Trinity Bank’s President and Chairman of the Board has announced that three bank executive vice presidents, including Barney Wiley, have been named to the Fort Worth bank’s board of directors.
Barney started his career as a certified public accountant. At Trinity, he has been on the lending team for the past sixteen years.
Learn more about Barney here.
Wyatt Jason’s webinar “The Psychology of Investing: How we can be our own worst enemy” covered common investment behaviors related to different emotions, how to identify these emotions within yourself, and how to prevent psychological factors throughout the investment process. Watch the webinar here!
Wyatt graduated from the McCombs Accounting program in 2017. He works on a wealth management practice at Merrill Lynch that helps Austin locals achieve their financial goals and prepare for their retirement. In his free time, he stays active by playing tennis or attending concerts throughout the Austin area.
Robert Neill (BBA/MPA ’92), an Austin-based technology and management consultant, has joined Weaver as its Director of CIO Advisory Services. He will provide strategic technical guidance such as technical due diligence and integration for mergers and acquisitions, technology product modernization, and outsourced, fractional CIO leadership. In addition, he will lead a variety of engagements involving strategy, governance, technology assessments and integration, and consulting.
Josh Cobb, BBA & MPA ’08, has become SitePro’s new Chief Financial Officer. Josh joined the team to manage the financial aspects of the Company, including the reporting and analysis of historical performance, treasury management and the development of revenue and cash flow projections.
Learn more about Josh here.
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.
Christine Burdell, director of the McCombs Alumni Network team, hosted the “Alumni Orientation 2019” webinar to help welcome longhorns into the post-grad world. Watch here!
Christine led alumni through the process of staying connected with McCombs. She covered joining our social media networks, following alumni and school news, attending events nationwide, becoming an alumni leader, taking advantage of resources, keeping contact information updated, and sharing class notes.
The Alumni Network ensures the connections you make at McCombs are lifetime bonds by keeping you in touch with fellow alumni and the school. Click here to see a full summary of the 2019 Alumni Orientation.
MPA alumnus Jason Danziger has joined Avalon Investment & Advisory as Director and Wealth Advisor. Jason joins Avalon with a background that includes financial, estate and tax planning having spent the past 16 years with accountancy, trust and wealth management firms.
Most recently, he worked in Goldman Sachs’ Family Office Services assisting ultra-high-net-worth families and their accountants on estate and tax planning, philanthropic giving, risk planning and other solutions.
Learn more about Jason here.
James Schellhase, BBA ’80 and MPA ’81, has been appointed to Executive Chairman for McCarthyFinch. Schellhase brings extensive executive leadership, corporate strategy, growth planning, and acquisitions experience to the position. Read more here.
Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P.C. is pleased to announce the addition of three new Shareholders to its Houston office: Well-known Energy Litigation Shareholders Richard “Dick” Schwartz and Todd S. Frank, as well as Tax attorney and City of West University Place Mayor, Susan V. Sample.
“Last year we expanded our footprint in Houston by 40 percent to accommodate for new attorneys,” said Phil C. Appenzeller, Jr., CEO of Munsch Hardt. ”Dick, Todd and Susan are hard-working, well-respected attorneys who bring a wealth of experience and leadership to the Firm. They are exactly the type of attorneys we were hoping to attract, and we are delighted they have found a new home at Munsch Hardt. We hope this is just the beginning of an active and successful lateral recruiting year for us in Houston.” Read More
SPX FLOW, Inc., a leading global provider of process solutions and flow control technology, today announced the appointments of Jaime Easley as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Ryan Taylor as Chief Strategy Officer, effective immediately.
Easley has served as Vice President, Corporate Controller and Chief Accounting Officer and Taylor has served as Vice President of Communications and Investor Relations since the company’s spin off from SPX Corporation in September 2015. Easley will succeed Jeremy Smeltser who has resigned from the company after serving as Vice President and CFO over the past three years.
“On behalf of our team at SPX FLOW, I want to thank Jeremy for his many contributions. He was instrumental in helping us achieve several key milestones, including the significant strengthening of our financial position,” said Marc Michael, President and Chief Executive Officer. Read more.
© 2025 Texas McCombs Alumni News
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
