In the News: Pérez-González Research Links Firm Success to CEO’s Personal Life
Wall Street Journal, Sept. 5, 2007
Research from Francisco Pérez-González, assistant professor of finance,  examines the personal lives of executives to discover how their businesses might be affected by family tragedies. With two co-authors, Pérez-González referenced Danish government data on thousands of businesses to study the links between family deaths of CEOs and profitability over the course of 10 years. In the paper, the authors find that CEO family deaths are strongly correlated with declines in firm operating profitability, investment and sales growth.
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Management Teachers Team Up for Book on Business Communications
Management Lecturers Erin Porter, Kristie Loescher, Janet Jester Riekenberg and Jan Starnes co-edited “Communications Matters: Write, Speak, Succeed.” Published by Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., the textbook is a collection of readings in business communication that reflect current communication issues and requirements in the workplace.

MPA Alum Receives AICPA Sells Award
Lina Dimachkieh, MPA ’06, was recently awarded the 2006 Elijah Watt Sells Award by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The award is presented annually to the 10 CPA candidates earning the highest cumulative scores on the four sections of the CPA exam. Dimachkieh is currently pursuing a law degree from Harvard Law School.
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Texas Evening MBA Alum Founds Vodka Company
Austin360.com, Sept. 5, 2007
Chad Auler, MBA ’03, whose parents were among the first to bring Hill Country wine to the market, recently launched his own beverage company. Savvy is one of a handful of Austin-based distillers producing vodka. Auler got the idea for the company during his last semester in the Texas Evening MBA program. It took another four years to research distilling methods, get all the necessary permits and build the state-of-the-art distillery. Now, Savvy vodka is being sold in Austin, and the product will roll out in San Antonio, Dallas and Houston in the next few weeks. “I’m very, very proud of the product,” Auler said. “It’s been a great experience for me—building a business from start to finish.” In the first year, Auler’s goal is to sell 5,000 to 10,000 cases of the premium vodka, priced at $20 to $25 a bottle.
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McCombs Ranked Highly by Hispanic Business, Fortune Small Business, Expansión
Academic programs at the business school recently have been touted by three publications in special rankings issues. In Hispanic Business magazine’s annual Top 10 Best Business Schools for Hispanics, the Texas MBA program was ranked No. 2 (Stanford was No. 1); Expansion magazine, a business publication from Mexico, ranked the full-time MBA program No. 23 worldwide in its survey for its Best Global MBAs for Mexicans issue. In Fortune Small Business, McCombs was highlighted in its feature on America’s Best Colleges for Entrepreneurs. “With its $100,000 top prize, UT Austin’s global Moot Corp business plan contest is among the most respected B-school competitions,” said the Fortune story. “For grad students who would rather buy a business than start one, the student-run MBA Investment Fund, a private investment company, completes the necessary due diligence, under the eye of finance lecturer Sanford Leeds (left).”  
See the Hispanic Business rankings.
See the Fortune Small Business issue.

In the News: Motive Restates Financial Reports Back to 2001
Austin American-Statesman, Sept. 6, 2007
Motive Inc. restated its financial results back to 2001, taking another step toward clearing up the accounting issues that have hounded the Austin software company. Filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission included a restated net loss of $34.6 million for the year that ended Dec. 31, 2004, compared with an originally reported profit of $427,000. Eric Hirst, accounting professor and associate dean of graduate programs, said that although the restatements were not audited, they are a step toward moving forward. “In a perfect world you would take care of the restatement business, have it audited and get it out of the way as soon as possible. But the reality is that it takes time,” he said. “This is a natural progression from identifying a problem to solving the problem.”
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