McCombs Student Ricky Berens Wins Gold in Beijing

Like many of his classmates, accounting junior Ricky Berens traveled abroad last summer. While the journey was undoubtedly a learning experience, it was not the typical internship or foreign language program. And he returned to Austin with a rather enviable souvenir—an Olympic gold medal.

He earned it by swimming the third leg of Team U.S.A.’s worldrecord- breaking 800-meter freestyle relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“I had butterflies in my stomach; I didn’t eat much before the race,” Berens said after returning to campus this fall. “But once Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte led off and we were a few seconds ahead of everybody, the adrenaline started going, and my stomach stopped hurting. It was fun after that.” Peter Vanderkaay swam the anchor leg to secure the win.

Berens gained a spot on the relay by finishing third in the 200- meter freestyle at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials July 1 in Omaha, Neb., turning in a personal-best time of 1:46.14.

“He knew he needed to have the swim of his life in order to make the team, and he did,” said Berens’ roommate Hill Taylor.

Berens and Taylor, also an accounting junior and Longhorn swimmer, met when they were 12-year-olds making a splash on the national competitive swimming circuit. “For any swimmer, going to the Olympics is the ultimate goal,” Taylor said. “But for Ricky, that was actually a realistic thing.”

“I was probably more excited at the trials than I was at the Olympics, just making the team,” Berens said. “There was so much pressure off my shoulders.”

Berens envisions each race in his mind hundreds of times before a competition, and his Olympic swim played out even better than he imagined. He says it didn’t hurt having the extra motivation of contributing to Phelps’ historic eight-gold-medal run and representing the U.S. on a world stage.

“In your mind you think, ‘You’re doing this for your country right now, so just give it your all,’” Berens said. His effort paid off and was part of one of the most successful U.S.A. Swimming performances in Olympic history.

With his only event completed, Berens turned spectator and tourist for the remainder of the games. He watched the U.S.A. men’s basketball team beat Germany, caught Jamaica’s Usain Bolt’s dazzling 100-meter track-and-field win and visited the Great Wall.

But while other medalists returned home to make the late-night talk show rounds, Berens quickly jumped back into normal life. After spending a week at home in Charlotte, N.C., including several days sick on the couch, he was back on campus for the fall semester.

His daily routine looks something like this: swim practice from 6 to 7:30 a.m., classes, a nap if he has time, more swimming, dinner and then studying. Swimming as many as 500 laps per day, he says he is “constantly hungry” despite eating twice the amount of food a typical person would. (Berens says he has yet to try the now-famous 12,000- calorie Michael Phelps diet.)

Berens, one of 27 Longhorns to compete in Beijing, was named the 2008 Big 12 Swimmer of the Year and is an 11-time Big 12 champion in the 100m and 200m butterfly, 400m and 800m freestyle relays and the 200m individual medley. He is a nine-time All-American and was a member of Team U.S.A. for the 2007 Pan American Games, where he took home one gold and two silver medals.

MPA Marks 60th Anniversary

This year, the Texas Master in Professional Accounting program celebrates 60 years of educating outstanding accounting professionals. One of the first master’s degree programs of its kind, the Texas MPA now includes a five-year BBA/MPA program and a combined economics/ MPA degree.

Public Accounting Report has named it the No. 1 graduate accounting program in the nation for the last 14 years and U.S. News and World Report seconded that sentiment in 2007 and 2008. Faculty Director Stephen Limberg says, “Guided by high aspirations, committed faculty, devoted external constituents and talented students, the MPA promises to be a force into the indefinite future.”

New Executive MBA Director Named

Management Lecturer John Burrows will be the new director of the Texas Executive MBA program, beginning in the 2009-10 academic year. The current director, David Jemison, will begin phased retirement from the university after the 2008-09 academic year. Burrows has been on the McCombs faculty since 2006, teaching in the executive, Houston and full-time MBA programs, as well as undergraduate and custom programs.

“Executive MBA students are some of my favorites to work with because they are uniquely positioned for the program to impact their careers and their companies,” Burrows said. “I have a responsibility to those who have already gone through the program to maintain and enhance the reputation of their degree.”

Mills Launches Texas Tax Readings Group

Lillian Mills, associate professor of accounting, has launched the Texas Tax Readings Group, soliciting working papers from national colleagues for review by McCombs scholars and graduate students. Every few weeks, McCombs tax research professors and tax-interested accounting Ph.D. students select a paper to review and discuss. The senior doctoral student relays comments to the paper’s author and asks him or her to acknowledge the Texas Tax Readings Group if the comments are helpful.

“Over time, these acknowledgements and our collegiality should further build the university’s reputation as a strong tax research community and a great place for doctoral students to apprentice themselves,” said Mills, who was recently named president-elect of the American Taxation Association, a section of the American Accounting Association. Her one-year term as president begins August 2009.

McCombs Alumni Network Inspires Alum to Think Big

The McCombs Alumni Network has already sparked at least one big idea: The Texas Club of New York City. The Texas Club is the brainchild of Rohan Singal, BBA ‘06, and Nate Carty, former New York Texas Exes president, who met at a university-wide alumni event in New York City.

Singal and Carty envision The Texas Club as a New York headquarters for McCombs and university alumni living in or traveling through the region, much like similar establishments in the city for alumni of Harvard, Penn State, Princeton and Yale. Currently in the initial planning stages, the Texas Club’s facilities would include a lounge, restaurants, library, business center, fitness center, banquet room, several conference rooms and guest rooms. They have already secured sponsorship from the Hyatt Regency Austin.

“The McCombs Alumni Network has been instrumental in providing the necessary tools for the success of The Texas Club,” says Singal, who says he was inspired to create the club after making so many connections through the network’s New York chapter. “The experience of connecting with other alumni has been very rewarding. If The Texas Club of New York City is developed, it will be the biggest accomplishment of my life,” he says.

For Singal, the network has provided him with a direct link back to McCombs. “My time at McCombs made me courageous, and without that experience I would not have the confidence to reach out to alumni to seek their support in moving The Texas Club forward.” Singal and Carty encourage interested alumni to become involved in the development and membership of The Texas Club. According to the duo, it will be a representation of the strength of the Texas alumni in the New York area. E-mail rohan.singal@texasclubnyc.com or visit www.texasclubnyc.com for more information.

Halliburton Summer Institute Offers Intensive Business Curriculum for Non-Majors

Like many companies in the global, interdisciplinary business world of today, Halliburton, the Houston-based energy company, understands that all of its employees—even the geoscientists—need to have basic business skills. So the company decided to do something about it.

In May 2007 Halliburton contributed $250,000 to the University of Texas to launch the Halliburton Summer Business Foundations Institute, an intensive nine-week program during which participants study topics in marketing, finance, accounting, management, business law and ethics. Working in teams, giving presentations and competing in challenges were a big part of the curriculum for the 35 students chosen for the institute’s first summer.

“Halliburton has always been impressed by the graduates it has hired from the University of Texas,” said Lawrence Pope, Halliburton’s executive vice president for human resources. Much of the money will be used for scholarships, so financial need won’t be a factor for applicants.

But more than merely funding the program, Halliburton worked closely with faculty and staff in the McCombs School’s Business Foundations Program (BFP) to help design the curriculum of the institute, which is open to students from any area of undergraduate study across the university.

“We had a great collection of students from engineering, science, architecture, pharmacy, fine arts, liberal arts, communications and education,” said Regina Hughes, senior finance lecturer and director of BFP. “With that diversity, presentations became works of art, with students adding their own special touch.”

Pope noted that another main motivation behind starting the program is the looming prospect of a large number of retirements in the near future. This means new employees are being brought into leadership roles faster than ever, he said, and they need the skills in teamwork, leadership and conflict management offered by the institute.

Part of the leadership training last summer included a virtual climb of Mt. Everest that tested planning, teamwork and strategic thinking. Another simulation gave students the opportunity to create a business and carry that product or service to market over a 10-quarter time period.

In the stock market simulation challenge, each student had $100,000 of fictional money to invest. Tin-Hei Pun, an engineering student, made 18.29 percent on his portfolio through 35 trades during the nine weeks. With the total market down about 6.95 percent during that period, his performance was noteworthy.

Ashley Pietzsch, an architectural engineering student, said the integration of all the disciplines helped her see the big picture. “I didn’t realize that there were so many different components to business,” she said. “Having a background in business will definitely help me in the future.”

The institute culminated Aug. 1 with a banquet and awards ceremony.

“With the summer institute format, we were able to give students from across the university insights into business practices,” Hughes said. “Halliburton was very pleased and plans to continue funding for several more years and to make the program available and affordable to all UT students.”