1960s
Larry D. Pendley, BBA ’69, and his wife Paulette (Wallis) Pendley have celebrated their 25th year as owners of Pendley Party Productions & Rentals in Waco, Texas. The pair started the company in their garage in 1991 and have grown it into a 15,000-square-foot warehouse providing rentals and event decor for the Waco and Central Texas area. Pendley Party Productions has been involved with the ground breaking and dedication of many Baylor University buildings.
Jim Turner, BBA ’69, purchased and rebranded John McLaren Chevrolet in McGregor, Texas, to Jim Turner Chevrolet. The grand reopening took place in March. His other business interests include banking, real estate and insurance in the Waco area, as well as part owner of the Texas Rangers Baseball club in Arlington, Texas, and former owners of the Dallas Stars hockey team in Dallas, Texas. Turner currently serves as the chairman of the board of trustees of Baylor Scott & White Health and chairman of the board of Dean Foods. He is a former chairman of the Baylor University Board of Regents, as well.
1970s
Ed Crenshaw, BBA ’73, former chief executive officer of Publix Super Markets Inc. and current chairman of the board of directors, was honored by the Food Marketing Institute with its highest honor, the Rabb Award, which acknowledges Crenshaw for excellence in serving the consumer, the community and the industry.
D.M. Edwards, BBA ’76, has been named chair of the University of Texas at Tyler development board. During his two-year term, Edwards will be responsible for leading a group of volunteers to support the university’s programs and special events. Edwards has served UT Tyler since 1997. Edwards also is the UT Tyler College of Nursing and Health Sciences Advisory Council chair.
Jay Allison, BBA ’78, MS Eco ’80, is the chairman and chief executive officer of Comstock Resources, which celebrated its 20th year as a New York Stock Exchange-listed company in December 2016. To celebrate, Comstock rang the closing bell at the NYSE on Aug. 24 this year. Allison founded Comstock Resources, an oil & gas company based in Dallas, Texas, and has been at the helm of the organization since its being listed on the NYSE.
Paul L. Foster, BBA ’79, has been elected to the board of directors for Tesoro Corp. He is former chairman of the board and executive chairman of Western Refining, which Foster founded in 1997 and was acquired by Tesoro on June 1. He was appointed to the board of regents of the University of Texas System in 2007, and has served as its chairman since 2013. He serves on many other boards including: El Paso Chamber of Commerce, steering committee of the Borderplex Regional Economic Alliance, Jordan Foster Construction, WestStar Bank and the El Paso, Texas branch of Dallas Federal Reserve Bank. He is a former member of Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Texas Business Leadership Council and Texas Economic Development Corporation.
1980s
Ricky Dickson, BBA ’80, was named president of Blue Bell Creameries by the Blue Bell Creameries board of directors. Previously, Dickson served as vice president of sales and marketing, where he oversaw planning, implementing sales and marketing programs for Blue Bell, as well as designed future growth strategies.
Randy Wilhoit, BBA ’80, MBA ’82, has been named regional president of PNC Bank in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area. An 18-year veteran of PNC, Wilhoit served previously as a senior executive in the business credit group, where he lead new business development and transaction structuring initiatives for corporate and commercial banking clients in the region. He is a member of the Dallas chapter for the Association for Corporate Growth, the Turnaround Management Association, the Commercial Finance Association and the World Affairs Council of Dallas.
Roland Garcia, BBA ’81, was appointed chairman of the Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital Committee, and serves as a board member of the Memorial Hermann Health System. He also was appointed as co-chair of the Houston, Texas, mayor’s hispanic advisory board.
Larry Taylor, BBA ’82, Texas state senator, was honored with The Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership Quasar Award. This award honors an outstanding elected official or business leader who, through his or her actions and leadership, has demonstrated a strong effort to support the business foundations of the greater Bay Area Houston, Texas, communities.
Dale Wilson, BBA ’82, has been appointed senior vice president and manager of the oil & gas group at Cathay Bank. Wilson previously served as territory manager for BancorpSouth and senior vice president and regional commercial executive for the Texas region of HSBC Bank USA, North America.
Thomas Bartlett, BBA ’83, chief operating officer of Alternate Health, a diversified healthcare company, has been appointed to the company’s board of directors. Bartlett has more than 30 years of private equity, investment banking, corporate advisory and operating experience. Prior to joining Alternate Health as its chief operating officer, he served as the president and chief financial officer of an insurance services company.
David E. Moore, BBA ’83, was announced as the next president of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. With 3,100 members, the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association is the largest statewide association of criminal defense lawyers in the country, as well as being the nation’s oldest—now celebrating 46 years defending individual freedoms. Moore is a partner in the Longview, Texas, firm Holmes, Moore, Waldron & Parrish, PLLC.
Kyle King, BBA ’86, has been named general manager of KARK-TV, the NBC affiliate in Little Rock, Arkansas. King previously was general manager of both ABC affiliate KMID-TV and KPEJ-TV, a FOX affiliate, in Odessa, Texas. King, a 30-year broadcast and sales veteran, will also oversee Nexstar’s joint operations with Mission Broadcasting’s KLRT-TV of Fox and KASN-TV, a CW affiliate in Little Rock.
Jerry Smith, BBA ’86, an All-Southwest Conference student-athlete in golf in 1985-86, has been elected to the Iowa Golf Hall of Fame Class of 2017. Smith has been a top performer at every level, including high school, college, amateur and professional. He spent five years on the PGA Tour and plays on the PGA Champions Tour.
Jeff Berry, MBA ’89, Eaglemont Entertainment head, has launched his own management firm, Courage Management. Berry spent a decade partnering with Centricity Music and will now guide the careers of Jason Gray, Stars Go Dim, David Dunn, Carrollton and Grayson|Reed.
Larry Cannon, BBA ’89, is the new chief administrative officer (CAO) at the American Heart Association (AHA) national headquarters in Dallas, Texas. As CAO, Cannon will oversee the business operations of the 93-year-old nonprofit. In addition to overseeing all financial management, he will also be responsible for AHA technology, human resources, facilities and other strategic business investments and operations.
Charlie Carr, BBA ’89, was announced as the U.S. family enterprises advisory leader within the private company services practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Based in Dallas, Texas, Carr will oversee the firm’s family enterprise consulting offerings, which includes solutions for families, their family businesses and family offices. He will lead projects in family governance, succession planning, risk analysis and family policies with both existing and prospective clients.
David Peavler, BBA ’89, has joined HD Vest Financial Services, a tax-centric independent broker-dealer, as the firm’s general counsel. Peavler previously was associate director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fort Worth, Texas regional office.
1990s
Jennifer Smith, BBA ’91, has been promoted to controller for accounting and client service operations for Stinnett & Associates, a professional advisory firm in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is a certified public accountant and a certified internal auditor with more than 20 years of experience in internal audit, Sarbanes-Oxley and public accounting.
Jeffrey Cook, BBA ’93, is the new chief executive officer of Texas Health and Aetna. He was previously responsible for health insurance and value-based strategy for seven health plans at Ascension Health, a faith-based system based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Jack Harper, BBA ’93, was named president and chief financial officer of Concho Resources Inc., an independent oil and gas company. In his current role, he oversees all of Concho’s operations as well as the company’s legal, accounting, information technologies and security functions. Previously, he served as the company’s senior vice president and chief of staff from November 2010 to January 2013, and executive vice president from January 2013 to May 2017.
Kelly McCourt, BBA ’94, was recently named director of sales and marketing for The Darcy, Washington, D.C., by Sage Hospitality. She brings 17 years of experience in marketing and public relations to the position.
Justin Ridnour, BBA ’95, has been appointed a new director of investment sales to the seniors housing advisory team of Greystone Real Estate Advisors in Dallas, Texas. In his new role, Ridnour will expand the group’s capabilities for full-service sales and finance advisory to owners and investors of senior housing. His addition will also increase the group’s national footprint by upping overall market share.
Scott McCurdy, BBA ’98, MAcc ’99, was recently named president of Blackhawk Specialty Tools, LLC, a leading provider of engineered well construction, well intervention services and products to the oil & gas industry. McCurdy served as chief financial officer for Blackhawk for more than five years prior to this appointment, during which time the company was a portfolio company of Rock Hill Capital in Houston, Texas, then Bain Capital in Boston, Massachusetts. It was recently sold to Frank’s International, N.V.
Paul Dodd, MBA ’99, is the new senior vice president of sales at Compeat, the restaurant management software company. Dodd will oversee the strategic direction and expansion of Compeat’s sales organization, with core expertise in sales leadership, culture and operations. He was previously head of sales for the GA360 measurement suite at Google.
Kyle McClure, MBA ’99, has been named senior vice president and chief financial officer of Franks International N.V., a global oil services company.
2000s
David Wade “Sully” Sullivan, BBA ’00, will co-star in the second season of Will Arnett’s comedy series, “Flaked,” on Netflix.
Joerg Hornstein, BBA ’01, has been appointed as chief financial officer of AC Immune SA, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company. Before joining AC Immune, Hornstein served as senior vice president group controlling for Unternehmensgruppe Theo Müller based in Luxembourg. Between 2002 and 2013, he worked for Merck KGaA, a science and technology company in healthcare, life science and performance materials, where he held various senior finance roles. Amongst others, he was CFO for Merck’s operations in Indonesia and Merck Serono’s operations in China. Furthermore, he served as vice president group controlling for Merck Group Headquarters in Germany and as divisional CFO for Merck Millipore in the U.S.
Michael Nuckles, BBA ’01, MTax ’01, is the new director of the Houston, Texas, office of Anderson Tax. Nuckles joined the alternative investment funds group and will focus on the energy business. Nuckles has more than 15 years of experience in tax, concentrating primarily on international tax in the oil, oilfield services and energy sectors. His experience includes tax planning, tax compliance and income tax controversies.
Jason Ellis, BBA ’02, was announced as the new president of the downtown Fort Worth, Texas location of Worthington National Bank. Ellis has served in the banking industry 11 years, specifically in commercial lending and relationship management. He is active in the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club of Fort Worth, Junior Achievement of the Chisholm Trail, Trinity Habitat for Humanity and several other community organizations in the Fort Worth area.
Kelly (Prince) Luttrell, BBA ’02, MAcc ’02, was promoted to senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer at Jernigan Capital in Memphis, Tennessee. She has more than a decade of experience in working with publicly traded companies and the real estate industry. She began and spent the majority of her career at Ernst & Young LLP, where she was part of the audit practice for 11 years and served numerous publicly traded clients ranging from emerging growth companies to Fortune 500 companies, and had significant exposure to REIT financial reporting and accounting issues. Luttrell joined Jernigan in fall 2015 from MicroPort Orthopedics, Inc., a global medical device manufacturer, where she served as controller and finance director.
Les Strech, BBA ’02, was named president of Thrive Senior Living, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, in early spring 2017. Thrive owns and/or operates 25 assisted living and memory care communities across the lower and eastern U.S. with four new communities currently under construction. Strech will offer leadership to all operational, financial and development initiatives.
Rick V. Anderson, BBA ’03, a shareholder at Roberts Markel Weinberg Butler Hailey PC in Houston, Texas, was recently named by the National Black Lawyers as a “Top 40 Black Lawyer in America under 40.” He also was selected to the “Super Lawyers Rising Stars” list, elected as board vice president of the American Collectors Association of Texas, elected as board president for the Epilepsy Foundation of Texas, nominated to the Texas Bar Foundation and became board certified in consumer and commercial law.
Blake Anderson, BBA ’04, has been named to the board of the El Paso Children’s Foundation. Anderson is a founder of Surecare Pharmacy Services and is an El Paso, Texas, native.
Jonathan Zendeh Del, BBA ’04, was named by Texas Monthly magazine as a “Super Lawyer” in 2017, and he was featured in Texas Monthly and the Super Lawyers Magazine. For the past three years, Zendeh Del has been named to the National Trial Lawyers “Top 100” list, and he has been featured in Houstonia Magazine as one of the “Top Lawyers in Houston.” He is an adjunct professor at the University of Houston, a lifetime sustaining fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, a member of the board of directors of the Texas Young Lawyers Association and the elected treasurer of the Galveston County Bar Association. Zendeh Del is an attorney with the law firm of Zendeh Del & Associates, PLLC in Galveston, Texas, where he practices criminal defense, DWI/DUI defense and personal injury law.
David Argueta, MBA ’05, was named to the “40 under 40” list in the Houston Business Journal. Argueta is the president of CHI St. Luke’s Health, which includes The Woodlands Hospital, Lakeside Hospital and Springwoods Village Hospital. Argueta also has been elected to serve on the board of Interfaith of the Woodlands, a nonprofit social service agency providing programs and services to meet the needs of The Woodlands, Texas, and the surrounding area.
Joel D. Stewart, BBA ’05, was appointed as an independent director on the board of directors for Inventure Foods. Stewart currently serves as a vice president of LKCM Headwater Investments, the private equity arm of Luther King Capital Management Corporation, a Securities and Exchange Commission-registered investment advisory firm. Stewart has been with LKCM since August 2013 and serves as a director and/or advisor to multiple portfolio companies held by LKCM Headwater Investments and other LKCM affiliates. Previously, Stewart served as a vice president at The Presidio Group, a San Francisco, California-based wealth management, investment and advisory firm, a Principal of 6Pacific Partners, LLC, a boutique merchant bank focused on the food, beverage and nutrition industries, and as an investment banker at JPMorgan.
Paulina Tam, MBA ’06, has been appointed chief operating officer at St. Petersburg General Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. Previously, Tam was vice president of operations at Tampa Community Hospital. Prior to that, Tam served as director of performance improvement for surgical services at HCA West Florida division, and senior management engineer in HCA’s South Atlantic division with focus on case management. Tam has held a variety of different managerial positions in her career, as well as that of administrative fellow at Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina.
Anna Futral BBA ’08, MTax ’08, has been named executive director of CASA of McLennan and Hill Counties, in Texas, which provides court-appointed advocates for foster care children. For the past 10 years, she has worked as a certified public accountant at Jaynes, Reitmeier, Boyd & Therrell in Waco, Texas, where she specialized in serving nonprofits.
Carter Kendall, BBA ’09, has joined CBRE as a vice president specializing in land disposition, site selection/acquisition and advisory services in Texas. Previously, Kendall served as the land acquisitions manager for Green Brick Partners, a publicly traded residential developer and land investor.
2010s
Joseph Farley, BBA ’11, was named to 2016 Auto Remarketing Industries’ “40 under 40” list. Currently, he is senior vice president of sales and marketing at Secure Collateral Management in Dallas. Recently, he became a certified private pilot. Farley was a member of Baylor Track & Field Team as a pole-vaulter.
Jana Pickett, MBA ’16, opened an OrangeTheory Fitness in the Domain in Austin, Texas. In addition, Pickett has started construction on a second location, which should open this fall.
Baylor Business Review, Fall 2017