SMU Cox Class Notes, Winter 2025

Class of 1955

Melvin Weinberg, B.B.A. ’55, MBA ’56, is a retired BDO USA partner.

Class of 1959

Michael York, B.B.A. ’59, is retired and has resided in the White Rock area of East Dallas for six years.  

Class of 1962 

Stuart Van Auken, B.B.A. ’62, MBA ’66, entered the doctoral program at what is now the University of North Texas after completing his MBA. He was UNT’s first student to receive a doctorate in marketing. Throughout his career, he has held marketing faculty positions at Texas Tech; University of Louisville; and California State University, Chico. In 2000, Stuart joined Florida Gulf Coast University as an Alico Eminent Scholar. He retired in 2021.

Frank M. Bumstead, B.B.A. ’64, is the co-owner of Flood, Bumstead, McCready & McCarthy Inc., one of the largest U.S. entertainment business management firms, with offices in Nashville, New York City and Los Angeles. 

Dennis McCuistion, B.B.A. ’64, MLA ’85, served as a banking CEO, consultant and professional speaker before joining the University of Texas as a clinical professor of corporate governance and executive director of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance. He retired in 2021 and lives in southwest France. 

Class of 1965

Henry Haven, B.B.A. ’65, served in the U.S. Air Force from 1965 to 1970 before becoming vice president and owner of Imperial Vending. He also worked as an FAA air traffic controller, account executive at Merrill Lynch and aviation consultant before joining the Defense Logistics Agency as a management and program analyst in 1992. He is now retired. 

Class of 1971 

Frank Dunlevy, B.B.A. ’71, helped start the Golden Eagles Foundation, which supports the USA Olympic rugby teams. During the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, the women’s Team USA defeated Australia 14-12 in the final seconds of the game to win bronze and bring home their first-ever Olympic medal. 

Philip C. Hogan, B.B.A. ’71, recently published three editorials on firearms laws in The Dallas Morning News.   

Class of 1973

Don Pryor, B.B.A. ’73, served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army, where he trained in software engineering and eventually started his own IT business. He spent time in corporate IT and as a consultant before retiring in 2001. Today, he and his wife run a dog treat business, BuddysBonz, from their ranch in Boerne, Texas.  

Class of 1978 

Steve Hancock, B.B.A. ’78, bought 72 acres in Hutchins, Texas, to use for industrial outside storage, a newly popular industrial real estate niche. Construction was completed in August 2023, and the property was leased to a single user in August 2024.  Kimm Sayre, B.B.A. ’78, worked at UBS Financial Services. 

Artura Taylor, B.B.A. ’78, is president and CEO of Taylor Distribution Group LLC, a leading provider of lab equipment, supplies and personal protective equipment. She’s the former regional vice president of a Fortune 500 company and has more than 30 years of corporate and entrepreneurial experience. 

Class of 1979 

Steven Kruger, MBA ’79, has dual American/Israeli citizenship and earned a Ph.D. in space physics from Rice University. He was a professor in the physics department of Tel Aviv University and lives in Dallas. 

Class of 1980 

Joe Chapman, MBA ’80, is spending a year sailing in the South Pacific. Greetings from Fiji. 

Robert Mahaffey, B.B.A ’80, is president of Mahaffey Enterprises Inc. in Springfield, Missouri.   

Class of 1981

Allen Smith, B.B.A. ’81, has been named association counsel for the Out of Home Advertising Association of America. He was previously inducted into the OAAA Hall of Fame.  

Class of 1983 

Michael Montonen, MBA ’83, just celebrated his two-year anniversary with IBM, where he enjoys working with clients to automate and improve business performance using generative AI.

Class of 1984

Lisa Horan, B.B.A. ’84, has served as a partner, investor and board member at SignAd Outdoor Advertising Enterprise since 1989. 

Randy Laser, B.B.A. ’84, recently returned to the Virgin Group as a team member leading the crew and sailor travel team at Virgin Voyages in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Class of 1985 

Andy Miller, MBA ’85, became a founding partner, investor and chief revenue officer of the Heritage Golf Group, which has six private country clubs and daily fee resorts with 350 employees. He says each new acquisition has been a real-world case study—just like the many case studies his SMU professors (particularly long-term professor Jim Kindley) challenged him with during his MBA days.

Class of 1986 

Lisa Wooldridge Emmick, B.B.A. ’86, is the owner of Dallas Piano Academy, which provides piano, voice and guitar lessons to children and adults in Dallas. It was a top 10 finalist for National Music School of the Year in 2024. Emmick and her husband, Rob, love traveling and spending time with family: mom Jeraldine (SMU B.A. ’58), daughter Elizabeth (SMU B.A. ’21) and husband Jeremy Comstock, and daughter Chelsea (SMU B.A. ’24).

Class of 1990 

Sandra Long, MBA ’90, has been elected to the board of directors of Sangre de Cristo Electric Association. She retired in 2020 after a career in product management in the telecom industry. 

Class of 1991

Jim Contardi, MBA ’91, recently joined Banyan Software as the operating partner overseeing the financial services portfolio. 

Class of 1994

Dyan Carbine, MBA ’94, started a new position as an attorney with Kershaw Anderson King after obtaining her Texas law license.

Class of 1995

Stephen (Joe) Winslow, B.B.A. ’95, is pursuing his interest in the fine arts after serving 22 years in the Marine Corps and spending 12 years running national security Jack (age 12) and Estelle (age 10). He says he’s enjoyed watching the significant campus facility investments at SMU progress over the past decade. programs. Due to his combat service in Iraq, he was selected to be one of only six veterans to have their likenesses depicted by sculptor Sabin Howard in the National WWI Memorial “A Soldier’s Journey,” which was recently unveiled in Washington, D.C. 

Class of 1996 

Brian Fox, B.B.A. ’96, co-founded Rockmont Partners, a Nashville-based VC firm, after selling Confirmation.com to Thomson Reuters. His two middle children both attend the Cox School: Matthew is a senior studying finance, and Becca is a junior studying accounting. 

Jay Perry, MBA ’96, worked part-time in his family-owned property management franchise for 10 years while maintaining a career in hospital and health system administration. The business sold in December 2023, and he’s now on the lookout for his next opportunity.

Thomas Russell, MBA ’96, is a finance advisory committee chair and member of the City of University Park Planning & Zoning Commission.

Class of 1997

John Drennan, MBA ’97, is global head of mergers and acquisitions at Cumming Group, the largest independent construction consultancy in North America. Drennan lives in Highland Park with his wife, Alyson, and his two children.

Honey Gregory, B.B.A. ’97, was an actress while studying at SMU. After graduating, she received her M.A. from Schiller International University and her J.D. from Indiana University. She currently runs her own practice as an attorney in Indiana and makes appearances at conventions.  

Class of 1998

Andrew Rosell, B.B.A. ’98, is co-chair of the business and transactions department and the investment management and private funds industry group for Winstead PC, a Dallasbased law firm that focuses on managers and sponsors of private funds in the investment management industry.

Andrea Williams, MBA ’98, recently attended the opening ceremony for the new Cox School expansion. The Williams family (including her husband, Gregory L. Williams, MBA ’98) is going bicoastal thanks to Andrea’s new role as head of communications for Robinhood, but they’re always longing to be back in Texas.

Class of 1999 

Angie Eckelkamp, B.B.A. ’99, was named chief marketing officer for Kilwins, a growing retailer of chocolates, ice cream and fudge. 

Class of 2000 

Eduard Pizzuto, MBA ’00, was responsible for the first IPO of a Mexican company in the New York Stock Exchange. 

Class of 2002 

Michael Petridis, PMBA ’02, retired four years ago and took up sailing. He even sailed across the Atlantic two years ago.

Goran Filic, B.B.A. ’02, completed his M.I.A. at Columbia University after graduating from SMU. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Milan and conducted his postdoctoral studies at the University of Bologna. He currently teaches international relations and political science courses at Franklin University Switzerland and A Level Business at the Swiss Academy in Zurich. 

Angela Gieras, MBA ’02, has been named executive director of Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. 

Aakash Moondhra, MBA ’02, is partnering with Avneet S. Kochar to launch India Secondary Fiduciaries, a secondary fund focused on investing in India’s secondary private market.

Class of 2004 

Tracy DeCicco, EMBA ’04, is the CEO of Konposit, a global tech sales consulting firm that helps businesses establish and deepen their sales presence in the United States. 

Dan Healy, MBA ’04, is excited to be celebrating Civitas Capital Group's 15th anniversary this year. He's also proud to partner with his friend and classmate Jason Signor, MBA ’04, on Big Sky Funds, a rapidly growing healthcare real estate investment platform. 

Class of 2005

Michelle Delaurier, B.B.A. ’05, MBA ’09, has proudly owned and operated the Maple Leaf Diner with her husband for the past nine years. Their dedication has earned them and their hardworking staff the prestigious title of Best Brunch by the Preston Hollow Advocate for five consecutive years. In 2023, the restaurant was honored to win a Best in DFW: People’s Choice award for Best Breakfast. 

DJ Khanmamedov, PMBA ’05, has contributed to the launch of several groundbreaking Google AI products in collaboration with Google DeepMind research teams. He says his MBA from SMU is still helpful for keeping the big picture in mind when planning and executing complex business initiatives.  

Class of 2006

Ben Corona, MBA ’06, is the CFO of Envent, an environmental services company for the petrochemical industry.

Class of 2009

Nick Niver, B.B.A. ’09, says that while graduating as a finance major during a financial crisis wasn’t easy, the Cox School helped connect him to consulting companies, where he pivoted from finance to consulting. After climbing the ranks at Deloitte and Point B, Niver helped start Valent Partners, a boutique consulting firm in Dallas focused on business and technology strategy, in 2020. He was promoted to partner earlier this year, and he’s excited to have hired two Mustangs in 2022 and four in 2023. He’s looking forward to hiring more this fall. 

Class of 2010 

Jodie Gildersleeve, PMBA ’10, had a big year both personally and professionally: She hit her five-year anniversary with First Citizens Bank, was promoted to director portfolio manager (energy) and married Adam North.

Jacob Jurlina, B.B.A. ’10, recently started a new role in multifamily asset management and acquisitions at Ballast Investments in San Francisco, a vertically integrated owner-operator of residential properties in the western United States. Jurlina spent the last three years at TMG Partners, a privately held full-service real estate development company specializing in urban infill projects across the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Class of 2011

Tomasz Kwiatkowski, B.B.A. ’11, delivered a TEDx talk on humility in 2020 and started a new role as an enterprise account executive at ServiceNow in May 2024. 

Bradley Lembcke, EMBA ’11, M.D., has been named president of Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston. He earned his EMBA while working as an internal medicine hospitalist at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, where he spent 21 years as a clinician before joining St. Luke’s Health in 2018. He and his wife, Megan Mitchell Lembcke (B.B.A. ’95), reside in Houston. The youngest of their three children, Sam Lembcke, started at SMU in fall 2024.  

Logan Powell, MBA ’11, was recently promoted to CEO of Puttshack.

Class of 2012 

Angela Hall, M.S. ’12, was hired as vice president over marketing, events and communications for the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. She says that, thanks to her degree from SMU, her understanding of the entrepreneur’s challenges and opportunities allows her to advocate for businesses of all sizes throughout North Texas.

Jacque Jacobs, MBA ’12, recently joined Matter Family Office as a director in their Dallas office. Her love of building connections, supporting family collaboration and helping people learn to be good stewards of their wealth aligns perfectly with Matter’s core values. Previously, Jacobs worked at Bessemer Trust serving multigenerational families. She was there for nine years and gained extensive experience educating and guiding family members in the second and third generations, helping them navigate their trusts and develop strategic plans for their wealth.

Suresh Narayanan, PMBA ’12, previously chief operating officer at Dallas regional carrier JSX, recently launched an aviation maintenance company, Jets MRO LLC, at the Dallas Executive Airport. Jets MRO has also acquired a Miami FAA repair station focused on repairing aircraft components. 

Class of 2013 

Chad Cummings, B.B.A. ’13, M.S.A.’14, passed the bar exam in Florida and Texas and graduated from the University of Miami School of Law’s advanced degree program in real property development. He established a successful commercial real estate and business law practice serving clients (particularly tech start-ups) throughout both states, between which he splits his time.

Madalyn Lange (Miller), PMBA ’13, and her husband welcomed a son on May 30, 2024. 

Chibundu Nnake, J.D./MBA ’13, started at Google in March 2023 leading U.S. privacy campaigns for the tech giant. He and his wife welcomed their second child, Kamsiyonna Adaeze Marie Nnake, on November 10, 2023.

Cohagen Wilkinson, B.B.A. ’13, married his longtime partner, Amelia Barrett, at a surprise wedding for their family and friends in Steamboat Springs on July 27. They live in Boulder, Colorado, where he coaches leadership teams using Bloom Growth, an execution and communication system designed to empower organizations to reach their goals. 

Julia Anthony, B.B.A. ’14, M.S.A. ’15, married fellow Pony Caio Formenti, B.A. ’15, J.D. ’18, at Perkins Chapel on June 3, 2023. They were introduced by fellow alumni friends (who also went on to get married) when Formenti was studying at the Dedman School of Law. They are very thankful to SMU for bringing them together and for being a special place with many treasured memories. Formenti currently works as a plaintiff’s attorney at the Ben Martin Law Group in Dallas, and Anthony is a CPA who works in private equity and serves as the vice president of finance at OxeFit, a tech startup. 

Salvador Bonilla-Mathe, B.B.A. ’14, returned to Miami to work on his own consulting capital investment business after leaving UBS. He also began helping his father with their family coffee business, which has a focus on social work and contributions in El Salvador. During his time in El Salvador, he also became involved in one of the largest real estate developments in the country: Alturas de Tenerife.

Ali Coram, B.B.A. ’14, is executive editor of multimedia at Investor’s Business Daily (founded by the late SMU alumnus William J. O’Neil, B.B.A. ’55), where she leads video and audio content production and newsroom strategy.

Zach Turner, B.S. ’14 with a minor in business administration, is the engineering lead for the air revitalization system of NASA’s HALO spacecraft, the first long-duration habitable space station that will be put in orbit around the moon in the mid-2020s. He says the management skills he learned through the Cox School have been instrumental in helping him work with and manage large teams of engineers across multiple organizations. 

Class of 2015

Justin Forte, B.S. ’15, M.S.M. ’16, recently accepted a new job as manager of partnership activation at Inter Miami CF. 

Catherine Simpson, B.B.A. ’15, is an attorney specializing in employee benefits law at Bass, Berry & Sims PLC in Memphis, Tennessee. She met her husband, Nathan, in law school at the University of Mississippi. Together they have two daughters, Natalie (age 2) and Claire (age 4 months). 

Class of 2016 

Hristina Dishkova, B.B.A. ’16, MBA ’18, is an investor experience manager at Satori Capital. Prior to joining Satori, Dishkova worked as a marketing programs director and as a research analyst for the SMU Cox School of Business.

Brianna Massas, B.B.A. ’16, is senior director of digital marketing at Irvine Company Apartment Communities. Her passion for travel, fostered through multiple study abroad experiences at SMU, continues to shape her career. As a Fora travel agent, she shares her love of exploration with others while leveraging her marketing skills to create unforgettable travel experiences. 

Sean Milmoe, B.B.A. ’16, recently left Blackstone after six years to join 360 Mining, an Austin-based firm founded in 2021 by Chris Alfano, B.B.A. ’16. The company brings in-field computing to the oil field. 

Kellie Stoll, B.B.A. ’16, started Parlor’s Handcrafted Ice Creams in 2019 with her husband Brandon Stoll, B.S. ’16, and opened their first brick and mortar in Dallas’ Lakewood neighborhood in April 2021. In 2023, D Magazine named the shop Best Ice Cream thanks to the scratch-made scoops made with high-quality, locally sourced ingredients. Stoll says that, along with growing up with parents who ran their own businesses, the knowledge she gained at SMU has been vital to their success.

Class of 2017

Meredith Mills-Merritt, B.B.A. ’17, MBA ’19, recently launched the Original Southside, a ready-to-drink gin cocktail that has been featured in Vogue, Forbes, Esquire, Men’s Health and more.

Yashas Singri, B.S. ’17 with a minor in business, is a full-time entrepreneur and the founder and lead facilitator of The Sanctuary, which runs immersive experiences designed to facilitate deep transformation, healing and integration.   

Class of 2018 

Adekunle Adetomiwa, M.S. ’18, MBA ’20, has started a career in tech—first at IBM, and now as a senior marketing manager at Google. 

 

 

   

Kabir Dhaliwal, B.S. ’18, minor in business administration, works in a private equity advisory group advising large cap and middle market funds. Influenced by his formative experience as a Peer Coach at the Cox School of Business, he also owns an independent brick-and-mortar tutoring center near Preston Hollow. Dhaliwal likes to spend his free time outdoors, whether it’s heading to Wyoming to run cattle in the summer or just enjoying quality time in the sun with his family. He says he’s very thankful for the opportunities and experiences he had during his time at SMU. Pony up! 

Casey Fraser, MBA ’19, J.D. ’19, was a 2024 D CEO Corporate Counsel Awards finalist. 

Bora Laci, PMBA ’19, recently joined The Bridge, a strategy consulting firm known for its specialized practices and best-in-class solutions, as a senior strategy consultant. She’s also an investor fellow at private equity firm Alternative Wealth Partners.

Class of 2020

Jared Shoemaker, MBA ’20, worked at Allstate as part of its internal strategic consulting office and is now a principal at a boutique technology and business strategy consulting firm in Dallas.  

Trevor Thompson, B.B.A. ’20, PMBA ’22, and his wife Marieke Van der Mark, M.S. ’23, welcomed their first daughter on July 29. Class of 2046: Pony up!

The firm of Myca Williamson, MBA ’20, Myca Raquel Consulting, recently was selected as part of the National Minority Supplier Diversity Council’s Emerging Young Entrepreneurs cohort.

Class of 2021

Tyler Evenson, MBA ’21, recently started a new career with FTI Consulting Inc. as a senior consultant within the forensic and litigation consulting practice. He also got engaged in July.

Tanner Gesek, MBA ’21, joined WAGMI Ventures in 2022 as a venture partner investing in emerging technologies, specifically AI and blockchain technologies.

Natesa Vaidya, B.B.A. ’21, worked for the Chicago Bears and Hard Rock Stadium after graduating from SMU Cox. She used her negotiation and marketing skills to organize large-scale events, such as the Miami Grand Prix, and worked with football players to negotiate contracts. Vaidya is thrilled to be back at SMU to obtain her MBA and learn more about strategy and entrepreneurship to expand the Dallas sports market, especially in women’s sports.

Class of 2023

 

 

 

Anthony Losito, B.S. ’23, minor in business administration, is working as an investment banking analyst at Deutsche Bank (DB) in New York City. He has also joined the SMU NYC chapter and has begun helping recruit SMU students at DB. 

 

Taylor Souryachak, MSBA ’23, had no prior coding experience when she pivoted to data analytics by enrolling in the MSBA program at SMU. However, her time as a SMU McNair Scholar (TRIO) undergraduate research assistant showed her that data analysis is crucial in every field. She is now a data analytics specialist at Dallas College focusing on financial aid, bringing her academic and career journey full circle. She previously attended Dallas College, where she earned her associate’s degree and received SMU’s full-tuition North Texas Community College transfer scholarship. 

Class of 2024

Jared Dahl, MBA ’24, graduated from the Cox School in May and secured a position on AT&T’s marketing team. Outside of work, he enjoys volunteering at the Dallas Children’s Hospital and traveling.