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Jason Ellison, BS’03 MBA’06

Ellison and his wife, Lindsey, enjoy spending time with their youngster.

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. His company specializes in small business consulting, specifically helping owners grow their businesses in “a healthy yet aggressive manner.” Ellison, who earned his BS/Accounting, played on the UT Dallas Comets soccer team while an undergrad student and was an ASC Academic All-Conference player. He still volunteers as a Comets assistant soccer coach, specifically working with goalkeepers.

How have your degrees impacted your career?

While the information that I learned at UTD was invaluable, more than anything UT Dallas taught me how to learn in an efficient and productive manner. It is this skill that has allowed me to continually improve my knowledge and adapt to the ever-changing world around us.

What do you enjoy about your current position/profession?

The best part of being self-employed is not having to answer to anyone – directly anyway. If I want to take a day or afternoon off, I can. However, I learned really quickly that this is not a good strategy if you want to be successful!

How do you see your profession changing in the next five or 10 years?

Small businesses are just starting to embrace and implement technology, especially businesses that have been around for a while. Over the next five to 10 years, I expect this trend to continue at a rapid pace. If you are not adapting and implementing technology in your small business, you will not be in business in five or 10 years.

What unexpected experience or event has shaped and/or influenced your current professional life?

Unfortunately, sometimes you must fail to ultimately learn and/or succeed. Because of this, I would say that a bad decision or bad business deal, specifically where you lose a customer, or even worse, directly lose money, is going to be the best learning experience of your life. It can be painful, and downright unpleasant, but if you take the time to reflect and learn, you will come out better in the long run.

What advice do you have for college students hoping to succeed professionally?

Never stop learning, work hard and enjoy it along the way. A career will have many ups and downs, and a lot will have drastic changes in course over a lifetime. Embrace them and learn from them and you will be fine.

What makes an effective leader?

Being able to earn the trust of those that you are leading. Leading by example is the easiest way to do that. Of course, you also have to have a clear vision of where you and the organization can and should go as well.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

I enjoy spending time with family, traveling, watching any soccer game that is on TV, and, of course, the Dallas Cowboys!

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J.B. Yett, BS’09, MS’10

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David Pate, BS’88

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David Wedemeier, BS’02, MBA’05

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