Mays steps up to impact the world

The reach of Mays Business School throughout the world, and the world’s reach into the students, faculty and staff of Mays, is almost too vast to be measured. Mays is influencing and shaping the areas of cancer research, entrepreneurship, economic measurements and trail-blazing technologies. Within Mays, we are reimagining the roles that engagement, innovation and impact will play in the future of business education, while discovering Mays’ distinctive traits that we want to amplify. Here are just a few examples.

FROM THE OUTSIDE, LOOKING IN

The Aggie core value of selfless service is personified by two petroleum engineers who invest in Aggies’ futures through their business, WildHorse Resources in Houston. Anthony Bahr ’91 and Jay Graham ’92 have invested $12 million to help students of Mays and the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering. Launching in fall 2016, the Petroleum Ventures Program (PVP) is a certificate program that will give engineering students additional background in finance and give finance students additional knowledge of the oil and gas industry.

Business schools worldwide are exploring how to create value for society in areas that stretch the boundaries of the ways they have traditionally defined themselves. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), which accredits business schools, requires them to show educational, commercial and social impacts, as well as intellectual contributions. The AACSB vision serves as a framework for business schools to create value for society. Mays kicked off a Strategic Planning Initiative in January with an off-site retreat among the college’s leaders, then moved to Town Hall meetings open to all faculty and staff. This spring, a new vision statement was unveiled with four themes that define Mays’ distinctive traits (see page 2).

A team of Mays students represented the United States for an international case competition in Oslo, placing third. The team had 32 hours to solve a real-life business case and organize a presentation for a corporate judging panel.

Mays is the only business school among 14 universities funded by the Once Upon a Time Foundation. Students in the Strategic Philanthropy class were given a $50,000 grant to research local nonprofit organizations, then at the end gave the agencies oversized checks that represented real money. “This is such an Aggie thing to do – the selfless service and the giving back,” said Marty Loudder, associate dean of undergraduate programs.

FROM THE INSIDE, REACHING OUT

Mays is impacting the world through Marketing Professor Leonard Berry’s research on health care in America – specifically cancer care. He has produced five articles from a wide-ranging cancer study, including “The Branding of Palliative Care” and “Managing the Clues in Cancer Care” – both of which appeared in the May issue of the Journal of Oncology Practice. The Harvard Business Review published “The New Diagnosis Bundle: Improving Care Delivery for Patients with Newly Diagnosed Cancer,” about which a reviewer wrote “could only have been written by someone with a strong services background combined with deep immersion in the cancer context.”

The Real Estate Center, part of Mays, celebrates its 45th anniversary. It is the nation’s largest publicly funded real estate research organization, supported by fees paid by Texas real estate licensees. The center has generated more than 2,100 technical reports, articles, white papers, video programs, books and other media.

Startup Aggieland students traveled to Cuba with Management Professor Richard Lester and Executive Professor Don Lewis during their winter break to better understand the Cuban people, economy, small business and entrepreneurship at a time when few Americans are doing so.

Mays marketing major Garrett Hayslip ’17 and two other undergraduate students designed a device they call an Entomon – a 55-gallon plastic food barrel that serves as a stackable insect farm. Insects are an integral part of local diets in 116 countries, and Hayslip said the project’s purpose is to feed people and their livestock. The team traveled to Zurich, Switzerland, to pitch their idea at the 2016 Thought For Food Global Summit, an international convention where thought leaders and innovators showcase their ideas about the future of food and agriculture.

Mays expands opportunities for women business leaders through its Women’s Leadership Initiative, a series of events that seeks to connect women leaders and equip them with tools for continued success. A recent panel, moderated by Shannon Deer, director of the Mays Full-Time MBA Program, featured Susan Clifton, assistant police chief for the City of Pasadena; Jessica Keiser, senior vice president of ES&H Targa Resources Corp.; and Mary-Olga Lovett, a trial lawyer and chair of the board at Greenberg Taurig.

SERVING OUR COMMUNITIES

Mays Business Student Council members visit local schools each year. In March, they had a field day at Henderson Elementary School in Bryan and donated $35,000 of physical education equipment and books. Bryan Superintendent Thomas Wallis thanked them, saying, “For you to come play with our kids, to hang out with them and read with them, to tell them they are important – that is life-changing for those young people.”

In Marketing Professor Janet Parish’s Marketing 321 class, teams of honors students act as marketing consultants for community nonprofit organizations such as the Museum of the American GI, University Art Galleries, Sister Cities, and the Bryan-College Station Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The Mays community held its first panel discussion on diversity and inclusion. Mays Speaks started with a viewing of “Color Blind or Color Brave?” a TED Talk on unconscious biases. Students, staff and faculty members talked about their experiences and views. “We cannot afford to be color blind. We have to be color brave and be willing to have honest conversations about race,” said moderator Annie McGowan, an associate professor in accounting.