McCombs Alumni Rising Star Award

Since graduation, Jessica M. Lopez has grown from a staff accountant to a controller, receiving her certified public accountant designation, and now has the privilege of helping others progress in their careers. She is currently the corporate controller for ID Experts. Previously, she was the director of finance and controller for All Web Leads Inc. Her extensive participation with the Texas Society of CPAs (TXCPA) has included serving as treasurer-elect and serving on its Membership Committee and Leaders Emerging in Accounting Profession Committee. Her contributions to the community and the accounting profession have also been recognized by the TXCPA, being awarded the Young CPA of the Year (2018 and 2019) award by the Austin Chapter and at the state level as a TXCPA Rising Star (2019).

Michael C. Smith holds a BBA in information systems from the University of Oklahoma as well as an MBA in finance from The University of Texas at Austin. He began his career with ExxonMobil as a summer intern while completing his MBA. The following summer, he joined the company as a controller’s analyst in ExxonMobil’s global services company. There he led the coordination process for securing project endorsements and participated in monthly business analysis activities. He went on to complete assignments in ExxonMobil’s treasurer’s organization where he managed ExxonMobil’s financial guarantee portfolio for the upstream businesses, which involved negotiating financial instruments with foreign and domestic banks and later provided financial support for world-scale engineering and construction projects. Since then, he has spent time in a variety of controller’s financial roles, including leading a team with financial reporting responsibility for oil and gas exploration activities in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. Currently, Michael works in a global coordination group where he provides support for ExxonMobil’s upstream financial stewardship.

April D. Underwood is a product leader and angel investor who has created category-defining businesses over the past decade.

She is the CEO and Founder of Nearby, which makes shopping online from local stores easy. She is also a founding partner of the angel investing collective #Angels and a member of the board of directors for Zillow Group. Until 2019, April was chief product officer at Slack. Prior to joining Slack, April was director of product at Twitter from 2010 to 2015.

Previously, April has held product, partnerships, and engineering roles at Google, Travelocity, and Intel. April holds a BBA in management information systems and business honors from The University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley. April has received numerous honors, including Fast Company's "Most Creative People", Fortune's "40 Under 40", and the highest alumni honor for professional achievement from The University of Texas at Austin, the "Outstanding Young Texas Ex Award".

April was born and raised in Texas and is a 5th generation Texan. April and her family split time between the Bay Area and Austin.