Executive Education Announces New Appointments for Thurman, Burton
Trent Thurman (right above), MBA ’94, has been appointed director of the Texas Evening MBA program. Thurman currently serves as the associate director for the Texas MBA in Houston and the Texas MBA in Dallas programs. Thurman spent more than 10 years in commercial and corporate real estate, and worked on Capitol Hill before returning to McCombs in 2005. Steven Burton (right below), MBA ’04, has been named the new director of the Houston and Dallas MBA programs after serving as the director of Career Management for Working Professionals since 2004. While Thurman and Burton will be moving into new roles in Executive Education, they will both still be part of the Working Professional MBA program team within Executive Education and will continue to be helpful across all programs. Congratulations to both!

Johnson Joins Supply Chain Management Center of Excellence
Lamar Johnson has been appointed senior associate director of the Supply Chain Management Center of Excellence. Last year, he joined McCombs as executive director of the Center for Customer Insight and Marketing Solutions (CCIMS) after a very successful 34-year career with Procter & Gamble. At CCIMS, Johnson has played a central role in developing and executing a strategic plan that includes partnerships with several major corporations, including Accenture, AT&T, Dell, Frito-Lay, General Electric and Wal-Mart. Johnson will continue to work with CCIMS providing the opportunity for a synergistic relationship with the Supply Chain Management Center of Excellence.

Srinivasan on Car-Buying Personalities: Nitpickers, Tightwads and Snobs
When it comes to buying a car, are you a nitpicker, a tightwad or a snob? Marketing Associate Professor Raji Srinivasan, who researches how product design relates to the U.S. automotive industry, explained her Total Product Design theory to a group of McCombs undergraduates Sept. 18 as part of the Faculty Research Presentation Series.
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In the News: Konana Says India Needs to Face Reality Regarding Economic Success Stories
The Hindu, Sept. 22, 2007
In an op-ed published by The Hindu newspaper in India, Prabhudev Konana, associate professor in the IROM Department, argues there is a disconnect between the “brand India” story put forth by that country’s leaders and what is actually happening on the ground. “The continuous reinforcement of successes cloud many perceptions of reality and fall into the trap that researchers call persuasion bias,” Konana writes. “Without adjusting for repetition of the same information, this persuasion bias continues to perpetuate and exacerbate certain fallacies and inconsistencies. Often, the facts are not consistent with the braggadocios.”
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In the News: Doggett Analyzes Dell’s Decision to Expand to Retail in China
KUT-Radio, Sept. 25, 2007
John Doggett, senior management lecturer, spoke to KUT Radio listeners about why Dell has decided to expand computer sales to about 50 retail stores in China. The announcement is another indication of the Round Rock-based company’s departure from the direct-sales model, which Dell pioneered in the 1990s. “If you think about China, there are a lot of cities that have two, three, four million people, where PC and broadband penetration are not very high,” Doggett said. “So people simply can’t get access to computers without going to a retail store.”
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