Alumni Notes 1970s Gerald (Jerry) P. Dillard, BS 1978, among the first upper-level undergraduates UTD admitted when it opened to junior and seniors in 1975, works for Coca-Cola Enterprises in Brandon, Florida. A cost accountant for the corporate Operations Đ Cost Management group, he works primarily on the New York and Mid-Atlantic Divisions. His duties have included the transition of the New York Division accounting to a shared-services function, and ongoing accounting and reporting for those divisions and their production and sales centers. He and his wife, Cindy have two sons, Casey and Brian. 1980s Melendy E. Lovett, MS 1982, joined Texas Instruments Incorporated's senior management team in April as senior vice president of TI and president of the company's Educational and Productivity Solutions (E&PS) business. Previously, she was a vice president in the company's human resources organization. The worldwide E&PS focuses on market-leading technology to improve the teaching and learning of math. Melendy brings a long-standing personal commitment to math and science education. She has established and leads an initiative of TI women employees who are working to improve math and science education for girls from elementary through high school. Upon her new appointments, TI President and CEO Rich Templeton said, "Melendy has consistently proven her ability to quickly assess business needs, implement strategic solutions and improve financial results." Melendy previously worked as a senior manager at Coopers & Lybrand. Her experience spans multiple areas, including information technology and accounting. Her SOM degree is in accounting, and she is a certified public accountant. Dipak C. Jain, MS 1986, PhD 1987, dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, was elected in April to the board of directors of the Northern Trust Corporation, a global multibank holding company based in Chicago. Dr. Jain, who has been dean of the Kellogg School since 2001, also serves as a director of Deere & Company, Hartmarx Corporation, Peoples Energy Corporation and UAL Corp. Dr. Jain, an SOM 2001 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, has been the Sandy and Morton Goldman Professor in Entrepreneurial Studies at Kellogg since 1994. Since 1989, he has been a visiting professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. Last year, he was appointed a foreign affairs advisor for the prime minister of Thailand. Roy E. Jewell, MS 1986, is president and chief operating officer of Magma Design Automation, a Santa Clara, California, company that develops software that helps integrated circuit designers create highly complex electronic devices. Prior to joining Magma in 2001, Roy served in management at companies including Clarisay, Inc., which he co-founded and where he was CEO from 1999 to 2001. Earlier marketing, technical and management roles included a stint at Texas Instruments Incorporated. Before coming to UTD, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in physics from the University of South Florida. 1990s Jack J. Lamb, BS 1990, is a member of three national working groups studying oversight of nonprofit organizations. Jack, an electronic-filing group manager for Intuit/Lacerte, represents Intuit, which specializes in tax and finance software. He says the groups' focus is to identify and recommend strategies to states and the Internal Revenue Service to improve charitable reporting, oversight and enforcement by advancing electronic filing -- e-filing of returns at the federal and state levels. A past chairman of UTD's Alumni Association, Jack serves on the SOM Accounting and Information Management (AIM) Executive Advisory Council. Alyssa Griggs Martin, BS 1991, MBA 1996, was named 2004 Young CPA of the Year by the Dallas (Texas) CPA Society in June. She became a partner at Weaver and Tidwell, LLP, in June 2002, after joining the firm in 1998. In 2003, she was put in charge of the firm's Risk Assessment and Sarbanes-Oxley Solutions group. To win the CPA Society honor, an accountant must be named a partner before age 36 and distinguish him- or herself within the society and other professional organizations. Alyssa's activities include service on SOM's Accounting and Information Management Alumni Advisory Board. Thomas N. Tunstall, MBA 1992, earned a PhD in 2000 from UTD's School of Social Sciences. He is a senior manager at the Irving, Texas, office of BearingPoint (formerly KPMG Consulting Inc.), a worldwide business advisory and technology systems assistance company headquartered in McLean, Virginia. Dr. Tunstall is an information technology management and economic governance advisor for the transitional government of Afghanistan. He also recently traveled to Lusaka, Zambia, to complete a knowledge management assessment for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, and to Mombasa and Nairobi, Kenya, to undertake an Internet technology assessment. Thomas A. Blake, MS 1993, MBA 1994, was featured in a story in the March 5-11, 2004, Dallas Business Journal highlighting the value of an MBA. Tom is vice president and chief financial officer of Fort Worth-based Walker Engineering Inc., an electrical contractor he joined in 2002. He had 20 years' experience as a senior financial officer in real estate and construction when he enrolled at UTD. He told DBJ staff writer Sandra Zaragoza that "graduate school helped me refine my knowledge and skills" to work with entrepreneurs and startup companies. Tom encourages others to earn their MBA, a message he spreads in mentoring relationships with family friends, business associates and interns. Scot C. Farber, MBA 1993, was the subject of a profile in the April 30-May 6 issue of the Dallas Business Journal. Senior vice president of investment with Grubb & Ellis Co. in Dallas, Scot is the third generation of his family to pursue a real estate career. He handles investment property disposition for a wide range of clients -- individual investors to corporate institutions -- throughout the Southwest. The Dallas Business Journal included him on its 2003 Heavy Hitters list for his role in the sale of the Executive Center office complex. Scot earned his undergraduate degree in finance and real estate from The University of Texas at Austin. Naveen Jindal, MBA 1993, was elected a member of India's Parliament in May and has joined the 14th Lok Sabha (House of the People) as a delegate from the city of Kurukshetra -- a birthplace of Hinduism -- in the northern state of Haryana. One of 10 MPs from Haryana, Naveen's term runs five years, the length of a Lok Sabha session. Naveen is executive vice chairman and managing director of Jindal Steel and Power Limited, part of a steel and industrial conglomerate founded by his father, Om Parkash Jindal. The elder Jindal was a member of Parliament from Kurukshetra in the 1990's. A national skeet-shooting and polo-playing champion, Naveen is perhaps best known in his native country for securing the right of all Indians to fly their national flag, the Tiranga, on a daily basis. He won the right by pursuing a protracted legal battle to change India's Flag Code, which previously permitted display of the banner's by private citizens only on special occasions. Naveen told a reporter that while he was at UTD, the frequent sight of Americans not only hoisting the U.S. flag but also wearing it on T-shirts and otherwise proudly displaying it inspired him Kira Y. Lane, BS 1994, joined the Fort Worth Tycoons basketball team as vice president of marketing in June. An American Basketball Association team, the Tycoons begin play in November. Their 36-game schedule includes 18 home games at the Fort Worth Convention Center. Kira previously worked in sales and marketing 10 years. His VP responsibilities include obtaining corporate sponsorships, placing advertising, negotiating the venue and managing a sales team of five people. "Once we get this franchise up and running" he says, "we will do it all over with a Houston franchise." Brad Almond, MA 1995, was promoted in April to vice president of finance and administration and chief financial officer of ZixCorp, Dallas, Texas. ZixCorp is a publicly traded global provider of e-messaging protection and transaction services. "Brad Almond's business skills, coupled with his strong background in auditing and corporate finance in high-growth environments are the perfect mix for the top finance post," John A. Ryan, chairman and chief executive officer for ZixCorp said in announcing the appointment. A CPA, Brad earned his MBA in 1992 from The University of Texas at Austin. Mario A. Bola–os-Avila, EMBA 1995, was chosen by Hispanic Engineer & Information Technology magazine as one of the 50 Most Important Hispanics in Technology and Business for 2004, a group featured in the publication's June/July issue. The editors of the Baltimore-based magazine selected Mario, who is director of the Semiconductor Group, Packaging Technology Development organization at Texas Instruments Incorporated in Dallas, Texas, because of his outstanding technology work and leadership in his field. "The list of honorees includes many of the nation's highest-achieving Hispanic executives, managers, and researchers in industry, government, and academia," the magazine said. Honorees are presented to young people as role models, and the honorees' accomplishments are presented as examples of "the important, often unrecognized contributions made on a daily basis by the thousands of Hispanics in technology-related jobs." Mario has worked for TI for more than 25 years. He spent his first decade at the company in his home country, El Salvador, then another six years as part of the TI management team in the Philippines. After that, he held management positions in Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Package Development and Assembly Equipment Development. In 2002, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers selected him as the recipient of its National Corporate Achievement Award. G. Todd Estes, BS 1995, left PriceWaterhouseCoopers, LLP in 2003 to accept a position at Turner, Stone & Company, LLP, in Dallas, Texas. A certified public accountant, Todd is tax manager, and his duties include tax compliance, and transaction and new business consulting. Todd is chairman of SOM's Accounting and Information Management (AIM) Alumni Advisory Board. Besides participating in a mentoring program, board members are seeking accounting alumni members and raising funds for accounting scholarships. Todd is acting treasurer of Boy Scout Troop 1776 in Plano, Texas, to which his son, Tyler, belongs. David J. Otterson, MS 1995, was named in May as president and chief executive officer of WestWind Technologies, Inc., a Huntsville, Alabama, aviation company. An aerospace industry and U.S. Navy veteran, David is a pilot of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. He has extensive experience in aircraft manufacturing, quality improvement and related finance. WestWind provides aviation-engineering services for commercial and military aircraft. Recent projects include customizing Blackhawk helicopters for search-and-rescue missions. In addition, the company operates the Logistics Support Facility at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense. A U.S. Naval Academy undergrad with a degree in mathematics, David previously served in senior positions with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and Koch Industries. In the late 1990s, he was president and chief executive officer of an aircraft maintenance, modification and manufacturing company. David, his wife, Pat, and their two sons Patrick, 18, and John, 17, reside in Madison, Alabama. Daughter, Tatum, 25, is married and lives in Texarkana, Texas. Henry Ennis, EMBA 1998, was married on June 26, 2004, to Bren C. Gaudet. Bren moved to Dallas from Connecticut a few years ago to pursue a writing career. The wedding and reception were held at Henry's home in Carrollton, Texas. Several EMBA 1998 alumni attended the ceremony. Ellen Magnis, MBA 1998, has accepted an expanded role at the Dallas-based American Heart Association (AHA). In addition to serving as vice president of the American Stroke Association, a division of the AHA, and a position to which she was promoted in October 2003, she will be vice president overseeing the organization's Strategic Alliances functions and staff. Bipin C. Trehan, MBA 1998, MS 1999, and his wife, Jodi Diekman Trehan, MBA 1998, welcomed their first child, daughter Anika Elena Trehan, in January 2004. Bipin is a program manager responsible for the development of new solutions and services at Fujitsu Network Communications in Richardson, Texas. Jodi recently resigned from her business manager position at Fujitsu to be a full-time mom and homemaker. The Trehans live in Plano, Texas. 2000s Wendy Cordray, MBA 2001, and Oliver Cone, MBA 2001, were featured in the True Romance column of The Dallas Morning News on May 22, 2004. Writer Steve Kenny profiled the couple's initial encounter in a UTD SOM entrepreneurship class in January 2001 and followed it through to their June 5, 2004, wedding at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Dallas, Texas. Oliver, a native of Cambridge, England, is an investment officer at Bulkley Capital, a Dallas-based investment banking firm. Wendy is general manager of the Good Eats restaurant in Turtle Creek Village in Dallas. The couple now lives in North Dallas, just a few minutes from UTD. Rick Kelly, EMBA 2002, has become vice president of sales and marketing at Beckett Corporation, an Irving, Texas-based company specializing in lawn and garden products. Mr. Kelly leads the sales, marketing and customer-service departments of this consumer-products company. He also is responsible for developing long-term strategies to better position the Beckett Corporation in the fast-growing water-gardening category. Rick earned his undergraduate degree in business management from Stephen F. Austin State University. He and his wife, Janet, have three children, Ryan, 14, Alexander, 10, and Ruxton, 5.