Commencement Keynote Speakers
Learn more about the 2022 McCombs convocation keynote speakers.
Undergraduate (BBA) Programs
May 20, 2022
8 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Frank Erwin Center
J.D. Moore, BBA ’93
J.D. Moore is a managing director with Spindletop Capital, an Austin-based private equity firm that focuses on health care investments.
Prior to joining Spindletop, Moore served as global head of business development and strategy for a division of Johnson & Johnson, global head of strategy and business development for Medtronic Diabetes, and head of Mergers and Acquisitions for CareFusion Corp.
Prior to his executive corporate experience, he was an investment banker in New York focused on mergers and acquisitions in the health care services and medical device sectors with JP Morgan and Credit Suisse, completing more than $50 billion in transactions in his career.
Moore received an MBA from Michigan Ross School of Business and a BBA from McCombs. He is a member of the University of Texas Development Board and the McCombs Health Care Innovation Advisory Council. He enjoys investing in food and beverage companies and weight and cardio training (companies?).
Moore is a committed supporter of The University of Texas. He has established three endowments since he graduated — two with McCombs and one with UT Men’s Basketball.
Master of Business Administration (MBA) Programs
May 20, 2022
3 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Gregory Gym
Lanaya Irvin, MBA ’08
Lanaya Irvin is a global business executive and thought leader in workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion. She spent more than a decade at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where she led strategic initiatives in global equities, managed client relationships, and led multinational teams.
She currently serves as CEO of Coqual, a global think tank founded in 2004, to conduct in-depth research on issues of gender, race, ethnicity, disability, and LGBTQ identities in the workplace and to offer robust solutions for companies hoping to create a fairer corporate culture.
Previous to that, Irvin was head of business development for theSkimm—a millennial-focused news media company with 7 million daily subscribers.
Irvin has extensive diversity leadership experience in corporate and nonprofit organizations. Since 2013, she has co-chaired the Human Rights Campaign’s Business Advisory Council.
She also sits on the board of directors for Outright Action International, an LGBTQ advocacy organization with permanent presence at the UN.
At Bank of America Merrill Lynch, she served as a co-chair of LEAD, a 35,000-member employee network dedicated to growing, attracting, and retaining female talent.
She also was a founding executive member of OPEN Finance, a consortium of LGBTQ leaders advancing inclusion across Wall Street.
In 2015, she mobilized more than 30 financial services firms to sign onto a U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief in support of federal marriage equality.
She was named to the 2020 and 2021 HERoes Women Role Model Executives list, which showcases leaders who are driving change to increase gender diversity in the workplace, to the Yahoo Finance top 100 OUTstanding LGBT+ Executives list in 2021, and to Crain’s New York Business’s 2022 Notable Black Leaders list.
Irvin is a sought-after speaker for wide-ranging audiences on authenticity, race, gender, LGBTQ inclusion, and inclusive leadership in the workplace. Her thought leadership has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, The New York Times, the Financial Times, Newsweek, Business Insider, Forbes, Marketplace, Bloomberg Businessweek and CNBC.
She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of California and holds an MBA from McCombs.
Read the McCombs News Story Here
Master of Professional Accounting (MPA) Program
May 21, 2022
12:30 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Gregory Gym
Carlos Whitaker, BA, BBA, MPA ’00
Carlos Whitaker is a senior managing director with Blackstone, where he focuses on the direct lending business and serves as president of the Blackstone Private Credit Fund, which has $40 billion of assets, and the Blackstone Secured Lending Fund, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BXSL and has $10 billion of assets.
Before joining Blackstone, Whitaker had a 21-year career at Credit Suisse, where he was a managing director and senior executive in the Global Markets division.
He is a member of the McCombs School of Business Advisory Council. He also sits on the boards of New York for McCombs and Rising Stars Capital Management, which is a non-profit focused on improving diversity in the finance industry.
He received a Bachelor of Arts from UT’s prestigious Plan II Honors Program, a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from McCombs, and a Master of Professional Accounting from McCombs.
Whitaker lives in New York City with his wife Adora and three daughters Zahra, Adia, and Noa.
Watch MPA Commencement Live
Master of Science Programs in Business Analytics, Finance, Information Technology and Management, Marketing
May 20, 2022
11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Gregory Gym
Jill Lampert, BBA ’88
Jill Lampert is chief financial and administrative officer of NGP, a premier investment franchise in the natural resources industry with over $20 billion in aggregate cumulative capital.
She earned her B.B.A in accounting from McCombs and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Lampert is a former MSF Advisory Council member and is currently serving on the Kay Bailey Hutchison Energy Center for Business, Law and Policy Executive Council.
Lampert serves on a number of other boards and is a strong advocate for women in energy.
She leads NGP’s Connects efforts, organizing networking events to foster connections and identify women with the skills to take on leadership roles in the energy sector.
During Lampert’s time on the MSF Advisory Council, she extended this same support to women in the program.
Lampert isn’t just a proud alumna of McCombs and an invested supporter of the MS programs, but she is also a proud parent of one of our very own MSM alums from the class of 2021.
Watch MS Program Commencement Live
MSTC
May 21, 2022
3:30 – 5 p.m.
Zlotnik Ballroom
Shanaz Hemmati, B.S, EE ’85
Entrepreneur, COO and Co-Founder, ZenBusiness
Shanaz Hemmati is the co-founder and chief operating officer at ZenBusiness, a digital business management platform that provides budding entrepreneurs with a complete set of services to simplify the process of starting, managing, and growing their businesses. She is responsible for keeping the company moving forward and running smoothly and for managing its day-to-day operations. Hemmati has more than 30 years of experience in technology, previously serving as the global vice president of technology at HomeAway, where she led an international team responsible for data infrastructure and engineering, data tools and products, data science, analytics, CRM and ERP systems. Her time at HomeAway began during the company’s early days and continued through its IPO and acquisition by Expedia.