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Briefs
- Lanier Cox Passes Away
- Longtime Professors Retire
- Changing of the Guard
- Pardon the Dust-Facilities get a Facelift
- Accountants in Paris
- Zachry Completes Exec Ed Course
Lanier Cox Passes Away
Franklin Lanier Cox (Lanier), a distinguished longtime faculty member of the University of Texas with the rank of Ashbel Smith Emeritus Professor of Business Law and Education, passed away January 1, 2002.
He majored in accounting in the College of Business Administration, receiving a BBA in 1934. He then received an LLB (JD) degree from the School of Law with Highest Honors in 1937.
At the ripe age of 21, Lanier was appointed as an assistant professor of business law in the business school at UT. He was promoted to the rank of associate professor in 1941, and to the rank of full professor in 1949. For forty-four years as a full-time faculty member (with two leaves of absence), Lanier served the University as a distinguished teacher, writer, and administrator, teaching classes in three colleges: Education, Business, and Law.
During his tenure with the University, Cox earned numerous awards for his teaching and research, and was inducted into the McCombs School Hall of Fame in 1987.
Longtime Professors Retire
This past spring and summer saw the retirement of three of our faculty members. Eleanor Jordan of MIS stepped down, and was feted at a retirement dinner that doubled as a fund-raiser for the Byars/Jordan Endowed Excellence Fund (see associated story in ROI section).
Judy O’Neill, popular lecturer in the MSIS department who often taught Business Communications, retired in style last May with a party thrown in her honor by MSIS and the Ford Career Center. Held in the FCC, the event featured surprise guests from Judy’s past and her long career at the McCombs School.
David Huff, Professor of Marketing, retired after 34 years with the University. Recipient of the Jack Taylor Undergraduate Teaching Excellence award and a Distinguished Mentor of the National Council for Geographic Education, Huff leaves a long legacy of satisfied students.
Changing of the Guard
The McCombs School welcomes three new department chairs this year, in Management, Finance, and Management Science and Information Systems (MSIS). Alison Davis-Blake replaces John Butler as Chair of the Management Department. Butler was recently appointed Director of the newly-established Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship, and is also serving as Interim Director of IC2.
Laura Starks assumes the reins of the Finance Department as Chair, replacing long-time Chair and newly appointed Dean George Gau. Bob Peterson, Professor of Marketing and holder of the John T. Stuart III Centennial Chair in Business Administration, will take over Starks’ vacated role as Associate Dean for Research.
Tom Shively assumed the MSIS chairmanship in August. Shively has been a member of our faculty for the past 17 years. Patrick Jaillet, Chair of MSIS since September 1997, has resigned to pursue an opportunity at MIT as the Head of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
In addition, Steve Salbu succeeds Phil Zerillo as Associate Dean of the MBA program, and Steven Tomlinson is Director of the new MBA Plus Program.
Pardon the Dust-Facilities get a Facelift
History Exhibit, GSB 2nd floor.
With the help of the Chief of Exhibits for the Texas History Museum, the McCombs School is creating a Business School Historical Exhibit that cites key moments in our evolution with related documents and artifacts.
MBA Cohort Classrooms, GSB 3rd floor.
New configurations of the four cohort classrooms will provide for more effective instruction and learning. Updates include new seating, equipment, and carpeting.
Group Study Rooms, GSB 3rd floor.
Renovations to existing study rooms include paint, carpet, chair rails, door vision panels, and new chairs. The wing includes a small meeting room and an office to house the Texas Business Weekly.
Carpenter Family MBA Student Leadership Center, GSB 3rd floor.
With a gift from the Carpenter Family of Dallas, the Center includes a large lounge area with couches, tables, and chairs; a large work room for student organizations; a private conference room; storage closet; kitchenette; and
student mailroom.
EDS Financial Trading and Technology Center, GSB 3rd floor.
With a gift from AIM, the Trading Room has been renovated with new furnishings, equipment, and carpeting. The former equipment showcase has been converted to a private conference room.
UTC Classrooms, 3rd and 4th floors.
Twenty-four UTC classrooms have been renovated with media upgrades, new lighting and finishes, and new lecterns.
Accountants in Paris
Twenty-six PPA and MPA students swapped the UT Tower for the Eiffel Tower last summer when they participated in the inaugural session of the International Accounting Program in Paris.
Co-sponsored by the McCombs School’s Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) and the Department of Accounting, the program is hosted by the ESCP-EAP European School of Management, one of Europe’s leading business schools and accounting programs.
Taught by both McCombs and ESCP-EAP faculty, the courses focus on international aspects of accounting and control. “Aside from bringing the European experience to our students, the program provides perspectives unavailable in a stateside accounting program,” says David Platt, CIBER’s director. For example, on a class visit to Alcatel’s Paris office, the students learned first-hand about the problems of recruiting for and integrating acquisitions into a global company.
The accounting program in Paris is one of CIBER’s five summer study abroad programs: business law in Edinburgh; marketing in Paris; and programs in finance/marketing and business Spanish in Barcelona. In all, 87students participated in the programs this year.
For more information on the International Accounting Program in Paris or CIBER’s other study abroad programs, go to the Summer Programs Web page or call Elizabeth Maclean at (512) 471-1625.
Zachry Completes Exec Ed Course
Top-level managers from the Zachry Construction Corporation recently completed a year and a half-long custom program designed for them by Texas Executive Education. The Zachry Construction Corporation, a privately held construction company headquartered in San Antonio, is ranked 176th on Forbes’ Top 500 Largest Private Companies. H.B. Zachry, grandfather of the current COO, John B. Zachry, founded the company in 1924.
Currently providing the leadership in the construction operations of the company are John, (MBA 90) and his brother David, (MBA 94). Both John and David obtained their undergraduate degrees at Texas A&M, where the Zachry family has deep roots.
The program, “Strategies for Value Creation”, was held on the UT campus and
attended by ninety Zachry managers from throughout Texas and from other states. The final event of the program was a group case study presented by Zachry executives to McCombs’ professors John Doggett and Britt Freund, who facilitated
the exercise. Jim Nolen, Phil Zerrillo, Reuben McDaniel, Alison Davis-Blake, Raj
Srivastava, and Anitesh Barua are other McCombs’ faculty members who taught different sessions of the Zachry program.
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
