The Murphy Oil Board of Directors elected Leyster L. Jumawan to serve as Vice President, Corporate Planning and Treasurer. Beginning his Murphy career in 2013 as Senior Manager, Corporate Planning, Mr. Jumawan has held several roles in the Finance Department, including Assistant Treasurer and most recently Vice President, Corporate Planning and Finance. Congratulations to Leyster!
Read more here.
Alumni Day 2022 provided a comprehensive overview of useful tools for McCombs graduates to access in order to stay connected. Christine Burdell, Director of Alumni Relations led the program, which viewers accessed through Zoom. Ellen Bartkowiak, Head of Alumni Career Management, and Sarita Soldz, Senior Director of the Career Management for Working Professional Programs and Alumni were also on-hand to provide guidance on how to best utilize Career Management tools. Presentations included information about finding fellow graduates, alumni career resources, how to stay connected to the school, leadership opportunities, and more. Following the benefits presentation, breakout rooms were available for discussion and Q&A with alumni leaders nationwide. Watch the recording!
A call for alumni-owned businesses was also part of the celebration. You can see the directory here. If you’re a business owner and would like your company added, please fill out this form.
Alumni Day participants had an opportunity to win McCombs merch through social media engagement. Congratulations to our winners:
Asim Qureshi
Hui Lu
Irene Aguirre
Shanice Williams
Claudia Tobaciaic
Thank you to our Alumni leaders who hosted breakout sessions:
Austin
Terese Everson, BBA ’96
Boston
Brendan Chan, BBA ’11
Dallas
Cameron Chandler, BBA ’83
Luis Rhi, BBA ’98
New York City
James Jackson, BBA ’14
San Francisco
Brendan Chan, BBA ’11
We look forward to hosting again next year. If you’re a McCombs graduate looking to get involved, please take a look at the Top 8 Ways to Connect with the Texas McCombs Alumni Network or email the McCombs alumni team at alumni@mccombs.utexas.edu.
During the first in-person meeting of the Association of Business School Alumni Professionals conference in three years, the Texas McCombs Alumni Relations team took home the award for Most Innovative New Initiative for its Board and Council Leader Exchange, which launched in 2021.
The Association is a national networking organization promoting excellence in alumni relations and service to alumni with exclusive membership to only the top 30 business schools in the country, as defined by the rankings of Bloomberg Businessweek and U.S. News and World Report. This year’s conference was held at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from July 11-14.
“It is such an honor to be recognized by the Association of Business School Alumni Professionals for the Most Innovative Initiative Award,” said Christine Burdell, Director of Alumni Relations for McCombs School of Business.
Honored for its ability to engage the Texas McCombs’ 26 alumni boards and councils, the Board and Council Leader Exchange provided an opportunity for board leaders to exchange ideas, create resources and continuing connections for members across the school. The Exchange had a 65% participation rate, with a virtual component drawing in 69% participation.
The McCombs Alumni Relations team previously won Most Improved Alumni Relations Initiative for 40 Hours for the Forty Acres and Most Innovative New Initiative for Texas 12 Dinners, both in 2016. There are only four award categories at each conference per year.
“We have learned so much from this (ABSAP) community and are very grateful to be a part of it,” Burdell said. “We hope that our program inspires other schools to engage their alumni in a similar way.”
Rob C. Holmes, BA Economics ’87, President and CEO of Texas Capital Bancshares and Texas Capital Bank rang the closing bell at Nasdaq in New York City on Tuesday, May 17. To commemorate the official launch of the company’s affiliated broker dealer, Texas Capital Securities, Holmes did the honors on behalf of Texas Capital Bank.
“This is a meaningful time for Texas Capital Bank as we continue to make progress in our transformational journey,” he said. “We strive to be the flagship financial services firm headquartered in the state of Texas.”
The event was a “major milestone” for the company, Holmes said. Bell ringing took place at 2:53 p.m. CT and was live-streamed on the company’s website. You can watch it here.
Texas McCombs alumnus and founder of Embrace Any Future, Rachel Ybarra was recently named as one of the nations top 100 most influential Latinas in Latin Leaders Magazine. See how she grabbed her own future with both hands and is making a difference for other future students. Read the article here.
An esteemed group of McCombs students and high-ranking professionals gathered to network during the school’s 9th Annual Executive Mentorship Dinner
In an increasingly digital world, McCombs understands the importance of teaching students how to personally engage with the world. That is just one reason its mentorship dinner is such an important tool to introduce in-person networking to tomorrow’s world changers.
Held on Thursday, February 17, 2022, students and high-ranking professionals poured into the McCombs Hall of Honors for the first time in two years to dine and connect during the Ninth Annual Executive Mentorship Dinner. This highly anticipated annual event is made possible through an endowment by Ed Tonkin and his family. Thanks to them, this event will continue for years to come.
Jordon Ambrose, a junior McCombs Success Scholar studying supply chain management, was energized by his mentor interaction.
“I met an amazing person with a lot of experience,” Jordon said. “I learned a lot about how to make relationships and connections with people.”
Another student, junior Andrew Goldberg, enjoyed the group interactions as much as anything else.
“I enjoyed the opportunity to ask my mentor engaging questions and to learn from them through a thoughtful discussion,” he said. “Additionally, it was interesting to hear the diverse questions asked by my peers.”
Junior finance major Nibel Mirzaei agreed, saying he enjoyed, “being able to learn from the mentor’s valued experience as well as having specific conversations on different levels of topics.”
McCombs continues to provide tomorrow’s trailblazers with partnerships to fuel their futures. We are grateful to the following executive mentors for attending this year’s event:
Cameron Arrington, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs
Yasmin Bhatia, CEO, Uplift Education
Jennifer Chandler, Managing Director, Bank of America
Scott Chandler, Vice President of Revenue, American Airlines
William Cunningham, Former President, University of Texas Austin
Suzy Felfeli, Executive Director, Lionsgate Corporate Development Group
Tejas Gohokar, Sales Programs Lead, Amazon Web Services
John Hollister, CFO, Silicon Labs
Kathryn McKeon, VP Marketing, Vital Farms
Giovanni Pacelli, Senior Director, Finance, Silicon Labs
Erin Patten, Metaphysical Master, Erin Patten & Associates
Sam Susser, Chairman & CEO, Susser Bank
Rex Tillerson, Former United States Secretary of State
Ed Tonkon, President, Zebra Retail Solutions
Cris Zertuche Wong, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs
Yareli Estaban, President & CEO, Strategar
The Denver/Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Texas McCombs Alumni Network gathered to watch the Colorado Rapids take on MLS newcomers Austin FC soccer game. The Denver Alumni enjoyed a fun but chilly evening with a private space reserved at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. The evening consisted of food, beverages, networking, and lots of soccer! The Colorado Rapid emerged victorious with a score of 3-0.
This exciting event was organized thanks to Denver Chapter Co-President Eric Fehr.
After the official McCombs Alumni BBQ Tailgate, the Full-Time MBA Program gathered together for a reunion at Thrive Craft House to continue the Longhorn fun during Homecoming Weekend. The MBA Class of ’96 celebrated their 25-year reunion with drinks, catching up with old friends and new, and watching the Longhorn football game vs. Rice together.
This special event was organized by the MBA planning committee: Kathleen Mabley, Lou Mabley, Arnold Seapan, Peter Unger, and Jason Watkins.
Cheers to 25 years!
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.
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