September 11, 2000
UT Receives $1 Million from Reliant Energy to Fund Productivity Center
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Austin, TX – The Red McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas will recognize Reliant Energy at a 5:30 p.m. reception this evening for the company’s $1 million gift to fund a student productivity center. Robert G. May, dean of the business school, will announce the center’s name, the Reliant Productivity Center.
“Reliant Energy is one of the school’s most valued business partners – one that has provided financial support and has successfully hired our students for many years,” said May. “The company has significantly increased its financial support in order to provide a facility that will help thousands of students harness technology as a learning tool, and we are proud to recognize its continuing commitment to education by renaming the center.”
The productivity center is a student workroom with 246 seats, each of which is wired with 100Mb Ethernet and power outlets for laptop computers. “The center is a great asset to the students,” said Jeff Passey, MPA ’01. “The technology gives us the opportunity to sit down and concentrate. The group rooms are especially great for projects and to prepare our presentations.”
In addition to providing ongoing maintenance of the Reliant Productivity Center, funds provided by the company will support a BBA student development area and an interview room in the Ford Career Center, all at the McCombs School of Business.
“Reliant Energy’s significant financial commitment reflects the quality of the faculty, curriculum and the graduates produced by the UT School of Business,” said Steve Letbetter, Reliant Energy chairman, president and chief executive officer. “As a major employer with substantial hiring needs, we welcome the opportunity to help prepare the qualified employment candidates we will need to remain successful and competitive in the future.”
The McCombs School of Business is perennially ranked one of the top business schools in the country and world according to leading business publications such as The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and U.S. News & World Report. With strength across the board in all major business disciplines, McCombs is especially known for innovative collaborations with industry and for leading programs in technology, entrepreneurship, finance, and accounting. McCombs offers a full range of business education programs, from BBA and full-time MBA to Part-time MBA, Executive MBA, Executive Education, PhD, and graduate accounting (PPA/MPA). Under new dean George W. Gau, the school has set a goal of becoming the top public business school in the nation.
Reliant Energy (NYSE: REI), based in Houston, Texas, is an international energy services and energy delivery company with $20 billion in annual revenue and assets totaling $30 billion. The company has a wholesale energy trading and marketing business that ranks among the top five in the U.S. in combined electricity and natural gas volumes and has a presence in most of the major power regions of the U.S. It also has power generation and wholesale trading and marketing operations in Western Europe. The company has nearly 27,000 megawatts of power generation in operation in the U.S. and Western Europe and has announced acquisitions and development projects that will add another 4,000 megawatts. Reliant Energy also has marketing and distribution operations serving nearly four million electricity and natural gas customers in the U.S., significant interests in power distribution operations serving more than 10 million customers in Latin America, and a telecommunications business serving the Houston area.
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.
