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Jindal School alumni gathering at the Crow Museum

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Welcome home, Jindal School alumni!

The JSOM Alumni Relations team is dedicated to keeping you connected to your alma mater and helping you support your university! To reach us directly, visit the JSOM Alumni Contact page or email us at jsomalumni@utdallas.edu.

Alumni Spotlight

Kuntesh Chokshi portrait

Kuntesh Chokshi, MS’01, MBA’04

GM, Sales Director New Business, PepsiCo

Chokshi, a 2017 Minority Business Leader honoree by the Dallas Business Journal, credits his business success to both hunger and curiosity

Pate David portrait

David Pate, BS’88

CFO, Richardson Independent School District

Pate, a resident of Rowlett, has spent almost all of his professional career in the service of education.

Fallon Wallace portrait

Fallon D. Wallace, MS’15 MBA’15

Associate Site Administrator, Parkland Health And Hospital System

Wallace, who earned her MBA and master’s degree in Healthcare Management at Jindal School, assists with all aspects of operations at Parkland’s Southeast Dallas Health Center, including administrative, business and clinical, in addition to the design of work processes, prioritization of initiatives and clinic performance improvement projects. She’s been at Parkland for almost four years.

Walter Sutton portrait

Walter L. Sutton, Jr. , PhD’89

Adjunct Faculty, Consultant

Dr. Sutton, who earned his PhD in Business Policy and Strategy when Jindal School was just 14 years old, now serves on the school’s adjunct faculty, teaching Business Law. He’s had a far-ranging career that includes staff legal positions with oil and gas companies as well as Walmart; with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (in Dallas) and a presidential appointment to the Federal Highway Administration (in Washington, D.C.); and as chief of staff at UT Dallas.

Brian Livingston portrait

Brian Livingston, MBA’01 MS’02

President and COO, Firebird Restaurant Group

Livingston holds two degrees from the Jindal School, his MBA and his master’s degree in accounting. His undergrad degree in finance is from UT Austin. He is now with Firebird Restaurant Group, LLC, the parent company of El Fenix Mexican Restaurants, Snuffers Restaurant & Bar, Meso Maya, Village Burger Bar, Taqueria La Ventana and Tortaco, where he oversees the daily operations of 54 restaurants, a food manufacturing company and related companies.

Michelle Ketsler portrait

Michelle Ketsler, MBA’14

Senior Manager, Vistra Energy

Michelle Ketsler, whose MBA studies included a concentration in finance and strategic management, is the senior manager for demand management and account service management at Vistra Energy. She is responsible for establishing and managing the governance of Vistra Energy’s retail technology investment portfolio and ensuring approved projects are aligned with the company’s strategy.

Ankit Takallapaly

Ankit Takallapaly, MS’15

Software Development Manager, Amazon

At Amazon, Takallapaly manages a team of software engineers who are responsible for building data-driven solutions to support hiring needs for Amazon globally. “The information technology and management program at Jindal School helped me gain deep knowledge in data analytics, program management and people management,” Takallapaly says. “Looking back, these skills were an integral part of my career in the initial days. In my current role, I actually rely on all three of them equally to execute my responsibilities and deliver results.”

Phil Neighorn portrait

Phil Neighorn, BA’95, MBA’01

Managing Director, Central Zone Surety Practice, Leadermarsh USA

Phil Neighorn has more than 16 years of experience as an insurance professional and balances his time between working for Marsh USA, a global leader in insurance broking and risk management, and mentoring Jindal School students. He is committed to helping both audiences develop business strategies to successfully reach goals. Whether he is assisting an international client or providing advice to a promising student, he regularly shares his extensive industry knowledge. He also routinely uses the skills he developed while earning his undergraduate degree and an MBA from the Jindal School.

Richard Peck portrait

Richard E. Peck, MBA’04

Senior Technical Process / Quality, AT &T, Second Vice President, Toastmasters International

Peck has been with AT&T for more than 30 years where his responsibilities include leading cross-functional teams; project management, overseeing numerous high-tech, multimillion-dollar projects annually (he is also PMP certified); and developing and reviewing project-related business cases, among other responsibilities. Peck is also Robotic Process Automation certified.

Jason Ellison portrait

Jason Ellison, BS’03 MBA’06

Entrepreneur

While Ellison began his professional career at KPMG in audit, he now is on his second (or third) career, as owner of Ellison Business Consulting in Allen.

Florent (AC) Ndindjock

Florent (AC) Ndindjock, BS’18

AVP, Associate Client Advisor, Marsh USA, inc

Ndindjock joined Marsh, a global insurance and risk management company with offices in 130 nations, after he earned his Business Administration undergraduate degree at Jindal School. He has since been transferred to the Marsh office in North Carolina. While at Jindal School, Ndindjock concentrated in Risk Management and Insurance and was active in the industry’s professional fraternity, Gamma Iota Sigma, which has a student chapter on campus. Ndindjock has “returned” to UT Dallas as an MBA student, where he is pursuing his degree online.

Ernest Lowery portrait

Ernest Lowery, BS’08, MS’09

Assurance Director, PwC

Ernest has worked in the assurance practice at PwC for over 10 years. He has worked with public and private clients in a number of industries, including energy, industrial products, media and entertainment and technology. He most recently worked in a digital role, where his primary focus was helping to develop new tools to be used across the assurance practice. What he enjoys most is working with clients and his teams to complete a common goal.

Gary Tillett portrait

Gary Tillett, BS’82

U.S. Financial Services Partner, New York Metro Deals Leaderpricewaterhousecoopers

Gary Tillett’s notable career spans three decades and includes roles in several divisions within the same “big four” accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers. Tillett currently serves as the New York Metro Deals Leader and is a partner in the U.S. Financial Services sector at PwC. In this dual role, he leads a practice of more than 400 deals professionals and serves some of PwC’s largest corporate and private-equity clients with investments in the financial services sector. Tillett attributes his success to his commitment to the delivery of quality client service and his desire to maintain a comprehensive lifestyle, which has included active community service within his career and personal life since an early stage.

Corey Alum portrait

Corey Egan, MBA’10

Co-Founder And Ceo, Ilumi Solutions Inc.

Egan knows what it takes to transform a vision into a successful business. After working for several years in marketing and operations management, Egan along with Swapnil Bora, MBA’11, co-founded iLumi Solutions Inc., and designed an intelligent multicolor LED light bulb that is wirelessly controlled, programmable and customizable with a mobile application. In 2010, they won the UT Dallas Business Idea Competition that the Jindal School-based Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship sponsors every year, and they are committed to transforming and improving how we use lighting.

William Rayburn

William F. Rayburn, MD, MBA’07

Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean, University of New Mexico School of Medicine

At UNM’s School of Medicine in Albuquerque, Rayburn is responsible for continuing medical education and professional development of the school’s faculty.

Vik Thapar portrait

Vik Thapar, BS’00

Principal, Cypress Growth Capital

Thapar, a Dallas resident, was born and grew up just a few miles from the UT Dallas campus in Richardson.

Clarisa Lindenmeyer portrait

Clarisa Duran Lindenmeyer, MBA’09

Founder/president: Proximity To Power

Lindenmeyer says that in her current role as a C-level strategist in sales, marketing and growth, her MBA helps round out her ability.

Randall Tan portrait

Randall Tan, BS’13

Key Account Manager at Softlayer, An IBM Company

Randall Tan had plenty of success before launching his academic career at The University of Texas at Dallas. Prior to coming to UT Dallas, he earned the Gold Individual Physical Proficiency Test while serving with the Singapore armed forces.

Chanel Ebanks portrait

Chanel Ebanks-Texada, BS’16

Watson Customer Engagement Account Executive, IBM

Ebanks-Texada has launched her career at IBM, where she is prospecting and generating business in the public sector.

Glenn Lovelace portrait

Glenn D. Lovelace, BS’81

CEO, Peñasco Valley Telephone Cooperative, Inc.

Lovelace graduated from what was then the School of Management with a marketing degree and minors in computer science and finance.

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