McCombs Weekly - McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin

Astronaut Gregory H. Johnson, MBA ’05, and his fellow Endeavor shuttle crew members launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center March 11, beginning a mission to the International Space Station. Johnson, who earned his MBA in the Texas Executive MBA program, is making his first flight aboard the space shuttle. A colonel in the Air Force, Johnson is a top test pilot who has logged more than 4000 light hours in more than 40 different aircraft. As a McCombs student, he received the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence.
Read Johnson’s full biography.
See videos, pictures and learn more about the current shuttle mission at NASA’s Web site.

Sharon Lutz, assistant director of corporate relations, is leaving McCombs after 24 years for a position as the executive director of corporate relations for the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. Lutz made tremendous contributions to the business school during her career. Some of her greatest accomplishments are the creation of the Ford Interview Center, growing the Career and Recruitment Services staff from five to 24 employees, creating AccessUT and fostering successful relationships with alumni and corporate partners. A valued member of the UT Austin community, Lutz was awarded the Exemplary Service Award in 2001. Her commitment to excellence and joyful personality will be greatly missed.

Media: Konana Assesses State of Indian Corporate Responsibility
The Hindu, March 11, 2008
Prabhudev Konana

Prabhudev Konana, IROM professor, discusses the state of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in India in his latest column for the Hindu, the second-largest English-language newspaper in India. Excerpt: “CSR takes many routes that go beyond the typical rules of engagement. CSR is about ethics, morals, reputation, future, and vision that enhance the collective value of all stakeholders of a corporation and not just the monetary value of one stakeholder. There are other stakeholders — employees, the local community, and governments — who seek different values because they take monetary and non-monetary risks as well in those establishments.”
Read more.

In the recently announced University of Texas at Dallas Top 100 Business School Research Rankings, McCombs is listed at No. 9, one spot up from last year, having surpassed MIT. This is the third year in a row in which McCombs has ranked in the top 10 in the UT Dallas survey, which tracks faculty publications in 24 leading business journals across major business disciplines over a five-year period (the current ranking covers the years 2003-07).
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Each year the Dallas Business Journal names its Business School All-Stars, current MBA students from local business schools that show great potential for future success. The chosen McCombs students from the Texas MBA at Dallas/Fort Worth program this year were Minu Puranik and Michael Bush Wisenbaker, Jr. Puranik is a software engineer currently working for a leading medical device manufacturer. She decided to get her MBA because, “I felt the acute need to develop and expand my business skills. Engineers usually suffer from an illusion that a cool idea is enough to make a business profitable.” After graduating from UT, Wisenbaker worked as an investment banker before joining the Air Force, eventually flying F-16s in Iraq. He intends to use his MBA to further develop the leadership skills learned in the military.