In the News: How Can Public Business Schools Compete with Private Schools?
BusinessWeek Online, April 30, 2007
Many state business schools are having a tough time competing for top talent with their private rivals. At the McCombs School, Dean George Gau (left) has succeeded by putting an added focus on for-profit endeavors, most notably, non-degree executive education. When Gau became dean at McCombs in 2002, 15 percent of the school’s budget came from the Texas Executive Education’s open enrollment programs. Today, that figure has doubled to 30 percent. “A big chunk of my faculty’s salaries is being paid by the customers of executive education,” Gau said.
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Class of 2007 Reflects on McCombs Experience and Shares Future Plans
This year, hundreds of students from the Class of 2007 will graduate from McCombs with BBA, MPA, MBA or Ph.D. degrees. Here are stories of some of those graduates, including Jasmine Liang (right), as they begin the journey toward becoming leaders in the business world.
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In the News: Tetlock Op-Ed: When Gambling is Good
The Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2007
Assistant Finance Professor Paul Tetlock co-authored an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in which he examines the value of information markets. Excerpt: “Imagine the president had a crystal ball to predict more accurately the impact of broader prescription coverage on the Medicare budget, the effect of more frequent audits on tax compliance—or even the consequences of a political settlement in Iraq on oil prices. Now, stop imagining: Such crystal balls are within our grasp. But they can’t be used without running a gauntlet of federal and state regulation. The crystal balls are called prediction markets or information markets, and they help forecasters, for example by allowing traders to vote with their money on the future unemployment rate or the winner of the next presidential race.”
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Business Honors Names Award Winners in Class of 2007
The Business Honors Program (BHP) recently announced its Outstanding Student and Doenges Award recipients. The Outstanding Student Awards are given to four seniors, and the Doenges Award is given to the top student. Outstanding Students Award winners are: Elizabeth Alderton, Stephanie Bula, Sarina Hickey and Pegah Javidpour. The Doenges Award winner is Marialena Rivera. Congratulations to all on their outstanding achievements at McCombs.

In the News: McCombs Grads Find Fertile Job Market
Austin American-Statesman, May 13, 2007
College graduates are heading out into the strongest job market in more than five years. Employers will hire 19.2 percent more new college graduates than they did a year ago, with salary offers up 4 to 10 percent, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. At the McCombs School of Business, the fall 2006 career fair was booked up by July—a month earlier than usual—with more than 150 employers, and more on a waiting list, said Velma Arney (right), director of undergraduate career services. In 2006, 92 percent of McCombs graduates got job offers, and Arney said she expects the figure to be as high or higher this year.
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In the News: MBA Alum Builds Robots to Protect Soldiers
Boston Globe, May 14, 2007
After the death of his son in Iraq, Brian Hart, MBA ’84, and his brother Richard started Black-I Robotics Inc. to find ways to save soldiers’ lives. His latest invention is the LandShark, a six-wheeled, 250-pound robotic vehicle that can remotely detonate a bomb or probe a roadway for booby traps without risking a soldier’s life. His robot costs half as much as robots currently used by the military. “Richard and I started this company when we watched on CNN a lance corporal push a bomb off the road with his Humvee, and it blew up,” Hart said. “That was it. We started buying parts the next day.”
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In the News: McCombs Alumni Make Up Half Female and Minority CEOs in DFW
Dallas Morning News, May 13, 2007
A recent study by the Dallas Morning News found that among CEOs at the 100 largest public and private companies in Dallas and Fort Worth, only three are women and just one is a member of a minority group. Two of those CEOs are McCombs School graduates: Kathy Harless, BBA ’72 and chief executive of Idearc, Inc.—the spinoff from Verizon Communications—and Carlos Sepulveda, BBA ’79 and CEO of Interstate Battery System International, Inc. Harless and Sepulveda discussed the barriers that keep women and minorities from reaching top executives positions as well as the keys to their own success.
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Swedish Journalists Visit McCombs for Lectures on Management, Economics

A group from the Swedish Press Institute visited McCombs May 10-11. While here, they listened to Michael Brandl, senior finance lecturer, talk about the economic impact of innovation and Doug Dierking (above left), management lecturer, discuss how to manage change within organizations. Prior to coming to McCombs they were in Atlanta meeting with CNN and Cox Newspapers.

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