Last in a set of Aggie quadruplets earns accounting degree

Management researchers among most-cited

Undergrad program in top 20

First M.D./MBA student starts class at Mays

Winning the numbers game of fund raising

Meet the 2006 Outstanding Alumni

Opening bell

Marketable honors

Marketing major a product judge

Taxing wins

Bridges supports Metroplex

Baggett to receive Torch of Conscience

PhDs have winning research

What’s in a name?

Saylak joins Foundation trustees

Students

Last in a set of Aggie quadruplets earns accounting degree

Kelly, Clint, Ashley and Erin Martin show their Aggie pride in from of the Administration Building.

Numbers have always come easily to the Martins. Especially multiplication.

When they were almost born, doctors said to expect twins. Then triplets. Then, with three babies squirming around in nurses’ arms on the day of their birth, one more grabbed the doctor’s pinky finger and it was settled: quadruplets.

Now some 23 years later, the family’s number sense might lean more toward balance sheets and accounting standards than times tables. That’s because three of the four quads are accountants, each set to begin their careers in auditing at Big 4 accounting firms in Houston this fall.

At this August’s graduation, Clinton Martin was the third sibling this year to have earned both his BBA and master’s in accounting from Mays. He joins his quad sisters, Ashley and Kelly, who earned their accounting BBA and master’s degrees in May.  The quad’s fourth, sister Erin, graduated from Texas A&M in December 2005 and is a second-grade teacher in Katy.

Since birth, Clint, Ashley, Kelly and Erin have lived together, worked together and played together. They shared a set of two dozen close friends and the same long table at nightly meals in their home in Victoria. And when it came time to decide on a college, they quickly agreed on Texas A&M University.

But add three of the quads’ choice of major and career to the mix, and their upbringing with a calculus teacher for a mother and stats-dependent coach for a father shows its hand. “We’re extremely different, but at the same time we think alike,” Clint admits.

The three joined the Professional Program at Mays, in which students earn an accounting undergrad and master’s in any business discipline, all in five years. “We didn’t make a group decision, but once we realized we got accepted into the program, we all just laughed,” he says. “We could have all gone different directions, done engineering or become veterinarians—but it’s not so surprising. We’re all good with numbers and we have the same tendencies. And we picked one of the best degrees at A&M.”

Clint will join the auditing staff at KPMG in September. In August, Ashley started work at Deloitte & Touche and Kelly at Ernst & Young.

By the numbers, that’s three Martins in three of the top four firms in accounting’s Big 4.

— Sommer Hamilton

Faculty

Management researchers among most-cited

Management scholars at Mays are among the most-cited and most-published authors in 30 years of the Journal of Management. That includes the efforts of former journal editor and Executive Associate Dean Ricky W. Griffin, who in just three years as editor in the 1990s published more than half of the most-cited articles in the journal’s history.

In an August 2006 retrospective on the first 30 years of the Journal of Management, the journal’s 10 past editors take account of the growth of the scholarly journal. The journal is ranked 5th in the management field in terms of impact, and 7th in terms of citations.

Under Griffin’s editorship from 1990 to 1992, he invited submissions, reviewed or accepted 16 of the top 30 most frequently cited articles in the Journal of Management. Those are research articles whose findings and insight became source material for other research.

Griffin, a Texas A&M Distinguished Professor and holder of Mays’ Blocker Chair, also had the highest counts of any of the journal’s editors for the average citations per article, in 1991 averaging 88.5 citations per article. That compares to just 24.5 average citations per article in 1989, the year before he was editor. “I made a strategic decision from day 1 to aggressively solicit manuscript submissions from well-established and highly visible scholars in the discipline,” he explains in the August issue of Journal of Management.

The journal also delves into its author history, examining the researchers whose works became the most-cited in the journal and the authors who were the most frequent contributors. On the list of the most-cited JOM article authors are Texas A&M Distinguished Professor of Management and Mays’ Foster and Conn Chair holder Michael A. Hitt, with two of the 30 most-cited studies, and Mays’ Management Department Head and Bennett Chair R. Duane Ireland with one.

Hitt is also top in the prolific category during the first 30 issues of the journal: he is ranked second with 12 articles. Ireland came in on the list of most frequent journal authors with six articles, and Mays Professor of Management Gareth R. Jones is among the most prolific authors with five.

— Sommer Hamilton

Mays

Undergrad program in top 20

Mays is among the top 20 public undergraduate business programs, moving up a place to tie for 18th public in U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” 2007 rankings. The report, released in August, puts Mays tied for 29th overall in the nation, a bump up from 30th in 2006.

In individual discipline rankings, management is 12th public (down a spot from the 2006 list) and tied for 17th overall. Accounting, which first debuted on the list last year, is now ranked tied 18th public and 25th overall.

— Staff Reports

Students

First M.D./MBA student starts class at Mays

Business and medicine may go hand in hand, but it’s not often that they’re dealt to the same person. For Delip Patel, though, pairing up an M.D. with an MBA is the draw of choice.

After completing his first two years of med school at the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center’s College of Medicine, Patel entered Mays Business School this summer to conquer a new endeavor—an MBA.  While the rest of his classmates are starting their third-year clinical clerkships at Scott & White in Temple, Texas, Texas A&M’s first M.D./MBA dual degree student has taken a leave of absence from med school to spend the next year in the halls of Wehner.

Although the approach to business and science classes are not completely aligned, Patel developed good study habits in med school. “It’s a totally different mindset,” he said. “My whole foundation was in science, so the transition into med school was easier…[but] med school taught me how to manage large volumes of information at once, so I’m better suited to study business.”

Since doctors must make decisions regarding their medical practice, and not just help patients, Patel wants a business degree to aid in knowledgeable choices. “When I make a decision,” he said, “I don’t just want to make a decision—I want to know why I’m making that decision.” Patel, who has no business background, says Mays will be his source for understanding business processes in the medical field.

While Patel’s next few years of academia are laid out for him, his medical field of specialty is not yet set, and thanks to the plethora of possibilities made available through the dual degree program, that’s the beauty of it. “The opportunities are endless,” he said, “that’s the excitement of the future that I look forward to.”

— Ashley N. Coker

Centers

Winning the numbers game of fund raising

The Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship’s “2005 Fund-Raising Survey,” an analytic report revealing the dos and don’ts of successful fund-raising, shows that companies who seek help from outside resources increase their odds of reaching fund-raising goals.

CNVE, whose mission is to provide education and assistance to entrepreneurs, based the report on a survey of 80 Texas technology companies that had sought venture capital funding in 2004. The survey revealed that companies casting a wide geographical net, one that extends beyond their own state, are more likely to be a key player in the numbers game.

Whether you are seeking funding from management, venture capitalists, grant sources or family, the process of obtaining investment funds is exhaustive. According to the survey, most companies seeking capital funding focused their efforts on two types of capital sources with several contacts from each. On average, companies made 22 presentations in front of potential investors before they sealed a deal.

The survey showed too that companies taking advantage of independent outside advisors have higher success rates than those that do not. Of the companies that sought outside advisors to secure venture capital funding, 78 percent were successful in raising 90 percent of their targeted investment goals. This clobbers the mere 22 percent who reached the goal independently.

In conjunction with the center, Texas A&M MBA candidates Jonathan Jones and Santiago Cornejo conducted the survey and compiled data. The survey was the first of its kind and will be conducted annually by CNVE to help identify trends.

Find a copy of the “2005 Fund-Raising Survey” at http://www.cnve.org/default.asp?Mode=DirectoryDisplay&id=151.

— Ashley N. Coker

Former Students

Meet the 2006 Outstanding Alumni

Mays will honor this year’s Outstanding Alumni Award winners in College Station on Sept. 28.

Introducing…

M.L. “Red” Cashion’53, CPCU, chairman emeritus of Anco Insurance and a retired NFL referee	Daniel “Dan” Feehan ’73,  president and CEO of CashAmerica, Inc.	Thomas P. Richards ’65, chairman, president and CEO of Grey Wolf, Inc.

You can learn more about how far our alumni have gone in our November issue of Mays Business Online.

— Staff Reports

Faculty

Opening bell

Director of Real Estate Programs Cydney Donnell (pictured in red) stood next to the chair of American Campus Communities, Inc., while he rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Aug.10.

Donnell, also a board member for American Campus Communities, is one of the Association of Real Estate Women's 100 Women Real Estate Leaders for the 21st Century.

American Campus Communities is one of the largest publicly traded real estate investment trusts solely focused on student housing in the United States. Including its 38 owned student housing properties, the company provides management and leasing services at a total of 52 properties, representing 31,700 beds located on or near college and university campuses.

—Staff Reports

Faculty

Marketable honors

Marketing Professor and Brandon C. Coleman, Jr. ’78 Chair Venkatesh Shankar is the new chair of the Marketing Strategy Special Interest Group for the American Marketing Association Academic Division. He takes on the role for the next two years, with a vice chair in Mays’ marketing PhD graduate Satish Jayachandran, now an associate professor at the University of South Carolina.

Shankar’s goals? To help shape the research agenda for marketing strategy and develop ties with academics who don’t participate in the special interest group.

Shankar is also the 2006 Direct Marketing Educational Foundation’s Robert B. Clarke Outstanding Educator. The educator award recognizes an academician’s overall achievement in direct and interactive marketing education, and is based on their record of teaching, writing, research and speaking. Past winners have come from such schools as Harvard and NYU.

Ford Chair in Marketing and E-Commerce Rajan Varadarajan was selected to give the honored guest address at the closing banquet dinner of the Marketing Doctoral Students’ Association Conference in August. He also accepted a role in August as associate editor of the Journal of Marketing Research.

— Staff Reports

Students

Marketing major a product judge

The ability to confidently say, “I know a good product when I see one,” is something you can learn at Mays Business School. But for Rob Rynarzewski, senior marketing major and member of Texas A&M’s nationally undefeated Livestock Judging Team, recognition of quality isn’t something he learned at Mays—it’s what got him here.

Rynarzewski, like most of his teammates, was recruited by Texas A&M after excelling on a livestock judging team at a junior college level. Recruited while attending Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kansas, Rynarzewski’s All-American judging status is likely what caught the eyes of Texas A&M recruiters.

Livestock judging teams evaluate and rank cattle, sheep, swine and goats on their quality for reproduction and for market. This year’s team has surpassed the competition since their first national contest in January, helping team members dot the map with competition wins in Phoenix, Denver, Jackson, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. The team has maintained an undefeated status never before accomplished by an A&M judging team.

At the 2006 Arizona National Livestock Show in the Senior College Livestock Judging Contest, Texas A&M was the “high team,” winning “top team” in all judging categories. And Rynarzewski placed 4th as an individual.

Rules for collegiate livestock judging limit a student to one year of eligibility, bringing a new team in each December. Rynarzewski’s hard work, though, as a livestock judge has opened the doors for a business education from Mays that will last a lifetime.

His well-developed history of identifying quality products has given him an edge for marketing at Mays—but chances are he’ll be the judge of that.

— Ashley N. Coker

Facutly

Taxing wins

Associate Professor of Accounting Connie Weaver, one of Mays’ newest faculty members, received the American Taxation Association (ATA)/Deloitte Teaching Innovation Award in August, along with Bryan Cloyd from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The $5,000 award honors innovations in tax courses and encourages creativity and experimentation with new ideas, such as a novel use of a learning technique or introduction of original cases to classroom study.

— Staff Reports

Centers

Bridges supports Metroplex

Center for Retailing Studies Director Cheryl Holland Bridges has been appointed to serve as a member-at-large on the Dallas/Fort Worth Retail Executive Association board of directors. The D/FW association promotes ideas exchange between Metroplex
retailers.

— Staff Reports

Former Students

Baggett to receive Torch of Conscience

W. Mike Baggett ’68 will be presented with the American Jewish Congress Torch of Conscience award at a gala dinner in Dallas in October.

The Southwest Region of the American Jewish Congress annually presents the Torch of Conscience Award to distinguished men and women whose qualities of moral courage, love of liberty and community service exemplify the noblest of our heritage and ideals.

Baggett, who has an accounting degree from Mays to accompany his J.D. cum laude degree from Baylor University School of Law, is chairman and CEO of the top-tier Dallas-based law firm Winstead Sechrest and Minick. He is also a member of the executive committee of the State Bar of Texas, president and chair of the Dallas Bar Association, a fellow and member of the board of the Texas Bar Foundation, fellow of the American Bar Association and chair of fellows, Center for American and International Law. His civic involvement in the Dallas area includes being chairman of the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association, director and member of the executive committee of the greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce, director of the Dallas Citizens Council and chairman of Downtown Dallas.

— Staff Reports

Students

PhDs have winning research

Marketing PhD Kartik Kalaignanam is the 2006 winner of the Product Development Management Association’s Doctoral Dissertation Competition. The competition aims at fostering academic research on innovation and new product development.

Kalaignanam will present his work at the October PDMA conference and return in 2007 to present his results. He also wins $2,500 and a two-year membership to the PDMA.

Accounting PhD student Kirsten Cook also learned in August that he’s the winner of the Best Paper Award for the 12th Journal of the American Taxation Association Conference in 2006. His paper, “Stock Price Reaction to a Reduction in the Capital Gains Tax Rate: Evidence from the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997,” earned him a $1,000 prize.

— Staff Reports

Facutly

What’s in a name?

Accounting lecturer Natalie Allen and finance clinical associate professor Tim Dye are both Fish Camp namesakes for 2006. Fish Camps, extended Aggie orientation camps for new freshmen, are named for those individuals at Texas A&M who make an impact on the lives of Aggies.

— Staff Reports

Former Students

Saylak joins Foundation trustees

Thomas J. Saylak ’82, president of Merrill Lynch Global Commercial Real Estate in New York City, was appointed this July to the Texas A&M Foundation Board of Trustees.

Saylak, who grew up in Bryan, Texas, has been a special advisor to the foundation’s investment advisory board since 2002. At Merrill Lynch, he oversees real estate investment banking, commercial mortgage lending and principal investment activities worldwide.

— Staff Reports