The McCombs School of Business is proud to announce Kovid O. Gupta, BBA ’10, Lance T. Loeffler, BBA ’99, MBA ’04, and Carlos A. Whitaker, BBA ’00, MPA ’00, as the 2019 Alumni Rising Stars. The Rising Star Award, established in 2004-05, recognizes young alumni who have experienced professional success and have shown exemplary service to the Texas McCombs Alumni Network.

Kovid O. Gupta, BBA ’10
CEO, Kovid Gupta Films
Director of Investor Relations, Indus Management Group

Kovid Gupta is an author, screenwriter, and filmmaker. In 2010, he received his BBA, BA, and BS from The University of Texas at Austin and in 2015, graduated with an MBA from Cornell University. In 2017, he was featured by Forbes Magazine on the Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 List, along with receiving the Glorious India Award for successful Non-Resident Indians. As a screenwriter, he has written over 1,000 episodes for some of India’s most successful television shows including Balika Vadhu and Bade Acche Lagte Hain. He was also the assistant director of the box office hit film “Prem Ratan Dhan Payo” and served as the head of business development for Vinod Chopra Films and Film Companion. Kovid is also the author of two bestselling non-fiction books, “Kingdom of the Soap Queen: The Story of Balaji Telefilms,” published by HarperCollins, and “Redrawing India: The Teach For India Story,” published by Random House. In 2018, he founded Kovid Gupta Films with the mission of creating path-breaking cinema and television.

Lance T. Loeffler, BBA ’99, MBA ’04
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Halliburton

Lance Loeffler serves as executive vice president and chief financial officer at Halliburton. In this role, he leads the company’s financial strategy as well as its financial functions, including financial planning and analysis, accounting and financial reporting, tax, internal assurance, treasury, corporate development, and investor relations.

Mr. Loeffler joined Halliburton in 2014 as vice president of corporate development, with global leadership responsibilities for the company’s strategic merger and acquisition activities. He then served as vice president of Investor Relations and was responsible for the development and implementation of Halliburton communication strategies for the investment community.

Prior to joining Halliburton, Mr. Loeffler held director positions at Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc., and UBS Investment Bank, where he focused on the firms’ oil and gas clients.

Mr. Loeffler holds an MBA with concentrations in finance and accounting and a bachelor’s degree in finance from Red McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.

Carlos A. Whitaker, BBA ’00, MPA ’00
Managing Director, Global Markets
Credit Suisse

Carlos Whitaker is a managing director of Credit Suisse in the Global Markets division, based in New York City. Within Global Markets, he is head of New York Equities Advisory Sales and manages a team that distributes primary and secondary equities to institutional clients. Mr. Whitaker is responsible for developing strong client relationships, profitably growing revenues, selling initial public offerings (IPOs) and secondary offerings, as well as cross-selling the bank’s other products and services. His clients are predominantly large sophisticated hedge funds that employ a myriad of investment strategies including long/short equity, event driven, risk arbitrage, and global macro. In 2010, Mr. Whitaker was awarded the Investment Banking Outstanding Achievement Award by Credit Suisse for his skill in leveraging the bank’s resources to complete a large transaction that was outside of his geographic and product coverage area for one of the bank’s key clients.

Mr. Whitaker began his career at Credit Suisse in 2000 as an analyst in the Investment Banking division. He is a core part of the bank’s recruiting team for the Analyst and Associate programs, and has served on the promotion committees for vice president, director, and managing director level candidates.

Mr. Whitaker graduated from The University of Texas at Austin, where he received his BA from the Plan II Honors Program, BBA in Accounting, and MPA. Mr. Whitaker currently serves on the New York for McCombs board and on the Rising Stars Capital Management board, which is a Houston-based nonprofit organization focused on increasing African American representation in the finance industry.

The McCombs School will recognize the Rising Stars at the Hall of Fame ceremony in November. The event will also recognize the 2019 Hall of Fame Inductees.