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Alumni Spotlight
Gerald Youngblood, MBA’10
Director, North America Marketing Advanced Micro Devices
Gerald Youngblood, a graduate of the Professional MBA Online program, credits the Jindal School with preparing him to progress beyond the traditional business environment and into the wireless workplace. He now manages marketing and strategy development at Advanced Micro Devices, a multinational technology company that designs and integrates technology for intelligent devices, such as personal computers, tablets, game consoles and cloud servers.
Farhad Rizvi, BS’11
Founder, Shamak Associate, Gerson Lehrman Group
Farhad Rizvi had a vision of combining commerce and philanthropy into one business strategy. Along with his older brother, Hammad, he created Shamak Sandals, a company that sells leather sandals handcrafted in the Middle East. But Shamak Sandals reaches beyond shoe sales.
Vik Thapar, BS’00
Principal, Cypress Growth Capital
Thapar, a Dallas resident, was born and grew up just a few miles from the UT Dallas campus in Richardson.
Ron Dugan, MS’91
Portfolio Manager, AmeriTrust
Dugan, who recently joined AmeriTrust in Tulsa, manages client portfolios in order to meet their individual investment objectives. “My time at UTD was integral in building upon my educational foundation,” he said. “The flexibility of the degree program gave me the opportunity to focus more of my studies in finance, which helped me at my job at that time and prepared me for larger roles going forward.” Dugan, who earned his grad degree in Management and Administrative Sciences, with a heavy concentration in finance (before Jindal School offered a master’s degree in finance) had earned his undergraduate accounting degree at Texas A&M University. He is both a CPA and a Certified Financial Analyst. He has broad experience in the financial industry, including time at the Meadows Foundation in Dallas and Russell Investments in Tacoma, WA.
Atanas Hansen, BS’11 MS’13
Senior Business Analyst; New York Life Insurance Company
Working for a 173-year-old company provides a fantastic environment to observe how business processes and technology evolved over time
Thomas Hunley, MS’90
Retail Risk Executive, PNC Bank
For some, big risks come with big rewards, and for Thomas Hunley, a decision to make a career change after several years in the information-technology sector, was a risk that led to a satisfying new profession. Hunley’s decision to transition into a finance role brought him to the Jindal School, where he received a master’s degree in management and administrative sciences.
Eugene Gicheru, MD, MBA, FACEP, MBA’16
Chief Executive Officer, Careculture Health Partners
Several physician colleagues along with myself founded CareCulture Health Partners, where I serve as CEO.
David Taylor, MBA’09
Chief Operating Officer, Intellicentrics.
Taylor completed his Global Leadership MBA (GLEMBA) degree, which, he says, “opened up (my) ability to be multi-disciplinary and global yet local.” IntelliCentrics, based in Flower Mound, focuses on safety and security in healthcare operations. As COO, Taylor oversees global operations, innovation, technology and people operations.
Bate Bate, MBA’03
Vice President And Senior Petroleum Engineer, Union Bank
Bate, vice president and senior petroleum engineer at Union Bank is experienced in the oil field and the corporate office. With more than 12 years in the oil and gas industry, Bate has a solid grasp on reserve estimation and reporting as well as field operations. He credits his time at the Jindal School as refining his understanding of organizational behavior and management, lessons he continues to utilize today.
Joshua Levy, MBA’11
Program Manager, Pearson Education
Joshua Levy combined his lifelong love of teaching with the Jindal School’s project management program to map his future as a leader for Pearson Education, the world’s largest education company and book publisher. A few years into his career there, he noticed that many of his colleagues who were going places had graduate degrees.
J. Michelle (Abuda) Maraj, BS’14, MS’15
Financial Systems Analyst, Lyft
J. Michelle (Abuda) Maraj, now living in San Jose, California, powered through her master’s degree in business analytics just a year after she earned her BS in what is now information technology and systems. In 2014, she was selected to give the commencement address for her Jindal School class, where she pointed out it took her a few semesters to settle on majoring in what is now known as information technology and systems. Thanks to the Jindal School’s Career Management Center, she held an internship each summer during her college years. She also is a past contributor to the JSOM Perspectives blog.
Harrison Coney, BS’12
Information Security Officer, Cognosante
I enjoy the fact that every day I come to work, it is an opportunity for me to experience and learn something new. It is an ever-change profession.
Robert Kientz, BS’04
Senior Security Analyst, Verizon Wireless
In his role with Verizon, Kientz performs risk assessment of information security vulnerabilities and system security policy compliance.
Gaurav Shekhar, MS’16
Assistant Professor, Jindal School Of Management, Ut Dallas
After completing his master’s degree in Information Technology and Management, Shekhar stayed at UT Dallas as a staff member and instructor. He now is program director of the Jindal School’s MS in Business Analytics and an assistant professor of instruction for information systems coursework.
Paulina Jesionek, BS’13, MS’15, MBA’15
Marketing Program Specialist, UT Southwestern Medical Center
Jesionek graduated cum laude in Fall 2013 with two undergraduate degrees – Global Business and Marketing. She delivered the commencement address that year.
David Wedemeier, BS’02, MBA’05
Founder, Sales And Business Development Director, Martin House Brewing Company
David Wedemeier took a risk and left a management position at Nokia to start his own business. He put his own advice into practice, stepping outside his comfort zone and into a business-development role in a brand new venture. Wedemeier, along with two close friends, co-founded Martin House Brewing Company in Fort Worth. As a new-business owner and entrepreneur, he relies upon the skills and knowledge he accrued while pursuing his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the Jindal School.
Taylor Lipsett , MBA’16
AVP, Private Wealth Management And Portfolio Manager, US Trust at Bank Of America
In his role at Bank of America, Lipsett manages investment portfolios for the bank’s private wealth clients. He says his MBA “expanded my breadth of knowledge across various business areas [and] taught me how to balance a full workload, work with others to accomplish a common goal, and how to network and build relationships with other professionals.” For Lipsett, his extracurricular passion has been all things sled hockey.
Samir Patel, BS’13 MBA’14
Founder/Portfolio Manager, Askeladden Capital Management
Askeladden is the investment adviser to a long-only limited partnership (hedge fund) and separately managed accounts (SMAs), running a concentrated, long-term oriented, small-and-micro-cap portfolio. Patel graduated magna cum laude with a biochemistry degree from UT Dallas when he was 19 years old, and concentrated in finance and supply chain in his MBA, which he completed when he was 20.
Chanel Ebanks-Texada, BS’16
Watson Customer Engagement Account Executive, IBM
Ebanks-Texada has launched her career at IBM, where she is prospecting and generating business in the public sector.
Gaurav Sethi, BS’20
Investment Bank Risk Analyst, JP Morgan
Sethi works at JP Morgan as a specialist in counterparty credit risk calculations, doing the heavy analysis that most don’t even know exists – he investigates and explains derivative exposure variances and changes. Sethi earned both finance and actuarial science undergrad degrees. (Actuarial science is in the UT Dallas School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.) Notably, Sethi was awarded the prestigious $15,000 Mitchell Family Foundation Scholar Award from the Texas Business Hall of Fame Foundation, based on his work with CampusOven, a service that connects university employees and students with caterers who are focused on healthy eating options.