SMU Cox School of Business Class Notes: Fall 2021

Class of 1968   

Lydon Neumann, BBA, was named among the Top 25 Consultants of 2017 by Consulting Magazine and became a CHIME Foundation Certified Healthcare Executive at Impact Advisors LLC.

Class of 1973   

John C. Dodson, BBA, currently writes and produces for film and TV. He has done recordings for Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, Kacey Musgraves, Kenny Chesney, Jason Aldean, Netflix, HBO, BET and “The Voice” and has also done four feature films.

Class of 1975

Roger Miller, BBA, will skate to and sing Lieutenant Pinkerton’s “Yankee Vagabondo” aria from “Madama Butterfly” at the World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships in Brasher Falls, New York, using a melodigrand piano on the black ice for live music. Karen Courland Kelly is putting musicians on skates on the ice for historical pieces, and Roger is up for the challenge.

Baldev Seekri, MBA, has had two books published in the past four years. In 2017’s “Seizing Success: How Mindset Makes It Happen,” he argues that success requires a mindset that rejects old assumptions and limitations and frees people to reach greater heights. The book is a collection of stories of people who tapped into their dynamic success mindset and experienced genuine lasting success and happiness. In 2020’s “Meaningful Aging: How Mindset Makes It Happen,” Seekri gives new hope to seniors to make their lives purposeful and joyful. It empowers seniors to take charge and create meaning in their golden years. Seekri also published “Organizational Turnarounds with a Human Touch” in 2010.

Class of 1976

Robert “Bob” Hirth, BBA, senior managing director of Protiviti, has been named to the National Association of Corporate Directors 2021 Directorship 100 list. The list recognizes leading corporate directors, corporate governance experts, policymakers and influencers who significantly impact boardroom practices and performance. He is also a founding member of Protiviti, served as chairman of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) from 2013-2018 and is currently chair emeritus. He previously served two terms on the Standing Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and in 2013 was inducted into The Institute of Internal Auditors’ American Hall of Distinguished Audit Practitioners.

Class of 1979

Benny “Ben” Anderson, BBA, retired from Deloitte as global managing partner of Tax Quality, Risk & Regulatory and lives in Tyler, Texas, where he is involved in occasional mediation and related work. He and his wife are avid travelers and gardeners.

Class of 1981

Bryan Dunklin, MBA, is board certified in commercial and residential real estate law by the Texas Board of Legal Certification.

Fred Foote, BBA, is president of Merit Insurance Services, Inc.

Patricia Williams, née Barrett, MBA, retired after teaching accounting at Fordham University for 17 years. She’s written two fiction books: “The Two Weddings of Zhao Ping” and “E-Vengeance.”

Class of 1983   

Cathy Boltz-Margolin, BA, BBA, has owned Pacific Herbs, a company rooted in East Asian medicine, for 11 years. Its products help people boost their immune systems and reduce the need for pain medications.

Class of 1984   

Geoffrey Wadsworth, BBA, has been based in Atlanta for more than seven years, working as the SVP portfolio manager for Truist’s CCB commercial dealer team. Despite the 2020 pandemic lockdown, Geoffrey’s 25-year anniversary celebration with his wife, Jessica, was great.

Class of 1985   

Dan Dearen, BBA, currently serves as the president and CFO of Axonics, Inc., a medical technology company he co-founded and helped take public in 2018, with 2020 sales of more than $111 million and a current market capitalization of approximately $3 billion. Dan recently joined the board of directors of Endotronix, a digital health and medical technology company dedicated to advancing the treatment for heart failure, as an independent director and chair of the audit committee. Dan lives in San Diego, CA, with his wife, Lisa, and their daughter.

Tracey Etelson, MBA, is running a scholarship not-for-profit, coaching parents who homeschool with alternative education and designing high-end women’s empowerment retreats.

Class of 1990   

Melissa Kibler, MBA, began serving a two-year term in March 2020 as president of public service association American College of Bankruptcy. In June 2021, Melissa received the Women’s Leadership Award at Global M&A Network’s Turnaround Atlas Awards. She is a senior managing director at national financial advisory Mackinac Partners, a restructuring and turnaround management firm that was acquired in May 2021 by Accordion, a private equity-focused financial consulting and technology firm with a heritage of serving the office of the CFO.

Demetrios Lahiri, MBA, and his wife, Maria, are happy that their daughter, Alexandra, is a senior and their son, Demetrios III, is a sophomore at Highland Park High School. Demetrios’ company, AFAS, has merged with Assurant and is now AFAS an Assurant Company. He is the company’s vice president and has been working there for 23 years. The family celebrated the Fourth of July in Aspen, Colorado, and in August they traveled to The Quail in Carmel, California, and the Concours d’Elegance in Pebble Beach, California, to show one of their vintage Ferraris.

Larry Lawyer, BBA, runs a private, early-stage investment and commercialization business, focused on energy transition, EGS, manufacturing and technology opportunities.

Jay McAuley, MBA, has been named vice president of strategic relationships at True North Advisors, a wealth management firm providing clients with comprehensive offerings in investment management and wealth planning. He was previously president of Texas Health Resources Foundation, and before that, president of Texas Health Presbyterian Foundation.

Class of 1992   

Chris Bowles, BS, launched Lame, “socially responsible social media” targeting Gen Z, in the summer of 2021 with bright youngsters passionate about social and planetary changes impacting them and their kids’ future.

Blaine Grant, BBA, is excited to announce that he has been nominated and approved to be a member of the board of trustees of the Louisville Collegiate School, where his younger son attends high school. Blaine is also excited to announce that his oldest son was an incoming freshman at SMU this fall.

Class of 1994

Kelly Rosales, MBA, is CFO at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum.

Class of 1995

Nancy Hong, BBA, landed her dream job at her alma mater and started on March 16, 2020, one day before the campus shut down because of the pandemic.

Kevin Walker, MBA, joined CAA Brand Consulting as global head of cultural and consumer insights, focusing on helping brands interpret macro-level cultural shifts and understand the attitudes, opinions and behaviors of consumers to develop strategic marketing solutions.

Class of 1996   

David Watson, MBA, is vice president of sales at Aviso.

Class of 1998

Marianne Moore, MBA, is currently serving her second term as a state senator in Maine.

Class of 2000

Sharad Ghai, MBA, is expanding his manufacturing business.

Norman Ma, MBA, is developing smart software.

Class of 2001   

Alexis Fletcher Willis, BA, was promoted to vice president, Tax Planning & Controversy at Match Group.

Trent Hendrixson, BBA, is operations director at Focus Staff in Dallas.

Marsha Wulff, EMBA, is a general partner in LoftyInc Afropreneurs Fund 3, which empowers world-class African founders.

Class of 2002   

Robert Cline, BBA, is a quality control specialist at Tennessee Housing Development Agency in Nashville.

Class of 2003   

Anthony Herrera, BBA, MSA, was named Furman University’s first-ever chief innovation officer.

Class of 2004

Ali Gowani, BBA, supported a successful Series A raise with an artificial intelligence startup firm in Dallas area (AmplifAI) and has now joined Amazon in its Workforce Intelligence group focused on data engineering and analytics.

Class of 2006

M. Fasal Shariff, BBA, is a certified public accountant (CPA), a certified tax coach (CTC) and founder and CEO of Shariff CPA Firm in Dallas.

Class of 2008   

Patrick Raschle, BBA, recently moved to Mexico from Zurich.

Brandon Wiechmann, MSA, and his wife had twins in February 2019 and now have a full house of four kids under age 7. In June 2020, Brandon began serving as the CFO of InterCool (a PE-backed industrial refrigeration company) in Carrollton, Texas.

Class of 2009

Parveen “PK” Kumar, BBA ’83, EMBA ’09, has joined Accenture with more than 20 years of consulting experience in software implementations, which has included ERP project management, HR transformation, change management and HR business process redesign. He has performed various roles including solution architect and delivery lead. His projects have focused on project management and delivery of Oracle Cloud modules, including core HR, compensation management, revenue recognition, general ledger, accounts payable and asset management for large organizations.

Brent Levin is president at Patriot Glass Repair and president at Glass Systems, Inc.

Caroline Wright Turnipseed, BBA, launched CWT Consulting Group, a marketing consulting agency focused on growing female-founded consumer brands.

Class of 2011   

Phil Quist, in addition to his role as an agent at CAA, is now an investor at Connect Ventures — a $400 million investment partnership between CAA and global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with a focus on early-stage consumer-focused businesses. He was also named a Pollstar Impact 50 honoree, which is awarded to executives who are making the biggest impact on the live entertainment industry. Phil was also recently named to the Forbes Under 30 Board.

Kimberly Ryan, BBA, started a company with her family three years ago that acquires entrepreneurial wellness and personal care brands. She runs Baebody, a previously e-commerce-only skincare and wellness brand with thousands of five-star reviews and the No. 1 eye cream on Amazon. This year, the company has been focused on expanding into retail and recently landed its first product, Baebody Collagen Tea, in CVS stores. The company’s full line of skincare is also now at HEB stores, and the company plans to roll out to more retailers soon.

Veronica Winans, BBA, has completed the MS in Business Information Systems program and the Business Analytics Graduate Certificate at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a 4.0 GPA. She has been able to use the skills she’s learned to further her career as a product manager at Apptegy, an education technology startup in Central Arkansas. Along with her husband, Jacob, Veronica is excited to welcome a baby boy in December.

Class of 2013

Igli Laci, BBA, is the founder of Equity Breakdown, a financial research company focusing on blockchain, energy storage, DNA sequencing, robotics and artificial intelligence.

Chibundu Nnake, JD/MBA, has a new job as government relations manager at NetApp. He also has a new baby, Chibundu Achebe Nnake II, born March 31, 2021. The family bought a house in Washington, D.C.

Class of 2014   

Alex Goheen, BBA, recently moved back to Dallas after a long period in New York. Alex joined RedBird Capital to focus on energy, infrastructure and industrials private equity investments.

Class of 2015   

Kristine Locker, BBA, left her career in real estate to start her own company in the fashion technology space. She is now the founder of the chrome extension and social shopping platform called LOCKER.

Class of 2016   

Sean Davy, MBA, reports a new house, a new job and a new baby.

Jean Perez, MBA, and his wife, Jimena — along with children Philippe, age 7, and Zolie, age 5 — welcomed baby Etienne in July.

Jay Reinfrank, MBA, joined Clocktower Group in June as a principal and a member of the investment committee of Clocktower Climate & Sustainability Solutions (CCSS). CCSS is a venture capital strategy that focuses on investing in companies and managers directly addressing climate change and advancing sustainability through innovative technology.

Lukas Thompson, BBA, was promoted to an assistant director role in February and just moved into a new house with his wife.

Class of 2017

Seohyeon Kim, BBA, now works at EY Korea.

Class of 2018   

Colleen Betik, BBA, hit her two-year anniversary working at Amazon Web Services on August 5, 2021. In July, she was promoted from product marketing manager I to product marketing manager II.

Mohamed Habib, MSF, passed his Level 3 CFA Exam and is now officially a chartered financial analyst (CFA).

Harry Ting, BBA ’10, MBA ’18, got a new job as Strategy and M&A Manager at Deloitte, and he skydived in Hawaii.

Class of 2019   

Connor Kolodziej, BBA, is working as a video coordinator/assistant director of operations for Boise State Basketball.

Bora Laci, MBA, is co-founder of Venture Worlds, a podcast that brings together stories that ultimately define its vision: “One world, one species and one global mission to humanize the world.” Bora also recently co-founded HighClere Marketing LLC, taking “business to the next level with branding, marketing and PR.”

Blair Thorpe, BBA, has worked as a customer experience (CX) planner for a Dallas-based full-service marketing agency. Blair was recently promoted from CX planner to senior CX planner after making contributions that led to the winning of TV commercial spots airing during the Summer Olympics for a client. As a creative outlet outside of work, Blair started a lifestyle blog called “Sincerely Blair” and completed her second half marathon last year.

Class of 2020   

Carter Boone, BBA, has worked as a treasury sales analyst at Sunflower Bank in Dallas for a year and says it has been one of the best experiences of his life. He enjoys working with corporate clients and learning about each unique business and their needs. Carter believes “working in banking allows you to see into the world in different industries and helps you understand the complexities of each one.” The picture was taken of the Sunflower Bank’s treasury management team’s recent offsite in Columbus, Texas.

Camille Van Dorpe, BBA, is currently working full-time at the REIT Gables Residential as a multi-family development/asset management analyst.

Montana Watts, BBA, just celebrated her first-year work anniversary at AT&T.

Class of 2021

Corrie Harris, MBA, celebrated her 25th wedding anniversary with her husband, Chris. Their children are 22-year-old Stanton and 20-year-old Erika. The celebration came in March 2021, just a few weeks before Corrie completed her Professional MBA program.

Giovanna Hnath, BBA, has a new marketing job at a private equity real estate consulting firm in Dallas.

Lauren Poland, MBA, graduated this past May as a part of the one-year MBA program. Lauren competed in the NCAA 2021 Rowing Championships with the SMU Women’s Rowing team — the first time in program history ranking at the NCAA.

Natesa Vaidya, BBA, graduated in May and soon after started her first full-time job in Irving, Texas, as a business systems analyst with Epsilon Data Management LLC. She is very excited to have started with SMU knowledge.