Mays Impacts

The Mays Graduate School of Business welcomes Class III of the Executive MBA Program. The program kicks-off with Residency Week, August 19-23, on the Texas A&M University campus. The group of 65 participants bring a wealth of experience from industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, energy, pharmaceuticals, retail and technology. These working professionals will earn a Master’s of Business Administration degree by attending classes held at the University Center in The Woodlands.

The Mays College’s Business Student Council (BSC) had an opportunity to interact with student leaders from the Undergraduate Business Council (UBC) at the Red McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas during a recent leadership retreat.

Sponsored by Enron Corp., the event was held at the company’s headquarters in Houston for incoming and outgoing executive officers of the two councils. The workshop covered topics ranging from fundraising to event planning and member motivation. In addition to sponsoring the core activities for the workshop, Enron also took participants to a Houston Astro’s baseball game.

The idea for the workshop was sparked at a conference the two councils attended last spring at Emory University. While several business schools were represented, the college’s BSC and McCombs’ UBC benefited most from each other.

“A&M and UT can learn from each other, and we wanted to capitalize on the ability and innovation of the top student leaders in Texas,” said Brian Essner, a senior finance major and a former BSC officer. “Enron’s support has been unbelievable and none of this would have been possible without their generosity.”

Dr. Wendy Boswell’s research on stress was cited in a recent article in The Wall Street Journal. According to Boswell, an assistant management professor, and her research colleagues at Cornell University, contrary to popular belief, not all stress is bad.

In fact, one kind, “challenge stress,” is what motivates people to do well, such as having projects, assignments and responsibilities. According to Boswell, this type of stress correlates to the things employees value like money, skills and promotions. Although the long-term effects of challenge stress aren’t known, employees still seek it out, noted Boswell in the Journal article.

While challenge stress often propels employees to perform better, “hindrance stress” often causes the opposite reaction. This type of stress is the negative junk associated with work — red tape, stalled careers and lack of job security. If faced with this type of stress for a long period of time, health problems can ensue, ranging from heart disease to immune system disorders, the article notes.

To learn more about how stress affects work performance, check out this article that ran earlier this year in Mays Business Online.

The Mays College’s voice will not go unheard during the search for the new Texas A&M president. Dr. Bob Strawser, accounting professor and former A&M Faculty Senate speaker, has been named to the 24-member search committee, which is comprised of A&M faculty, staff and student body president as well as community and corporate leaders.

The recently formed committee will head the national search for the university’s next president after Dr. Ray Bowen ’58 steps down in June 2002. Also serving on the committee are Mays College Development Council members Jerry Cox ’72, Bookman Peters ’59 and Carroll Phillips ’54.

Mays alumnus J. Robert Collins ’88 plans to waste little time in his new post as president of the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex). Collins, who goes by “Bo,” is hoping to transform the country’s leading energy and metals market, according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal.

Collins was appointed to the post after a highly successful run as senior vice president of natural gas trading at El Paso Energy in Houston, setting up the company’s trading program from scratch. Prior to joining Nymex as president, he served as a trade representative on exchange’s board.

“What was really appealing about my last job was the opportunity to come in and rebuild something that needed it,” Collins told the Journal. “I see the exchange in much the same way, considering all the possibilities that are in front of us.”

Dr. Rajan Varadarajan, head of the Department of Marketing, has recently been named a Distinguished Professor of Marketing by Texas A&M President Ray Bowen and Provost Ron Douglas.

“This appointment evidences something we already know — Rajan is a scholar and individual of the very highest caliber,” said Dean Jerry Strawser. “On behalf of the Mays College, I am proud to congratulate Dr. Varadarajan on this prestigious and well-deserved honor. We are truly fortunate to have him as a member of our Mays College family.”

Varadarajan, who also serves as the Ford Chair in Marketing and E-commerce, has been awarded numerous honors for his research, including the Texas A&M University Distinguished Achievement Award for Research in 1994 and the Texas A&M Mays College of Business Distinguished Research Award in 1990.

In addition, Varadarajan has authored numerous journal articles on corporate, business and marketing strategy as well as co-authored a textbook.

Enron, Memorial Hermann Healthcare Systems and Teradata, a division of NCR, have joined 21 other companies as members of the advisory board of the Mays College’s Center for the Management of Information Systems (CMIS), bringing the board to its largest ever number of corporate members.

CMIS advisory board members help plan strategies to keep students abreast of the business technology marketplace. The three newest board member companies join Wal-Mart, VALIC, USAA, TXU Business Services, Tactica Technology Group, Neiman Marcus, MBNA America, ExxonMobil, Federal Express, Frito Lay, Inc., Information Advantage Associates, J.C. Penney Co. Inc., Conoco, Inc., Dell Computer Corp., COMPAQ, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, EDS, BP Amoco, Anadarko Petroleum Company, Accenture and EnFORM.

“In the fast-changing world of technology, partnerships between academic institutions and industry are vital to the education of students destined for the technology world,” said George Fowler, CMIS director. “It is wonderful to have so many valued companies on the CMIS board of advisors. I am pleased that the numbers continue to grow, and I am very pleased that this growth includes such a variety of industries.”

Although they’re not racy stories that are likely to compete for tabloid headlines, they are definitely top reads among prospective MBA students.

In its third year, Business Week Online‘s MBA Journals brings to life the stories of several dozen MBA students from around the nation. Among the 11 new first-year students who’ll be recounting everything from the application process to their first exam over the 2001-2002 academic year are Mays MBA students Megan and Drew Hess.

Selected among 150 first-year students, the husband and wife team will periodically submit journal entries to the series, which is available only on the Web.

According to Wendy Flynn, assistant director of the Mays MBA Program, the journals will provide a great opportunity for exposure to the Mays program. “Everyone in the Mays College is very excited about this,” she said. “Special thanks to Megan and Drew for taking the time to apply, as well as to others who applied to Business Week for these positions.”

Stay tuned to Mays Business Online for more about the Hess’ experience as MBA Journal Writers. You can check out the series by visiting the B-School section of Business Week Online.