The McCombs Alumni Office is seeking McCombs graduates interested in serving as Class Ambassadors, representing your graduating class within the Texas McCombs Alumni Network. As a Class Ambassador, you will be a key point of contact for your class in a number of meaningful ways:
Serve as the key point of contact between classmates and the Alumni Office
Get involved with the local chapter in your area
Engage your classmates and encourage them to get involved
Assist with ensuring the alumni directory has accurate information for your classmates
Participate in a committee comprised of Class Ambassadors from your graduation year in all Texas McCombs programs
As a Class Ambassador you are helping to ensure that McCombs continues to excel as a top business school. If you are interested please contact Robin Vallilee, robin.vallilee@mccombs.utexas.edu, with the Alumni Relations Office.
Join the LinkedIn Texas McCombs School of Business page, along with private groups for BBA and MBA alumni to keep up to date with what’s happening in your network. Be sure that “Texas McCombs School of Business” is in the education section of your LinkedIn profile and you automatically become a member. Linking your page to the school allows you to search all alumni by city, industry, class year, etc.
Here is a brief video tutorial with instructions on how to most-effectively search your classmates on LinkedIn.
We also encourage all alumni to join our new McCombs Connect virtual community to easily access alumni career coaching, workshops, events, and resources that will provide you with career support and connections for life. Through McCombs Connect, you will also have the opportunity to connect with students looking to learn from you as a McCombs alumnus.
This community is exclusive to McCombs alumni, students, faculty, and staff. Reconnect or create new connections with fellow alumni, sign up to mentor a student from any of our outstanding undergraduate and graduate programs, or meet students through mutual interests in a unique virtual community experience.
Alumni, friends, and school leadership gathered on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021 for the annual Hall of Fame celebration. This year the Texas McCombs School inducted four prominent business leaders into its Hall of Fame: George R. Ackert, The Honorable Kevin P. Eltife, Gay W. Gaddis, and Mark D. Gibson. Lillian Mills, dean, also recognized the 2021 Rising Stars, Jessica M. Lopez and Michael C. Smith, for their early accomplishments.
The McCombs School of Business established the Hall of Fame 38 years ago in recognition of The University of Texas at Austin’s centennial celebration. The Hall of Fame honors individuals who have made outstanding professional contributions to the business community and who, by their exemplary civic, philanthropic, and educational activities, have advanced humanity. The Hall of Fame award is the highest honor given by the McCombs School of Business.
Each inductee has an incredible life story and we are proud to have them be a part of the McCombs Hall of Fame. We invite you to learn more about their successes and contributions through the videos below.
2021 Hall of Fame Inductees
George R. Ackert BBA ’91, JD ’95 Senior Managing Director Evercore
George R. Ackert is a senior managing director in Evercore’s investment banking business in New York City. He is an internationally recognized adviser to companies in the transportation sector, and has recently become the head of the firm’s financial sponsor coverage effort.
Ackert began his career as an associate attorney in Mergers & Acquisitions and Structured Finance at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Ackert moved to investment banking in 1997 and joined Merrill Lynch as an associate, rising to global head of Transportation & Infrastructure before joining Evercore in 2009 to take the same position. He holds a J.D. with honors from The University of Texas School of Law, an MBA from Baylor University, and a BBA with high honors from The University of Texas at Austin.
He is a former chairman and a founding member of the New York for McCombs Board. He is also former chairman for the Advisory Council of the McCombs School of Business for the 2018–19 school year, and is now a Life Member. He serves on the Executive Committee of the UT Development Board and is a member of the UT Longhorn Foundation Advisory Council. He is a former member of the UT System Chancellor’s Executive Council, as well as a former member of the board of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at UT. Both of his children are currently students at UT.
The Honorable Kevin P. Eltife BBA ’81 Owner Eltife Properties, Ltd.
Kevin P. Eltife was appointed to a six-year term on The University of Texas System Board of Regents by Governor Greg Abbott in January 2017 and was confirmed by the Texas Senate on February 7, 2017.
On December 20, 2018, he was elected chairman of the Board of Regents. Eltife chairs the System Review and Structure Task Force. He previously served on the Academic Affairs Committee; the Audit, Compliance, and Risk Management Committee; the Facilities Planning and Construction Committee; the Finance and Planning Committee; and the Board for Lease of University Lands.
He served as senator for Texas Senate District 1 from 2004 to 2017, as the mayor of Tyler, and on the Tyler City Council. He was appointed in December 1996 by Governor George W. Bush to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and served until July 2003.
Eltife is the owner of Eltife Properties, Ltd. He is a director for Citizens 1st Bank and serves on The University of Texas at Austin Development Board and The University of Texas at Tyler Development Board.
Eltife earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin. He resides in Tyler with his wife and two children.
Gay W. Gaddis BFA ’77 T3 Founder and CEO of Gay Gaddis, LLC
Gay Gaddis founded T3, a digital advertising agency that grew into the largest female-owned agency in the U.S. under her leadership of 30+ years, with offices in Austin, New York, Atlanta and San Francisco. In 2019, she sold T3 to a leading private equity firm.
Today, Gaddis is focusing her always-on energy to empower the next generation of business leaders. She is an active speaker on women’s leadership and entrepreneurship. Her best-selling book, Cowgirl Power: How to Kick Ass in Business and Life, shares insights to develop personal power.
Gaddis is the first female Chairman of the Texas Business Leadership Council, former Chairman of The Committee of 200 (C200) and an immediate past board member for Monotype Imaging Holdings, Inc. She is on the boards of the Texas Cultural Trust and Texas Exes, part of the McCombs Advisory Council and an adviser for the College of Fine Arts and the Moody College of Communication. She is also the founder and co-instructor of a new women’s development program, Women Who Mean Business at the McCombs School of Business.
Gaddis is an active spokesperson, artist and writer and a contributor to Forbes. Over her career she has received numerous awards and honors including Fast Company’s “Top 25 Women Business Builders,” Inc. Magazine’s “Top
10 Entrepreneurs of the Year,” C200’s Luminary Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence and was recognized by Texas Monthly as one of “10 Artists to Collect Now.”
Mark D. Gibson BBA ’81 Chief Executive Officer JLL Capital Markets, Americas
Before becoming the CEO of JLL Capital Markets, Americas, as part of the HFF acquisition, Mark D. Gibson was a founding partner of HFF LP, having joined HFF’s predecessor firm, Holliday Fenoglio & Company, in 1984.
Gibson became a director and vice chairman of HFF Inc. in 2006, before the company’s IPO in 2007. In 2014, he became CEO.
Gibson played football at UT and was the first person in his family to attend college. His 35-year career in real estate began in 1981 when he earned a BBA from UT and joined Holliday Fenoglio in 1984. He is an executive committee member at the UT Real Estate Finance and Investment Center and an advisory council member at the McCombs School of Business.
He has been married to Jane Holland Gibson since 1987, and they have two children, Matthew and Jordan. Matt is in the real estate industry and Jordan is with a non-profit advocacy group for children. In his spare time, Gibson enjoys spending time with his family, hiking, and fly-fishing.
Rising Star Recipients
Dean Jay Hartzell also recognized the 2021 Rising Stars at the Hall of Fame celebration. The Rising Star Award, established in 2004-05, goes to young alumni who have experienced professional success and have shown exemplary service to the Texas McCombs Alumni Network. Congratulations to Jessica M. Lopez and Michael C. Smith.
Over the summer Texas McCombs asked the Alumni Network to reconnect with the school and classmates by updating their contact information. We received nearly 800 responses! Keeping your information up to date not only makes it easier for alumni to receive school updates, but also strengthens the alumni network by making their correct information available to their classmates in the alumni directory.
Raffle prizes were offered to all alumni that sent in updates to their contact information before Aug. 15. Congratulations to our winners!
McCombs Alumni Tshirts
Shaun Kwan, MBA ’15
Donellen Cornelius, BBA ’77
Tina Myers, BBA ’92
Erin Fields, MPA ’05
Greg Kaupp, BBA ’94
Piotr Kadela, MBA ’09
Michael Taylor, BBA ’11
Thomas Luccock, MBA ’72
Raj Patel, BBA ’21
Scott Deyerle, MBA ’12
Grand Prize: Two suite tickets to the first home football game
Erin Horton, MBA ’17
If you have not yet had a chance to update your contact information, you can still update your information in the alumni directory or send your updates to alumni@mccombs.utexas.edu.
If you’re interested in connecting with other alumni, we also recommend that you create a profile in HookedIn. This platform is exclusively for the UT community and allows alumni to connect with fellow graduates, mentor current students, find job postings, and more!
More than 200 Longhorns turned out for the pre-game alumni BBQ tailgate before the UT win over Rice. Alumni and MBA students came together at this family-friendly event to celebrate their Longhorn pride. All attendees enjoyed the beautiful indoor/outdoor space at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, a BBQ buffet, and McCombs alumni Tshirts. Also, special guest Dean Mills stopped by to chat with attendees.
McCombs reserved a ticket block for alumni at the football game so that the business school graduates could sit together and continue the fun! It was a vibrant event and we can’t wait for next year! You can see the full album of photos on the alumni Flickr page.
This past May, a committee of four MBA alumni, two MBA students, and two MBA staff representatives came together to review funding proposals for student projects set for the 2021-22 school year. The funds come from an endowment established by MBA alumni in 2005—the MBA Alumni Endowed Excellence Fund (MAEEF). This yearly awarding process is the most direct way that alumni invest in students and the legacy of the MBA program.
This year the committee awarded $35,000 to support a wide variety of projects:
MBA Africa Connect is a team of four McCombs MBAs on a mission to cultivate a sense of pride and belonging in the African American community. The group plans to accomplish this through business and culture-focused observation tours to Africa to help bridge the economic and professional divide between Africa and its diaspora. They have established partnerships with firms in Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. The firms have identified business challenges and MAC has created cohorts of MBAs to ideate and collaboratively work to solve these business cases. The cohorts will present their final recommendations on these solutions to partner firms’ C-Suite executives. The objective of these multi-national working groups is to demystify doing business in Africa.
The Health Innovation Fellows and the MBA Healthcare Association will use the funds to continue the Texas MBA branded healthcare case competition in tandem with the Dell Medical School. Hosting this competition on for a third year will continue to elevate the prominence of the McCombs School of Business as a healthcare destination for students and companies alike as well as further enable our partnership with Dell Medical School. Furthermore, this case competition provides valuable experience to students who are looking for healthcare focused internships, while also allowing them greater access to networking opportunities. This case competition requires continued funding to get it off the ground and elevate its stature in the local healthcare community as we continue to grow the competition to eventually be self-sustaining with corporate sponsors in future years.
The Plug N Chug plan aims to host a happy hour for first years, second years, partners, faculty, and administration each Thursday in the lobby of Rowling Hall to increase engagement between cohorts and classes. This name was inspired by the group’s 1Y Intro to Finance professor, Dean Hahn, who often describe our homework solutions as “plug and chug.” Funding will help them to create a family-friendly event that is accessible to all and does not take place at a bar – currently, nothing like this exists on campus (even prior to COVID-19 restrictions).
The Graduate Entrepreneurship Society has been revived to become The Graduate Entrepreneurship and Innovation Club (‘The Club’) in 2019-20 and the leadership team for 2021-22 wants to expand and sharpen this vision by fostering a community for all types of entrepreneurs including those who have or intend to have their own company, those who want to share ideas and brainstorm with others, and those who want to join an early-stage start-up, a venture capital firm, and/or something in a related field. They strive to help build founders and innovators at Texas McCombs.
The First-Generation MBA Mentorship Program will match current MBA candidates with first-generation, undergraduate students at UT Austin who have an interest in pursuing an MBA in the future. The students will receive academic and career advice from their mentor, engage in team-building programming with other mentees, and be encouraged to observe MBA classes.
The McCombs Sports, Entertainment, Media Association (SEMA)experienced a decline in overall campus presence during the 2020-21 academic year, with a drop in active members and in-person events. Our goal is to reverse this trend by hosting the largest ever SEMA Symposium on Friday, September 24, 2021 at Rowling Hall. Hosting a marquee event like this will revitalize the organization and create networking opportunities for students interested in pursuing careers in sports and entertainment.
In this webinar, Sandy brings listeners up-to-speed on current events in the markets. He covers the economy, the stock market, interest rates, the labor market, the Fed, and fiscal policy. Watch the recording!
Sandy Leeds is a distinguished senior lecturer in the Finance Department at McCombs and recently finished a thirteen year term as president of The MBA Investment Fund, L.L.C. He teaches both graduate and undergraduate level courses, including Corporate Finance, Advanced Corporate Finance, Public Policy (Long-Term Issues in the Markets), Investments, Portfolio Management / Security Analysis, Money and Capital Markets, and Macroeconomics.
Please note: Alumni Network webinars must be viewed live to receive CPE credit. Watching the recording does not qualify for CPE credit.
Additionally, the board’s executive committee assumed new leadership:
Chair: Lisa Simon, MBA ’14, M&A Senior Manager, Deloitte, Dallas, TX
Vice Chair: Wendy Wheless, MBA ’08, Founder and Chief Movement Officer, Thru Movement, Austin, TX
Past Chair: Carrie Haden, MBA ’05, Head of Strategic Accounts, AWS Professional Services, Dallas TX
The McCombs School would like to thank our new members and leaders and also thank Chad Auler, MBA ’03, Stephanie Carlton, MBA ’12, Jim McMullan, MBA ’96, Susan Saurage-Altenloh, MBA ’03, and Ryan Nixon, MBA ’08, who will be rolling off of the board and our outgoing leader, Arthur Mills, MBA ’04, who has become an emeritus member having served as past chair.
Additionally, Erin Cast, MBA ’03, Danielle Crayton, MBA ’03, Carlos Dinkins, MBA ’05, Nida Kia, MBA ’10, Brian Payne, MBA ’03, have been reappointed for a second active term. View the full membership.
The McCombs School of Business MBA Advisory Board formed in 1996. Members assist the dean, associate dean of graduate programs, faculty, and staff of the McCombs School of Business in achieving and maintaining “best of class” status for the MBA programs. Members support the MBA program’s strategy planning, curricula, external affairs, alumni engagement, fundraising efforts, and student placement. Member nominations are accepted on a rolling basis. The executive committee considers nominations for membership each spring and new three-year terms begin Sept. 1.
The McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin is pleased to announce the appointment of the following members to its BBA Advisory Board and 2021-22 BBA Executive Committee.
New BBA Advisory Board Members:
Cameron Arrington, BBA ’98
Managing Director, Credit Sales, Goldman Sachs
New York, NY
Matthew Garcia, BBA ’04
SVP of Public Policy and Advocacy, Dallas Regional Chamber
Dallas, TX
Henry Howard, BBA ’21
Rising Star Leadership Award Recipient
Consultant, Sense Corp (now CGI)
Austin, TX
Values Chair: Luis Rhi, Director, BBA ’98, Equity Portfolio Manager and Senior Analyst, Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss, LLC, New York, NY
Past Chair: Cameron Chandler, BBA ’83, President, Chandler Energy Resources, LLC, Heath, TX
The McCombs School would like to thank our new members and leaders for their service! We would like to especially recognize outgoing Chair Cameron Chandler, BBA ’83, for his leadership, outgoing Values Chair Mandy Price, CBHP ’03, for her dedication, and our Past Chair Maria Garate, BBA ’98, for serving on the executive committee.
Additionally, the following members have been appointed for a second active term:
Angela Johnson, BBA ’03
Barry Kobren, BBA ’84
Fauzul Lakhani, BBA ’09
Jessica Rancher, BBA, MPA ’02
Veshal Arul Prakash has been appointed for his first three-year term having served the previous year as the Rising Star representative.
Lastly, we would like to thank our board members who are rolling off the board this year. Thank you for your time and service to the McCombs School!
Whitney Mack, BBA ’08
Angela Moras, BBA ’07
Bethany Rolan, BA, BHP ’17
Sean Waggoner, BBA ’96
About the board:
The McCombs School of Business BBA Advisory Board was formed in 2008 to assist the dean, associate dean of undergraduate programs, faculty, and staff of the McCombs School of Business in achieving and maintaining “best of class” status for the BBA programs. This diverse group of individuals ensures the integrity of the BBA Advisory Board mission by supporting the strategy planning, curricula, external affairs, alumni engagement, fundraising efforts, and student placement. The Executive Committee receives rolling applications throughout the year with consideration for membership in the spring. The new members of the BBA Advisory Board begin their three-year terms the following September.
Rebecca Leder, BBA ’07, led the second webinar in the Texas McCombs Alumni Network Summer Webinar Series of 2021. In this webinar, “The Power of Connection and Compassion at Work: Building High Quality Career Relationships,” Leder shared her own personal experiences and discussed how to establish high-quality career relationships, how to cultivate them, and what impact they make on our health, our communities, and our careers. Listen to the recording!
Rebecca’s book, “KNOCK” is available at the UT Co-Op. You can learn more about Rebecca Leder on her website.
The next and final webinar in the Texas McCombs Alumni Network Summer Webinar Series is on Aug. 25, “Promote a Learning and Growth Culture in This Brave New Hybrid World” with Solu Nwanze, MBA ’12. RSVP here!
