McCombs' Newest Department
The Business, Government, & Society department focuses research and teaching on the regulatory, political, legal and ethical environment of business. Today’s global marketplace is more competitive, more transparent, more culturally and politically diverse, and more fluid than ever before. Future business leaders will need to be able to navigate the legal, ethical and cultural demands of government and society. The BGS department will help students cultivate the skills needed to successfully manage the dynamic business environment of the future.
News
Jack Abramoff Gives Talk
Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff spoke Wednesday(May 2, 2012) evening at the AT&T Conference Center about his recent efforts to reform politics and the lobbying system. Abramoff served four years in prison after being sentenced for fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials. Business, Government & Society Interim Chair Robert Prentice and Communications and Dr. Minette Drumwright of the College of Communication moderated the event. The event was sponsored by the Bates Family Foundation, the Deloitte Foundation, the Distinguished Speaker Series Committee, Austin Young Chamber of Commerce, the McCombs School of Business
Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Gives Talk
In an April 23 Bates Family Fund Lecture, Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability of the United States Treasury, Timothy Massad, spoke to a McCombs audience about his administration of the TARP program. TARP involved using massive federal funding during the economic downturn to prop up more than 700 banks, the U.S. auto industry, insurance giant AIG, and other entities. Massad's message was that TARP was a bipartisan measure that succeeded in what it was supposed to do and came in under budget. He predicted that when TARP is finally wrapped up, the federal government will lose very little of its "investment," and might even turn a small profit.
Alcalde Article on Abramoff
The Alcalde recently published an article on their website about the Jack Abramoff visit to the McCombs School of Business. The article discusses Abramoff's visit, the premise of why Abramoff is speaking at UT, and why schools bring disgraced speakers to teach our current students lessons on ethics and leadership. “Jack Abramoff has made some mistakes that I hope our students will never make. If they can learn from him how he made those [mistakes], they can keep their ethical antennae up and hopefully avoid some of the errors that he made,” says Robert Prentice, chair of the Department of Business, Government and Society and a moderator for the event. Read more...
Austin Electricity Conference
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff and EPA Region 6 Administrator Al Armendariz were among the participants in the Second Annual Austin Electricity Conference, held at the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center on April 4th and 5th. The conference is an invitation-only affair, bringing together scholars, industry representatives and policymakers each spring to address cutting edge issues in the energy industry. Professor David Spence of the Business, Government & Society department participated as a panelist for the conference.
BGS Adds New Faculty Members
The BGS Department is pleased to announce the hiring of two assistant professors who will join McCombs next year.
Tim Werner, who has a Ph.D in political science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, will leave his post at Grinnell College to join McCombs. His research and teaching interests include the policymaking process, business and government relations, and campaign finance reform. Cambridge University Press will soon publish Professor Werner’s book, “Public Forces and Private Politics in American Big Business.”
Brian Richter, who has a Ph.D from UCLA, will come to McCombs from one of Canada’s leading business schools, the Ivey School at the University of Western Ontario. Professor Richter's research focuses on firms' interactions with governments and other non-market actors, on the institutional settings in which firms operate, and on firm-level international financial and economic linkages. His interdisciplinary interests span fields including political economy, strategy (particularly non-market & international), finance (particularly corporate & international), political science, law, international/development economics, applied microeconomics, and industrial organization.
BGS Faculty on Honor Roll
When the Fall 2011 Undergraduate Faculty Honor Roll was announced on March 22, fully 40% of the ten award recipients came from McCombs' smallest department--BGS. Dean Bredeson, Stephanie Jue, Fran Pedersen, and Robert Prentice were all recognized for their stellar student teaching evaluations. Dean Bredeson received the Lockheed-Martin Award for receiving the highest student evaluations. The award carries a $1,000 prize.
BGS Role in Regulation
A key goal of the BGS Department is to contribute to public debates about the proper role of government regulation in business activity. When SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar issued a statement on facilitating small business capital formation in November, he cited research by BGS professors Frank Cross and Robert Prentice. Prentice has also recently been quoted in the New York Times (regarding the impact of government regulation on business activity), the CNN Wire (regarding government regulation and rogue traders), and the Voice of America (about government protection for whistleblowers in the financial industry).
Keystone Pipeline Killed: How and Why
One of my teaching duties at The University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business is to help oil company executives learn how to develop positive, productive relationships with “external stakeholders” -- governments, NGOs, neighbors, etc. A key lesson in that work is that the company's relationship with elected government officials is particularly fraught with risk. Business people can never fully trust an elected politician, no matter how close an ally he or she seems to be, because when the politician’s electoral interests diverge from shared policy goals, the former almost always trump the latter. Read more...
Prentice Honored
Robert Prentice has been named one of two ING Professors of Excellence for the UT basketball season. He was selected by a faculty committee and honored at center court at the Erwin Center before the Longhorn men played Oklahoma State on January 7, 2012.
BGS Helps MBA Rankings
BGS 's new MBA concentrations in "Public and Governmental Affairs" and "Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility" helped McCombs for the first time in several years land in the top third of 100 ranked schools in Beyond Grey Pinstripes' global full-time MBA rankings. McCombs ranked #28 overall (and #22 among public schools) in preparing students for social, ethical, and environmental stewardship.
Texas MBA Recognizes Faculty
Each Fall and Spring, the full-time Texas MBA students recognize stellar faculty with their MBA Applause Awards. Based on classroom activity last Spring some McCombs faculty were recognized including BGS faculty members Robert Prentice, David Spence, and Christopher Meakin.
Spence on KUT
Associate Professor David Spence, at the McCombs Energy Management and Innovation Center, spoke to Austin's KUT News about the economic impact of the oil and gas industry--and its impact on Perry's campaign. "As the price of oil goes up, that increases employment in the industry, and as you know, a lot of oil and gas employment for the world is centered in Texas," Spence told KUT News. The full length interview is available on KUT's website.
Faculty Honor Roll
BBA students recognized 11 of their favorite instructors by naming them to the Spring 2011 Faculty Honor Roll. To make the honor roll, professors must garner exceptionally high marks on student-completed surveys. The Honor Roll members were celebrated at a ceremony Oct. 3, hosted by the Undergraduate Business Council and the Undergraduate Programs Office.
Prentice Gives Talk
On October 7, Professor Robert Prentice gave the inaugural talk in the new Business Law & Ethics speaker series at the Georgia Tech College of Management in Atlanta. Professor Prentice spoke about the new field of behavioral ethics research to an audience of faculty and students.
Energy Policy, Risk and Coal
Professor David Spence recently published an opinion piece in the Houston Chronicle on energy risk.
Stidvent on NPR
Veronica Stidvent, program director of the Hispanic Leadership Initiative, in an interview with NPR's Farai Chideya on the results of rapid growth of the Hispanic population in the U.S.
Politics of Oil
Professor David Spence in an ABC News interview: Politics of Oil: Will High Prices Spur Lawmakers to Act?, March 8, 2011
BGS Harrington Fellow
Professor Lamar Pierce of Washington University of St. Louis is the 2011-2012 Harrington Faculty Fellow in the BGS Department. The Harrington Fellowship will support Professor Pierce, a prominent young scholar in business ethics, as he continues his research at The University of Texas at Austin. Professor Pierce will also host a conference at UT to advance scholarship in his field.
Allison Gives Presentation
Professor John Allison will give the Center for Intellectual Property Law Distinguished Professor presentation at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago on April 1, 2011. The topic will be "Patent Litigation and the Internet."
All Things Energy
On Feb. 24-25, approximately 150 McCombs alumni gathered for Hot Topics in Business, the 6th Annual McCombs Alumni Business Conference. “I can’t recall a time where energy was a hotter topic with students,” said David Spence, associate professor for the Department of Business, Government and Society and co-director of the Energy Management and Innovation Center (EMIC). More...
Hispanic Leadership Summit
The McCombs School brings together leaders from all over the United States to collaborate and discuss important issues in Texas and across the nation and the key role Hispanic Americans share in addressing these issues. Associate Professor David Spence will participate in discussion of the new expectations for Corporate Social Responsibility. More...
Prentice Gives Keynote
Robert Prentice was the keynote speaker at the Parker Leadership Conference at the Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma on February 25,2011. The theme of the conference was "Leadership and Ethics," and Professor Prentice spoke about research that indicates that leaders can face particularly difficult challenges in staying on the straight and narrow even if they desire to act ethically.