Alumni Notes

1980s

Kerry Hall, BBA ’83, was named the 2025 Austinite of the Year by the Austin Chamber of Commerce. She is a former president of Texas Capital Bank’s Austin region. 

Jim Moroney III, MBA ’83, was selected to receive The Catholic Foundation Award. He is the retired publisher of The Dallas Morning News and former CEO of A.H. Belo Corp. 

Bryan Henderson II, BBA ’84, was named the chair of the State Board of Dental Examiners. He is a dentist anesthesiologist and a clinical assistant professor at the Texas A&M University School of Dentistry.

Andrew Schmidt, BBA ’84, has been appointed senior vice president and chief financial officer of Aviat Networks Inc. He will also serve as the company’s principal accounting officer.

Tina Hicks, BBA ’86, has joined PlainsCapital Bank as vice president and senior wealth management administrator. She was previously with Frost Bank in trust administration.

Richard “Rick” Tisch, BBA ’86, was reappointed to the Texas State Board of Pharmacy for a term expiring in 2031. He is the regional vice president of HSA Bank. 

Melford Carter, MBA ’87, has joined private investment firm Star Mountain Capital as a senior adviser. He retired from asset management firm GCM Grosvenor in 2025. 

Mark Glasky, MBA ’87, was hired by Valley National Bancorp as its California market president. He had been managing director of West Coast diversified industries at BMO (formerly Bank of the West).

Evans Attwell, MBA ’88, has joined PlainsCapital Bank as senior vice president/senior business development officer. He was previously a senior vice president at Frost Bank.

Cherlyn Linden, MBA ’88, was named one of the Top 50 Women Leaders of Denver for 2025 by the organization Women We Admire. She is a vice president and cloud sales leader for Deloitte.

Richard M. Sherrill, BBA ’88, has joined the board of directors of Perma-Pipe International Holdings Inc. He is the senior vice president of business development for Howard Energy Partners. 

Norman Newton, BBA ’89, has been named chief revenue officer for Legacy Housing. He had been CEO of AmeriCasa Solutions, which Legacy Housing purchased. 

1990s

Howard Ungerleider, BBA ’90, has been elected to the board of directors of Air Products, an industrial gases company. Ungerleider is an operating adviser for private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. 

Lisa Fitze, BBA/MPA ’91, has joined Pfluger Architects in its Austin office as director of finance, senior associate. She was previously the director of finance for Loram Technologies Inc. in Georgetown. 

Kattiya Indaravijaya, MBA ’91, was named one of Asia’s Power Businesswomen for 2025 by Forbes magazine. She is the CEO of Kasikornbank, also known as KBank. 

David Jackson, MBA ’91, has been named chairman of the National Chicken Council for 2025-2026. He is the chief operating officer of Simmons Foods. 

Sital Mody, BBA ’91, has been elected to the boards of directors of First Horizon Corp. and the First Horizon Bank. He is president of the Natural Gas Pipelines Group and a vice president of Kinder Morgan Inc. 

Laura Wiess, BBA/MPA ’91, has been appointed chief financial officer of Austin-based St. David’s Medical Center. Previously she was the CFO of St. David’s Round Rock Medical Center. 

Joel Kemmerer, BBA ’92, has been appointed chief information officer of cybersecurity company KnowBe4. He previously worked at N-able, SolarWinds, and Advanced Micro Devices. 

Monica Aldama, BBA ’93, is an executive producer on NBC’s mockumentary comedy “Stumble.” She had been the coach of the cheer team at Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas. The team was featured in the Netflix docuseries “Cheer.”

Jeff Chesnut, BBA ’94, has been named chief financial officer of Conestoga Energy. He had been the senior vice president of treasury, investor relations, and corporate development at Upbound Group Inc. 

Steve Chase, MPA/MBA ’94, will lead KPMG International’s efforts on AI-enabled client solutions as vice chair for AI and digital innovation at KPMG US. 

Scott Johnson, BBA ’95, has joined the management team of the Highland Global Allocation Fund as a portfolio manager. He is a managing director and portfolio manager at NexPoint.

Nichole Jordan, BBA ’95, has been named one of the Dallas 500, a listing of influential executives compiled by D CEO magazine. She has two managing partner positions with the firm Grant Thornton.

Joshua Schechter, BBA/MPA ’95, has joined the board of directors of Barnwell Industries Inc. He currently serves as a director and chairman of Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality Inc. and Lifecore Biomedical Inc.

Donna Anderson, MBA ’96, has joined ICR Inc., a strategic communications and advisory business, as a senior adviser. She was previously with T. Rowe Price. 

Jeffery Taylor, MBA ’97, has joined the board of directors of HF Foods Group. He was most recently the chief financial officer of Franklin Electric Co. 

Anita Gonzales, BBA/MPA ’98, has been appointed vice president and chief accounting officer of Revvity Inc. She joined the firm in 2021 and has been its vice president and controller since May 2023.

Carter Groves, BBA ’98, has been appointed chief financial officer of ValorC3 Data Centers. Before joining Valor, he held senior investment and operational roles at several businesses. 

Dawn Williford, BBA ’99, has joined accounting and advisory firm Weaver as a partner in its governance, risk, and compliance practice. She has more than 25 years of experience in risk advising, internal auditing, and compliance. 

2000s

Tara Smith, BBA ’01, has been named executive vice president of enterprise growth and multibrand strategy at First American Title Insurance Co. She was previously the group president for a publicly traded title insurance underwriter. 

Robert Macalik, B.A./BBA/MPA ’02, has been promoted to executive vice president and chief financial officer at Matador Resources Co. He had been the executive vice president for administration and finance. 

Susan Saurage-Altenloh, MBA ’03, is a co-author of the new book “The EENDEED Project: Employee Engagement for Organizational Transformation.” She is the founder of Saurage Research Inc. 

Laila Scott, MBA ’03, has joined the board of trustees of Colorado College. She is the founder of Pop-Up Birthday, a nonprofit for children in foster care.

Robert Stefani, MBA ’03, was appointed chief financial officer of Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. He was previously CFO and senior vice president of Southwest Gas Holdings. 

Chris Beckstead, MBA ’04, has been named president of LiveView Technologies Inc. He was previously the president of Qualtrics. 

J. Maxwell “Max” Beatty, BBA/MPA ’05, has joined a Houston bankruptcy law firm as a partner. The business will change its name to Shannon Lee Beatty LLP. 

Burt Chao, BBA ’05, B.A. ’06, was appointed chief financial officer of Nintex. He was previously CFO of Pushpay Holdings. 

Stacy Hock, MBA ’05, was named chair of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. She is a board member for Atlas Energy Services, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the American Federation of Children. 

Robin Gordon, MBA ’06, has joined insurance company Hippo Holdings Inc. as chief data officer. She previously worked as a chief data officer or chief technology officer at Blackstone, KPMG, and CoreLogic.

John Laws, MBA ’06, has been named chief commercial officer at Oklahoma Gas & Electric (OGE). His career includes senior leadership roles at OGE Energy Corp. and Enable Midstream Partners. 

Amy Cureton, MBA ’07, has been named director of real assets at the Employees Retirement System of Texas. She joined the pension fund in 2008 and was previously the director of private real estate. 

Dan Leonard, MBA ’07, has joined VeraBank as senior vice president/commercial banker. He was previously a senior vice president/commercial lender at Sunflower Bank. 

Morgan Johnson, BBA ’09, was appointed to the Public Utility Commission of Texas. She is the deputy general counsel for the Office of the Governor. 

Robert Norris, B.A. ’01, MBA ’09, was named the chief financial officer of El Paso Electric. He was previously president and CFO at AMP Robotics. 

Sarah McCombs Taylor, BBA/MPA ’09, has been named chief financial officer of Roots Management Group. She joined the company in April 2024 as the senior vice president of accounting. 

2010s

Amanda Glen Smith, B.A/BBA ’10,was named oneof the Top 25 Women Chief Customer Officers of 2025 by the organization Women We Admire. She is the chief client officer for Innovid. 

Homer Bhullar, MBA ’11, has been appointed senior vice president and chief financial officer of Valero Energy Corp. He had been the vice president of investor relations and finance since 2021. 

Chris Golz, BBA/MPA ’11, has joined CenterOak Partners LLC as chief financial officer. He was previously the chief financial officer and chief compliance officer at Latticework Capital Management.

Matthew Taylor Crawford, MSTC ’12, has been named chief operating officer of Victory Live, a ticketing company for live events. He had been the chief product and innovation officer for Cars Commerce.

Garrett Dowling, BBA ’14, has been promoted to chief compliance officer at Pravati Capital.
He joined the firm in 2022 as vice president of investment operations.

Emily Roccheggiani, MSTC ’14, has been named chief sales officer at Versapay. She was previously the chief revenue officer at Forma. 

R. Mark Davidovich, MBA ’15, has joined First Financial Trust as executive vice president and leader of its Fort Worth market. He is a co-founder and former partner at VetMor, a medical real estate firm. 

Jordan Dempsey, BBA ’15,
has been promoted to head of touring at Day After Day Productions, a booking agency. He joined the business in 2022 and was previously the director of touring. 

Natalie Garza, MBA ’16, has been named CEO of the Houston market for the Fort Worth-based Bank of Texas. She was previously with Amegy Bank of Texas. 

Rinita Datta, MBA ’19, was one of four recipients of the 4 Under 40 Emerging Leaders Award for 2025 from the American Marketing Association. She is the director of marketing at Splunk. 

2020s

Alec Norman, BBA ’21, MPA ’22, has been named an associate at O2 Investment Partners.
He was previously an investment banking analyst at Greenhill & Co. 

Addie Rasche, MBA ’23, has been promoted to principal at Silverton Partners. She joined
the business as a senior associate in 2023.