Mays Impacts

Melendy Lovett, President of Education Technologies at Texas Instruments, works in what many would refer to as a man’s world. Because TI’s business focuses on technology, many of its employees are engineers, lending to an unbalanced gender distribution among professionals at TI: 75 percent men and only 25 percent women.

Melendy Lovett,
President of Education Technologies
at Texas Instruments

“A few years ago, there was never a line at the ladies’ room,” Lovett told Mays undergraduate students when describing her experiences at leadership conferences for TI. “There’s still no line today, but the ladies’ room is busy.”

Lovett says among engineering professionals at TI the number of women drops even further, to around 15 percent. When her daughter reached middle school and started worrying more about boys than math and science, Lovett saw the same thing happen to her daughter as what had happened to her 30 years ago.

“She wasn’t sure if being smart was a cool thing or not,” says Lovett. “What I saw was social forces that were dampening girls’ potential as early as middle school.”
Lovett says teachers may not know how to keep girls interested in math and science, and the result was girls headed into high school and then college without a solid background in the subjects. “The world has changed so much for young women, and I was sad to see that the education system hadn’t.”

Lovett realized the reasons behind why the numbers of women working as engineers at TI and other companies in the industry were so low, and sought to change it. In 2001 she founded High Tech High Heels, an organization designed to increase the number of girls in advanced science and math classes in high school, and the number of girls headed into a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) major in college.

The organization focuses on counselors, teachers, and students. Guidance counselors at the middle and high school levels are prepared to be better equipped to help students understand what a STEM career is and what classes they need to take to prepare for college. A training program for teachers helps them to teach science and math classes in a way that is more inclusive of both genders and more hands-on.

“We’ve actually seen from our results that once teachers implement these teaching methods, both boys and girls do better,” says Lovett.

Lovett’s passion for a well-rounded education was a large part of her discussion with current Mays students. A management major in college, she realized once she got into the workforce how important it was to also understand the numbers side of business, so she got her master’s in accounting while working full-time.

“It’s really important for you to be able to handle the analytical side of the job,” Lovett emphasized.

About Mays Business School

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,000 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.

Carl Allegretti, chairman and CEO of Deloitte Tax, may not be an Aggie, but when he spoke to a group of Mays’ Professional Program students, he demonstrated leadership and passion that any Aggie would be proud to emulate.

Carl Allegretti,
Chairman and CEO of Deloitte Tax

Allegretti grew up on the south side of Chicago, where his father was a business owner. After graduating from high school, he had plans to work in the mills in Gary, Indiana along with the majority of graduates from his high school. However, he had a scholarship offer to play college football, and after a long, hot summer of working in the mills, he decided that college would be a good option, after all. Allegretti started that fall at Butler University. He demonstrated his strong work ethic by working to pay his way through school while also playing on the football team.

After graduating, Allegretti went to work for Arthur Andersen and stayed for the next 20 years before transitioning to Deloitte.

During his address, Allegretti encouraged students to be prepared for continuous change, because he said change is guaranteed to happen in any career. The keys to thriving in the midst of change are to be willing to change, be aware of and understand what’s happening, and then prepare to stay in front of the change and capitalize on the opportunities it creates.

Another message Allegretti shared was the importance of continuous learning. He told students, “You’re going to have a long career. Where you are right now is just the start, so never stop learning.” His own experience demonstrates the value of learning from mentors. When Allegretti started in accounting, he had no plans of becoming a partner. In fact, he actually tried to quit at three different points in his career. Each time, his mentor encouraged him to persevere and he chose to stay. As a leader now, he encourages people beginning their careers to not give up too quickly or assume early on that you know what your career path is going to be. Clearly, his personal success speaks to the power of perseverance and learning.

Allegretti highlighted four areas for students to focus on now and in their careers:

• Passion
Approach your job with passion. Do something that you love and that inspires you.
If you start somewhere and don’t enjoy it, move into something different. Focus on what you enjoy doing and find creative ways to do it. It’s important to remember that there are multiple places to be successful in a large organization, so look for opportunities where you are.

• Work-life balance
Know what your priorities are and figure out how to make them work. Remember, you define what’s important to you. Allegretti has two sons and doesn’t miss a single one of their wrestling matches, despite travelling about 45 weeks out of each year. When his oldest son was diagnosed with cancer, he was able to be with him for every treatment he had. There is always time to do what matters most to you; it’s about prioritizing. Most careers can be very demanding, so if you’re struggling, talk to someone about it. It’s likely they’ve experienced many similar challenges.

• Staying Connected
Relationships are critical, so it’s worth the time it takes to stay in touch with people. Don’t underestimate the significance of face-to-face communication. It’s easy to get caught up in social media, but don’t rely on that. While it may get the job done, it does little to actually enhance a relationship. The best place to start establishing lasting connections is here at Texas A&M, because these relationships may be priceless to you in the future.

• Giving Back
Find what’s significant to you and invest there. Allegretti has used his passion for football to begin a program for more than 800 students from kindergarten through eighth grade to play football; some of those children have even gone on to play college and professional football. As you experience success, it’s important to use your resources to do good in your community. Start today by finding somewhere to invest yourself.

With his focus on service, passion, learning and connectedness, Allegretti left the Professional Program students with inspiring thoughts and valuable lessons. His final comments were in response to questions students asked about differentiating themselves as they seek to advance in their careers. He advised, “Do what you can to be competitive, but more than anything, always be fair. Always take the high road.”

About Mays Business School

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,000 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.

The Internet is full of articles meant to advise people on how to be successful. It can be hard to sift through it all and decide what is accurate, but Mays’ business honors students recently got the opportunity to hear it straight from the source: Monty Davis ’77, COO of Core Laboratories, an oil service company that advises oil exploration and production companies on the best way to get the most oil or gas out of reservoirs.

Davis, who received an accounting degree from Mays, already knows what it takes to be successful and how to give back. He and his wife contributed to the new Becky ’76 and Monty ’77 Davis Player Development Center near Kyle Field.

Monty Davis ’77, COO of Core Laboratories

“I want you to be successful, and I want you to help others after you’ve been successful,” Davis said to students, referring to giving back to the university.

The ability to make decisions was one of the attributes for success Davis emphasized, along with being able to communicate clearly. “Be willing to express your opinion and have confidence. Nobody wants a yes-man working for them.”

Davis offered advice not only from the employee’s perspective, but also from the employer’s perspective.

“Always respect your employees,” he advised. “You never know where somebody else is going to end up. An employee today could become a customer tomorrow.”

Davis also touched on success in life, saying it starts with determining what is important to him. For him, family is number one. He showed students a small journal he keeps in his briefcase, in the back of which he keeps two lists of goals, one for his personal life for the year and one for business. He said he picked up the idea from a management class, and he encouraged students to do the same, and to track their performance against their goals.

“You’re not going to reach all of your goals,” Davis says. “If you do, you’re not setting good enough goals.”

Emily Neubert ’15, a business honors and MIS major, said she enjoyed hearing Davis’s insights about how to succeed in business, as well as in life. “He shared how being flexible and moving overseas helped advance his career quickly, so he recommended that we consider working abroad for a couple years.”

Monty Davis ’77’s top attributes for success

• Intelligence
• Education
• Effort, ability to work under pressure
• Initiative – “You can’t go to a job and just do what’s asked; that’s not enough.”
• Discernment, ability to make decisions
• Ability to express yourself
• Results oriented – “It’s not a matter of getting work done, it’s a matter of working to achieve a result.”
• Responsible, dependable
• Integrity – “In business and in your life; if you don’t have integrity you’ll never get anywhere.”

About Mays Business School

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,000 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.

Ask any business student, and many will confess: owning their own business is the ultimate dream job. Entrepreneurs Jay Graham ’92 and Anthony Bahr ’91, co-founders of WildHorse Resources, spoke with students about what it takes to start a business.

Anthony Bahr ’91 and Jay Graham ’92

The duo started the oil and gas production company – named WildHorse after a creek running through Graham’s family’s ranch in Oklahoma – in April 2007 after securing funding from one of their former petroleum engineering professors and a big name in the oil and gas industry, Pete Huddleston. Shortly after founding, WildHorse partnered with one of the premier energy private equity firms to increase their capital and support the company’s aggressive growth plans.

“A lot of it was being associated with the right people,” describes Graham, President and Managing Partner.

“We were blessed early on with a lot of help from a lot of people,” added Bahr, CEO and Managing Partner. “This [Aggie] ring will open a lot of doors for you.”

Long before Graham and Bahr were looking for funding, they were preparing for futures as entrepreneurs. They knew they wanted to own a business one day, no matter the industry, so they prepared by taking different jobs in the oil and gas industry to learn the variety of skills necessary to run a business.

“Think about where you want to go,” Graham told students about choosing a job. He cautioned students against jumping on the highest-paying job offer. “It’s easy to get hung up on money, but get hung up on your future.”

Bahr agrees, saying he sees a lot of short-term thinking from college graduates and interns. Bahr experienced the consequences of short-term thinking first-hand when the company first started to take off and the number of employees jumped from four to almost 30 in a few short weeks.

“I was looking for warm bodies walking through the front door,” he says of how he handled hiring people while trying to staff up to handle the company’s first large acquisition. Bahr says not taking care to hire the right people was a mistake; they had people, but they weren’t the right people for WildHorse. “Good people are worth what you pay them, but great people are worth a lot more than what you’re paying them.”

They urged students wanting to start a business to choose a partner wisely. The two say part of what makes their partnership great is how well they compliment each other, both in personality and skills, and credit a lot of their success to the dynamics of their partnership. “Together, we can get a lot more done than we do apart,” says Bahr.

Casey Gattshall ’15, business honors major, says the biggest point the pair made was the importance of thoroughly understanding the area of business you go into, especially if trying to start a business. “Being a person interested in entrepreneurship, this advice really spoke to me.”

Almost six years after starting their business, Graham and Bahr are hugely successful for a private, independent company in the oil and gas industry, closing 12 acquisitions since 2007 totaling $900 million and now operating with an annual capital budget in excess of $200 million. They are anticipating almost $1 billion worth of acquisitions in 2013.

With about 85 employees, WildHorse has grown tremendously in a short time, but Bahr and Graham haven’t lost perspective. “Bottom line, you need to remember what a company is,” says Bahr. “A company is nothing more than a group of people. You need to be able to motivate them.”

About Mays Business School

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,000 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.

An Aggie turned Houston businessman wanted to help students pursue their own entrepreneurial endeavors, so he and his wife created the Jennifer and Brian Lamb ’91 Entrepreneurship Excellence Fund.

Jennifer and Brian Lamb ’91

Distributions from the $100,000 endowment, funded through the Texas A&M Foundation, will be used to support the activities of the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship (CNVE) at Mays Business School. The center’s vision is to produce and encourage entrepreneurs. Its activities are supported by corporate and individual partners.

Brian Lamb received his bachelor’s degree in management from Mays and has served on the CNVE’s advisory council since 2010. Both Brian and Jennifer have supported the CNVE financially since 2008.

Brian serves as president and Jennifer as Vice President of Administration at AXYS Industrial Solutions, Inc., a Houston-based company that re-purposes secondary products from industry and helps companies find new revenue streams while reducing disposal costs. Brian Lamb says the entrepreneurial approach aligns with the Companies philosophy and business ethic. “It’s just the way we do business and the way we think,” he says.

The Lambs say they wanted to honor Texas A&M while encouraging young people to pursue their dreams. “I tell young people to focus on the things they are good at and find solutions to problems in areas they can do something about. Find your passion, and your niche will show itself,” Brian Lamb explains.

“The Lambs are helping us work to create the next generation of entrepreneurs,” said Mays Dean Jerry Strawser. “Through their time and financial investment, they are providing us with the resources to help young people achieve their dreams and pursue their passions.”

The Lambs’ company was recognized as an honoree in the CNVE’s “Aggie 100” program that recognizes the fastest-growing Aggie-owned companies in 2009, 2010 and 2012.

About Mays Business School

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,000 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.

Willingness to do any job that comes along and to relocate readily can lead to great opportunities, Kevin McEvoy, CEO and President of Oceaneering International, recently told Mays Full-Time MBA and undergraduate students.

McEvoy says he chose to attend Texas A&M 36 years ago because, at 27 years old and newly married, he hoped to parlay his training from his four years in the Navy into a career. “So in spite of being from the East Coast and not knowing what an Aggie was, I came.”

Kevin McEvoy ’79, CEO and President
of Oceaneering International

He described his workload of 30 to 40 hours a week while working on his MBA as necessary but enlightening. He kept that work ethic throughout his career.

McEvoy obtained bachelor’s degrees in biology and geology from Brown University and upon graduation joined the Navy as a diving and salvage officer, where he gained experience in diving, ship salvage and submarine rescue. After he left the Navy, McEvoy received an MBA from Texas A&M and joined a commercial diving company in the offshore oil industry. He stayed with his company after it was absorbed by Oceaneering, and he worked his way up to the top position.

“I never had a goal of being CEO. In the last ten years, I thought each promotion/job could be the last, and I was OK with that,” he told the students. “I liked the company, I liked the people, I liked the work and I was just fine doing it.”

Brad Knotts ’13, a business honors and finance major, says he learned from McEvoy how important it is for a company to set itself apart from others. “Mr. McEvoy spoke in great length of how his company is able to differentiate themselves in the market by offering first-class service to go along with their offshore products,” Knotts explains. “Due to the fact that deep-sea trees and associated hardware systems cost $100’s of millions to complete, having engineers and repair technology readily available to fix any problems is vital.”

Casey Gattshall ’15, a business honors sophomore, says her my main takeaway from McEvoy is that if you work hard and enjoy what you are doing, success will follow. “Despite the drastic technological and industrial changes that Mr. McEvoy has experienced throughout his time at Oceaneering, he has always allowed his passion and work ethic to fuel him.”

McEvoy enumerated the top lessons he wanted to share:

• The choices you make and the events that occur shape your life and your future, but you often don’t know how they will until later.
• Attitudes filter down, not up, in an organization. Everyone has the opportunity to impact morale in any organization.
• A little humility with a little respect for the other person goes a long way.
• Degrees don’t make you smart or better equipped, especially in operating or manufacturing companies, experience does.
• Your personal success hinges on your ability to communicate well in person — not in emails, not in texts. Communication needs to be at least 50 percent listening. And everyone needs to be able to communicate three levels down and two levels up.
• Volunteer for everything. It will mean more work, but it will benefit you in many ways: Your supervisor will notice your willingness, and it could open opportunities you might not otherwise be considered for.
• Recognize the many people along the way that help you on your path to success.
• Don’t be impatient. Things change in ways and for reasons you cannot envision.
• Straighten out any discord in your personal life. It is very difficult to succeed in business if your personal life is in chaos.
• Accept that you will have a boss sometime in your career who favors others or doesn’t give you the recognition you think you deserve. This is a reality of the world and something you have to just get used to or work around.
• Never, never, ever compromise your ethics. Being close to the line only makes you comfortable being there, and it is just a few small steps to cross it.
• Always be the one who volunteers for new assignments, even if there are uncertainties involved.
• Have fun doing your job. You should be happy to go to work every morning.
• Learn the nuts and bolts of your company’s operations. Detailed knowledge of how things work is critical.

About Mays Business School

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,000 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.

In his role as a partner at BP Capital in Dallas, Cole Robertson ’03 often finds himself working on multiple projects, deals and transactions simultaneously. Robertson credits his ability to manage these varied demands to the Professional Program at Mays Business School.

“The class load and workload required to complete the Professional Program is challenging,” Robertson says of his experience. “It requires students to learn to manage their time between classes, projects, tests and outside responsibilities. Juggling all these different demands and still successfully completing the program entrenched a work ethic serves me well in my job today.”

The PPA program started just over 20 years ago after Texas lawmakers mandated that accounting students have 150 hours of accounting education instead of 120. Accounting faculty at Mays responded with a combination of courses that prepare students not only for careers as accountants, but also for possible careers in other business fields.

“We felt that the spirit of the increased requirements was to have students develop more skills and to have a broader understanding of business,” explains James Benjamin, accounting department head and one of the architects of the PPA program. “Since many CPAs ultimately take jobs outside of public accounting, we feel that master’s degrees in other fields may help with career advancement.”

In August 1992, 30 students entered the PPA program in August 1992 — a small number compared to the current roster accepted year of almost 250 students. PPA students receive their bachelor’s in accounting and then choose a master’s degree from one of five programs: marketing, finance, accounting, management information systems or entrepreneurial leadership. Offering a variety of master’s degrees makes the PPA program at Mays unique, Benjamin says. It has propelled the program to one of the world’s top-ranked.

“We are consistently one of the top suppliers of new hires for the Big Four accounting firms,” Benjamin says of the program’s success.

Also, more students in the Mays program pass the CPA exam than in any other school in Texas.

Matthew Josefy ’04 finished the PPA program with his master’s in finance, and worked for companies like PricewaterhouseCoopers and Bank of America before returning to Mays to work on his PhD in management.

“It was only as a professional that I realized how unique the intensity of the recruiting efforts directed at the graduates of the program really were,” Josefy says of the opportunities the program creates. “It provides a reliable launch pad for incredibly talented students. Even in the midst of what I hope was the most severe downturn in our lifetime, the vast majority of the graduates of the program were receiving solid job offers.”

Kaitlyn Lentz, who will graduate from the program in May, says it appealed to her because of the opportunity to develop both her talent for accounting and her passion for marketing. She has a job lined up at Marathon Oil after graduation, and says she feels prepared for a dynamic career in any industry.

“From my experience in the PPA program, I have learned to individually approach problems and challenges,” she asserts.

About Mays Business School

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,000 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.

Taseer Badar ’95 honored his mother and his university when he created an endowment — the Kausar Badar Family Business Honors Scholarship. Distributions from the $100,000 endowment, funded through the Texas A&M Foundation, will be used to provide scholarships to full-time students enrolled in the Business Honors Program pursuing an undergraduate degree from Mays Business School.

“I feel as though our Business Honors graduates can compete with the likes of those coming from Harvard and Yale. I want to do all I can to help our students and faculty feel equipped for any comparisons nationally.”

Taseer Badar ’95, CEO of ZT Wealth

Badar says he and his wife Zohra were eager to honor his mother in this way. “All my family has science background — doctors of nuclear medicine and engineering — so when I chose a different path, they were concerned that I was going to go hungry. But my mother believed in me, and I am tied to the health field from a different perspective.”

Badar moved to the U.S. from Lahore, Pakistan, at 11 months old, and says he has been “living the American dream” since. He got his first work experience mowing lawns in his hometown of Humble, Texas, and received a bachelor’s degree in management from Texas A&M. He now has 800 employees as president and CEO of ZT Wealth, which provides equity offerings in the health care, global commercial and residential real estate markets, and co-founder of Altus Healthcare Management Services. He has also developed several medical centers.

As a leader of numerous companies, Badar has received 18 Aggie 100 awards, which are given to the fastest-growing Aggie-owned companies.

“To establish an endowed scholarship at such a young age speaks highly of Taseer’s success and his generosity,” said Mays Dean Jerry Strawser. “Not only will our students benefit from his financial gift, but also from the opportunity to meet and know a great entrepreneur.”

Badar says his mentor is Ghulam Bombaywala, who has owned 80-something restaurants. “I really want to compete with the Ernst & Youngs, the top national firms. I want to produce high returns. I want us to be #1 and I want to bring a lot of good people with me.”

About Mays Business School

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,000 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.

Mike Yantis Jr. ’02, CEO of Yantis Company, has quickly moved up the corporate ladder. Starting out as a project manager at Yantis in late 2002 after finishing his bachelor’s in management, Yantis was promoted to president by 2007, and then CEO in late 2012.

His hard work and dedication helped make his family’s company more successful than ever between 2002 and 2007, helping the company to grow by almost 200 percent and 400 employees, making Yantis one of the largest private companies in the greater San Antonio area. Yantis said that for a long time he said yes to whatever work came his way, part of how he helped get so much done, but learned that sometimes no is the better answer.

Mike Yantis Jr. ’02, CEO of Yantis Company

“You overcommit yourself and you end up just running in circles,” Yantis says about saying yes all of the time. At the end of one week Yantis realized he had only spent about five hours at his desk doing actual work, and knew he had to learn to delegate better. “I would just caution you to focus on what’s actually going to help you along. Don’t do things at the expense of your goals.”

Yantis warned students against other mistakes like over-diversifying a company, rushing into deals that seem too good to be true without doing research, and letting things get personal between you and other employees and with competitors.

“Not everybody’s going to like you,” Yantis says about getting out into the work force. “At the end of the day you don’t need to let it drive you crazy or make it something that you worry about all the time. If there’s business to be done, business is business.”

The only thing that Yantis recommends making personal is communication. “The thing you have to remember about e-mails is that they live forever,” says Yantis about today’s preferred method of work communication. “Tone is really hard in e-mails, so people take e-mails the wrong way sometimes. If you’ve got something bad to say to somebody, or something negative, do it face to face.”

His advice stems partly from his experience of having old e-mails he had sent used during litigation in a lawsuit Yantis Company brought against a competitor several years back. Yantis says sometimes when you receive a negative e-mail, it is easy to get caught up in an online battle, but you have to hold yourself back.

Most importantly, Yantis says, he wanted students to realize part of being successful means making mistakes along the way. He wanted to share some of his mistakes and how he dealt with them so the students could learn how to deal with certain situations.

Dominic Odom ’15, a Business Honors major, says the visit with Yantis taught him about how construction in and around the San Antonio area works, and how complicated the bidding process is. “The main takeaway that Mr. Yantis imparted onto me is that business need not be a personal thing,” Odom says. “Feeling slighted is a good way to lose perspective on a job.”

About Mays Business School

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,000 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.