Brittany

Baylor’s Undergrad Entrepreneurship Program Ranked No. 4 in U.S.

Entrepreneur Magazine and The Princeton Review ranked the undergraduate Entrepreneurship Program at Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business the fourth best in the country. Thousands of entrepreneurship programs were surveyed, judged on criteria including the availability of internships and externships, the percentage of entrepreneurship students who developed an actionable plan to launch a business while at the school and the number of companies started by graduates over the last five and 10 years.

Baylor University Hosts First Case Competition in Healthcare Management

Graduate students from universities across the nation came together at Baylor University in October to compete in the inaugural Robbins Case Competition in Healthcare Management. The Robbins Institute for Health Policy and Leadership at Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business hosted the competition.

Baylor Hosts 10th Annual Dale P. Jones Business Ethics Forum

The 10th Annual Business Ethics Forum took place from Tuesday, Nov. 3 to Friday, Nov. 13. The theme of the forum was “The Ethics of Health and Wellness.” The Dale P. Jones Ethics Forum was created in 2005 to engage students, faculty, alumni and business leaders in discussions of major ethical issues facing the business world.

Career Management Department Launches New Platform to Help Students Get Hired

The Hankamer School of Business Office of Career Management launched a pilot program available only to business school students called Handshake, a modern career services management platform.

Baylor MBA Candidates Partner with Zambian Students for Business Consulting

Baylor University MBA candidates and Northrise University undergraduate students teamed up in June for the annual Africa Global Initiative course in Ndola, Zambia. The seven Baylor Business students and twelve Northrise students formed five teams to work for three local businesses on projects involving human resources, entrepreneurship, pricing structures and marketing campaigns.

Professional Selling Program Recognized by Sales Education Foundation

The Sales Education Foundation (SEF) named Baylor’s Professional Selling program to their list of “Top University Sales Programs” for the sixth year in a row.

Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business Welcomes Senior Director of Development

Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business welcomed Senior Director of Development John Hillis in November 2015. Hillis will lead the development effort for the School. He brings 28 years of philanthropic development experience to the position, including prior roles with multiple Big 12 institutions. He and his wife Kristen have two daughters, Madi and Libby.

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2016

By Eleanor Hunt

Matt Carroll, BBA ’11
Relationship Manager
Frost Bank
Dallas, Texas

Whether to study at Baylor University wasn’t a cut-and-dried decision for Matt Carroll. One plus was Baylor’s proximity to his hometown of Stephenville, Texas.

“I didn’t think I was quite ready for a large school or one in a huge city,” Carroll says. “Baylor was the best school closest to home.”

Also critical in his decision was Baylor’s offer of an academic scholarship. But just when Carroll had nailed down his choice, a smaller college offered him a football scholarship. Carroll seriously considered it, but to ensure he was on the right track, he attended a Baylor orientation weekend. There he made some fast friends and met his future roommate.

“Baylor felt right,” he recalls.

Carroll chose to study Economics at the Hankamer School of Business because he liked finance and was interested in banking and financial management. He was a member of Alpha Lambda Delta, National Society of Collegiate Scholars and Beta Gamma Sigma. After his sophomore year, Carroll started working part-time for Community Bank and Trust in Waco. He also mentored high school students and led weekly bible studies for KLIFE, an interdenominational organization which helps youth build Christian friendships and behaviors.

His business classes and banking job proved to be a winning combination for acquiring job interviews and several firm offers. In 2011, with a bachelor’s of business administration in Economics and Management, Carroll accepted a position with Frost Bank. As an associate relationship manager, he analyzed commercial loans for middle-market companies. Two years later, Carroll was promoted to relationship manager, a position that enables him to develop new business opportunities and his own loan portfolio for the bank.

“My current job is a great mix of using the financial skills I felt were my strengths and interacting with people,” he says, acknowledging that the Baylor Business Network (BBN) in Dallas provided a great tool for nurturing those interactions.

“I didn’t know a lot of people,” he continues. “The BBN was an easy place to get to know people, because we all have Baylor in common.”

Carroll attends monthly BBN breakfasts and football watch parties. He stays in touch with alumni, meets them for lunch and visits their offices. Networking with Baylor alumni gives him personal satisfaction and confidence to associate with other professional groups.

“When I walk into the BBN, it’s always fun to know five or 10 people right off the bat,” he says. “The BBN is a great place because I learned how to approach people in a business setting and just start up a conversation.”

In addition to alumni connections, Carroll helps recruit Baylor students for Frost’s intern program. He is a member of the Baylor University Banking Advisory Council, which meets semi-annually to discuss the curriculum and recruiting students for careers in commercial banking.

“There were things I wanted to know as a student, so if I can answer some of those questions, maybe it will give students some career direction and help them get better jobs,” he concludes.

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2016

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1950s

Don Buckalew, BBA ’56, celebrated the 50th anniversary of his company, Buckalew Chevrolet in Montgomery, Texas.

1960s

Jim L. Turner, BBA ’69, has been named chairman of the Baylor Scott & White Holdings board of trustees, becoming the second-ever chair of the organization born from the 2013 merger of Dallas-based Baylor Health Care System and Temple-based Scott & White Health. Turner succeeds inaugural chair Drayton McLane Jr.

1970s

Mark Bass, BBA ’73, has been honored as a member of the 2015 Financial Times Top 400 Financial Advisors in the United States. Mark is a CFP, CPA and a financial planner with Pennington, Bass & Associates in Lubbock, Texas. He is married to Betsy Brown Bass. He has four adult children—two sons, a stepson, a stepdaughter and four grandchildren.

James Lozier, BBA ’77, was appointed to the board of directors at Hunt Companies Inc. He currently serves as a director for Equity Commonwealth.

Wes Brazell, BBA ’78, was appointed chief financial officer of TearLab Corp. (DFW), with overall responsibility for operational finance, financial reporting, budgeting and strategic planning. TearLab develops and markets lab-on-a-chip technologies that enable eye care practitioners to improve standard of care by testing for disease markers in tears at the point-of-care.

Bruce Ballengee, BBA ’79, is president and chief executive officer of Pariveda Solutions, a leading management consulting firm specializing in improving clients’ performance. The company was named to the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Best Places to Work List. They were ranked No. 40 in the small size company category of businesses between 10 and 49 employees. This is the second year in a row that the Atlanta office has been nominated and named to the list.

1980s

Annie Hall, BBA ’83, MBA ’93, owner of Annie’s Culinary Creations in Dallas, recently participated in Goldman Sach’s “10,000 Small Businesses,” a national program that helps small companies create jobs, increase revenues and expand their businesses. Hall previously worked as a chief executive for a number of financial firms before leaving the corporate life for a culinary one.

Thomas Horton, BBA ’83, has been named a senior advisor in the Industrials and Business Services (IBS) Group at Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing. Horton previously served as the chairman, president and chief executive officer of American Airlines.

Mark W. Haushill, BBA ’84, was appointed chief financial officer of Houston International Insurance Group, Ltd. Haushill has extensive experience serving in senior finance roles at specialty insurance companies, including as the CFO of American Safety Holdings Ltd. and Argo Group, Ltd.

Caleb McCaleb, BBA ’84, has been named to the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank’s Advisory Council for a three-year term. McCaleb is the president of McCaleb Homes, Inc., and has been in the homebuilding profession for 31 years. He is responsible for land acquisitions, finance and design of master plan communities.

Mark Rickards, BBA ’84, is a founding partner of TRIPTYCH Health Partners, a Dallas-based specialty communications firm that provides strategic medical marketing support to biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Rickards was previously president of Cadent Medical Communications.

Stuart Fink, BBA ’85, has been named a senior credit underwriter by Preston Hollow Capital, a merchant bank focused on municipal specialty finance, commercial finance and asset management. His responsibilities include evaluation, analysis and underwriting of the real property components of the firm’s investments. Fink previously worked for GE Capital.

Larry S. Starks, BBA ’85, leads the investment banking group at Waterview Advisors. Recently, Waterview Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor to AMC Industries in its sale to John Deere Landscapes.

Brian Dill, BBA ’87, has been named by Cherry Bekaert, one of the largest CPA and consulting firms in the country, as a tax principal and the leader of the firm’s international tax practice.

Haag Sherman, BBA ’88, joined the U.S. Capital Advisors LLC (USCA) board of directors. Sherman is currently the chief executive officer of Tectonic Advisory and is the former CEO and chief information officer of Salient Partners L.P.

1990s

Steve Guillaume, BBA ’90, has been promoted by Charlotte, Mich.-based Spartan Motors Inc., to president of the Specialty Chassis and Vehicles Business Unit, which includes responsibility for the RV chassis portfolio, specialty vehicles, defense and government, as well as aftermarket parts and accessories.

Brian Small, BBA ’90, has been named the director of marketing for Equify, LLC. Equify is engaged in corporate lending in the construction, energy and transportation space, as well as heavy machinery and equipment auctions across the state of Texas. Small is in charge of the creative direction of the company, promoting auction events through television advertising, web and print media.

Don A. Byers, BBA ’91, MBA ’92, was recently promoted to national senior portfolio manager within the Government and Institutional Banking Division of Wells Fargo Bank, managing a multi-billion dollar credit portfolio. He has worked for Wells Fargo (via First Interstate Bank) in various locations since graduating from Baylor and is currently working in Tampa, Florida.

Melvin Hunt, BBA ’91, has joined the Dallas Mavericks coaching staff. Hunt will work under head coach Rick Carlisle as the team’s lead assistant on the bench. Hunt previously served as the interim head coach for the Denver Nuggets.

Latta Baucom, MBA ’92, has been appointed as head of school at Davidson Day School. Baucom is currently the head of the upper school at The Benjamin School in Palm Beach, Florida.

Jeffery Price, BBA ’92, a senior partner at Merrill Lynch in Southlake, Texas, works with institutions and families to build faith-consistent asset allocation strategies.

Kermit Ward, BBA ’92, was promoted to principal of Pflugerville Independent School District’s Connally High School. Ward began his career in Waco ISD as a teacher and administrator. He served as a principal of a middle school in Pflugerville ISD for three years prior to this promotion and is pursuing a doctoral degree in educational leadership at the University of Texas at Austin.

John Rainey, BBA ’93, MBA ’95, former executive vice president and chief financial officer of United Airlines, was named the chief financial officer of PayPal Holdings Inc. At PayPal, Rainey will oversee financial operations, regional finance teams and investor relations.

Laura Sykes, BBA ’93, MTax ’94, has been admitted to the BDO USA, LLP, partnership. BDO USA, LLP is one of the nation’s leading accounting and consulting organizations. In this role, Sykes will provide tax planning and compliance services through BDO’s Private Client Services group. Previously, Sykes was a senior director in the company’s Houston office.

Jeff Williams, BBA ’93, was named chief financial officer of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northwest Real Estate serving the greater Portland/Vancouver metro area. Williams has more than 20 years of financial expertise in real estate finance mergers and acquisitions, due diligence capital management, treasury management, strategic planning and investor relations.

Doug Cofer, BBA ’95, MBA ’96, founder and chief executive officer of Four Columns is involved in Creative Potluck, an organization to launch and support downtown arts and community growth in Waco, Texas.

David Patterson, BBA ’95, was recently named chief executive officer of Falck Rocky Mountain in Aurora, Colorado. Falck is a 108-year-old international emergency, assistance, safety and healthcare company providing services in 45 countries. Serving as a paramedic since his time at Baylor, Patterson recently completed his term as the chair of the Aurora Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.

Bob E. Parsons III, MBA ’98, joined the board of directors of the Green Beret Foundation. Parsons is currently the president of Ronin Leadership and has served in the Green Berets. The Green Beret Foundation provides immediate financial assistance and advocacy to those Green Berets injured in the line of duty, to their families and to the families of Green Berets killed in action.

Peter Sefzik, MBA ’98, has been named Texas market president of Comerica Bank. As Texas market president, Sefzik will lead Comerica’s Texas Management Council and oversee all business and community development efforts in the bank’s headquarters market, including direct management responsibility for Middle Market and Energy Lending in Texas. Additionally, he will manage six regional presidents and have overall market responsibilities for the commercial, wealth and retail lines of business in Texas, Arizona and Florida.

2000s

Chris Heckler, BBA ’02, chief executive officer and co-founder of Valify, and Matt Clark, BBA ’00, MBA ’15, chief financial officer of Valify, recently announced Valify’s partnership with MedAssets. MedAssets announced it broadened its purchased services approach through an exclusive partnership with Valify to offer a new web-based analytics solution designed to standardize purchased services spend across the health system enterprise.

Kyle Herring, BBA ’02, was inducted into the Liberty Mutual Insurance Sales Hall of Fame in May 2015. He has been with the company since graduating in 2002 and has won more than 60 awards for his hard work and dedication. He is ranked as the top producer nationally within the company of more than 2,500 sales representatives. Liberty Mutual sells auto, home and life insurance, and is in the top 5 largest insurance companies in the world.

John Morrison, BBA ’03, MTax ’03, was appointed executive director of the Alaska Trust Land Office (TLO) by Governor Bill Walker. Morrison has been instrumental in transforming the TLO into a sophisticated fixed asset manager and investor. Prior to becoming the executive director, Morrison served as chief administrative officer and deputy director of the TLO. The TLO is charged with stewardship of and maximizing revenue from the 1,000,000-acre corpus of Trust Land located across Alaska and currently three additional states. In his new role, Morrison will continue to work with business partners and stakeholders in a variety of industries including oil & gas, mining, commercial real estate and timber through the TLO’s various subsidiaries.

Rhett Dawson, BBA ’04, vice president of marketing for Insurors Indemnity Cos., volunteers and serves as president of the board of directors at Rapoport Academy in Waco. Dawson is supporting his lifelong commitment to providing quality education to all students, regardless of socioeconomic status. Dawson grew up in Zimbabwe, where he says public schools are “very dysfunctional,” but education is vital, and students want to learn.

Stephen Garner, BBA ’04, MBA ’14, has been named the chief operating officer of Abrazo Arrowhead Campus in Glendale, Arizona. Abrazo Arrowhead is a nationally recognized acute care hospital.

Bryan Tilson, BBA ’04, was appointed managing director of Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai. He will partner with executive creative director Yang Yeo to oversee the business and overall performance of W+K Shanghai. Before moving to W+K Shanghai in 2011 as business director on Nike China, Tilson had joined W+K Portland in 2008 as an account supervisor on American retailer Target. As a business director on Nike China for the past three and a half years, Tilson has led a diverse team of both local and expat talent to create world-class creative work for Nike, including the award-winning “Find Your Greatness” Chinese social media campaign. He has continued to successfully collaborate across the W+K network and to develop strong relationships with senior leadership at Nike China.

Todd Pollock, BBA ’06, MBA ’14, oversees season ticket deposit sales for a prospective Las Vegas National Hockey League team owned by Bill Foley, a title insurance businessman. Foley launched the ticket campaign in February to show NHL officials that Las Vegas is ready for big-league hockey.

Dustin Little, MBA ’08, the regional manager of Advanced Manufacturing and Technology Accounts of GCA Services Group (A Blackstone Company) has had his role expanded to include the management of the Austin human resources organization and the addition and/or expansion of strategic accounts and personnel including: Freescale, Novati, Hospira, Emerson Process Controls, Charles Schwab and Endeavor.

Doug French, MBA ’09, is the chief executive officer of Stylecraft Builders. Builder Magazine has named the company the fastest growing privately held builder in the nation.

Kevin Jones, BBA ’09, and Colin Heller, BBA ’09, are co-founders of Simplebills, a company that makes college living simpler/easier in regard to paying and splitting utilities. In the last year, the company has doubled in size and created an app.

Jay Proffitt, MBA ’09, is the vice president of Trading Services Product Management at Charles Schwab. The Travis County Commissioners Court recently approved an incentives package designed to make it easier for Charles Schwab Corp. to undertake a big Austin expansion. The county incentives package, worth $3.3 million in tax abatements in exchange for the company making a $196.7 million capital infrastructure investment and adding 823 new jobs, clears the way for the Texas Enterprise Fund to contribute another $4.5 million in tax abatement incentives.

2010s

Patrick Swindle, BBA ’10, was named administrator of East Texas Medical Center (ETMC) Quitman.

Brittany Foreman, BBA ’12, was promoted to digital marketing manager in the Communications & Marketing Department of the Hankamer School of Business.

Taylor Conerly, BBA ’14, was featured on the season finale of TLC’s “Bride by Design.” Conerly and her husband garnered attention after a video of their Cinderella-themed wedding proposal went viral.

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2016

By Brittany Foreman

In business school, students learn the value of developing and maintaining a good professional network. More than 70 percent of jobs are obtained through existing relationships and networking. But as people move across the country or around the globe, staying in touch with former classmates or connections from the Baylor Business Network meetings can be difficult.

Welcome to the digital age. With approximately 92 percent of recruiters using social media as part of their hiring process, it’s hard to ignore the implications of online networking. People are using LinkedIn, apps, even Facebook and Twitter to initiate and sustain professional relationships.

It is growing significantly easier to stay in touch with former classmates and business acquaintances thanks to technology. A quick search on LinkedIn reveals more than 14,400 profiles of current and former Hankamer School of Business students. LinkedIn has reported more than 400 million users and conveniently suggests new connections based on your current network.

Imagine a face-to-face networking event. You approach another attendee, introduce yourself, chat and possibly exchange business cards. Now think about LinkedIn. You can do all of the same things: connect, introduce yourself and exchange a few messages. Online, though, the new connection has access to employment history, volunteer experience, education and skills. By maintaining online relationships, contacts know the pertinent information to make informed referrals.

From an employer perspective, candidates referred by current employees tend to be the highest quality hires. A referral candidate often has greater job satisfaction and stays longer with the company. Referral candidates are three to five times more likely to be hired for a position than a candidate with no connection within the company. With the growing popularity of employee referral programs, 69 percent of companies say they have a program in place , more and more members of professional networks are incentivized to refer highly qualified candidates for positions.

Digital options outside of LinkedIn

Most business conferences designate a hashtag for attendees to use on Twitter and other social media platforms. It’s easy to find and connect with someone at a conference when you both use the same hashtags to discuss the event.

Facebook offers targeted groups, groups with the intent to unite people with common interests, which allows the opportunity to network with anyone online who identifies with the network. This is a great way to digitally meet and bounce ideas off of industry peers and experts. If the group is for practitioners in your area, it might lead to face-to-face interactions, too.

Additionally, networking smartphone applications (apps) are being introduced to the market daily. For example, the purpose of the app Weave is to introduce professionals. When two individuals both indicate they’d like to meet, the app puts them in contact with each other. Want to hire or be hired? Fundraise? Weave’s algorithm suggests professionals based on stated goals.

It is important to find the digital networking style that works best for you, but with the expanding number of options, there’s no excuse for avoiding what is taught in school: never stop networking.

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2016

By Becca Broaddus

Jonathan Cole-McKay, BBA ‘13
MBA/MSIS Candidate
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

When Jonathan Cole-McKay boards an airplane, he isn’t just eager to be going somewhere. He’s excited to meet people. On a recent flight to Florida with the MBA program, Jonathan Cole-McKay sat next to a businessman who owns a company that does construction for retail companies. On his flight to Zambia with the MBA Program’s Africa Global Initiative in June, he met a big-game hunter. On another flight, he met a commercial real estate attorney.

“I meet a lot of people on flights,” he said. “Networking is a priority in my life. If I sit down somewhere, and I don’t know you, I’m going to figure out a way to start a conversation with you.”

Cole-McKay isn’t your average MBA candidate. In fact, it’s difficult to call him ‘average’ in any respect. Driven by faith, he’s pursuing a general MBA and a master’s of Information Systems full-time. For his BBA, he triple-majored in Entrepreneurship, Spanish and Distribution Management & Technology.

Plus, Cole-McKay has two entrepreneurial ventures, the first, ShoePurgatory, is a website that runs financing for specialty, niche-market sneakers. What started as a hobby collecting Air Jordans in high school turned into a business after a few classes at the Hankamer School of Business. He started it his sophomore year. The second venture, Chaser Strips, is a product-based company. Although the product, flavored dissolving strips that alleviate harsh aftertastes, was the creation of two of Cole-McKay’s fellow Baylor graduates, Cole-McKay joined the company soon after. Cole-McKay, a former Boy Scout who proudly sold the most popcorn of his troop three years in a row, will become the chief executive officer of Chaser Strips as his full-time job after graduation.

He comes by the entrepreneurial spirit and ambition naturally. His Jamaican-born grandparents and mother are entrepreneurs too.

“Entrepreneurship has been bred in my family, in a way,” Cole-McKay said. “My grandma owns a lot of restaurants, bars and things like that in Jamaica. After my mom went to college in Oklahoma, she ended up opening up a Jamaican restaurant—Oklahoma City’s first. She and my dad owned some smaller businesses like that. Seeing the amount of work and effort they put into their businesses and seeing how my grandparents grew something from nothing, it gave me the drive to want to do the same thing.”

Like his family, Cole-McKay prides himself on breaking stereotypes and breaking boundaries.

“I love doing things outside the norm,” he said. “As a black student, there are expectations of me being confined to certain norms. I don’t like being confined to anything. I’m always willing to try anything one time. Life is being open to new experiences, and I want to be able to say I at least tried it.”

Being open to new experiences goes beyond work and school for him. Cole-McKay went bungee jumping in China, learned to snowboard in Argentina and ran with the bulls in Spain.

“There’s a lot of bad in the world, but there’s also a lot of good in the world,” he said. “It’s up to you to find the good in the world and enjoy it. I’m a strong believer of praying for something and then going out to work for what I just prayed for, because faith without action is irrelevant.”

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2016