Option II Association Dues

April 1999

The Chronicle of the University of Texas Executive MBA Association

Can you believe that the turn of the century is less then 10 months away? This millennium promises to be quite a party. The doomsayers are predicting global meltdown while the optimists are conceiving new and innovative ways to capitalize on the Y2K computer bug, among other things. What are you doing to ring in the New Year? This year, the Alumni Board has decided to undertake the monumental task of contacting each and every alumnus. We are not doing this for the traditional reasons of asking for money or volunteers. We have made an objective to update each person’s contact information. Why? Glad you asked that question! We are moving away from killing trees with the newsletter, mailers, notices, and party invites. But, how do we get information to everyone? Electrons! As we are all aware, the Internet has played a significant role in changing the way we all do business. (And if I hear one more "e- word" from the marketeers I’m going to slit my wrists with a rusty butter knife.) We should be taking advantage of this and using it to communicate as much as possible. Almost all of us have, and regularly  use, email and the web for communication and research. Why, then, are we still sending out paper messages to each other?  Answer… we’re not for much longer. In an effort to make collecting and verifying your information as simple as possible, we are adding the capability to update your contact information through the OII website. If you are not contacted in the next couple of months, take it upon yourself to verify your information using the alumni database (http:// coltrane. bus. utexas. edu). We all appreciate your help. Also in the works this year is another award winning Fall Business Seminar. This year’s seminar coordinator and President- elect, Steve Wareing, is hard at it, deep in details of planning the event. Mark your calendars (with a Sharpie!) for Friday, September 10th and check the website www. optionii. com for breaking information about the speakers, the topic, and the entire scoop related to this annual event. Until next time…

— T. J. Harais ’97, President- Elect

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1999 Alumni Seminar
The Internet & its Impact on Traditional Business Models

Mark your calendars for Friday, September 10, 1999. The annual event will be held in the auditorium of Joe C. Thompson Conference Center. President Elect Steve Wareing is lining up speakers as we go to press with this newsletter. (If you have any timely ideas, please give him at call at 512.899.1523.) He says, "This is the same place as last year. Plenty of parking, comfortable chairs, great snacks!" Steve is an old hand at organizing the seminar, because he was former OII President Russel Corl’s right- hand in 1997. "We’ll be discussing how the Internet has affected business strategic planning, valuation of internet- based companies and other internet related issues." Look at the Option II website www. optionii. com for posted updates.   Back to Top

Dallas alumni Jim Pepitone ’90 wrote Motivating Employees. It hit the bookstores last October, and was published by McGraw- Hill. It was written to appeal to managers at all levels and is filled with science- based, field- proven strategies for creating a "motivated organization." It has been described as "good airplane reading, full of tips and techniques that actually work." You can check it out at www.amazon.com or at www.pepitone.com .

Jim also has a book called Future Training (1995)  which makes the business case  trans-forming traditional corporate training. It’s in its third printing and more information about it can be found on the same web sites. Ed Paulson ’90 is also in the publishing news. Last November, he penned The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Personal Finance with Quicken which he says is selling well. This March another Paulson authored  book will be available.

It’s called Teach Yourself Year 2,000 Crises Survival in Ten Minutes. The book has been picked up by Barnes and Noble and major pub- licity/promotion is due April through July.  Ed is under contract for another Macmillan book on buying and selling a business that is due out in July of 1999 and he is negotiating a professional reference book with Wylie. He has signed with New York literary agent Lisa Swayne. Those interested in Ed’s Y2K information can visit www.edpaulson.com/year2000 . He and his wife Loree are selling their Austin house and living in Chicago.

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Dont Forget to Register for the Fall Seminar

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Option II Web Site— Results of Web Site Survey and other news
by Girish Altekar

The information age has dawned at the Option II Alumni Board. We decided recently to do away with the paper communication in favor of electronic communication. This will not take place instantly. Rather, over time, we will migrate the conduct of our business, which really is communication with you, to email and the web. We have considered that there are some of you who may not have access to the Internet; and many of you have not updated your email addresses. For you, please note that the transition will be gradual but it will happen by the end of this year. We encourage you to get online to remain connected with your fellow alumni. Send us (info_update@ optionii.com) for your pre- ferred email address.

If you insist on being paper- based, well, what was it that Court used to say about gene pool…

The Web Site
An important component of being online is the creation and maintenance of an effective web site. There are currently two relevant web sites for the Option II alumni, the alumni web site at http:// www. optionii. com and the Option II Office web Site at http:// coltrane. bus. utexas. edu. The Alumni Board manages the first one while the Option II Office manages the second, with cross links to one another. 

Our website’s content, the board’s responsi- bility, has been thin. We are in the process of fixing this. A member of the board, currently your correspondent, will assume the role of the Content Manager, with the responsibility of managing the content of the alumni web site. A committee consisting of Mike Glenn ’97, Mike Weikert ’96, Jennifer Wojnaroski ’98, and myself Girish Altekar ’94 is working to identify and prioritize the ideas for the web site development.

Given that our day jobs preclude most of us spending the amount of time we would really like to spend on the alumni web site, it is important to prioritize this work. To this end, Jennifer Wojnaroski and Mike Glenn put together a survey to gather your opinions about the web site and what you value. The results of the survey, which Jennifer conducted and compiled (Thanks, Jennifer!), are included below. Over the next few weeks, we will be implementing some of your ideas. I expect this to be an ongoing process.

Link to Survey Summary

The results of the survey are summarized below, but a couple of things need mention. One is that we have had a response rate of 27% (140/ 500), and this does not even include the peo- ple who may have contributed if their emails had not bounced. Special thanks to classes ’93 and ’94 for their 43% and 40% respectively, class response rates that tilted the scale. This affirms our belief that Option II alums want to stay connected with the Option II Program and other alumni. We were overwhelmed with the volume of thoughtful responses and are still analyzing the commentary, but it is clear that many of you wish to do away with paper based processes. We are glad this con- firms the Board’s direction. The votes are overwhelmingly in favor of having the content support the communication and networking needs of the alumni. Over the next few months, watch this cyberspace as we con- tinue to make the website more effective and useful for all of us.

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Please send any announcements or news directly to Jann Kelso at jannkelso@ lodestarcom.com or call 214.696.3510.

Carol Berman ’98 loaded up her dogs and headed for California to visit her family. She decided to stay and accept a position with a pre- IPO computer consulting company called ThoughtWorks that builds mission- critical systems for Fortune 1,000 companies. She says they were listed 62nd on Inc. Magazine’s list of the 500 fastest privately held growing companies. The company is based in Chicago, but Carol is working out of San Bruno, California, near Silicon Valley. She says they have a successful track record in building large scale, distributed systems working in an environment called Forte. The main California client is The Gap. She can be reached through her e- mail address cjberman@ thought-works. com . Her new address is 1111 Bayhill Drive, Suite 435, San Bruno, CA 94066. Her business phone is 650.742.7795 ext. 4199 and her business fax is 650.742.7796.

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When faced with a challenge, not even hurricane rains can squelch the drive of Option II alums. The turnout last September for the annual Alumni Golf Scramble was remarkable. It revealed and verified levels of determination scientists and psychologists have long believed to be a core strength of an Option II- type individual. "What rain?" one ’93 grad was heard to burble while sloshing through an unmarked water hazard. Some outstanding shots were recorded (e. g., two 40’ pitch ins), and "Drained It" took on a whole new meaning.

Even with the distinct advantage of having Otter with Nickers on their team, four golfers ( Glen Nickerson, wife Betty Otter- Nickerson, Jay Holland and Karen Wilson ) — showing a volatile degree of retroflective confusion — played through 11 holes before reaching a crucial investment and threw in their wet towels. "We now know." one not- so- famous engineer was heard to say with indisputable certainty, "that applicants to the OII program need not know when to come in out of the rain."    Back to Top

A Note on Dues:  As a member of Option II, you automatically are a member of the Alumni Association. Payment of dues is optional. The $25 requested each year underwrites the costs associated with the newsletter, the board meeting costs, the faculty award, the web site and the seminar. It occasionally helps the Regional Vice Presidents pay for stamps, etc., to put on events from time to time. When the notice comes for annual dues from Board Member Zoe Griffith, whip out your checkbook and support the Association!      Back to Top
                                         Sign-up Now

Carl Dowell ’90 and his wife Mei- Hwa would love to hear from former classmates. Since they have been living in the city almost seven years, they are ready and available with suggestions for restaurants and sightseeing. Their second son Luc was born last October. Carl is the group controller for Sara Lee Branded Apparel- Europe. His email address is cdowell@ saralee. com.

Bennett Douglas ’97 recently joined Prime Bank as Senior Vice- President and Manager of Business Banking. Prime Bank is a Houston- based, independent bank with assets of $1.1 billion and 22 locations in Texas. The Business Banking Group specializes in providing cash flow solutions to small and medium- sized businesses in the Houston area.

Alphonce Brown has become a jet- setter, returning to France every year since Option II London to see friends he met there during that trip. He also made several trips to Thailand and was recently in Bali. He plans to finish the millennium in Sydney, Australia.

Dan McManus ’90 will be designing floral arrangements for the Technical Oscars this month in Los Angeles. As president of the McManus Group based in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, he has become an active speaker in the travel industry. In April, he will present a seminar in Nagoya, Japan. Dan also got married, has four children, two dogs, six cats and settled on some acreage in Oklahoma.

Isaac Collazo ’95 is the Senior Director of Brand Information for Marriott International, Inc. in Washington, D. C. He left Nashville to move to the D. C. area. His new work number is 301.380.3398 and home number is 240.453.0969

David Sokolow ’90 is still professoring at UT’s Law School. He celebrated his big five- oh birthday this month. Classmate Mark Jacks is gathering supplies of Grecian Formula, left- over Doan’s and/ or Viagra. With a friend like this…

Dave Wenger ’96 is chief brand strategist at TateAustin, leading the firm’s marketing and branding efforts on behalf of clients such as ThermoQuest and Dresser-Wayne.   Dave has also formed a new consulting practice, named I. D. University, a network of marketing and brand- development practitioners. "Our primary focus is to partner with other consulting firms to help develop brand identity programs and marketing plans which flow naturally from their clients’ new business strategies." He can be reached at 512.344.2022 or dwenger@ tateaustin. com.    Back to Top

Grant Douglas Olson was born on February 6, 1999. A strapping 21inches long and weighing 9 pounds even, the baby is the son of Scott Olson ’00 and his wife Jennette.
Krish Subramoniam ’00 and his wife Padma welcomed the arrival of their son Harish in the early morning of January 26, 1999. The baby weighed 6 pounds and 10 ounces and was 19 inch-es long. Congratulations from all your classmates! ` Two more Houston babies are on their way.
Frank Schageman ’97 and his wife Sara are expecting in a few months, as are JT Thompson ’97 and his wife Jaye.
Mike Thomas Clarke ’00 had to postpone Dr. Court Huber’s final exam for a good excuse. His second child Emily Elizabeth was born December 12, 1998. He said, "I imagine my responses will have a different flavor, because of my experience. I would not call it a Beta error; but, maybe, a Beta experience."
Christopher Polhemus and his wife Chennel gave birth to their second child on November 30, 1998. His name is Zachary Alexander. Christopher is still working for KPMG Consulting in Dayton, Ohio, but will be moving to the D. C. area this March.
Patty Lynn Jackson ’90 and her husband Paul adopted a 14- month old daughter from China last June. Her name is Nell Catherine Jackson and says Patty, "She is an absolute joy!"
Susan Goldberg ’90 had her third child Emma about 8 months ago. Susan delayed her last semester of Option II by a semester, because of the birth of twin boys who are now 9 years old.

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At the last Option II Alumni Board Meeting, your Board of Directors recommended that we should invite alumni if space was available to the Option II Seminar in Lyon, France.   Debbie Day ’94 sent out an announcement and a few people responded.  Even if you missed out this year, there’s always next year. If you want more information, you can contact Debbie ddaytexas@ worldnet. att. net. This year’s trip is scheduled for May 25- 26. The cost of the hotel is about $130 a night, and transportation is up to you. There also will be a fee for attending the seminar which Dr. Court Huber says he would make as accessible as possible. The following are typical of the agenda:

• "European Management Model" lecture;
• Visit to either Hewlet- Packard, Hotel de Ville, Euronews, chocolate factory, Silk factory;
• Dinner with French families &127;
• "Comparative business ethics in France and Germany" lecture
• There are dinners scheduled with French families and opportunities to meet the natives.

Finally, Dr. Bob Mettlen traveled to Ireland to investigate a similar, educational trip for next year. While there, he was delighted by the opportunities to learn that the emerging high- tech industries and the universities would be eager to receive us. Stay tuned.

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Austin, Texas 78768-4325