Strawser appointed VP, CFO of Texas A&M University

Jerry R. Strawser was appointed vice president for finance and administration and CFO of Texas A&M University on Sept. 3, 2014. We at Mays want to thank him for all he accomplished during his time as dean of Mays Business School. The school firmly established itself as one of the leading business schools in the world.

Following are highlights of the many successes Mays accomplished during his distinguished 13-year tenure:

• The most recent rankings by Bloomberg Businessweek identified Mays as only one of 16 U.S. institutions (and one of only seven U.S. public institutions) whose Full-Time MBA and undergraduate programs are both ranked among the top 30 in the country.
• Philanthropic giving to Mays exceeded $134 million, with primary focus on faculty endowments, merit-based undergraduate scholarships, MBA fellowships, and endowments and funds to support student travel and high-impact learning experiences.
• Annual revenues from custom non-degree executive programs offered by the Center for Executive Development have increased in the last 10 years from $655,000 to $6.1 million.
• A Business Honors major was created to attract high-achieving high school students and provide them with enhanced learning opportunities.
• The Executive MBA program was relocated from The Woodlands to CityCentre Houston and a Professional MBA program was launched in 2012.
• Research and Teaching Councils comprising Mays faculty were created to enhance the research and teaching environments at the school as well as to proactively encourage and reward research and teaching excellence.
• An overall communication and branding strategy was implemented to raise the profile of Mays Business School in both the business and academic communities. This ongoing effort includes annual multimedia advertising campaigns as well as Mays Business Online (a monthly electronic publication), Benefactor (an annual donor recognition publication), @Mays (a semiannual alumni publication) and Business Research in Action (a semiannual publication that features important Mays faculty and their research).