2024 Mays Outstanding Alumni Award Recipients

Mays Business School Recognizes Rodney Faldyn ’88, Chris Cooper ’89, and Adam Sinn ’00 as 2024 Mays Outstanding Alumni Award Recipients

Three distinguished Texas A&M University graduates — Rodney Faldyn ’88, Chris Cooper ’89, and Adam Sinn ’00 — were awarded Mays Business School’s top honor, the 2024 Mays Outstanding Alumni Award. The trio was recognized during a celebratory dinner at Texas A&M’s Thomas G. Hildebrand, DVM ’56 Equine Complex on April 25, 2024.

This award spotlights Mays former students who exemplify transformational leadership in their profession and community, as well as their service to the school. First awarded in 1992, this honor previously has been given to 100 recipients.

This award also highlights the important role that former students hold in Mays’ climb to preeminence. “At Mays, our aspiration is to become the preeminent public business school in the country. We see a very bright future ahead, and we will never forget that the foundation for that bright future was laid by generations of former students, faculty, and staff who came before us,” said Mays Dean Nate Sharp. “Mays alumni are a critical part of our past and an indispensable part of our future. Their personal and professional success elevates the reputation of our school. As they continue to engage with us over the course of their careers, they bring insights and perspective without which we cannot succeed.”

Rodney Faldyn ’88

Faldyn initially dreamed of becoming an architect when he enrolled at Texas A&M. However, he eventually determined that he had more of an affinity for accounting and shifted his studies to the business school.

While his major changed, his appreciation for the university remained strong. “When I visited Texas A&M, I just fell in love with it,” he said. “It was the passion of the student body, the family values — the same family values that were instilled in me as a kid when I grew up. I felt at home.”

After graduation, Faldyn joined Deloitte & Touche LLP where he worked in the energy, wholesale trade, and construction sectors. He eventually transitioned to Enron, serving as vice president in international finance/M&A, chief accounting officer for a publicly held subsidiary, and vice president of accounting. He then moved to N.F. Smith & Associates, a privately held international electronics distributor, where he held executive roles.

In 2006, Faldyn joined Academy Sports + Outdoors as chief financial officer before being appointed president. In August 2011, he took on the role of CEO when affiliates of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR) acquired a majority stake in the company. During his tenure, the growing company launched an e-commerce platform while also nearly doubling its store count. Faldyn retired as Academy’s CEO in 2015.

Throughout his career, Faldyn remained committed to growing the people around him. “My success is not my success; it’s my team’s success,” he explained. “And the only way you can have a successful team is if you treat people with respect and lead by example. We at Academy + Outdoors — 22,000 associates — made the company successful. We did it as a team.”

The businessman’s engagement with Mays began at the invitation of then-Dean Jerry Strawser. “He got me emotionally reattached to the school and over the last 15 years I’ve really enjoyed presenting to students’ classrooms and organizations, and just reengaging with the student body,” said Faldyn.

His involvement with the school deepened when he served on the Mays Dean’s Development Council in 2010. He also served as co-chair of the marketing committee and was a member of the Distinguished Alumni Selection Committee. In 2013, he was recognized with the Texas A&M Center for Retail Studies’ M.B. Zale Visionary Merchant Award.

The Houston resident — whose family includes his wife, Karen, and four grown children — also has served on the Goodwill Industries of Houston’s board of directors as well as advisory boards for non-profits and start-ups.

Chris Cooper ’89

Growing up in Dallas, Cooper followed his brother’s example and cheered for the University of Texas. However, as he got to know his Aggie neighbors, Cooper changed his allegiance — and the direction of his life. “I wouldn’t be at Texas A&M if it wasn’t for Jerry Crowley ’63 and his family of diehard Aggies,” Cooper said. “I couldn’t help but appreciate their sense of loyalty.”

But before he headed to College Station, Cooper enrolled in a community college to get a better sense of his career direction. He eventually found his way to accounting. “I’m not particularly good at math and never really liked it but accounting was more about concepts,” he explained. “It was easy and just clicked.”

Cooper appreciated Mays’ commitment to teaching interpersonal skills such as working collaboratively and respectfully in a team environment as well as academics. “Mays was invaluable to me in giving me the tools to go out in the world and be successful,” Cooper said. “The robustness of the program set me apart from other professionals that I started my career with.”

His entire career has been spent with Deloitte & Touche LLP. During his tenure, Cooper served as lead partner for the company’s largest global clients in consumer products, life sciences, industrial products, and financial services. He also advised global private equity firms and strategic buyers in the firm’s Merger & Acquisition Services practice. Now a senior partner, Cooper leads the U.S. Audit & Assurance practice of the U.S. Life Sciences and Health Care practice.

Cooper credits his professional success to his ability to foster strong relationships. “Pour into live in-person relationships and develop those relationships,” he said. “You never know when you’re going to pick up the phone and it’s going to be somebody you met 5-10 years ago, or you’re going to call somebody and ask them for help. Those relationships are going to help you get to the next level in your life and career.”

Cooper remains engaged with Texas A&M, despite living in the U.S. Northeast. He started buying season football tickets in the 1990s and has actively supported the university’s academic and athletic programs. Most recently, Cooper was a trustee on the board of the 12th Man Foundation for seven years, including serving as the 2022 chairman.

The Aggie, who resides in Princeton, NJ with his wife, Theresa, and three sons, also has served as a board member for his local United Way and numerous other charities.

Adam Sinn ’00

Sinn grew up in Hoopeston, Ill., a rural community of 5,000 people who worked primarily in low-wage agriculture jobs. “In the small town where I lived, everyone was polite and nice,” Sinn said. “Everyone would share their vegetables from their garden and help the old lady across the street. I just try to do what I was taught and go through life being nice to other people.”

Sinn’s father, an electrician, wanted a better life for his sons. “My dad did without so that my brother and I could go to school,” Sinn explained, adding that when he reached college age, his parents could only afford in-state tuition.

Characteristically determined, Sinn qualified for numerous scholarships that enabled him to attend Southern Methodist University. However, SMU wasn’t a good fit, so Sinn transferred to Texas A&M, where he majored in finance.

After graduation, Sinn worked briefly as a stockbroker before joining Lehman Brothers as a trader. Sinn then decided to “bet on himself” and founded Aspire Commodities in 2009. The Houston-based commodities trading company primarily deals with power and natural gas financial derivatives.

Over the years, Sinn has made significant philanthropic investments to both Texas A&M and Mays Business School. His initial $1 million gift to Mays established scholarships for students from either Hoopeston or Dorado, Puerto Rico, where Sinn currently resides.

Five years later, he increased his impact with a $10 million gift to expand student scholarships, enhance educational quality, develop high-impact programs for finance students, and recruit top finance faculty. As a result, the finance department was named the Adam C. Sinn ’00 Department of Finance. His commitment continued with another $10 million gift that provided additional scholarships and established the Adam C. Sinn ’00 Center for Investment Management.

Most recently, his $5 million gift established the Adam C. Sinn ’00 Dean’s Leadership Chair, one of the largest of its kind at Texas A&M University. The endowed chair, which will be used to support students, faculty, and staff, will further Mays’ aspiration of becoming the preeminent public business school in the country.

Sinn hopes his philanthropic investments will spark a similar commitment among future Aggies when they enter the prime of their careers. “Statistically speaking, there’s going to be another Adam Sinn and another David Coolidge who are going to have their names on buildings and programs at Texas A&M,” he said. “They’re going to go through these programs and want to support other people and pay it forward, the same way that I did.”