Leadership

Sheridan Titman

Department of Finance
Walter W. McAllister Centennial Chair in Financial Services
sheridan.titman@mccombs.utexas.edu

Dr. Titman has a national reputation for his research on corporate finance, real estate and asset pricing issues. He currently blogs on energy policy from a financial economist’s perspective. Having co-authored a leading advanced corporate finance textbook entitled “Financial Markets and Corporate Strategy,” he has served on the editorial boards of leading academic journals.

Professor Titman is a past director of the American Finance Association and a current director of both the Asia Pacific Finance Association and the Western Finance Association. He has served on the faculties of UCLA, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Boston College. He has also worked in Washington D.C. as special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy. He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Professor Titman holds a B.S. from the University of Colorado and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University.

John C. Butler

Associate Director, Academics
Clinical Associate Professor, Finance
john.butler2@mccombs.utexas.edu

Dr. Butler’s research focuses on the Decision Sciences: decision analysis, operations, information systems, management science and statistics. He serves as Secretary/Treasurer of INFORMS Decision Analysis Society, an organization comprised of over 900 academics and practitioners in the field of decision analysis.

For EMIC, Dr. Butler is focused on building energy-specific business curriculum. He teaches MBA-level energy finance classes and supervises student participation in practicums and case competitions.

Professor Butler received his B.B.A. from Texas A&M University and his Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin.

Tanya Andrien

Associate Director
tanya.andrien@mccombs.utexas.edu

Ms. Andrien joined EMIC in late 2010 to assist with strategy, events, operations and student practicums. Prior to this position, Ms. Andrien spent more than a decade providing business and litigation consulting services to corporations, law firms and government agencies. Her experience as a consultant spans a number of industries, including financial institutions, construction, consumer products, and energy. Most recently, she was a Director for Duff and Phelps, an international financial advisory firm.

Ms. Andrien holds a B.A. from Princeton University and an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

James Dyer

Co-Director
Department of Information, Risk and Operations Management
Fondren Foundation Centennial Chair in Business
jim.dyer@mccombs.utexas.edu

Dr. Dyer’s research and teaching interests include risk management and capital budgeting. He has published three books and more than sixty articles on risk analysis and investment science. He received the College of Business Administration Foundation Advisory Council Award for Outstanding Research Contributions in 1999. Jim is the former Chair of the Decision Analysis Society of the Operations Research Society of America (now INFORMS). This group has a membership of over 900 academics and practitioners in the field of decision analysis. He received the Frank P. Ramsey Award for outstanding career achievements from the Decision Analysis Society of INFORMS in 2002.

Professor Dyer has offered executive education programs throughout the world, many of which were for energy companies, including ENI, PEMEX, Petrobras, Petronas, Shell and Texaco. In addition, Professor Dyer has also provided consulting services and expert witness testimony related to application of risk analysis and investment science to problems such as forecasting gas prices, assessing the construction and management of a nuclear power project, hedging natural gas purchases, forecasting demand for electric power, and analyzing capital investments in wind technologies, among others.

Dr. Dyer received his B.A. and Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin.

Wayne Hoyer

Co-Director
Department of Marketing
wayne.hoyer@mccombs.utexas.edu

Dr. Hoyer's major area of study is consumer psychology. His research interests include consumer information processing and decision making, customer relationship management, and advertising information processing (including miscomprehension and humor).

Dr. Hoyer has published over 60 articles in the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing, and other marketing and psychology forums. He is co-author of a textbook in consumer behavior with Deborah MacInnis (now in the 5th Edition). His teaching interests include consumer behavior, customer strategy, and integrated marketing communications.

Stephen Limberg

Co-Director
Department of Accounting
PricewaterhouseCoopers Centennial Professor
stephen.limberg@mccombs.utexas.edu

Dr. Limberg is currently the director of the MPA Program and was chair of the Department of Accounting from 1997-2003. His research interests include international business and tax. Professor Limberg is the recipient of several distinguished teaching awards, including the McCombs School Teaching Innovation Award in 2004.

Dr. Limberg received his B.A. from Occidental College, his M.B.A. from San Diego State University, and his Ph.D. from Arizona State University.

Leigh McAlister

Co-Director
Department of Marketing
Ed and Molly Smith Chair in Business Administration
leigh.mcalister@mccombs.utexas.edu

Dr. McAlister’s research focuses on consumers’ reactions to marketing interventions and the strategic implications of those reactions. Published in Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science and Journal of Retailing, this work has been supported by Procter & Gamble, HEB Grocery Co., 3M, Motorola, Frito-Lay, Philip Morris, Pepsi, Miller, McLane Distributing, and the Marketing Science Institute.

Professor McAlister is on editorial boards of the Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology and Marketing Letters, and served as Executive Director of the Marketing Science Institute, 2003-2005.

Professor McAlister received a B.A. from the University of Oklahoma and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Ehud I. Ronn

Co-Director
Department of Finance
Director, Center for Energy Finance Education and Research
eronn@mail.utexas.edu

Dr. Ronn’s research and teaching interests focus on the valuation of energy commodity-contingent securities. He has published articles on investments, interest rate-sensitive instruments and energy derivatives in the academic and practitioner literature, including Journal of Finance, Journal of Business, American Economic Review and Energy & Power Risk Management. He is the editor of Real Options and Energy Management: Using Options Methodology to Enhance Capital Budgeting Decisions.

Prior to joining the University of Texas at Austin in July 1988, Dr. Ronn was a faculty member of the business schools at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Chicago.

Professor Ronn received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. from Stanford University.

David Spence

Co-Director
Department of Business, Government and Society
david.spence@mccombs.utexas.edu

Professor Spence’s research and teaching focuses on business-government relations and the regulation of business, particularly energy and environmental regulation. Before coming to academia, he was a practicing attorney representing public utilities, energy companies and others in connection with a wide variety of environmental and energy regulatory matters.

Professor Spence has taught as a visitor at the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment, the Vanderbilt Law School, the Cornell Law School, Harvard Law School, IMADEC University in Vienna, Austria, and the Bren School of the Environment at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Dr. Spence received his B.A from Gettysburg College, his J.D. from the University of North Carolina and his Ph.D. in political science from Duke University.

Advisory Council

Louis G. Baldwin, XTO Energy



Keith Behrens, Stephens Inc.



S. Dolezalek, VantagePoint



Vean Gregg, JP Morgan



Ron Hulme, Parallel



Roger Ihne, Deloitte



Rob Jones, EMIC



Ann Kluppel, Phillips 66



Mark Lange, Paladar



Obie O'Brien, Apache Corporation



Puon Penn, Wells Fargo



Kim Saylors-Laster, Walmart



Niloy Shah, BP



Clark Smith, Buckeye Partners



Charles Wilder, Bluescape



Elizabeth Yant, PwC



Peter Zandan, EarthSky

Louis G. Baldwin

Consultant
XTO Energy Inc. subsidiary of ExxonMobil

Prior to XTO’s 2010 acquisition by ExxonMobil, Louis Baldwin served as executive vice president and CFO, and as advisory director of XTO Energy Inc. Prior to joining XTO as vice president and treasurer in 1986, Louis was employed by Southland Royalty Company in Fort Worth. Louis is a native of Fort Worth, Texas and received his BBA and MBA degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.

Keith J. Behrens

Managing Director, Corporate Finance
Stephens Inc. Investment Bankers

Keith Behrens joined Stephens in May 2009 as a managing director. Prior to Joining Stephens, Mr. Behrens was a co-founder and managing director at Energy Capital Solutions. Mr. Behrens has over 17 years of investment banking experience with major investment banking firms including Bear Stearns and Wasserstein Perella. He has focused most of his career in covering primarily exploration and production companies as well as other energy-related companies. Mr. Behrens has worked extensively on a wide variety of transactions and over the past six years has worked on 32 M&A transactions totaling $3.3 billion in value, 56 private equity transactions for public and private companies totaling $1.4 billion in equity raised and 38 senior and mezzanine debt transactions totaling $3.2 billion in debt committed. Mr. Behrens received his BBA and MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Stephan Dolezalek

Managing Director and Group Leader, CleanTech
VantagePoint Capital Partners

Stephan Dolezalek has spent more than 25 years in Silicon Valley working exclusively with technology-driven companies. Stephan crafted VantagePoint’s CleanTech platform in 2002 and has led the CleanTech Group since its inception, guiding it to become one of the preeminent CleanTech practices in the world. He has been instrumental in building VantagePoint’s Corporate Strategic Partner program and has served on the boards of numerous portfolio companies. Prior to joining VantagePoint, he was a senior partner with Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, where he led the Palo Alto office and served as Head of the Business and Technology Group and Chairman of the Life Sciences Group.

Stephan is a frequent speaker on the topic of our new energy economy and is an active member of the NVCA CleanTech Advisory Council and the American Council on Renewable Energy. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia (BCP) School of Architecture and the University of Virginia School of Law (JD).

Vean Gregg

Managing Director, Head of North America Oil and Gas Investments
JP Morgan

Vean Gregg is a member of JPMorgan's Oil & Gas investment banking team in the Houston office since 1996. He currently manages the North American O&G coverage team working with clients across various sectors including exploration and production, refining and marketing, midstream and pipelines, oilfield services, and integrated multinationals, as well as working with various financial sponsors and their portfolio companies. He has completed numerous corporate/asset M&A transactions as well as 100+ public and private equity and debt offerings for companies ranging from mega-cap to micro-cap.

Ron Hulme

Chief Executive Officer
Parallel Resource Partners

Ron Hulme is the CEO of Parallel Resource Partners, an oil and gas focused private equity firm. From late 2008 until early 2011, Ron served as the chief executive officer of Carlson Capital, a $6 billion AUM multi-strategy hedge fund and a co-sponsor, along with Bluescape Resources, of Parallel Resource Partners. Upon assuming his duties at Parallel Resource Partners, Ron stepped down from his CEO role at Carlson and became vice chairman of the firm.

Prior to joining Carlson, Ron completed a 26-year career with McKinsey & Co. where he served many industry leading energy and private equity clients. Ron led several of McKinsey’s Practice Groups, including the Global Corporate Finance Practice, the Global Risk Practice, the Global Strategy Practice, the Americas Oil and Gas Practice, and the Houston office. Ron was also an active leader in McKinsey’s internal governance, having served in the office of the managing director where he oversaw McKinsey’s six functional practices and as a member of the firm’s shareholders council (the firm’s elected board).

Ron earned a BBA degree from the University of Texas and an MBA degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. He is an active board member of several non-profit organizations including Texas Children’s Hospital (board president), the Alley Theatre, the University of Texas Energy Institute, the UT McCombs School of Business Advisory Council, and the UT Energy Management and Innovation Center.

Roger Ihne

Principal
Deloitte

Roger Ihne is a principal and the Energy Client Portfolio Leader for Mid-America at Deloitte Services LP. He is responsible for leading the client programs for energy-related companies based in the region across all of the Deloitte businesses and has over thirty years of experience. He joined Deloitte in 1987 and previously held progressively more responsible management positions with a Fortune 500 oil and gas company, and with the energy strategy practice of a large international consulting firm.

In addition to his client portfolio role, Roger also serves as the U.S. subsector champion for the downstream segment of the oil and gas industry. He has authored a number of articles and whitepapers specifically on the U.S. refining industry and is considered an authority on issues confronting this sector of the industry. Over the past two years, he has been quoted in a number of publications, including: The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Petroleum Economist, The Oil & Gas Journal, The Oil Daily, Hydrocarbon Engineering, Hydrocarbon Processing, Downstream Today, Investor’s Business Daily, Bloomberg, The Houston Chronicle and The Dallas Morning News.

Roger’s previous roles include the following:

Deloitte Consulting – Strategy & Operations leader for the Mid-America and Southeast Regions
Management Solutions’ National Director - Service Line Strategy
Management Solutions’ Global Solutions Leader - Innovation & Growth Finance Transformation Services (service area leader)
Management Solutions’ National Director – eBusiness Services
PROFIT service line development and leadership (world-class financial management)

Roger received a B.S. in economics and an MBA from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Rob L. Jones

Executive in Residence 2012-2013
Energy Management and Innovation Center

Rob Jones is currently the executive in residence for EMIC for the 2012-2013 academic year. He was formerly the co-head of Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Commodities (“MLC”), a leading global commodities trading business. MLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has a global portfolio of trading, structuring and marketing of natural gas, power, crude oil and refined products, natural gas liquids, coal, emissions, metals and commodity indices. MLC has nearly 300 total employees located in key business centers including Houston, London, New York, Singapore and Calgary.

Prior to taking leadership of MLC in 2007, Rob was head of Merrill Lynch’s Global Energy and Power Investment Banking Group, as well as the founder and head of Merrill Lynch Commodity Partners, a private equity vehicle for the firm.

An investment banker for over 20 years with Merrill Lynch and First Boston, Rob has worked extensively with a variety of energy and power clients, with a particular focus on the natural gas and utility sectors. Rob has been involved in over $100 billion of advisory and financing transactions in the energy and power industry.

Rob is a graduate of the University of Texas where he received a BBA with a degree in Finance and an M.B.A. with high honors. He was a Sord Scholar.

Ann Kluppel

Manager of Planning and Projects, Global Downstream
Phillips 66

Ann Kluppel holds a BBA from the University of Texas and a MBA from the University of Houston. She has been with ConocoPhillips for ten years, where she has held a variety of roles within the Finance organization. She is currently the manager of planning and projects for the Global Downstream organization for Phillips 66. In addition to her Finance role, Ann is the UT McCombs School Business partner for ConocoPhillips and sits on the Accounting Advisory Council, as well as the advisory board for the Energy Management and Innovation Center. Ann holds a Texas CPA license and has both public accounting and other industry experience.

Mark R. Lange

President
Paladar Petroleum

Mark R. Lange, president of Paladar Petroleum, formed the company with several others in 2008. Paladar is in the natural gas exploration business with producing properties located in South Texas.

Prior to forming Paladar, Mark began his career as an independent landman. He joined Chevron in 1990 as a landman and was responsible for running the South Texas area until 1997. Mark then went to work with North Central Oil Corporation until 2001. In 2001, Mark partnered with several others to form Laredo Energy, and between 2003 and 2007 sold three Laredo Energy partnerships.

Mark attended The University of Texas at Austin, graduating in 1985 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. While attending The University of Texas, Mark was a member of both the Texas Cowboys and Delta Tau Delta fraternity. Mark has been married to his wife, Renee, for twenty years and has four children, Emily, Katherine, Allie and Richard. They reside in Houston.

Obie O'Brien

Vice President, Governmental Affairs
Apache Corporation

Obie O'Brien has been director of Governmental, Regulatory and Community Affairs since joining Apache in 1992. Prior to joining the company, O'Brien served as governmental affairs manager for Mitchell Energy, special projects director for U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and projects coordinator for U.S. Rep. Michael A. Andrews. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.

Puon Penn

Senior Vice President, Head of National CleanTech & Emerging Tech Markets
Wells Fargo & Company

Puon Penn is a senior vice president and head of the National CleanTech & Emerging Tech Markets sector at Wells Fargo. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., he manages a team of banking professionals who serve the financial needs of businesses in technology and clean technology nationwide. The Wells Fargo CleanTech Group provides expertise, financial services, and resources to help domestic and international companies focus on decreasing the use of fossil fuels, fertilizers, industrial chemicals, and other activities that cause greenhouse gas emissions or other harmful environmental effects.

Puon began his career with Wells Fargo in 1998 in the International Group as a structured trade finance officer. He moved on to become a senior relationship manager in the commercial banking group, serving the financial needs of middle-market companies. In 2003, Puon joined the Wells Fargo Principal Investing Group as a buy-side analyst covering the food and beverage, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, and financial services sectors. In 2006, Puon joined the Wells Fargo Technology & Venture Banking management team.

Wells Fargo has committed more than $1.5 billion to more than 130 customers who have made environmentally beneficial products and services a key part of their businesses. In addition, Wells Fargo has deployed more than $2.1 billion of tax equity capital into more than 250 renewable energy projects in the United States including $500 million to support more than 200 commercial-scale solar photovoltaic projects and $1.5 billion for 30 utility-scale wind projects. At year end 2010, Wells Fargo had provided more than $3.7 billion in financing for building projects designed to qualify for the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification.

Puon earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Reed College in Portland, Ore., and his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. Active in the community, Puon is involved with several nonprofit organizations including the Cambodian Children’s Fund and Friends Without a Border.

Kim Saylors-Laster

Vice President, Energy
Walmart Stores, Inc.

Kim Saylors-Laster has over 15 years experience in the commercial real estate, corporate compliance and energy industries. Kim joined Walmart in 1994 as a property manager in a real estate contracts administration role, and is currently vice president of energy responsible for all of the electricity and natural gas procurement within the United States, as well as providing guidance to energy markets within Walmart’s International trade areas. Additionally, Kim is an executive champion of a number of renewable energy causes within the Walmart Sustainability Network.

Kim has held leadership roles at Walmart within the site redevelopment, as senior director of the Distribution Center Real Estate Program, property management, and petroleum-based development segments and as the vice president of regulatory responsibility before joining the energy team in 2006.

In addition to her Walmart service, Kim is on the board of advisors of UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center, and the Texas Energy Management and Innovation Advisory Board at the McCombs School of Business.

Kim is affiliated with the Arkansas Bar Association, is a volunteer counselor at the Samaritan House, and is an Arkansas Licensed Associate Counselor. Kim earned a B.A. in psychology from Arkansas Tech University, a J.D. from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of law, and an M.S. in community counseling from John Brown University.

Niloy Shah

Chief Financial Officer
BP

Niloy Shah is currently the chief financial officer for BP’s Gulf of Mexico Region, a post he assumed in 2011 after spending 7 years overseas. From 2006 – 2011, Mr. Shah was based in Jakarta, Indonesia where he was CFO for BP’s Asia Pacific Region. In 2005 and 2006, Mr. Shah was based in London as an executive assistant to the group vice president of Exploration & Production Technology and Functions. He graduated from the University of Tulsa with a B.S. in Computer Science in 1985 and then an M.S. in Computer Science in 1989. He later received his MBA from the University of Houston in 1993.

Clark C. Smith

President and Chief Operating Officer
Buckeye Partners, L.P. 

Clark Smith is the president and chief operating officer of Buckeye Partners, L.P., having previously served on Buckeye’s board of directors. Buckeye is a publicly traded master limited partnership with $5 billion in assets and $400 million in annual cash flow. Buckeye owns 5400 miles of refined product pipelines serving markets in 18 states, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas. Buckeye also owns 70 product terminals, 53 million barrels of storage capacity and a natural gas storage business with 29 Bcf of total capacity.

Prior to working at Buckeye, Mr. Smith was a managing director with Engage Investments, L.P., a private partnership established to provide consulting services and seek equity investments in energy related businesses. Prior to Engage, Mr. Smith held the roles of president of El Paso’s Merchant Energy Group, president of Engage Energy, president of Coastal Gas Marketing Company, and executive vice president of Enron’s Transwestern Pipeline Company. 

Mr. Smith received a master’s degree in Business Administration and a bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin.

Charles John Wilder

Executive Chairman
Bluescape Resources

John C. Wilder  is executive chairman of Bluescape Resources, an independent resource company with operations in the United States and Italy. The company’s strategy targets long-term resource investments and exploits its sizeable inventory of lower-risk development drilling opportunities. Mr. Wilder is also executive chairman of Parallel Energy Partners, an energy investment fund with Carlson Capital and Stanford University. The strategy of the fund is to invest in a wide variety of oil and gas assets and investments. Mr. Wilder is chairman of the John and Susan Wilder Foundation.

Mr. Wilder’s prior achievements include spearheading two of the energy industry’s most successful financial and operational turnarounds. As chairman of the board and chief executive officer of TXU Corp., Mr. Wilder transformed one of the nation’s largest energy companies. Under his leadership, TXU delivered 70% annualized returns to shareholders and ranked 7th best in the S&P 500. For this achievement, the Harvard Business Review named Wilder one of the Best-Performing CEOs in the World, ranking 24th among 2,000 CEOs, from publicly traded companies in 33 countries.

Mr. Wilder started in the energy business in Texas 30 years ago with the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, where he rose to the position of chief executive officer of Shell Capital in London. In 1998, he was hired as CFO at Entergy, and in 2004 he joined TXU. Institutional Investor magazine has ranked Mr. Wilder as the best CEO in the electric power sector three times (2004, 2005, 2006), one of the ten best CEOs in America (2005), and a top CFO (2004). In 2004, CBS MarketWatch named him one of three finalists across all industries for CEO of the Year, and Investor Relations named him the best executive in IR.

A native of Missouri, Mr. Wilder graduated magna cum laude from Southeast Missouri State University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, and he has received the university’s Distinguished Alumni Award. He earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas.

Elizabeth Henke Yant

Retired Partner - Energy Industry Tax Practice
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) Houston

Ms. Yant retired in 2010 as a PwC partner after thirty-two years of experience specializing in international and domestic taxation of multinational, mid-cap, and start-up companies as well as building and managing several tax and legal consulting practices. She was PwC's relationship partner on one of the world's leading oil and gas companies leading a team of business advisory as well as tax specialists. She also served as engagement tax partner for several energy, services, and investment fund clients. From 1998 - 2001 she was the leader for the Tax U.S. Energy practice.

Ms. Yant was the tax partner in charge of PwC's Midwest Region (1996-1998), which consisted of 24 offices and 770 staff and partners. From 1993 to 1996, she was on assignment in Prague and managed the Tax and Legal Practices for the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania. In this role, she built and managed these practices in the unique environment of post-communist economies.

Ms. Yant was a tax partner in the Houston office from 1989 to 1993 developing a tax practice in technology, healthcare and service companies in the Houston area. She was a member of a five person team who opened the Price Waterhouse office in Austin in 1984. She began her career in San Francisco in 1979.

Ms. Yant graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in Accounting (1977) and Masters of Professional Accounting - Tax (1978). She led PwC's recruiting efforts at the University of Texas and is a member of the McCombs School of Business Advisory Council and the Department of Accounting Advisory Council. In November 2009, Ms. Yant was inducted to the McCombs School of Business Hall of Fame, and was previously honored with the Texas Star award by the McCombs Department of Accounting.

Ms. Yant serves on the steering committee of the Greater Houston Partnership Executive Women's Partnership Committee. She has been involved in many community not-for-profit activities in the US and abroad.

Peter Zandan

Managing Director; Chairman
Public Strategies, Inc.; EarthSky

Peter Zandan is chairman of EarthSky, a digital media company advocating science as a vital voice in 21st century decision-making. He is a senior advisor for Public Strategies, Inc., where he directs the firm’s strategic initiatives and research. Mr. Zandan also serves on The National Academy of Science’s Climate Choices Committee in Washington D.C. The committee was established in 2008 by Congress to inform and guide the nation’s climate policy. 

Mr. Zandan has helped to launch, lead and fund numerous business and nonprofit ventures including: IntelliQuest Information Group (IQST NASDAQ), where he was the founder, chairman and CEO for 15 years of the world’s fastest growing market research firm with over 500 employees worldwide. He was the founder, chairman and CEO of Zilliant, a successful venture-backed enterprise software company. Mr. Zandan has also served as a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is a member of the Advisory Board of the McCombs Graduate School of Business. He has been selected by Interactive Week as one of the “Unsung Heroes of the Internet” and awarded Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year.” He has served on the executive management committee of the Explorers Club in New York City.

He has been active in Austin’s community organizations including Austin’s public television station, Austin City Limits, St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, and Austin’s 360 Summit. For his community activities, he has been recognized by the Austin American Statesman as a “Hero of Democracy,” by the Austin Chronicle as “Best Local Visionary,” and by Austin’s leading environmental group as “Soul of the City.” Mr. Zandan received his M.B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.