Mays Impacts

Mays alumnus Gen. Hal M. Hornburg ’68 , of Langley AFB, Va., will be inducted into Texas A&M University’s Corps Hall of Honor on October 11.

The Corps Hall of Honor was established in 1993 to pay tribute to former members of the university’s Corps of Cadets who have lived a life that exemplifies the Texas Aggie spirit. They must also possess the values on which the Corps is founded: honor, loyalty, service, pride, patriotism, faith, leadership and honesty. To date, 44 former cadets have been inducted.

Hornburg graduated from Texas A&M in 1968 with a degree in finance. Four other former cadets will be inducted into the Hall of Honor with Hornburg including James. L. Huffines Jr. ’44, Edward F. Kruse ’49, Howard W. Kruse ’52 and Jon L. Hagler ’58.

Trisha and Chaz Neely Jr. have endowed a graduate fellowship to support the studies of an outstanding Mays graduate student.

The Neely’s $150,000 gift will be matched by the Herman F. Heep and Minnie Bell Heep Foundation to create the $300,000 Trisha and L.C. “Chaz” Neely, Jr. ’62/Heep Endowed Graduate Fellowship.

“I am so grateful for my experience at Texas A&M and the influences it had on my life. I believe one gives back to the organizations that have such impact, and that’s why we chose to make this gift,” says Chaz Neely, a 1962 Texas A&M graduate.

Neely is the founder and chief executive officer of San Antonio Steel Company (SASCO), a B2B company with products including reinforced steel, barbed wire and agricultural and high tensile fencing. Neely was named 1997 Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young.

This is one more story of how individuals and companies are contributing to the goals of Mays Business School. See how others are joining us in the One Spirit One Vision Campaign.

Royce Builders of Houston has given $50,000 to underwrite Mays’ Freshman Business Initiative (FBI) for the 2003-2004 academic year.

FBI brings together small groups of freshmen with student peer advisors and faculty mentors. The goal of the learning community is to prepare students for university life and provide business leadership principles and other skills that might not be addressed in traditional business courses.

“The Freshman Business Initiative is a truly unique program and having the opportunity to contribute something back to the university is great,” says John Speer, president of Royce Builders. “But, having the added ability to help assure the success of our incoming freshmen is inspirational.”

Royce Builders includes Royce Homes, Espree Homes, Enclave Homes, Michael Thomas Estate Homes, Texas Colonial Homes and XL Homes. The company, begun in 1984, currently offers its services in Houston, Phoenix, Atlanta, and Dallas and has won several awards for its plans and customer service.

This is one more story of how individuals and companies are contributing to the goals of Mays Business School. See how others are joining us in the One Spirit One Vision Campaign.

The Center for Retailing Studies’ held its 21st Annual Retailing Summit September 18-19 in Dallas. The focus of this year’s event was “Connecting with Customers.”

“Forming relationships with customers is an enduring concern of retailers,” says Director Dr. David Szymanski. “The business leaders who presented at this conference are all innovative and passionate when it comes to understanding their customers and getting those customers to return time after time.”

Fifteen retail leaders presented at this year’s program, including key speakers Reverend Kirbyjon Caldwell of Houston; Robert Cialdini, Regents Professor, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University; Lisa Harper, chairman and CEO, Gymboree Corp.; Gary Kusin, president and CEO, Kinko’s, Inc.; Gary Loveman, president and CEO, Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc.; Davis Ridley, vice president-ground operations, Southwest Airlines Co.; and Edith Weiner, president, Weiner, Edrich, Brown, Inc.

Each year Retailing Summit draws a multinational audience of executives, industry leaders, decision makers, managers on an upward career path and professors with an interest in retailing.

To find out more, visit the Retailing Summit Web site.

Houston businessman and Texas A&M University graduate Brandon C. Coleman Jr. ’78 has endowed a chair to benefit the Department of Marketing in Mays Business School.

Coleman’s $500,000 gift will be matched through the university’s Vision 2020 Matching Program to create the $1 million Brandon C. Coleman, Jr. ’78 Chair in Marketing. The chair will be used to support a nationally recognized leader in marketing scholarship, who will also contribute to the teaching mission of Mays Business School.

Coleman graduated from Texas A&M in 1978 and went to work for a Houston-based advertising agency. He then started his own marketing and branding firm in 1980, which he owned for 20 years.

Not only involved in Mays Business School, Coleman is also well known throughout the Aggie family as the creator and driving force of the original marketing strategies behind The Zone at Kyle Field, The Association of Former Student’s “We Are The Aggie Network,” and The Court at Reed Arena.

This is one more story of how individuals and companies are contributing to the goals of Mays Business School. See how others are joining us in the One Spirit One Vision Campaign.

Ray Miles, chief executive officer of Rajko Associates, jumpstarted a thought-provoking dialogue with Mays MBA students during his recent visit to campus. His discussion, “Real-Politik of Doing Business Abroad Post 9/11 and Iraq War,” addressed the many issues that impact global business in today’s environment.

Miles’ presentation focused on understanding the human psyche for war and peace, global perceptions and cultural differences. He believes it’s critical for MBA students to understand the correlations of such issues and the business marketplace.

“This issue matters a ton. Why? Because in the end we are in a global economy and we very much affect that economy,” says Miles, who previously served as president of Communication Services, a division of EDS. “Plus, I believe to change the mindset of the people who commit terrorists acts, we have to engage one-on-one in this dialogue.”

Miles has many years of experience with international businesses, having led marketing and engineering for the embedded systems division of a Sarajevo-based Energoinvest conglomerate. He has also held positions within British Telecom in the United Kingdom.

Miles serves on the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of Forgent, the American Council on Germany, the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations and as a StarTech mentor for start-up companies.

Distinguished Professor of Marketing Dr. Leonard Berry received the 2003 American Marketing Association Services Marketing Special Interest Group Best Article on Services Marketing award.

The article, “Understanding Service Convenience,” was published in the July 2002 issue of the Journal of Marketing. Kathleen Seiders, who received her PhD in marketing from Texas A&M and is currently on the faculty of Boston College, and Dhruv Grewal, co-editor of the Journal of Retailing and Toyota Chaired Professor at Babson College, co-authored the article with Berry.

Sylvia and Jeff Spiegelhauer ’72 have endowed a graduate fellowship to support the studies of an outstanding Mays graduate student. The $150,000 gift has been matched by the Herman F. Heep and Minnie Bell Heep Foundation to create the $300,000 Sylvia and Jeffery L. Spiegelhauer ’72/Heep Endowed Graduate Fellowship.

“Sylvia and I are thrilled to be able to support the One Spirit One Vision Campaign. We have always considered Texas A&M as one of the premier universities in the United States,” says Jeff. “We are excited our gift will be instrumental in spreading that message.”

Spiegelhauer is chairman and chief executive officer of FMA Alliance Ltd., a company specializing in receivable management solutions for major healthcare providers and the bank and retail-credit card industry. He received a degree in agricultural economics from Texas A&M in 1972 and has served on numerous leadership committees at both the state and national level of the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals since 1984.

This is one more story of how individuals and companies are contributing to the goals of Mays Business School. See how others are joining us in the One Spirit One Vision Campaign.

For the first time, the Mays MBA Program was ranked among the world’s top 50 programs in the Wall Street Journal’s third annual survey of MBA programs. In the 2003 survey, Mays ranked 47th overall and 16th among public business schools.

Unlike other rankings, the Wall Street Journal survey is based on the opinions of 2,191 MBA recruiters that hire full-time graduates. It focuses on the characteristics the recruiters deem most important when deciding from which schools to recruit and which students to hire.

Forbes ranked the Mays MBA Program 32nd overall and 11th among public universities in its 2003 rankings. This ranking is unique in that it does not consider perceptions, rather market forces. Specifically, it evaluates five-year salary gains after students earn their degrees and the number of years to pay back.

Five years following graduation, Mays MBA students received a 133 percent increase from their starting salaries, ranking second in the United States and first among public universities in this category.

“Clearly, the high quality of the Mays MBA Program is a testimony to the hard work and talent of our students, faculty, MBA program and Graduate Business Career Services staff,” says Dean Jerry Strawser. “While we are excited about the current state of our program, we are even more excited about its future.”