U P F R O N T
NEW EXECUTIVE-IN-RESIDENCE JOINS McCOMBS Jeff Mihm, former CEO of Noven Pharmaceuticals, a leading developer of prescription transdermal patches, has joined McCombs as an executive-in-residence. In that role, he will provide practical insights on how companies operate and address daily challenges. Mihm is working with faculty members and students in several capacities, from acting as a sounding board to research faculty wanting to link theory to practice, to serving as a guest speaker and career mentor to students. In addition, Mihm also joined the McCombs faculty as a lecturer, teaching Global Regula-
tory Strategy in the Business, Government & Society department.
WEEKEND MBA PROGRAM REDESIGNED, WITH FLEXIBLE DEGREE OPTIONS Launching this fall, a new curriculum will allow students in the top-ranked McCombs Weekend MBA programs in Dallas/For t Worth and Houston to tailor their degrees in flexible new ways. The Working Professional Weekend MBA programs will include five electives newly added to the students’ second year. New courses will address emerging trends around technology, marketing,
finance, business and society, and corporate social responsibility. The more tailored Texas McCombs MBA experience is geared toward a rapidly evolving workplace, says Joe Stephens, senior assistant dean and director of Working Professional & Executive MBA programs. “From a student perspective, these electives will provide an opportunity to dive deeper in a particular area that they have an interest in, or in an area in which their company might like to see them attain more expertise,” he says. Texas McCombs’ Working Professional programs consistently rank No. 1 in Texas and in the top 10 nationally in U.S. News & World Report. Courses are selected based on input from students and employers, Stephens says. For example, a new elective focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning not only addresses how to do business better and more efficiently, but also more ethically.
NEW McCOMBS COURSE AIMS TO SPUR ENERGY ENTREPRENEURSHIP A new course that started during the spring helps graduate students from across the university develop startup plans to bring promising, Texas-based energy technologies and services from concept to deployment. Faculty members from McCombs’ Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology co-taught the TVL Energy Ventures Practicum that launched this spring. The startup-incubator course is modeled after a class at MIT that has spun out more than 30 companies during the past decade. “UT has always attracted entrepreneurial thinkers, and student demand for startup guidance and opportunity has never been stronger,” said Mellie Price, an eight-time entrepreneur, executive director of McCombs’ Texas Venture Labs, and co-teacher for the new course with
As McCombs’ executive-in-residence, Jeff Mihm, former CEO of Noven Pharmaceuticals, will provide practical insights on how companies operate.
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