Advisory Board
Charlie Adams is the Founder at Sonar Capital Partners. The company helps companies achieve financial stability and prepare for growth in the ever changing economy. He grew up in New Braunfels and graduated from Texas A&M University in 2003 with a Master of Science in Marketing and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting. During his time at Texas A&M he was part of the Texas A&M Track and Field Team, as well as involved with many organizations on campus. Previously, Charlie was with PwC for 16 years, including the last 4 years as a Partner.
Mr. Adams is passionate about building great teams and bringing in new ideas. As a disruptive thinker, driving innovation is all about asking the right questions and keeping an open mind on the answers you will get. How can we? What if? Why not? Charlie believes that innovation can come in many forms, not just technology — but it all starts with the mindset. He is always looking for ways to preserve and grow his ties with Texas A&M.
John T. Balkema is President – U.S. and U.K Operations for United Machining. He previously served 20 years with Caterpillar where he was General Manager of Pyroban in the Oil and Gas group, Product Manager, Global Talent Manager, and began his career there in 1998 as a Marketing Specialist for the North American Commercial Division. Prior to joining Caterpillar, John worked for American Home Productions in New Jersey and Iowa, serving in several Sales and Marketing roles. He is a graduate of Iowa State University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business with an emphasis in Marketing. John serves on the Employers Advisory Board at Bradley University, and the Technical Advisory Board for Skills U.S.A.
John and his wife Julie live in Spring, Texas. They have three daughters Lauren, Lindsey, and Lexie.
Yvonne Y. Bourquin is an experienced business and marketing leader in the technology industry specializing in marketing strategy, launch, Go-To-Market, messaging, content creation, and brand management in commercial, consumer, and public sector segments. Career highlights include earning recognition 7 times in AMA Crystal Award and AAF ADDY competitions, winning 2 international marketing awards, and driving multiple disruptive product launches across servers, software and PCs, including the very first premium consumer offering for HP consumer notebooks.
Yvonne presently works at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise as Senior Director, Global Product Marketing, where she leads a team responsible for marketing their High Performance Compute products and AI solutions. Prior to her return to HPE, Yvonne served as Vice President of Product Marketing at Thomson Reuters, where she led a newly formed organization responsible for marketing Tax & Trade, Risk & Fraud, and Legal software to corporations. Yvonne has also held various marketing and business development positions at large companies including Dell, AMD, and HP, at a boutique marketing agency, Jump2 Group, and at a software startup, NetNearU.
A third-generation Aggie, Yvonne holds both a BBA in Marketing and a Master of Science in Marketing from Texas A&M University. She lives in the Houston area with her husband and fellow Aggie, Brant, and their three children. In her limited free time, Yvonne enjoys swimming, spending time with family, and cheering on the Aggie football team.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybourquin/
Justin Cade was born and raised in Arlington, TX the son of two high school teachers. After graduating from Mansfield High School he graduated from Texas A&M in 2003 with his BBA, and in 2004 with his MS in Marketing. He began his professional career with BP as a gas station manager in Chicago as part of an early experience program in the Fuels division. He moved back to Texas in 2008, joining the Houston-based NGL group where he held various roles across the Marketing and Trading teams before becoming the Executive Assistant to the CEO of North American Gas and Power in 2015. He returned to NGLs as VP of Operations in 2017, overseeing all transportation and storage logistics for the group and taking on all safety and product quality accountabilities.
Outside of work, Justin enjoys live music, whiskey and spending time with his wife of five years and eighteen-month old baby daughter.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justincade/
Tami Cannizzaro, Principle at Cannizzaro Consulting, is a Certified Professional Career coach focused on assisting young adults at the start of their careers. She began her career in the Executive Development Program at Neiman Marcus, working in store management as well as a buyer for men’s furnishings. At Zale Corp. Tami managed marketing and advertising for the Bailey Banks & Biddle brand. Leaving the world of retail to work for Nokia, she was responsible for identifying, evaluating, negotiating, activating and managing a $25+ MM national sponsorship marketing portfolio. Tami moved back to the retail side at Blockbuster into a strategic marketing role where she was responsible for the development, planning and execution of corporate marketing initiatives including the launch of the Blockbuster Movie Pass. She left to become Marketing Director at 7-Eleven, managing the marketing team for non-food categories as well as the Team 7-Eleven IndyCar racing team. Returning to Blockbuster, Tami was Director of Marketing Public Relations, promoting the brand through PR and marketing and was instrumental in launching the company’s social media efforts. Tami spent time on the agency side too, as Retail Account Director at SPM Communications, a Dallas-based PR agency, where she was responsible for the Michael’s account.
She writes about career-related issues on her blog and is the author of Tales of the Terminated, A Humorous Look at Life After a Layoff and Adventures in the Discomfort Zone. Tami is a 1980 graduate of Texas A&M University with a BS in Engineering Technology and received her MBA from Texas A&M in 1984. She also received a Graduate Marketing Certificate from SMU in 1999. Tami lives in Dallas with her husband Tom.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin/in/tami-cannizzaro
Lauren Engebretson is the Program Manager for Sustainability Positioning in the Living Progress team at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE). She graduated with a Bachelor of Communications degree from the University of Houston-Victoria in 2001 and with a Master of Science in Marketing degree from Texas A&M Mays Business School in 2007. She has had experience in several industries including retail, food service, higher education, and technology. Before promotion to her current position she was a Senior Portfolio Marketing Manager where she created and executed bold, comprehensive marketing strategies designed to bring new, courageous ideas to market.
On a personal note, Lauren’s hobbies include paddle boarding, reading, and yoga. She lives in the Austin area with her three beautiful children.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-engebretson-a9318914/
Hans George is retired from NIKE, Inc. after a 24-year career in Product Creation and Product Merchandising culminating in multiple VP roles across both functions. His 16 years in Apparel & Accessories Product Creation included NCAA/NBA, Jordan Brand, NIKE Basketball, Sportswear, Tee Shirts, Headwear, & Socks; his 8 years in Product Merchandising included Sportswear, Cross Category, and Sporting Goods, along with Apparel Business Director for NIKE de Mexico based in Guadalajara.
Hans holds a BBA in Marketing from Texas A&M University (’91 Outstanding Marketing Graduate) and was a leader in Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity as well as a member of CBA Fellows at Mays Business School. As a junior at Texas A&M, Hans identified his dream to combine his passion for sports + aptitude for marketing and someday work for the world’s leading sports company, NIKE. Realizing this dream took 7 years. Upon graduation he spent 2 years at Neiman Marcus at their Dallas buying office as an Assistant Buyer of Men’s Designer Tailored Suits. After earning his MBA from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business (’95), he spent 1 year at Kraft Foods at their Chicago area HQ as an Assistant Brand Manager of Mac & Cheese before parlaying these combined experiences into his first role at NIKE in 1996 as an Assistant Product Line Manager for NCAA/NBA Apparel.
His mission in this next chapter is to help young people and young companies achieve their dreams. Toward that end, Hans is an active member in Oregon Sports Angels, an Angel investor network that supports next generation sports & fitness start-ups. Hans also serves on the Board of Directors for Portland Tennis & Education and Advisory Board for the University of Oregon Sports Product Management Program, which both give him the opportunity to coach & mentor students.
Hans spends his spare time staying in shape, enjoying the Pacific Northwest, and travelling the world with his wife, Selina, of 30 years (Aggie class of ’91) & their two daughters Veronica & Marissa. Veronica is a recent graduate of the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle and now lives & works in L.A. as a content editor/producer for LiveNation. Marissa is a junior majoring in Social Welfare at UW.
Sterling Hayman is the founder and co-owner of an advertising agency, Recreation Dallas, servicing clients like 7-Eleven, American Airlines, PWC, United Dairy Farmers and ACE Cash Express. He is the former Managing Partner with Splash Media. Before that he was Client Services Director at TracyLocke Advertising in Dallas. Sterling earned his Bachelor of Political Science degree from Texas A&M in 1996, and was editor in chief of The Battalion. At TracyLocke, Sterling was responsible for leading all strategic planning and advertising/promotions activity on 7-Eleven, Clorox, Sony PlayStation and the Dallas Stars. TracyLocke’s work on Sterling’s accounts led to numerous industry awards, including 2 Cannes Gold Lions, 2 One Show Pencils, numerous Addy’s, Communications Arts, among others. Prior to TracyLocke, Sterling has worked in various account service positions at Publicis, DDB Needham and the late Berry Brown Advertising, on accounts such as Sara Lee, Nestle Ice Cream, Tabasco, Mrs Baird’s Bread, Imperial Sugar, Quaker Oats and Friendly’s restaurants.
In his spare time, he enjoys happy hours, politics and storm chasing. Never combined.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sterling-hayman-038b775/
Holly Herrera Sheets recently made the transition to be a freelance business consultant and project manager. In this role, Holly assists leaders and teams from small start-ups to mid-size organizations with project and change management delivery and governance, procedure design and implementation, and post-merger integration support. In her previous role, Holly served as a Project Manager for Southwestern Energy (SWN), a growing independent energy company. During her time at SWN, she led multiple large-scale strategic technology projects and M&A integrations, promoted the use of IT standards and procedures, and designed and managed a stringent annual intake process to vet the need, feasibility, and quantifiable contributions of proposed technology spend. Prior to SWN, she was a Consultant with Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting.
Holly leverages her marketing background along with her change management experience to help teams understand their audiences and deliver strategies that increase adoption, minimize disruption, and maximize returns. Holly earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a concentration in Marketing from Texas A&M International. While there, she received a Certificate in International Studies and studied abroad in France. She also holds a Master of Science degree in Marketing from Texas A&M. Holly lives in Houston with her husband, Colton.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollyhkh/
Jason Kappel is a senior marketing leader in the areas of Customer Engagement, Loyalty, and CRM. Most recently he was Director of Strategy at Brierley+Partners, where he led the development of customer loyalty solutions and program strategies for Fortune 1000 clients. Previously, he was in a similar role with LoyaltyOne Consulting as an Associate Partner. Before transitioning to consulting, he was client-side as the Director of CRM for GameStop, where he led customer analytics and development of CRM strategies and initiatives, as well as optimization of direct communication channels. His previous experience includes strategic, category, and database marketing roles spanning business-to-business and business-to-consumer disciplines at Texas Instruments, Blockbuster, and Sprint. His focus has been on leveraging data-driven insights to develop actionable strategies that enhance the customer experience and drive revenue. Jason earned Bachelors of Business Administration degrees in Marketing and Finance at Texas A&M University, where he was a member of the Corps of Cadets, Secretary of the Class of 1990, and active in several organizations across campus. He received the Buck Weirus Spirit Award and remains a loyal Aggie supporter. Jason also earned an MBA from Southern Methodist University in 1998.
He lives in Plano, Texas, with his wife and their two children.
Tim Mixon is the VP of Marketing Programs for Q2, a financial technology company in Austin that makes online and mobile banking software for banks. He previously spent 10 years at Dell where he most recently led the company’s Marketing Talent & Capabilities team, helping marketers continue to build the skills required for Dell to compete in today’s fast-moving technology marketing industry. While at Dell, Tim led the company’s Marketing University, Social Media training and activation programs (SMaC U), the Marketing Rotation Program, MBA/MS-Marketing Internship program, Dell Talks, the Marketing Excellence series. With over 20 years of diverse marketing experience, Tim has been responsible for the breakout growth of businesses large and small. In prior positions at Dell, Tim was Director of Strategic Planning for Dell’s Large Enterprise Marketing organization, providing the right focus and marketing mix to drive $250M+ in sales pipeline for 6 consecutive quarters. In 5 years at Dell, Tim rebranded and launched the $6 Billion ProSupport portfolio of services, built Services Navigator to help sales people position and sell Dell’s portfolio of over 300 technology services, and in 2011, launched Dell Talks – a forum for executives and marketers to discuss key Dell technologies to deepen technical understanding. Prior to joining Dell, Tim was Executive Director of Marketing and Sales for Kaplan Medical in Los Angeles, and was co-founder and VP Marketing at Cloud B, now a $30M consumer products company. Tim also served as Executive Director Marketing for a pre-IPO software start-up in San Francisco that went public, and also spent 2 years in Osaka, Japan with Kumon Inc. driving the integration of five US-based Japanese subsidiaries into one US parent corporation. Tim earned a Master’s Degree from the Executive MBA program at the University of Houston, and a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Texas A&M University. Tim is an active member of the Marketing Sciences Institute, and the Institute for the Study of Business Markets.
Tim is a husband, father, live music fan, volleyball coach, hiker and avid runner.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmixon1/
Laura O’Brien is a Product Marketing Manager at Facebook. She drives the go-to-market strategy in North America for Facebook’s advertising and integrity product suite, focusing specifically on business experiences and legitimacy. She works closely with product and sales teams, bringing products to market and bringing the voice of the market back to product design and development. Her previous roles at Facebook have included: Small Business Sales, Customer Service and Customer Advocacy. Prior to Facebook, she was at Dell for three and a half years where she served as a Program Manager for Dell’s Marketing University team. She is on the children’s ministry team at LifeAustin Church and is an active member of the Austin community. Laura graduated from the Professional Program of Accounting at Texas A&M University in May of 2014 with her Bachelors of Business Administration in Accounting and Master of Science in Marketing.
Laura is married to Seth, a military and commercial pilot and most importantly, an Aggie! Fun fact: Seth has done two Blackhawk helicopter flyovers at Kyle Field! When she’s not spoiling her two dogs, Ellie and Rudder (named after Earl Rudder), she enjoys being outdoors, gardening, cooking and traveling.
David Paradis has been Chief Executive Officer of Trillium Flow Technologies since June of 2019 when with First Reserve, he took the $500m revenue business private. The company consists of 11 manufacturing locations in seven countries. Before his current role, David was with The Weir Group PLC as Divisional President, Flow Control. Earlier in his time at Weir, he was President of their $1B revenue Pressure Pumping business based in Fort Worth, TX. Prior to Weir, David spent 22 years with Tyco International in various roles of increasing responsibility that included Global Product Manager, Director Sales & Marketing, and Regional Vice President. David has a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration, both from Texas A&M University.
He lives in Pearland, Texas with his wife Lindsey and has four children.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-paradis-7a1497/
Tasha Murphy is the Vice President of Human Resources for Newpark Resources, a publicly-traded organization who sets industry standards in water-based drilling fluids and advanced-composite matting systems, reporting to the CEO. In this role she is responsible for global, centralized Human Resources functions including Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards (Executive Compensation, Compensation, Benefits), HR Records & Administration, Payroll, Talent Management, Compliance, Corporate Communications, and Contractor Management. Prior to this role, Ms. Murphy was the HR Manager of Mozambique LNG for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, working a $20 billion dollar capital project for one of the largest mega-projects in the world, and the largest project finance deal in Africa. The Mozambique LNG Project reached Final Investment Decision while Ms. Murphy served in this role, a major milestone now and for the future for the country of Mozambique. In this role, Ms. Murphy was responsible for leading a HR team of over 65 professionals who enabled all people aspects of supporting the Project, including workforce planning, recruiting, total rewards, global mobility and immigration, onboarding, training, and talent development. Tasha supported the Project SVPs and VPs across Houston, the UK, Italy, Singapore, and Mozambique, and was also responsible for directing the advancement for centralized HR function planning and organization readiness to allow the Project to maintain schedule. Previous roles at Anadarko included HR Manager of Corporate Services, where she served the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer on the Executive Committee and managed Employee Relations & Compliance. She also held roles as an HR Business Partner, managed the performance management process, and specialized in leadership and employee development including 360s, coaching, and succession planning. Prior to Anadarko, she was the Operations Manager for the Southwest region for Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting, LLC, and before that a consultant who served clients across industries. Tasha has international business and educational experiences in China, England, and Italy, and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Texas A&M University with her Bachelor of Business Administration degree in marketing with concentration in international business in 2003. She obtained her Master of Science in Marketing with an emphasis in consulting and services from Texas A&M in December 2004.
In her free time enjoys traveling the world and outdoor activities with her husband, Michael, and daughters, Bella, Scarlett, Madison, and Madalyn.
K. Todd Storch is currently Chief Revenue Officer of Futuri Media. Futuri is the leading provider of cloud-based audience engagement software for enterprise companies; relied on by sales, marketing, and content teams at some of the world’s biggest brands, including more than 1,500 broadcasters and digital publishers in 20 countries worldwide. He has over 25 years of executive business management and consulting experience in bringing digital and interactive initiatives to fruition through leadership, strategic alliances, processes, and technologies in many industries, including media, entertainment, publishing and SaaS driven technology platforms. His domain experience in sales and marketing ensures go-to-market strategies and operational plans for profitable growth are not only in alignment, but achievable. Todd was the senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Ministry Brands where he was responsible for providing leadership, management, and operational plans for post-acquisition alignment of brands under the Ministry umbrella. He also held roles as CEO of Kindrid, Five Star Global, Co-Founder and President of Taylor’s Gift, and senior consulting roles at The Center for Sales Strategy. He began his career in accounting at Arthur Andersen.
Todd holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting from Texas A&M. He served as Co-Founder and President of Taylor’s Gift Foundation until 2014, building an award win 501c3 non-profit focused on organ donation following the loss of his oldest daughter Taylor, that continues delivering emotional support to organ donor families. Giving back is important to Todd, and his volunteer work currently includes serving as an active member on the Advisory Board for the Mays Business School MS Marketing Program and speaking regularly at Texas A&M organizations and classes at Mays. He was also honored with being the commencement speaker at the MS Marketing Hooding Ceremony. He and his wife have been the keynote speakers at Musters in Texas and Arkansas. His additional volunteer work also includes volunteering in his hometown of Coppell, TX where he serves in advisory board positions for the Smart City and Coppell Arts Center Foundation in executive leadership roles. He and his wife of 28 years, Tara (Class of ‘91) are the authors of the best seller book Taylor’s Gift: A Courageous Story of Giving Life and Renewing Hope. They have three children, Taylor, Ryan (Class of ‘21, Mays Business Honors, Maroon Coat) and Peyton (Nursing School student at Texas Tech Health Science Center). His favorite memory of being at Texas A&M was meeting his wife in Mrs. Darcy’s class in BANA 217 in 1988.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ktoddstorch