business conference focuses on
navigating the global workplace

Economic changes across the world constantly transform how Americans do business. With all of these shifts, staying ahead of the curve and on top of emerging markets and global competition is becoming harder and harder.

McCombs is here to help you navigate the ins and outs of the global business environment. At this year’s second annual McCombs MBA Alumni Business Conference, “Navigating the Global Workplace,” participants will hear lectures from world-renowned McCombs faculty while networking with fellow alumni.

The conference, to be held March 22-23, brings former students together with fellow alumni and McCombs professors to discuss current business issues. Sessions this year address the challenges and opportunities of emerging markets, the threats of new global competitors and tips for executives on successfully managing a company while keeping an eye on the socioeconomic effects of their decisions.

The faculty speaker lineup includes:
Michael Brandl: The Global Economic Outlook
William Cunningham: Global Corporate Governance
John Doggett: Global Competition in the 21st Century—New Competitors, New Rules
Prabhudev Konana: The Promise of Emerging Markets: The Case of China and India
Vijay Mahajan: Challenges and Opportunities in the Developing World

Optional one-on-one career coaching appointments and a welcome reception will be held the day before the main conference. Coaches will be available to discuss résumé enhancements, job search strategies, job transition questions and concerns, and your professional brand, as well as offering fee-based self-assessment tools.

The registration deadline is March 9, 2007. The fee for the main conference is $115, which includes breakfast and lunch. One-on-one coaching sessions are an additional $50.

For more information, visit http://mba.mccombs.utexas.edu/mma/conference2007.

Executive MBA Alumni

texas executive mba alumni host corporate responsibility symposium
The Texas Executive MBA Association presented its annual business seminar Feb. 9. This year’s topic was “Conscious Capitalism: A Moral Transformation of Capitalism?”

Speakers included Patricia Aburdeen, a professional speaker and one of the world’s leading social forecasters who tracks how change impacts business, and Tod Arbogast, the manager of Dell’s sustainability teams and programs.

Aburdeen and Arbogast discussed how companies can operate a socially responsible business and the economic and social implications of running such a business.

For more information on the Texas Executive MBA Association, visit www.texasemba.com.

Awards & Honors

mma network honors ted wang, austin chapter at alumni awards celebration
Last September, The McCombs MBA Alumni Network hosted its second annual MBA Alumni Awards Celebration. The event, held at The Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental Hotel, honored MBA alumni with the Rising Star and Outstanding Chapter Event Awards.

The Rising Star Award, which went to Ted Wang, MBA ’96, recognizes alumni who graduated from McCombs within the last 10 years and have demonstrated professional success while working to strengthen the McCombs MBA Alumni Network.

Wang, managing director at Goldman Sachs, oversees a 75-person team on the trading floor. He is committed to raising the profile of the McCombs School on Wall Street by educating prospective students working in New York about the benefits of a McCombs MBA degree. Wang also hosted 25 McCombs finance professors at Goldman Sachs for a “day with a banker” workshop last year.

The Outstanding Chapter Event Award, created to recognize the hard work of chapter leaders and honor an exceptional event held within the year, went to the Austin chapter for its event, “The Economic Outlook on Austin.” The breakfast roundtable event, held last May, featured civic and business leaders, including Austin Mayor Will Wynn, Ken DeAngelis of Austin Ventures, Richard Hill of Hill Partners and Pike Powers of Fulbright & Jaworski. The event, which sold out in three days, attracted 100 alumni from a wide range of graduation years.

“It was very rewarding to see the diversity of alumni who attended,” says Sharon Lyle, MBA ’05 and Austin chapter co-president. “It proved to us that providing local alumni with a diverse array of events over the course of the year is indeed a valuable endeavor, and led us to formally state a goal of creating a wide range of programming for the chapter’s 2007 strategic plan.”

Cuatro Groos, MBA ’00 and event co-chair, says the event was a huge success. “I’ve heard rave reviews, and so many of the attendees plan to return next year.” The Austin chapter’s next event, “Leadership: Getting to (and Staying) #1,” will feature a panel of Central Texas leaders.

Next year’s MBA Alumni Awards Celebration is scheduled for Sept. 28, 2007. You can make nominations for both the Rising Star Award and the Chapter Event Award at http://mba.mccombs.utexas.edu/mma/alumniawards/index.asp. Nominations are due March 31, 2007.