the infinite number of variables that go into supply chain management during his visit to the BHP Lyceum course last week.

Massetti has an electrical engineering degree, and started his career with IBM working in the technology and design sector. He spent 18 years at IBM, then moved to Dell to work on product lifecycle development. One point he stressed with students was being flexible and open to learning new things. He decided not to go super deep into one particular industry, but instead left his career more open and several job moves later, he has been fortunate to take on roles he never would have imagined having.

From Dell he went to Alcatel-Lucent where he led the strategic sourcing team and the overall platform strategy team. He then joined Tekelec  as VP of Global Procurement and strategy, until he was recruited away by a former IBM colleague to his current role with AMD.

Many areas fall under the umbrella of supply chain he told the students. “There are about 20 different disciplines, and you need to understand all of them on some level to be effective,” he said. Customer service, manufacturing, inventory, capacity and order-entry software were just some of the areas he cited as examples. Problem-solving is one critical skill that Massetti said he uses frequently. “No matter how a problem starts, it ends up in supply chain.” He talked about the need to be anticipatory and mitigate risk, but also be able to think on your feet and solve issues as they arise.

Originally from New York, Massetti is a fast-talker and a fast-thinker. He is also very engaging and has a dominating presence, which has no doubt come from years of management at a high level. He said he believes that one can learn to be a better leader, but that he also believes that people do or do not have a propensity towards leadership from a very young age. In his current role, he leads a large global team of supply professionals. His tips for being a better leader include establishing respect and rapport with your employees, being able to communicate well, and building a plan for your employees to help them grow.

Alumni Spotlight: John Honts – Senior Managing Director for Evercore Partners

In his role as Senior Managing Director for Evercore Partners in New York, John Honts, BHP ’92, has been involved in numerous merger and acquisition deals over the years. Evercore has carved out a position as the largest independent advisory firm and Honts has advised CEOs on some major deals including Sanofi on its acquisition of Genzyme, Wyeth on its sale to Pfizer, and CVS on its acquisition of Caremark. Honts recently sat down with us to tell us more about his career path and the M&A process.

Tell me a bit about your career path.

After I graduated from UT, I went to work for Merrill Lynch as an investment banking analyst. I spent three years with Merrill, two in New York and one in London. I then went on to Stanford business school and graduated from there in 1997. I took a job with Evercore in ’97 and have been with the firm ever since. Evercore was founded in 1995, so when I joined, it was a small boutique with about 10 professionals and 20 employees in total. Now there are around 850 employees and the company has expanded both geographically and in scope. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory work is the biggest thing we do. I have been a generalist in M&A for most of my career and have been specializing in M&A for health care clients since 2007.

Why did you choose to work for Evercore?

I wanted to do something more strategic and thoughtful. I knew I was interested in M&A. Evercore has always followed a classic style of banking, by focusing on a handful of clients and giving them the best advice possible.  We compete against the global full service banking firms, and to be competitive, we have to consistently provide our clients with creative, high quality ideas, as well as superior execution.

What factors come into play when you are advising companies on mergers and acquisitions?

At the heart of M&A is strategy, and we work closely with CEOs to determine how inorganic moves such as acquisitions or divestitures will complement the overall strategic game plan for the company. The first step when working with a company is typically to evaluate a range of possible options and determine the most attractive ones. Then comes the art of what is possible. For instance, if there is a company you want to buy, figuring out if it is acquirable by looking at the motivations for all parties involved, and if a transaction is feasible from a financial perspective. Then, we get into tactics, such as how do you make an approach to a target, and what do you do next if the target is not receptive to the approach. This involves exploring alternatives such as making your offer directly to the target’s shareholders by releasing it publicly or moving on to the next possible target.

In identifying the best options, we think about what  the transaction would do for the company strategically. For example, we look at how it would affect market share, the complementary fit of products and services, and customer and supplier synergies. When analyzing a transaction from a financial standpoint, we look at its effects on a variety of metrics including growth rates, margins, earnings per share, return on capital, leverage, and credit ratings.

We work in teams of four to five people on a typical project. The team is headed by a senior managing director, which is my role, and includes an analyst, which is what a new BBA graduate would do. The analyst is mainly responsible for the financial modeling and quantitative analysis that enables us to make conclusions.

A transaction normally takes about six months from the time we start working on it to when it is announced. Once it is announced, companies take it from there to close the deal. I am usually working on two to four live projects at the same time and still pitching new ideas to clients to refill the pipeline.

What do you enjoy most about what you are doing with Evercore?

It is a very thoughtful business. We are always trying to come up with new ideas for companies. I like that I am able to work directly with CEOs on their business strategy. I also appreciate the hard-working and talented group of people here. We have several people who went to UT in the senior ranks and a large UT contingent at various levels at Evercore.

What advice do you have for students wanting to go into a similar position to yours?

Doing an internship in something similar to this would be a plus and a strong accounting background would also be helpful. Focus on your analytical and quantitative skills. Also make sure you are comfortable in Excel doing analysis and financial modeling. Coming out of Texas, I had a good set of financial skills. Students should supplement those skills by demonstrating an interest in banking. A good way to do that is to talk to others about what investment banking is about so that you have a good understanding to draw upon in an interview, and have a sense as to whether investment banking is a career you really want to pursue.  Also, students should think about whether they would like to work for a boutique advisory firm such as Evercore, or a full service bank, and how the firms are different from a cultural and reputational standpoint.

How did your time in the BHP affect you and your long-term career path?

I liked staying with the same group of people in my classes. There were about 40 students in my BHP graduating class. It was a very talented group. I appreciated having the best professors and smaller classes. Some classes were really eye opening for me.

Do you have any advice for current BHP students?

Try to find something that you are really interested in and focus your job search around that. When I graduated from both UT and from Stanford, I had to do my own work to get the jobs I wanted. Companies weren’t recruiting for those specific positions. Leverage your alumni network and friends and seek out what it is you want. I used the alumni network and made it clear to people that I wanted to go to New York.

UT Professor of Innovation Bob Metcalfe Shared Lessons and Rousing Stories with BHP Sophomores

Bob Metcalfe embarked on his fifth career a little more than a year ago as Professor of Innovation and Murchison Fellow of Free Enterprise at UT Austin in the Cockrell School of Engineering. Before coming to UT, Metcalfe had worked as a venture capitalist, a publisher, an executive and an entrepreneur. He is the inventor of the Ethernet and the founder of 3Com Corporation. As you might imagine, he had a lot to share with our sophomore students during their BHP Lyceum course last week.

Metcalfe describes his life as a “win-win-win-win,” and “the culmination of the American dream.” Despite naysayers and setbacks, he has had a lot of success in his myriad careers. He started his career with Xerox in 1973. On May 22nd of that year, he was given the job of installing the network in the first building full of personal computers, and it was on that day that he invented the Ethernet, which was made the industry standard in 1980. He was living in Silicon Valley at the time, where entrepreneurship was “in the water” and he felt that the time was right for him to start his own company. He started 3Com in 1979 and stayed with the company for 11 years. After leaving 3Com, he started a new career as publisher of the information technology website, InfoWorld, and internet columnist. Metcalfe then went on to work in venture capital for Polaris Venture Partners for nearly ten years before coming to UT.

Metcalfe has several specific goals in mind for this next phase of his life in Austin as a professor of innovation. One he feels strongly about is making Austin what he calls, “a better Silicon Valley.” He talked about the enormous potential that exists in Austin to connect UT students who are aspiring entrepreneurs with current entrepreneurs who can mentor them. He sees his role in innovation and free enterprise tying into this nicely. He will be working with the community of Austin and UT students to create technological innovation at scale and to learn to operate the machinery of free enterprise.

The BHP Lyceum course focuses on leadership and ethics and Metcalfe shared his thoughts on both. “My leadership philosophy focuses on communicating well,” he said. “The key is to listen. We were given two ears and one mouth for a reason.” He shared with the students that he had indeed been in situations where doing something that wasn’t right would have led to personal gain. He stressed that it is what you do when no one is looking that counts. He also talked about the gray area that exists in sales and said that exaggeration is frequently used when selling, but that one has to ask themselves if the person you are exaggerating to is damaged by what you are telling them. If the answer is yes, then that has crossed the line.

One of the best and most engaging stories of the day came from a student question regarding an incident where Metcalfe literally ate his words in the form of a column smoothie. One can reference Wikipedia for the full tale, but hearing the story first-person was quite a treat. It was yet another instance of how Metcalfe managed to turn things around and create another win out of a not-so-great situation, resulting in stellar publicity.

Student Spotlight: Jasmine Bell

Jasmine BellAs a student recruiter for the BHP, Jasmine Bell, knows everything there is to know about the program. As a fifth-year student in the MPA program, she has actually been a recruiter for the BHP now for three years. She is so good at selling the program, that she even recruited her younger brother to the program  and her parents to the BHP Parents’ Council. Jasmine is also heavily involved with the Black Students Business Association and the Orange Jackets.

Why did you decide to become a BHP recruiter?

I really wanted to help the BHP recruit a diverse group of students. I wanted to spread the word to minorities and tell them about the opportunities I have been given in BHP. I have found it to be very rewarding. I like seeing students be successful and I know they can be in BHP.

What do you think makes the Business Honors Program unique?

I think the BHP professors really stand out. They don’t focus on memorization, they teach you HOW to think. They have really influenced the way I process information and my desire to learn information. The BHP community is also great. It is easy to find a group of friends you can fit in with that have the same interests as you do. Another point I always bring up to prospective students is the high level of exposure BHP students have to companies. The opportunities I had to interact with recruiters helped me land my internship with L’Oreal USA, which was a great experience.  Going into it, I just thought it was an accounting position, but coming out, I had a real connection with the brand and their products.

How did you decide to do the MPA program?

I took two accounting courses in high school and really enjoyed it. I even did UIL accounting my senior year. When I was looking at colleges, I was narrowing down which ones I was interested in by the strength of their accounting programs. UT’s accounting program was ranked highly, and would make me eligible to get my Certified Public Accountant (CPA) credentials upon graduation.

What would you like to do after graduation?

I will be working in Dallas with KPMG as an auditor. I am interested in entertainment, gaming and sports, which is why I picked Dallas over Houston. I want to stay in Texas for a bit.

Was L’Oreal your favorite internship so far?

I honestly loved all of my internships. They were all so different. Two were in public accounting and the other one gave me the chance to explore industry. L’Oreal helped me become more open-minded and to keep my mind open to other options. Right now I am interning for Circuit of the Americas which is really in line with my interests in working for the sports industry.

How did you get involved in the Orange Jackets? How has it been being a member of that?

Some of my BHP peers had been admitted to Orange Jackets and I learned of it from them. I applied the fall of my junior year and then interviewed for it and got in. I found myself wanting to be involved outside of the business school. I got to meet women from all majors and it diversified my circle of influence, which I have enjoyed. I also like all of the community service that we do. It is nice to be able to help out the community.

Have you given your brother any advice?

I told him to go to the career fair and to network early and meet recruiters early. All of my internships were acquired through building relationships, so I think relationships is a key part of getting what you want in your career and learning about opportunities. I strongly believe in networking and sharing opportunities with other students when you hear about them.  It is so important to be proactive and talk with recruiters about what you want.