Faculty/Guest Lecturers of Professional Certificate in Consulting

Gerald Hoag, Associate Dean for Executive Education

Mr. Hoag is the associate dean for Executive Education in the School of Management at The University of Texas at Dallas. He has more than 35 years of management consulting experience, including roles as vice president and senior officer for A T Kearney and senior vice president for Towers Perrin. In working with senior managements on a wide range of issues, he has worked closely with CEOs and executives in a variety of industries.

Mr. Hoag holds a BFA degree in architecture from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., and an MBA degree from Stanford University. He is a certified management consultant and occasional guest lecturer in business policy and strategy at the graduate business schools of both Rice University in Houston and The University of Texas at Dallas.

Robert Hicks, PhD, Director, Organizational Behavior and Executive Coaching

Robert Hicks is clinical professor of organizational behavior at The University of Texas at Dallas and founding director of the Organizational Behavior and Executive Coaching program in the School of Management. He also holds an appointment as clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Dr. Hicks is a licensed psychologist who specializes in industrial and organizational psychology. He has more than 25 years of experience as a consulting psychologist and executive coach to C-suite and senior managers in Fortune 500 companies, partners and managing partners in Big Four professional service firms, as well as to the clinical and administrative leadership of major health systems and academic medical centers.

Suzanne Maxwell, PhD, Organizational Consultant and Executive Coach

Dr. Maxwell has more than 20 years of domestic and international business consulting and project management experience. She has lived and worked in the USA, Canada and Europe, and she has extensive business experience in a wide range of leadership positions and multinational roles. She has worked with C-level executives, senior partners, senior managers and managers in the technology, oil and gas, finance, manufacturing, construction, transportation, professional services and higher education sectors.

Dr. Maxwell received her PhD in social psychology from Texas A&M University and her MA and BA in sociology from The University of Memphis. She graduated from The University of Texas at Dallas Executive and Professional Graduate Certification Program and from the Alternative Dispute Resolution Graduate Certification Program at Southern Methodist University. She is recognized as a professional certified coach by the International Coach Federation.

John Higgins, President, Higgins Learning Group

John Higgins has more than 25 years of consulting experience in Fortune 500 companies. During his consulting career, he was a principal in the IBM Consulting Group, a partner at KPMG Consulting and chief learning officer at BearingPoint. Mr. Higgin’s work in the development of a Business Measurement Framework has been recognized with an Accenture Inventor’s Award. He has been named by HRO Today magazine as an industry superstar for his contribution to innovation in the field of human resources and learning. He also serves as an executive coach, assisting his clients in optimizing their individual and team performance.

Mr. Higgins holds an MBA degree from the University of Miami, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Executive and Professional Coaching from The University of Texas at Dallas.

Robert Langston , President, Gryphon Advisory

Mr. Langston is a seasoned consulting professional with an established track record of service and results. His nearly 30 of industry experience includes leadership roles at major healthcare organizations, national leadership of healthcare regulatory practices and national leadership of various healthcare consulting practices. Mr. Langston was most recently the national partner-in-charge of Ernst & Young’s Regulatory Services Practice and functioned as the Health Sciences Advisory Services chief operating officer. In these roles, he provided leadership to strategy, finance and business planning consultants for a diverse array of clients.

As a partner at KPMG, and later at Ernst & Young, Mr. Langston aggressively built the firms’ healthcare consulting business through timely delivery of effective solutions, particularly in strategy, planning and regulatory projects. In addition, he is a recognized healthcare expert who speaks nationally on healthcare topics. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and accounting from the University of Florida and attended the University of North Florida’s MBA program.

Mark Finucane, Managing Director, Alvarez & Marsal Healthcare Industry Group

Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Finucane spent seven years with a Big Four accounting firm as co-director of it’s Academic Medical Center practice and national account leader. This focus continues with A&M. His clients include academic medical centers, major teaching hospitals, integrated health systems, university health systems and physician practices. Strategy, operations improvement, financial management, program development, federal waivers and other policy developments are most often the focus of his engagements.

In addition to this advisory experience, Mr. Finucane has had extensive operating responsibility. He served five and a half years as the CEO of the Los Angeles County Healthcare System, where he was recruited to direct the transformation of the system. He also has held various positions in the San Francisco Department of Health, and, from 1984 to 1996, Mr. Finucane was the director of health for Contra Costa County, California. He serves as a University of Southern California Hospital System trustee. Mr. Finucane earned a bachelor’s degree from Wichita State University. He also studied at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.