Upcoming Speakers
	MBA Executive Speaker Series
		Michael Simmons, CEO, PII Pipeline Inspection Division of General Electric, MBA Executive Speaker Series, 9/7. More info
	Lyceum Speaker Series
		Sharon Allen, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Deloitte & Touche, 9/13 More info
	Upcoming Events
	MBA Career Connections Fair 9/8 MBA Alumni Awards Celebration 9/8 More info

President Bush Picks Alumna Martinez
Tucker for Education Post
President Bush announced this week that he will nominate Sara Martinez Tucker, MBA ’79 and McCombs Hall of Fame recipient, to serve as undersecretary of education.  Martinez Tucker is currently the president and CEO of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF), a position she will leave at the end of September in preparation for her move to Washington, D.C.  
Get the full story.  

McCombs Students Win International
Case Competition in Thailand 
A team of students from the McCombs School of Business brought home a championship for The University of Texas at Austin at the 2006 Thammasat Undergraduate Business Challenge (TUBC) International Case Competition in Bangkok, Thailand, August 16-19.
The TUBC featured undergraduate teams from 17 business schools from the United States, Canada, Spain, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, China and Thailand.  
Learn more about the competition.

President Bush Nominates Distinguished
Alumnus as U.S. Ambassador
President Bush nominated Peter R. Coneway, BBA ’66 and McCombs School Hall of Fame recipient, to be the next United States ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein in May 2006. The nomination for Coneway—who is advisory director for Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.—was approved by the U.S. Senate June 29.    
Get the full story.  

U.S. News Ranks McCombs Undergrad Program #5 
U.S. News & World Report released survey results for its 2007 edition of America’s Best Colleges. Under the Best Business Programs category, the McCombs undergraduate program was ranked #5 in a tie with New York University (Stern), and UNC-Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler). This matches our #5 ranking from last year. Individual specialties at McCombs were ranked as follows: Accounting: 1; Entrepreneurship: 10; Finance: 6; Insurance/Risk Management: 7; International Business: 6; Management: 5; Management Information Systems: 3; Marketing: 3; Production/Operations Management: 11; Quantitative Analysis/Methods: 13; Supply Chain Management/Logistics: 16.
Get the full list of U.S. News rankings.  

In the News: Barnea and Guedj Find Executive Compensation Linked to CEOs on Board
Barron’s, Aug. 21, 2006
Golden parachutes and executive overcompensation have long been worrying investors. In a recent Barron’s article, McCombs Assistant Finance Professors Amir Barnea and Ilan Guedj suggest that there are ways for investors to gauge whether a company is likely to overcompensate—look at the board members’ backgrounds. The two faculty members examined data on the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 1500 and found that board directors who are, or were, highly paid chief executives and who know lots of other powerful, high-paid people tend to approve pay packages 10 to 13 percent richer than those at companies that appoint non-CEOs as directors.
Get the full story.

In the News: Federal Deficit Accounting Practices Allow Room for Manipulation
USA TODAY, Aug. 2, 2006
There are several ways to go about trying to figure out the federal deficit. A USA TODAY analysis found that the audited financial statement—prepared by the Treasury Department—reveals a deficit far worse than official budget reports indicate. Why the big difference? McCombs Accounting Professor Michael Granof explains the official report is based on cash accounting while the Treasury Department’s report uses accrual accounting. “Cash accounting lets income and expenses land in different reporting periods. Accrual accounting links them,” says Granof. “Under cash accounting, a $25,000 cash advance on a credit card to pay for a vacation makes the books look great. You are $25,000 richer! Repaying the credit card debt? No worries today. That will show up in the future.”
Get the full story.

Kinney and Koonce Honored for Excellence in Accounting 
Accounting professors Bill Kinney and Lisa Koonce were among those honored at the American Accounting Association’s 2006 Annual Meeting, August 6–9 in Washington, D.C. Kinney received the American Accounting Association Wildman Medal for his paper, “Auditor Independence, Non-Audit Services, and Restatements: Was the U.S. Government Right?” Lisa Koonce won the Accounting Horizons Best Paper Award for “Accounting for Liabilities: Conceptual Issues, Standards Setting, and Evidence from Academic Research.” 
Learn more about the awards.

Bin Gu Awarded NET Institute Research Grant
Bin Gu, assistant professor of the Information, Risk, and Operations Management Department, won the Networks, Electronic Commerce and Telecommunications (NET) Institute’s summer 2006 research grant. The grant is awarded for his research on “Search Costs and Menu Costs in Electronic Markets: Theory and Evidence” coauthored with Anindya Ghose at the Stern School of Business at New York University. The NET Institute is a research institution devoted to research on e-commerce, the Internet, network industries, telecommunications, virtual networks and network issues.
Learn more about the NET Institute.

Laura Starks Appointed to College Retirement Equities Fund Board of Trustees
The College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF) elected Laura Starks, chair of the Finance Department, to its board of trustees. CREF is an investment management firm within the TIAA-CREF financial services organization, which controls about $380 billion in assets under management and ranks as one of Fortune’s 100 largest companies. This is a well-deserved new position for Starks, following her term as an outside director for USAA mutual funds.
Get more info on CREF trustees.

In the News: Heather Densmore Completes Last MBA Journal for BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek Online, July 2006
In Heather Densmore’s final MBA journal for BusinessWeek online, Densmore recounts memories of her last weeks of school—landing a job, saying good-bye to classmates, and basking in her newfound freedom from tests and homework. “It’s humbling to reflect on how much [my classmates], none of whom I knew a mere 24 months ago, have changed my life,” she said. As Densmore embarks on her new career at Stream Realty Partners, she offers four pieces of advice for future MBA students—take time to research and find the perfect job for you, get involved, make time to be social and travel.
Read Heather’s full journal.

In the News: Garza on the Do’s and Don’ts of the MBA Application Process
BusinessWeek Online, Aug. 22, 2006
Excuses don’t cut it, according to seasoned admissions officials, in a BusinessWeek online article about how to avoid the ire of business school admissions folks. For instance, in explaining inconsistencies in your application, use the old writing teacher’s cliché, “Show, don’t tell,” as your guide. Daniel Garza, assistant dean of the MBA Program Office at the McCombs School, encourages taking a “journalistic approach”: sticking to the facts, rather than editorializing.
Get the full story.

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