AVP, Private Wealth Management And Portfolio Manager; US Trust At Bank Of America
In his role at Bank of America, Lipsett manages investment portfolios for the bank’s private wealth clients. He says his MBA “expanded my breadth of knowledge across various business areas [and] taught me how to balance a full workload, work with others to accomplish a common goal, and how to network and build relationships with other professionals.” For Lipsett, his extracurricular passion has been all things sled hockey. For the past 16 years, he’s competed on the international Paralympic stage as part of the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team, winning three medals – gold medals at the Vancouver Games in 2010 and the Sochi Games in 2014 and a bronze at Torino in 2006. He’s also active with sled hockey in North Texas. He, his wife and child live in McKinney.
What unexpected experience or event has shaped and/or influenced your current professional life?
The thing that has most shaped me as a person and a professional outside of my education is a chance encounter that introduced me to the sport of sled hockey. My involvement with the sport and the U.S Paralympic Sled Hockey Team has now spanned across 16 years. My years playing for Team USA allowed me to travel the world, has led to lifelong friendships, and allowed me to compete and win at the highest level of my sport despite being told when I was 5 years old that I would never be able to play any sport. I learned the importance of hard work, determination, resiliency and teamwork, which led to a position on the Board of Directors for USA Hockey after I retired from play in 2014.
Why did you come to UT Dallas?
I enrolled in UTD because of the reputation, the location and the flexible degree plans they offer to students who work full time.
What is your favorite UT Dallas memory?
Honestly, my favorite moment was holding my infant daughter at graduation. I am the first person in my family to obtain an MBA, and one of the main reasons getting my master’s degree was so important to me was for the sake of my children. Not only to hopefully provide them with a better life than I had, but to show them the importance and power of education, hard work and resiliency.
Did a UT Dallas professor inspire you? Who was that and how was that person inspirational?
Dr. Randall Guttery probably had the biggest impact on me during my time at UT Dallas. I took his class just as an elective, but he opened my eyes up to a whole world of real estate that I didn’t know about, ultimately leading me to receive a concentration in real estate to go along with my MBA, which was not even on my radar when I started.
What advice do you have for college students hoping to succeed professionally?
Network, network, network. While it’s not entirely true that “it’s who you know, not what you know,” having connections across various industries will provide you with a wealth of resources both personally and professionally, and that coupled with everything you’ll learn during your time at UT Dallas is the perfect equation for success.
What makes an effective leader?
Communication! Communication is so much more than being able to talk to or tell others what to do. You must, perhaps most importantly, be able to listen. You must be able to energize, motivate and encourage. All of these things grouped together lead to becoming a great communicator and an effective leader.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I enjoy helping run disabled hockey programs (specifically sled hockey) in the DFW area, which allow kids and adults with various physical disabilities the opportunity to play the sport of hockey for the first time or for the first time since acquiring a disability. We get to practice locally and travel all over the country to compete against other teams.
