Baylor Business Buzz
Baylor Entrepreneurship Students Present, Publish Case Studies
Three teaching case studies from student teams within the Hankamer School of Business were recently accepted for publication. The students were all members of the Business Excellence Scholarship Team (BEST) course and were asked to write a case study, about a real organization or business, which could be integrated into the classroom learning experience.
Acclaimed Baylor Economics Professor Gives Award Lecture
Joseph A. McKinney, the Ben H. Williams Professor of International Economics and recipient of the 2014 Cornelia Marschall Smith Teaching Award, presented the lecture “Reflections of Globalization,” in honor of the award in November.
Professor Honored With Distinguished Award
Andrea Dixon, The Frank M. and Floy Smith Holloway Endowed Professor in Marketing, was awarded the 2014 Excellence in Teaching Award from the American Marketing Association Sales SIG.
Baylor Entrepreneurship Professor to Serve on Committee for Global Entrepreneurship Leaders
Kendall Artz, chairman of the Baylor Department of Entrepreneurship and director of the Baylor Entrepreneurship Program, was recently selected to serve on the executive committee for the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC).
Baylor Student Wins Major Human Resources Scholarship
Melanie Prada is this year’s recipient of the HR Southwest Conference (HRSWC) Excellence in Education Student Scholarship, which includes a $1,000 scholarship and the net proceeds from the HRSWC silent auction.
Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business Hosts Dale P. Jones Business Ethics Forum on Leading with Ethics
The 2014 Dale P. Jones Business Ethics Forum took place in Hankamer School of Business in November. The theme, “Leading with Ethics,” aimed to engage students, faculty, alumni and business leaders in discussions of major ethical issues facing the business world today.
Baylor Named Top College for Entrepreneurship for 2015
Baylor University’s Entrepreneurship Program came in third in the nation, as ranked by The Princeton Review. Baylor offers 29 entrepreneurship-related courses and currently has 2,112 students enrolled in the program. Within the past five years, Baylor Entrepreneurship graduates have started approximately 200 companies. In addition, 100 percent of the staff and faculty have reportedly started, bought or run a successful business.
Baylor Business Review Wins W3 Awards
The Baylor Business Review (BBR) won three W³ Awards for its virtual content on the BBR iPad app and the BBR website. The W³ Awards honor creative excellence on the web and recognize the creative and marketing professionals behind award winning sites, videos and marketing programs. It is sanctioned and judged by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA), an organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts.
Baylor Business Students Shine at Sales Decathlon
Three professional selling students earned six top finishes and placed in the top 10 at an October sales decathlon at Northern Illinois University.
ProSales Students Gain Invaluable Experience at Top Gun Training Retreat
The Center for Professional Selling hosted its Top Gun Training Program in Dallas in August. The two-and-a-half-day professional development retreat for ProSales students involves a series of workshops that give students the opportunity to engage with more than
50 executives.
Baylor Students Win Commercial Competition
Students Laura Cade, Alexa Charpentier, Collin Simpson and Daniel Knight recently had a unique opportunity when they won a competition in Professor Kirk Wakefield’s Sports Sponsorship and Sales Program class. Ideas from their comprehensive marketing campaign for FOX Sports Southwest have been made into a commercial that aired to promote the network’s Football Friday show.
Alumni News
1968
STEPHEN PORTER, BBA ‘68, was selected as general counsel of Mortgage Contracting Services, a nationwide provider of property preservation, inspections and REO property maintenance to the financial services industry. He was selected in part because of his experience in the field. He has 23 years experience working in the mortgage servicing industry.
1979
MARK HURD, BBA ’79, has been named co-chief executive officer (CEO) of Oracle. He shares the role of CEO with the company’s former chief financial officer, Safra Catz. Though his title has changed, his responsibilities do not differ greatly from that of his former role as president where he handled sales, service and industry-specific business units.
1980
JULIE SIMON JAEHNE, BBA ’80, of Houston, has been an adjunct faculty member for 21 years at the University of Houston in the College of Education, teaching instructional technology courses. Jaehne received her Master’s of Science in Occupational Education from the University of Houston. She is a published author of multiple computer application textbooks and tutorials. Her newest book, Connect to Your Career, for the post-secondary/adult student, has been released by Goodheart-Wilcox Publisher. Connect to Your Career presents a unique approach for anyone conducting a job search. Strategies for using the internet, along with traditional job-search methods, guide users in navigating career opportunities. The use of social media to create a professional online identity is discussed, along with how to protect it. She and her husband Keith, BBA ‘80, have three children, Brandon, BBA ‘07, Justin and Lauren.
1982
VANCE VAUGHN, BBA ’82, was named The Texas Council of Professors of Education Leadership’s Researcher of the Year. Vaughn currently serves as associate professor of educational leadership in the department of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Texas-Tyler.
1983
DENNA GATEWOOD, BBA ’83, has been promoted to director of quality assurance at Alloy Metals and Tubes International of Houston. In her new position, Gatewood will be responsible for establishing a corporate quality assurance system, as well as implementing industry-recognized best practices and establishing an effective quality management system.
1985
PHILIP GUNN, BBA ’85, Mississippi House Speaker, was elected vice chairman of the Southern Legislative Conference. Gunn has represented District 56, which includes parts of Hinds, Madison, Warren and Yazoo counties, since 2004. A Hattiesburg, Miss., native, he lives in Clinton, Miss.
CLARK HOOD, BBA ’85, has been named vice president of worldwide resuscitation sales for Oxysure Systems, Inc. With more than 25 years of experience in the healthcare profession, Hood has held sales and management positions within companies such as Cardiac Science, BrainLab Inc. and U.S. Surgical Corporation.
LISA ROSS, BBA ‘85, was elected chief financial officer of Behringer Harvard Opportunity REIT I, Inc. by the company’s board of directors. Previously, she has served as the company’s senior vice president, treasurer, principal accounting officer, senior controller and director of financial reporting.
ALLISON WHITLOCK, BBA ‘85, was promoted to vice president of accounting for Crescent Real Estate, which has offices in Dallas and Houston. Whitlock, a certified public accountant, directs a team responsible for full general ledger accounting and financial statement preparation for the company.
1986
KEN PAXTON, MBA ’86, was recently elected the next Texas Attorney General, garnering nearly 60 percent of the votes cast statewide during the 2014 general election. General-elect Paxton was first elected to the Texas Senate in 2012 after serving five terms in the Texas House of Representatives. Paxton owns and operates a private practice, specializing in estate planning, probate, real estate and general business matters. He and his wife, Angela, reside in McKinney, Texas, with their two teenage daughters. Their other two children attend Baylor University. Their son is a senior, and their daughter is a sophomore.
1987
JEFF BOSCO, BBA ‘87, was named the head of CUNA Mutual group’s wealth management business. Bosco’s responsibilities include overseeing CUNA Brokerage Services Inc. (CBSI), which encompasses CUNA Mutual Group’s financial adviser network and wealth-management products.
1988
BILL DECKER, BBA ’88, is the chief executive officer of LocalShares. In 2013, the company launched the nation’s first city-based investment fund in Nashville. The fund started trading under the symbol NASH on Aug. 1, 2013. After the first year, the fund had assets topping $7 million. The exchange-traded fund, an investment model in which securities and assets are traded like stocks usually based on an index, allows investment in a portfolio of Nashville public companies. Qualified companies must be based in Nashville, traded on an exchange, have a minimum of $100 million in market capitalization and at least 50,000 shares traded daily.
1990
WILL STOKES, BBA ’90, was named senior vice president of information technology for Guardian Mortgage Company, Inc. Stokes is responsible for the vision and overall strategy for information technology in the company, as well as managing day-to-day operations. Guardian Mortgage Company, founded in 1965, currently services more than 2 billion dollars in loans and was named one of the Top 100 Places to work in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
1992
TIMOTHY K. LEVERIDGE, BBA ’92, was elected vice president of The Coca-Cola Company by its board of directors in October 2014. Leveridge was named Director of Investor Relations in July. He began his career with the Company in 1996 and has assumed roles of increasing responsibility
including senior manager in investor relations, finance director in the Company’s Adriatic and Balkans business unit and finance director in the Russia, Ukraine and Belarus business unit. Leveridge most recently served as director of industry insights in mergers and acquisitions. Before joining The Coca-Cola Company, he was an auditor with Arthur Andersen, LLP.
1993
MICHAEL MCFARLAND, BBA ‘93, was selected as a state finalist for the annual Superintendent of the Year award sponsored by the Texas Association of School Boards. McFarland is the superintendent of Lancaster Independent School District in Lancaster, Texas.
DAVID ROBERTS, BBA ‘93, is the new executive vice president of American Traffic Solutions (ATS) Fleet Services. In his new position, Roberts is responsible for managing all aspects of the fleet services business unit. Previously, he worked at Billing Tree, a multi-channel electronic payment platform, where he was president and chief executive officer.
1994
TYLER COOPER, BBA ’94, has been named president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Cooper Aerobics. In his new role, in addition to practicing preventive medicine, he oversees the company’s seven health and wellness businesses. Cooper has been a practicing preventive physician at Cooper
Clinic since 2006 and has served as CEO of Cooper Aerobics Enterprises, Inc. since 2007.
JODI HOOD-HIGHT, BBA ’94, has been with Keller Williams Realty in Southlake, Texas, for almost two years. In 2013, she was the No. 3 Individual Agent in an office of more than 400 agents. In 2014, she was in the top 15 percent of the agents in the office and is a multi-million dollar producer. Hood-Hight works in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, focusing primarily on the Tarrant County and Denton County areas.
1995
CHRISTOPHER B. TROWBRIDGE, BBA ‘95, was recently named chairman of the board of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas (BGCD). He has been a
member of the BGCD board of directors since 2006.
1996
LOREN MCCUTCHEN, MBA ’96, joined Houlihan Lokey, an international investment bank, as director of the firm’s due diligence services practice. McCutchen joins Houlihan Lokey following an 18 year career at Deloitte & Touche Group.
DRAYTON MCLANE III, BBA ‘96, has been elected to the board of directors of Central National Bank and its holding company, CentraBanc Corp. McLane III, a native of Temple, Texas, serves as executive vice president of McLane Group and several subsidiary firms.
1998
CHIP GAINES, BBA ‘98, and his wife Joanna, BA ‘01, signed on for a second season of their show “Fixer Upper” on HGTV. For the season, they will be remodeling 13 homes around Waco, Texas.
2001
JOSEPH POUNCY, BBA ‘01, is the new principal for Warren Middle School in the Forney Independent School District (Forney, Texas) beginning with the 2014-2015 school year. Pouncy has more than 12 years of experience in education as a teacher, coach and administrator.
2003
ERIK MILAM, BBA ’03, was honored as one of Investment News’ “40 Under 40” top financial planners who exhibit the greatest accomplishments to date, contributions to the industry, leadership and promise. Milam is certified financial planner who works for TrustCore Financial in Nashville and regularly speaks about overcoming obstacles in life, such as cerebral palsy and a severe stutter as a child.
2005
DAVID ARGUETA, MBA ’05, accepted the role of president of The Woodlands Hospital, Lakeside Hospital and the Springwoods Village facility (currently under development) in October 2014. Prior to the role of president, Argueta played an integral role in managing these facilities, initially named chief operating officer for The Woodlands Hospital, then assuming the interim president role in July 2014. He previously served as operations administrator for physician services and vice president of operations at Baylor Scott & White in Waco.
JOSEPH DEWOODY, BBA ’05, MBA ’06, runs Clear Fork Royalty, a Fort Worth-based oil and gas mineral rights and royalty acquisition company, with fellow alumnus Ryan Haggerty, BS ‘06. The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce has awarded the company the 2014 Greater Tarrant County Business Ethics Award. Criteria for the award include: clear communication of the company’s ethical standards; transparent, honest and fair business practices; and a code of ethics, credo, code of conduct or mission statement that clearly spells out the company’s requirement for honesty, integrity and compliance with the law in all business dealings.
2009
DANIEL REDDIN, BBA ’09, and BEKA (SCHELL) REDDIN, BBA ‘09, have relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area after five years in Houston. In fall 2014, Daniel began the MBA program at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where he is studying strategy with an emphasis on alternative energy and clean technology. Beka has been named Human Resources Manager for Vino Volo, an international wine retailer headquartered in San Francisco.
2010
NEEL GONUGUNTLA, MBA ‘10, is the president of the U.S. India Chamber in Dallas. Previously, Gonuguntla served as president of Ready-to-Work before being tapped to run the chamber. She will take over with new ideas for the 15-year-old nonprofit formerly called the Greater Dallas IndoAmerican
Chamber.
JOSHUA KAYLOR, MBA ’10, was presented with the Future Industry Leader Award at the Oil and Gas Awards gala event in Oklahoma City on Oct. 29, 2014. The Future Industry Leader Award recognizes a young professional under the age of 36 who has shown an inspiring contribution to the oil and
gas industry.
Baylor Business Review, Spring 2015