Donors

Starnes establish learning endowment

Robin ’76 and Bob Starnes ’72, of Austin, committed $100,000 to establish a learning endowment in support of faculty, students, facilities and technology at Mays. The Starnes’ gift, which also funds a scholarship for an incoming freshman studying business, creates the Robin ’76 and Bob Starnes ’72 Learning Endowment.

The gift benefits services and facilities in Cox Hall at the Wehner building, home of the business school. “The Starnes’ generous gift will benefit many generations of Mays Business School students,” said Dean Jerry Strawser. “Their gift continues the ‘Aggie Miracle,’ a process through which current students benefit from the generosity of former students and achieve a world-class education.”

Robin graduated from Mays with a BBA in marketing in 1976 and earned her MBA in business computing science from A&M in 1981. She is a product line manager for Houston-based BMC Software, a publicly-traded independent systems software vendor that zeroes in on IT solutions to aid business service management. Robin is also a former member of Mays’ Center for the Management of Information Systems advisory board. She and her husband, Bob, have been married for 28 years and have one son, John David.

Bob is a 1972 A&M graduate with a BS from the College of Agriculture, who also earned his MBA at Mays. He is partner at an Austin-based investment group, the Ontra Companies, which focuses on financial and real estate asset investments and the development of skilled nursing and assisted living centers in Texas.

“We’ve had many opportunities open up for us because of our education and associations at A&M, and that’s why it’s important for us to give back,” Robin Starnes says. “We want to support the next generation of students.”

— Staff Reports

Programs

WSJ rank higher for Mays

Mays earned an improved score in the annual Wall Street Journal survey of corporate recruiters of business schools, moving up from No. 31 to No. 28 in 2005’s regional rankings.

The rankings measure how appealing a b-school and its MBA program graduates are to recruiters. Rankings are based partly on recruiters’ perceptions of the schools on key attributes such as students’ leadership potential and communication skills, the quality of faculty and curriculum and the responsiveness of the career-services office.

Harris Interactive conducted the online survey of 3,267 recruiters from December 2004 to March 2005.

— Staff Reports

Students

Hispanic students welcome largest business class

The Hispanic Business Student Association welcomed the largest incoming class of Hispanic business freshmen this September with a kick-off reception for the Class of 2009. Just over 100 business students out of this year’s freshman class of 850 are of Hispanic origin. In comparison, 69 Hispanic students were part of the freshman cohort in fall 2004.

Nearly 50 Hispanic freshmen attended the September meet and greet designed to foster a sense of community in the Hispanic Business Student Association and share b-school resources with its members. Association president Rocio Sotelo, a senior finance major, welcomed the students with a hearty “bienvenidos” and “howdy!” “At this moment, we are making history,” she said.

Pointing out business representatives and corporate scholarship sponsors at the networking event, Sotelo added, “Mays gave me a lot of resources, and I want you to know where they are to take advantage of them also.”

Heightened recruiting efforts and a focus on increasing diversity allowed for the largest class of under-represented students at Mays in recent history, thanks largely to the efforts of recruitment coordinator Sonia Garcia and the Undergraduate Programs Office staff under Director Peter Drysdale. In fall 2005, more than 125 Hispanic and African-American freshman, about 16 percent of the class, enrolled for classes at Mays. That’s a drastic improvement in the diversity of Mays entering classes, which ranged from 7 to 11 percent under-represented students over the past five years.

“Welcome to Mays Business School,” Associate Dean Martha “Marty” Loudder said during the student reception, concluding her remarks to the Hispanic freshmen. “We’re so lucky to have you here.”

— Sommer Hamilton

Programs

Engineering students earn first business certificates

A group of 39 undergraduate engineering students at Texas A&M earned the first-ever business management certification for Aggie engineers during an intensive, three-week program this August at Mays Business Schools’ Center for Executive Development. The business crash course introduced the junior and senior undergraduates from the Look College of Engineering to basic business concepts from costing to managing employees.

The curriculum was crafted from the key elements that engineers in business — from small business owners to engineering managers in major corporations — say they needed once they entered the workforce.

Professors in accounting, finance, information and operations management, management and marketing shared sessions that lasted 8 hours a day from Aug. 8 to Aug. 26. Students worked through business case studies, put themselves to the test with financial and managerial accounting, and used facilities at the state-of-the-art Reliant Energy Trading Center to conduct simulations in finance.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Accounting Excellence Professor Clair Nixon, a frequent Center for Executive Development instructor, conducted extensive research on the business needs of engineers during a summer fellowship with Boeing in 2004. Nixon designed the business management certificate curriculum as part of the first interdisciplinary effort to bring the basics of business to students in another A&M college. He implemented the program alongside center director Ben Welch and program coordinator Pam Curry.

“Most engineers do a very good job technically, but don’t do as well on the business side,” Nixon says. “Engineers have to understand the principles behind running a business.”

The program, which accepted applicants selected by the Look College of Engineering earlier this year, is expected to continue next summer.

— Sommer Hamilton

Students

Interns meet with Lesar

MBA student Audry McAfee poses with an Aggie engineer and member of a Bedouin camp in Wadi Rum, Jordan, during her KBR internship. Bedouins are traditionally desert-dwelling nomads, and McAfee stayed in this privately-owned campsite during a desert tour.

A group of nine Mays undergraduates and MBAs met with Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar at his Houston office in mid-September to share their impressions of summer internships in the Middle East with Halliburton subsidiary KBR.

They shared stories and thanked Lesar for the one-of-a-kind opportunity that made them the first interns ever to work with KBR’s government and logistics team in Kuwait, Dubai and Jordan.

The student interns include: Stephen Arredondo, BBA finance; David Brodniak, MBA finance; Graham Gilkerson, BBA accounting; Joseph N. King, MBA; Audry McAfee, MBA; Brandon McMahon, BBA accounting; Trey Scott, BBA finance; Lloyd Igbokwe, BBA and BS sociology; and Samuel Sipes, MBA finance.

— Staff Reports

Faculty

Oliva an IBM thought leader

Associate Professor of Information and Operations Management Rogelio Oliva was officially recognized by IBM Research as a thought leader in service sciences, management and engineering. The IBM division has been using Oliva’s research in the management of service supply chains to drive its own internal research.

Oliva is now working with the IBM Research division to formalize a relationship, which could include a research project involving Mays and IBM researchers. To learn more about who else is involved, visit http://researchweb.watson.ibm.com/ssme/influencers.shtml.

— Staff Reports

Faculty

Shankar meets with Singapore deputy PM

In August, Marketing Professor Venkatesh Shankar met with the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, S. Jayakumar, to discuss how to best improve Singapore’s global competitiveness.

The tiny island country off the coast of Malaysia — roughly three times the size of Washington, D.C. — became one of the world’s most prosperous countries through its international trading links after it achieved independence in 1965. Singapore’s success has been led by forward-looking strategies, and its government is turning to scholars such as Shankar to help advise future trade and business efforts.

Shankar will follow up with a full report for Jayakumar, detailing how Singapore should best position itself for the future alongside India and China, its booming and competitive Asian neighbors.

— Staff Reports

Former Students

Accounting dissertations honored with national awards

Fred Feucht receives his award from Michelle McEacharn, president-elect of the Gender Issues and Worklife Balance Section of the American Accounting Association.

Recent accounting PhD graduates Shirley Hunter and Fred Feucht recently received national recognition for their outstanding dissertations. Each was honored at the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association held in San Francisco.

Hunter received the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies (AIET) Section of the American Accounting Association. Her dissertation examines the impact of Web-based financial reporting for companies listed in emerging market stock exchanges such as in Africa. Hunter is now an assistant professor of international accounting at Tufts University.

Feucht received the KPMG Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Gender Issues and Worklife Balance (GIWB) Section of the American Accounting Association. Feucht’s dissertation examines the impact of tax policy on the American family. He is an assistant professor of accounting at Prairie View A&M University.

Accounting Professor L. Murphy Smith chaired Hunter’s dissertation committee and co-chaired Feucht’s committee. “Like my faculty colleagues, I am thankful for the opportunity to work with the gifted and highly motivated students who attend Texas A&M,” he says.

— Staff Reports

Faculty

Faculty earn teaching awards

Five faculty members were recognized during May’s fall faculty/staff meeting for their teaching efforts.

Earning the Association of Former Students Distinguished Teaching Award are: Amanda Adkisson, clinical associate professor of finance; Leonard Bierman, professor of management; and Linda S. Perry, senior lecturer in accounting. Lamar Savings Professor Arvind Mahajan also received the executive MBA faculty recognition award, as voted on by the EMBA class of 2005. This marks the second time in the three-year history of the award that Mahajan has been the recipient.

Assistant Professor of Management Christopher O.L.H. Porter was also acknowledged as a Montague-Center for Teaching Excellence scholar during the meeting. Named for founding donor Kenneth Montague ’37, the program allows Texas A&M to recognize excellence in teaching early in a faculty member’s career. It’s given to the most promising pre-tenure teacher/scholars, who each receive a $5,000 grant to pursue research about innovative teaching techniques.

— Staff Reports

Students

FMA chapter gets recruitment honors

Mays’ Financial Management Association chapter has earned the FMA Platinum Membership Development Award for 2004-2005, in recognition of demonstrated excellence in recruiting more than 200 new student members during the academic year. It’s an award given to less than 7 percent of all FMA chapters worldwide.

This marks the fourth award in the past two years for the outstanding FMA chapter. Chapter advisor Sally Guyton was also honored for the 2004-2005 year as a Superior Faculty Advisor. And in 2003-2004, the chapter garnered both a Gold Membership Development Award and Superior Chapter Award.

— Staff Reports

Students

CMIS hosts second leadership retreat

Students and faculty, including CMIS director George Fowler (center left) gather to talk during the annual retreat.

More than 25 information and operations management undergraduates spent two days learning about corporate expectations, leadership attributes and team building during the Center for Management of Information Systems (CMIS)’ annual leadership retreat in late August.

The retreat is designed to help students establish friendships, create new team partners for class projects and glean a heightened sense of what defines true leaders. They met with CMIS board members, corporate representatives and former A&M student leaders in a casual setting around campfires and during a chuck wagon dinner in Navasota, Texas.

— Staff Reports

Students

Companies gather for Career Fair

Recruiters from 143 national and international companies gathered in Wehner in September to recruit future employees and interns during the fall Business Career Fair. Representatives from companies in every industry from oil and gas to financial services to retail took the opportunity to meet Mays students serious about their fields.

Many students, including senior finance major Stacey Stewart, use the Business Student Council’s biannual Career Fair as a springboard to interviews. Stewart came to fairs in semesters past looking for internships, but this is her first time as a full-time hire.

“I am looking at energy trading with a company like BP or possibly an investment-banking firm position,” Stewart said. “I hope to make contacts with and know a little bit about representatives so that I am more comfortable when I speak with them again.”

JCPenney representative Trina Kilpatrick said that in the three days she attended the career fair, she had met students who were more focused in their questions concerning her company and the jobs available than students have been in previous years.

“I have seen a lot of students who actually know what positions I have available,” Kilpatrick said. “Historically we’ve been able to get a lot of great college entry-level graduates from this school. These students are by far the most professional and polished students that I see in recruiting period.”

Visit http://bsc.tamu.edu for more information.

— Alycia C. Zuehlke