SOM Advisory Council Welcomes New Leadership, New Vision, and Two New
Members

By Brynn Bagot Allday


With fundraising well under way for the new School of Management (SOM)
building, it is a time of transition and tremendous growth for both the
University and the School. The SOM Advisory Council must also grow and
evolve. Positive changes are under way with a plan created by new council
chairman Ron Nash.

Mr. Nash, a principal at InterWest Partners, a venture capital firm
investing in high-tech start-ups, takes over leadership of the advisory
council, after having served the forty-three-member group as well as UTD
in many capacities. Most recently, he has spearheaded fundraising efforts
for the School's new building.

Mr. Nash began his career with Electronic Data Systems in 1973 and held
leadership positions with several other telecommunications companies until
he retired from Perot Systems, where he last served as senior vice
president of European operations.

Mr. Nash earned a master's degree in Management and Administrative
Sciences from UTD in 1979, and he received The School of Management's
Distinguished Alumni Award in 2000. Additionally, he serves on the
Executive Committee of the UTD Development Board. "I am proud of UTD and
what it has been able to achieve," he says. "I am also excited to be
helping the University in a time where it is growing so fast and so well."

Much of the SOM's future growth will come from the vision of Mr. Nash and
his fellow advisory council members. His tenure will focus on several key
areas. First and foremost, the council will concentrate on completing the
fund drive for the new SOM building, slated for completion in summer 2003.
Mr. Nash is also promoting a broader membership in the council, including:
recruiting members from a wide range of industries as well as small
start-up companies, more UTD alumni, and business people from various
parts of the DFW Metroplex. Current membership consists predominantly of
representatives from corporations in the Telecom Corridor and other
Richardson and Plano companies.

Mr. Nash would also like to change the format of the advisory council
meetings to include presentations from SOM faculty members and group
discussions on the School's curriculum, and he is thinking of trying an
afternoon, instead of early-morning, meeting time for one or more of the
advisory council's sessions. He hopes to increase meeting attendance,
increase the commitment of members to support the School with their time,
expertise, and financial gifts, and increase the prestige of being an SOM
Advisory Council member. He also wants to allow more input from members,
provide more social opportunities for members to get to know each other,
and allow the council to provide a vision for the School as a special
project team for the dean.

Mr. Nash would like to leverage the School's positive momentum by
continuing to expand communications about the SOM and what it has to offer
to telecom and other industries. The University is, in his opinion, an
under-appreciated asset for Dallas and is situated in the hottest
business-technology area in town. Its focus on business, engineering, and
communications technology is powering one of the main economic engines in
Dallas - technology. In addition, Mr. Nash points out, UTD has produced
and greatly enhanced talent in technology companies throughout the
Metroplex.

A long-term goal of the council will be to implement an endowment campaign
to raise fifty million dollars to endow chaired professorships, fund
research for younger faculty members, pay for travel and further
educational opportunities for faculty, and provide scholarships. This
campaign will kick off after the building fund drive is complete.

"It is my hope The School of Management will be named in the top
twenty-five [business schools] in the United States in the next few years,
and we will aim even higher - for the top ten," Mr. Nash adds. "For a new
school, this will be a huge accomplishment, and we have the opportunity to
achieve this."

This fall, the advisory council also welcomes two new members, one
representing Ericsson and the other from Santera Systems.


Jill Annette Little is vice president of people and culture for Ericsson,
the Swedish global telecom leader in wireless, Internet, and mobile
systems. Ms. Little was recently promoted to this position and manages the
human resources function for more than twenty thousand Ericsson employees
in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Prior to her promotion,
she served as vice president of people and culture for Latin America.
Before joining Ericsson in 2001, Ms. Little was vice president of human
resources and international human resources vice president for America
Online, Inc. Her other work experience includes positions as human
resources director of the Americas hub for The Coca-Cola Company in San
Juan, Puerto Rico; regional director of human resources, Andean Countries,
for Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in Lima, Peru, and Caracas, Venezuela;
and numerous responsibilities in her five years with Chiquita Brands
International, Inc. Early in her career, she held various positions in
corporate staffing and benefits with Bank of America and Texas
Instruments.


Claire A. Lewis-Martin has more than fifteen years experience in the
telecommunications industry. Before joining Santera Systems, she served as
vice president of marketing for Alcatel USA, where she managed the overall
marketing efforts for Alcatel in the United States. Prior to that, Ms.
Lewis-Martin was vice president of marketing for Splitrock Services, Inc.,
a wholesale, integrated services provider in Houston, offering dial and
dedicated Internet access services, web hosting, IP VPN service, and
virtual ISP services. She also served as vice president of marketing at
NetworkTwo, a telecom start-up. Her experience includes six years at MCI,
where she led marketing efforts to launch MCI's first Internet service, as
well as MCI's first ATM service. In addition, she has worked in the
enterprise sector and held a variety of telecommunications management
positions, including network operations, network design, and international
network design and planning.