Mays Impacts

A scholarship and a Disney movie helped Mays Business School student Arden Robertson achieve her dreams of attending Texas A&M University and working for NASA. Arden will graduate in December with a bachelor’s degree in Business Honors and accounting as well as a master’s degree in management information systems as part of Mays’ Professional Program in Accounting.

Student speaker Arden Robertson

She spoke at the Mays 2016 Scholarship Banquet Nov. 3 about how the Disney movie “Toy Story” influenced her life. She identified more with than Woody the cowboy, and has parlayed three summer internships at NASA into a job offer there upon graduation.

“All because of one scholarship, I was able to be just like Woody and achieve the Western dream while keeping intact core values and emulate Buzz by going to the infinity and beyond by working with NASA,” she told about 500 attendees at the Zone Club at Kyle Field. “Needless to say, just getting the opportunity to come to Texas [from Florida] and attend Texas A&M was a dream come true in itself! However, the dream kept getting better.”

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Mays Business School’s Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship (CNVE) celebrated its 12^th Annual Aggie 100 Program on Nov. 11, honoring the top 100 fastest-growing Aggie-owned and -led businesses. The 12^th Man stands as an important symbol for Texas A&M University, and the 12^th anniversary Aggie 100 honored all past and present honorees.

The Class of 2016 honorees were recognized before more than 850 attendees at a first-of-its-kind Aggie 100 Reunion Gala event on Friday night in the Hall of Champions at Texas A&M’s Kyle Field. The 2016 honorees were highlighted by 13 companies in the business and financial services industry, along with more than 40 companies within the construction, real estate and architectural industries. These Aggie entrepreneurs have shown that combining their passions with an unwavering drive to succeed, a healthy dose of patience and integrity to maintaining Aggie Core Values can help make Aggie companies an “overnight success.”

This year’s Summit Award was presented to the Aggie company with the highest average revenue from 2013 to 2015. James Goodman ’95, founder of Genesis Networks Enterprises in San Antonio, was honored as the 2016 Aggie 100 Summit Award recipient, with an average revenue of $868,651,989.

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By Allison Hayes

The MS Finance Program held the inaugural scholarship ceremony for the Theodoric C. Bland Jr. Family Scholarship on Nov. 8. Ted Bland awarded the scholarships to three promising students: Mengyan Cheng ’17, Alyson Miranda ’18 and Shelby Johnson ’19.

The scholarships are funded through a $50,000 endowment from Bland, who has served on the board for the Department of Finance since 1995 and is the longest tenured member of the board. He is also on the Steering Committee for the MS Finance Program. When asked what the thought was behind giving this scholarship, Bland responded, “Both of our children are Aggies and their spouses are Aggies. I have a very strong allegiance to Texas A&M, and Mary Lou and I thought we were fortunate and we wanted to give back. People gave to me to get to where I got, and I think it’s important to give back so that other people can have that opportunity as well.”

When asked what the thought was behind giving this scholarship, Bland responded, “Both of our children are Aggies and their spouses are Aggies. I have a very strong allegiance to Texas A&M, and Mary Lou and I thought we were fortunate and we wanted to give back. People gave to me to get to where I got, and I think it’s important to give back so that other people can have that opportunity as well.”

Bland said he wanted to encourage more women to pursue STEM majors and the area of finance, so he funded the scholarship to help more female students pursue a master’s degree in finance. “I do believe in giving back, and A&M is where I’m going to give back,” he said. “Whether it’s in time or money, I’m going to give back.”

By Venky Shankar

Coleman Chair Professor in Marketing at Mays Business School;
Director of Research, Center for Retailing Studies

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are only days away. So how does this year’s retail shopping season look? All estimates point to a bullish holiday season.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) predicts retail holiday sales to be $656 billion, the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) projects them to be $684 billion; and Deloitte Consulting is even more optimistic, pegging sales at $1 trillion. Depending on the estimate, the expected growth rate over last year ranges from 3 to 4.4 percent. Retail holiday e-commerce is anticipated to range from $91.6 billion (Adobe Digital Insights [ADI]) to $98 billion (Deloitte Consulting). Much of the holiday shopping will come from a large number of shoppers making small purchases. An overwhelming majority of shoppers (78 percent) will be spending less than $1,000 during the holidays (Qualtrics).

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Mays Business School’s Center for Executive Development (CED) is partnering with Texas A&M University Athletics to provide a rare executive development opportunity. The Leading Champions Executive Program is an all-access pass into Texas A&M Athletics designed to help executives rise to the challenges of today’s business world.

In the three-day program that will launch in April, the world-class faculty of Mays along with the nationally renowned coaching staff of Texas A&M Athletics will facilitate focused sessions, experiential learning activities, self-assessments and simulations with the objective of strengthening business and leadership acumen. Additionally, participants will have the opportunity to engage with the coaching staff, exclusively tour popular Texas A&M sports facilities and participate in highly experiential activities related to Texas A&M Athletics.  

Dean Eli Jones

This program is designed for executive-level leaders and decision makers from a wide range of organizations. “This program is a great example of our mission to develop the Mays Transformational Leader: Responsible, ethical leaders with entrepreneurial mindsets and vision, who have strong business competencies and personify selfless service,” said Mays Dean Eli Jones.

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Mays Business School students are “learning business by doing business” through the integrated business experience (IBE) course, designed to teach Master of Science (MS) in Business students the ins and outs of the major business disciplines by running a startup of their own. The program aligns with the Mays Grand Challenge of Entrepreneurship.

Flourish

Five teams of students in the MS Business program have spent the semester identifying a product or service they would like to sell, conducting market research to determine how the product would be received, developing a business plan and requesting start-up funds. In October, Aggieland Credit Union donated up to $2,000 per company. Since then, the teams have been developing their businesses and partnering with nonprofit organizations who will receive the profits of the businesses after they close at the end of the semester.

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As a Mays Business School student, Hans George ’91 decided to combine his passions for marketing and sports into a meaningful career. However, his career path took unanticipated detours through high-end men’s suits and mac-and-cheese before George reached the holy grail – a position working at sportswear giant Nike.

George shared stories and lessons learned during his career, including his two decades at the global athletic wear company, with Mays Business Honors students at a recent roundtable discussion. “My biggest takeaway from Hans was the importance of pursuing your passions strategically,” said Loryn Setterquist ’18. “Through the decisions he made in his career, he developed tangible skills, fostered important relationships, and learned about the retailing industry.”
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The Mays Full-Time MBA Program at Mays Business School ranked 18^th overall and 4^th among public schools in the “Best full-time MBA programs” rankings by Bloomberg Businessweek. The placement was up from last year’s ranking of 22^nd overall and 8^th among public schools.

The rankings were based on data for the class that graduated in December 2015 and from feedback from students who graduated between 2008 and 2010. Former students ranked the Mays program favorably – 13th out of 81 programs ranked. Mays also fared well in the employer and job placement categories.

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Texas A&M University is on The Princeton Review’s 11th annual survey naming the 25 undergraduate and 25 graduate schools best for entrepreneurship studies for 2017, The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine announced Wednesday. Texas A&M was 20th on the undergraduate list and 21st on the graduate list.

About 250 startups were launched by Texas A&M graduates in the last five years. Mays Business School is a leader in entrepreneurship on the Texas A&M campus, and has 900 students enrolled in entrepreneurship classes.

Entrepreneurial thinking aligns with Mays Business School’s vision to develop transformational leaders who possess the qualities of an entrepreneur: responsible leaders with vision and strong business competencies, exemplify selfless service and value diversity and inclusion.

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Strike when conditions are good and exercise restraint when they are not, Bruce Petersen ’83, said of succeeding in the real estate market. On his recent visit to Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School, he sat down with a group of Business Honors students to discuss his experience navigating an ever-evolving – and often volatile – real estate market over the last three decades.
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