Mays Impacts

The oil and gas industry is operating in “almost a boomtown environment” these days, Tony Best ’72 told a group of Mays Business Honors students recently. He predicts that trend will continue, with the U.S. gaining $3.8 billion in revenues and 300,000 jobs by 2020.

Best is CEO and president of SM Energy, which is based in Denver and has four regional offices around the country. “I love what I’m doing, but I really love the oil and gas industry,” said Best, who has been in the field for 35 years. “There is nothing like it. It is a noble profession to provide the nation’s energy supply.”

Best gave a brief history lesson about his industry and his company. He said there has been a 24-percent increase in America’s natural gas supply in the last two years, and that fossil fuels will remain a foundation for the U.S. energy supply. “There truly is an energy revolution going on in our country today,” he said. “We are reaching a point we don’t have to depend on these pretty tough countries to provide our oil. That will help the U.S. in numerous ways.”

Best said he likes to stay involved with Texas A&M, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He has remained involved with the Dwight Look College of Engineering, the 12th Man Foundation and the Corps of Cadets. “I love this place, but every time I come back I am surprised by how much it has grown,” he said.

After leaving Texas A&M, Best earned a master of science in engineering management from the University of Alaska, then served five years in the U.S. Air Force as an engineering officer.

Best revealed his savvy about students, offering a trivia contest at the end and awarding Starbucks gift cards as prizes. He told the students that their job searches should not be focused only on the money. “Focus on the culture and the values of that company,” he said. “Ask them some tough questions, too. It’s not just about the money, it’s about being proud of where you work.”

Best explained how his company practices responsible production — being a good neighbor, utilizing new technology, and following laws and regulations.

Katie Morris ’16 said she and her 14 Business Honors classmates learned a lot about natural gas and how oil is captured. “Some of the main points of his talk included the company’s focus on capturing resource plays, and the importance the company places on ethics and the environment,” she said. “It was a great opportunity to be able to hear from such an esteemed professional.”

Whitney Brown ’16 said she enjoyed the opportunity to listen to Best. “He showed us the importance of looking beyond what a company does to see why they do it and the values that stand behind it,” she said. “I learned that the energy revolution is happening, and it is happening fast. We are lucky to be in the great state of Texas because Texas will see the most positive outcome of the energy revolution compared to any other state.”

ABOUT MAYS BUSINESS SCHOOL
Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,600 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.

On April 15, James Doty discussed a range of audit topics with a standing-room-only group of Mays faculty, staff and PPA students in Ray Auditorium. As the SEC-appointed chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), Doty leads an organization with two primary responsibilities to promote investor protection: 1) to oversee the audits of public companies in order to protect the interests of investors and further the public interest in the preparation of informative, accurate and independent audit reports; and 2) to oversee the audits of broker-dealers, including compliance reports filed pursuant to federal securities laws.

Doty, speaking for himself and not for the PCAOB or the Board as a whole, briefly recapped for students the origins of the PCAOB, a nonprofit corporation established by Congress through the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), which required that auditors of public companies that trade in the U.S. markets be subject to external and independent oversight for the first time in history. “In the wake of the catastrophic failures of landmark companies such as Enron and WorldCom,” Doty noted, “the Congress recognized that successful capital markets required independent oversight of the auditors on whom investors rely.”

Doty noted that when investors trust that auditors exercise “independence and professional skepticism” to ensure that financial statements are presented fairly and accurately at the companies they audit, public companies benefit from a reduced cost of capital. He said that the auditor must answer a fundamental question when auditing a company: “Did the company fairly and accurately represent its financial and operating reality?”

Doty and the PCAOB are proposing changes to expand the value of the auditor’s report to investors to include a discussion of critical audit matters. “If the auditing profession simply perpetuates the status quo and does not permit change to adapt to investors’ needs, it may lead to over-routinization and commoditization,” Doty said. “In this sense, auditors need change just like professionals in other lines of work.”

In response to students’ questions, Doty discussed the European reforms that impose a mandatory audit firm rotation schedule. The PCAOB issued a concept release in 2011 on auditor independence and audit firm rotation, an issue that has received significant resistance from some in Congress, preparers and accounting firms thus far. “Boards of Directors are increasingly considering limits on the length of time that a firm should audit the same company’s books,” he said. “There’s long been a view among investors that a set of fresh eyes every so often will see the same company in new ways and with greater objectivity, and that will work to the benefit of everyone.”

Doty also provided professional advice to the Mays accounting students: “Always be alert to risks and disconfirming evidence, and bring a real sense of purpose to your jobs. You should always remember that your work can help prevent the next Enron by ensuring better conduct in board rooms and in presidents’ offices throughout our country and across the globe.”

With the recent release of the Bloomberg Businessweek undergraduate program rankings, this year’s ranking season is complete. I am pleased to report that Mays Business School achieved an all-time best ranking of 29th overall and 9th among public institutions.

Ed Whitacre

Growing up the son of a railroad man in Ennis, Texas, a railroad town of about 4,000 people located 30 miles south of Dallas, Ed Whitacre always figured trains would play a prominent role in his future. But when Whitacre graduated from high school, he found himself at a crossroads. “My father assumed I’d go to work with him at Southern Pacific Railroad, but my mother said I was going to college.” Several months later, Whitacre set out for Texas Tech University in Lubbock, where he would major in engineering before embarking upon a remarkable career during which he led America’s largest telecommunications provider as well as the nation’s largest automotive company. Whitacre shared business insights and leadership advice with Full-Time MBA students at Mays Business School on April 3.

After graduating from college, Whitacre went to work as a facility engineer for Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in 1963. Twenty-seven years later, after numerous moves and promotions, he became chairman and CEO of Southwestern Bell Communications (SBC). During his tenure at the helm of SBC, he led the company on an aggressive but disciplined growth strategy. “I knew that we needed to grow or would likely be acquired or surpassed by one of our competitors,” he said. After orchestrating a number of industry-changing mergers and acquisitions with companies including Ameritech, Bell South, Pacific Bell and Telefonos de Mexico, Whitacre earned the nickname of the “serial acquirer.” He subsequently led SBC’s 2005 acquisition of AT&T Inc., and then served as chairman and CEO of AT&T (the resulting entity) until his retirement in 2007.

“Many of those deals we did back then didn’t look great in terms of the numbers, no matter how much financial analysis we did,” he told the Mays students. “But they made very good sense in terms of the vision we had for growing our wireless, video and new media businesses, both at home and abroad. And most of them turned out OK.”
During his remarks, Whitacre emphasized the importance of vision. “You have to create a vision for your company that is simple and easy to understand, but one that also inspires your employees. Our vision at AT&T was to become the biggest and best telecommunications company in the world.”

After creating a vision, Whitacre pointed out, a leader must connect his or her people to that vision. “Most people want to make a good wage, they want to send their kids to college and they want to feel like they’re an important part of something bigger than themselves,” he noted. “So once you create a vision for your organization, you’ve got to give your employees responsibilities along with the authority they need to get their jobs done, and then you’ve got to hold them accountable.”

In the midst of the mergers and acquisitions, Whitacre and one of his SBC colleagues found themselves sitting across the table from Steve Jobs one night in New York City. “Steve pulled out this prototype of an iPhone and showed it to us,” Whitacre recalled. “He told us it would revolutionize cell phones and the way people communicate because you could load apps on it, play games, conduct business, read books… whatever. Then he told us he wanted an exclusive five-year deal, and he was not willing to negotiate.” Whitacre and his colleague knew that they would have pay a premium up-front and then recoup their costs through monthly charges and additional services to subscribers. “That was another instance where the numbers didn’t exactly make sense,” he noted. “But it fit our long-term vision for the company and where we thought the industry was headed.”

Whitacre also commented on the importance of taking calculated risks. “You ought to take a risk every now and then, because you never know. Take a shot and see what happens.”
AT&T’s pursuit of Uverse exemplifies this adage. “On the surface, Uverse looked a little risky and capital-intensive, but a few of us thought the company needed to move into the interactive entertainment business,” Whitacre said. Today, Uverse is one of AT&T’s fastest-growing product lines, delivering award-winning TV, high-speed Internet and digital home phone service.

Two years after retiring from AT&T, Whitacre answered the call from the Obama Administration to help lead GM back from the brink of collapse. He arrived at the automaker’s Detroit headquarters the day it emerged from bankruptcy. “I guess you could say that I kind of stood out, what with my telephone industry background and my Texas drawl,” he said.

On one of his first days as chairman and CEO of GM, Whitacre went to the United Auto Workers’ (UAW) union hall and asked an administrative assistant if he could talk to Ron Gettelfinger, president of the UAW. The woman looked at him in disbelief, questioning whether he was really who he claimed to be. When she finally summoned her boss, Gettelfinger, too, was skeptical. “He said that no one from GM’s management team had ever set foot in the “solidarity house,'” Whitacre recalled. “I told him that without us, they would not succeed, and that without them, we would not succeed. He agreed with that, and the UAW turned out to be a great partner in GM’s turnaround.”

Not long into his tenure at GM, Whitacre asked the senior leadership team what had gone wrong with the company. The consensus was that nothing had gone wrong at the company, but rather that the economic downturn had been the culprit. “Needless to say, that was not what I wanted to hear,” Whitacre said, “and I knew then that while those folks were good people, they were not the right leadership team to help turn around the company.”

Whitacre quickly determined that other key factors contributing to the company’s failure included excessive bureaucracy, a loss of focus on the customer and a matrixed management system that made it hard to tell who was responsible for doing what. With GM’s quality, designs and reputation in shambles, he helped forge a new vision for the company to recapture its former glory: To design, build and sell the best vehicles in the world. Before the end of its first year following bankruptcy, the automaker had returned to profitability and pulled off the biggest initial public offering in U.S. history, raising $20.1 billion.

In wrapping up his talk, Whitacre offered some parting words of leadership advice: “Treat people the way you want to be treated, have a simple but compelling vision, don’t be averse to risk and—at the end of the day—do something. Many times, when companies are doing well, their leadership teams get complacent and content to assume a more defensive posture. That can be dangerous.”

At the 2014 M.B. Zale Visionary Merchant Lecture Series, Neiman Marcus Group President and CEO Karen Katz considered how the “shopping journey” for luxury customers could evolve in the next five years. Made possible by the M.B. & Edna Zale Foundation and hosted by the Center for Retailing Studies, the annual event seeks to connect Mays Business School students with retail leaders. This year’s event followed the format of a “fireside chat” in which Katz and Coleman Chair Professor in Marketing Venkatesh Shankar discussed a range of retail, marketing and leadership topics before a packed house of Mays students, faculty, staff and friends in Ray Auditorium. To kick off the event, Donald Zale ’55, the son of M.B. and Edna Zale and former president, chairman and CEO of Zale Corporation, presented Katz with the 2014 Visionary Merchant award.

During her remarks, Katz mentioned that she had learned a number of valuable leadership lessons from several of the company’s great leaders since joining Neiman Marcus as a merchandise manager in 1985. “Allen Questrom taught me how to be a great merchant by keeping the customer at the center of everything,” Katz said. “I also learned about how to build and lead great teams from Terry Lundgren, and Burt Tansky taught me to understand the luxury market and the mindset of the most affluent customers.” Katz also paid homage to the company’s iconic leader, Stanley Marcus, who was always mindful of burnishing the Neiman Marcus brand by keeping employees focused on the right things.

When asked about the impact of the global economic recession in 2008 and 2009, Katz noted that the downturn gave her leadership team an opportunity to think critically about the future of Neiman Marcus. Even though the company had historically underinvested in technology, Katz believed that technology would play an ever-more prominent role in shaping the shopping journey for her customers, particularly women. Recognizing that it was imperative to deliver a seamless shopping experience across the internet, mobile devices, social media and brick-and-mortar stores, she hired an IT expert from Silicon Valley to help lead the company’s online business into the brave new world of “omnichannel.”

Katz knew that communications—namely convincing Neiman Marcus’ 14,000 employees (called Associates) to embrace technology—would be critical to the company’s success. “Creating a vision for your company and then getting employees to understand, accept and fully embrace those new ideas… that is the essence of leadership,” she said.

Three years ago, Neiman Marcus bought 5,000 iPhones and gave them to their in-store Associates at 40 stores. The company also provided extensive training on how to use the devices so Associates can stay in touch with their customers via texts, emails and phone calls. More recently, the company purchased 2,000 tablets and put them in stores for customers to use. “By introducing technology into the traditional retail environment,” Katz noted, “we are seeking to transform the in-store shopping experience for our customers.”

When asked what luxury retailing would look like in five years, Katz pointed to several trends that are likely to reshape the future of the industry. “Customers will expect their favorite brands to be present in every aspect of their lives,” she said. “So retailers will need to deliver their brands consistently across old and new channels in a way that gives their customers a seamless and memorable experience.” She also noted that the death knell announcing the end of brick-and-mortar retailers is premature. “The physical store will continue to be the best marketing tool available to luxury retailers,” she noted.
“Big data” will also figure prominently in the luxury customer’s future shopping experience, according to Katz. One of the keys for retailers will be integrating the internal information they maintain on their customers with data on those same customers available through external sources. Successful companies will then apply that information to deliver an ever-more-personalized shopping experience for customers, whether they’re in the store, on their home computers or on mobile phones somewhere in between.

“Neiman Marcus is looking at applications such as sort-and-rank technology that will enable us to offer personalized deals to our online shoppers as well as equip our Associates with the information they need to enrich the shopping experience for customers in our stores,” she said. “At the end of the day, we want our customers to think, “Neiman Marcus really gets me.'”
Katz also offered several words of advice for students aspiring to careers in retailing. “First of all, I would caution them to be careful of what they put on their own social media sites, like Facebook. That’s one of the first places we go when we’re considering job applicants. Second, I would recommend that they find something they’re passionate about, and then bring a positive, can-do attitude and be willing to work hard every day. Finally, I would remind them that they are ultimately the ones who are in charge of their careers.”

The top 40 finalists for this year’s Raymond Ideas Challenge have been selected, and their video pitches are now available online. The top three ideas from the online voting will receive prize money of $1,000, $500 and $250.

Each spring, the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship at Mays Business School hosts the Ideas Challenge, which asks students, “What is your big idea?” Participants submit their work to a panel of judges, who then narrow the field to the top 40 finalists, who compete for cash prizes. New this year is the requirement that finalists post their idea video online for voting by the general public. These videos should explain why each participant believes his or her idea is the best.

Qukku, the platform being used for online voting, is also an Aggie startup. Stephen White ’96 (PPA) is the founder and CEO. He participated in the MBA Venture Challenge in 2013 and also sat on the CNVE Executive Committee from 2007 to 2010.

Everyone is also encouraged to follow the contest online using the hashtag #CNVEIdeas. To vote for your favorite ideas, visit http://qukku.com/contests/2014RaymondIdeasChallenge94.

To learn more about Ideas Challenge, visit http://cnve.tamu.edu/programs/ideas-challenge/.

Interested in attending Ideas Challenge as a judge this year? Visit https://ideaschallenge2014.eventbrite.com/

ABOUT MAYS BUSINESS SCHOOL

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,600 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.

By Stephanie Courtright ’14 and Lauren Ragsdale ’11

3 Day Startup

Fifty students from around Texas A&M University spent a recent weekend working in teams to create tech startup ventures. The Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship at Mays Business School hosted the fourth 3 Day Startup (3DS) event the weekend of March 28.
The driving force behind 3DS is learning by doing — in this case, compressing three months of hard work into one weekend at Startup Aggieland in Research Park. The five- or six-member teams create logos, business plans and prototypes and work on developing a final pitch to investors.

Students get the experience of starting a business in a controlled, risk-free environment. They are provided with all the necessary tools to help them transform their ideas into sustainable business models. The over-arching goal of 3DS is to create a business that fills a market need and that can be a viable entrepreneurial investment lasting beyond the weekend.
The event started on Friday evening, when the students brainstormed startup ideas and pitched their ventures to one another. The top ideas were chosen, and mentors and students broke into groups depending on their personal interests. The rest of the evening was spent nailing down the details of each venture and product.

Participants returned to Startup Aggieland early Saturday morning and spent the day researching market viability, building business plans and honing their pitches. On Sunday, teams fine-tuned their prototypes and practiced their presentations before delivering a seven-minute pitch to an investment panel consisting of prominent entrepreneurs and business leaders. After each pitch, there was a seven-minute question-and-answer period. After all the pitches concluded, the investors provided feedback to each group.

This year’s startups were focused on social media and serving others. Ideas included:

• A phone app to connect fitness enthusiasts with dietitians and personal trainers
• A pen pal app connecting speakers of different languages
• A web service that helps people share rides around town
• A battery that can be charged through the user’s movement
• A device that can detect gunshots and alert emergency responders

As a result of the event, many groups were approached by possible investors and are looking into becoming Entrepreneurs in Residence at Startup Aggieland.

ABOUT MAYS BUSINESS SCHOOL

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,600 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.

Stephen McDaniel ’71, professor of Marketing at Mays Business School, is Texas A&M University’s recipient of the SEC 2014 Faculty Achievement Award.

The recipients from all 14 SEC university members were announced by the league office Wednesday. The annual awards recognize faculty members who demonstrate outstanding records of teaching, research and scholarship. To be eligible for the SEC Faculty Achievement Award, a professor must be a teacher or scholar at an SEC university; have achieved the rank of full professor at an SEC university; have a record of extraordinary teaching; and a record of scholarship that is recognized nationally and/or internationally.

McDaniel is the director of the Master of Science in Marketing Program, director of the Marketing Study Abroad Program and advisor for Marketing Cooperative Education students. Additionally, he serves as Faculty Advisor for the Masters Marketing Association, Freedom Ministries (Upstream Bible Study) and Breakaway Ministries. Since arriving at Texas A&M in 1980 he has been honored with several awards, including the Texas A&M University Bush Excellence Award for International Teaching in 2012 and the Mays Business School Service Excellence Award in 2011.

“The 2014 SEC Faculty Achievement Award winners are some of our nation’s most accomplished instructors, researchers and scholars,” said Jay Gogue, president of Auburn University and President of the Southeastern Conference. “It is my great pleasure to preside over an intercollegiate athletics conference that not only recognizes their work, but strives to support it as well.”

“We are certainly proud of Professor McDaniel,” said Mays Dean Jerry Strawser. “He is the type of faculty member whose impact on our students lasts long after their graduation from Texas A&M University. His commitment to students, both during his classes and as they begin their professional careers, is truly extraordinary.”

Each SEC Faculty Achievement Award winner receives a $5,000 honorarium from the Southeastern Conference and becomes his or her university’s nominee for the SEC Professor of the Year Award. That recipient, to be named later this month, receives an additional $15,000 honorarium and will be recognized at the SEC Spring Meetings in May and the SEC Symposium in September.

SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said, “These 14 professors positively represent the breadth and depth of education in the Southeastern Conference, and I want to congratulate each of them. The commitment to their students, universities and communities is truly commendable.”

Selected by a committee of SEC Provosts, the SEC Faculty Achievement Awards and the SEC Professor of the Year Award are part of SECU, the academic initiative of the Southeastern Conference that sponsors, supports and promotes collaborative higher education programs and activities involving administrators, faculty and students at its 14 member universities.

ABOUT MAYS BUSINESS SCHOOL
Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,600 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.

Harris J. Pappas ’66 has spent much of life reading and researching the best methods for educating and preparing himself, and he told a group of Mays Business Honors students he will never stop learning. He reads frequently and says he taught himself to overcome dyslexia and disorganization. Now he uses mid-mapping to sketch out his thoughts and ideas before speaking, working or traveling.

He told the students they can become anything they want to be, they just need to prepare themselves. “You all have got more tools than I ever had,” he said. “You just have to build the model — a package — and that’s you. You just have to prepare yourself.”

He also advised: “Don’t dodge the bullet on anything. Take the hard courses. That will give you an advantage over the competition.”

The Houston native earned finance and accounting degrees at Texas A&M, then joined the Army, where he served as a 2nd Lieutenant. He said he had a goal — “a bug” — to see the world, and by the time he was 26 years old he had visited much of it. “The Army was a good excuse to get away and do what I wanted to do. If you want to see the world, do it while you’re young. You don’t have as many obligations and those experiences are priceless.”

After he returned to Texas, Pappas initially went to work for the family business, Pappas Restaurants, but left when he decided he needed more income. He worked for Luby’s for 18 months, then came back into the family fold when his uncle lured him with a higher salary and equity in the company.

The Pappas Brothers opened their first restaurant in 1976 and Pappas has been president of the company since 1980. He also served as chief operating officer of Luby’s from March 2001 until 2011.

Pappas said when he entered the hospitality industry, he was warned against the long, unpredictable hours and high employee turnover. That didn’t stop him, though, because he said he has always enjoyed his jobs in restaurants so much, they don’t seem like work. “Do what you like doing and you’ll do well. And get into something a lot of people aren’t in.”

Now the Pappas chain is the 53rd largest in the nation and employs 13,000 people. It operates nearly 100 restaurants in seven states, including Pappadeaux, Pappasito’s Cantina, Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, Pappas Seafood House, Pappas Bar-B-Q, Pappas Burger, Yia Yia Mary’s Greek Kitchen and Dot Coffee Shop in Houston.

Pappas stays heavily involved in the company as a director and a member of the executive committee and the personnel and administrative policy committee. He boasts that he knows how to perform every task in every restaurant and that he has automated many of them. He initiated a video training program for every station in the restaurants, and he restructured the compensation package for managers. He said 77 percent of his company’s leaders are promoted from within, while the remaining are recruited, mostly from hospitality schools.

Harris remains involved in the redevelopment and expansion of Luby’s. He also bought Fuddrucker’s in a bidding war against a Russian oligarch. “He was out on his boat. We kept bidding and his people would go call him and come back with his bid. The last time, they couldn’t reach him. He was parking his boat. There is a great lesson there — never leave the table when you’re doing business.”

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.

For the first time in its history, Mays Business School’s undergraduate programs placed among the top 30 U.S. universities in Bloomberg Businessweek’s newest ranking of undergraduate business programs. Mays placed 29th overall (up from 33rd) and 9th among U.S. public schools (up from 12th). Of particular note is Mays’ performance in the employer survey component; Mays was ranked 5th overall and 3rd among all public institutions in terms of overall employer satisfaction with Mays graduates.

This ranking places Mays in an elite group of 16 institutions that are ranked among the top 30 by Bloomberg Businessweek for the quality of both their undergraduate and full-time MBA programs. Of these, only seven (including Mays) are public institutions. The other public institutions are University of California, Berkeley; Indiana University; University of Michigan; University of North Carolina; University of Texas; and University of Virginia.

“We are very proud to be included in the top tier of public schools, and we are especially gratified to be 5th among both public and private institutions in the employer survey,” said Marty Loudder, associate dean of undergraduate programs. “We are constantly in touch with our recruiting companies, and they provide us with valuable information that we use to improve our academic programs and our students’ preparedness for the workforce.”

“The recognition of both our undergraduate and MBA programs by Bloomberg Businessweek is noteworthy,” said Mays Dean Jerry Strawser. “These rankings illustrate that an institution does not need to make trade-offs between its undergraduate programs and MBA programs, and they reflect the quality and efforts of our students, faculty and staff in all of our programs.”

ABOUT MAYS BUSINESS SCHOOL

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,600 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.