Giving to JSOM

Allen Mueller, MBA’15

Senior Analyst, Fuel Strategy, Vistra Energy

Mueller, a recent Jindal School graduate, has spent a decade in mining engineering and operations, most recently at Luminant Energy in Dallas and Martin Marietta Materials in San Antonio. He earned his undergraduate and master’s degree in mining engineering at Southern Illinois University.

Christian Tellez, MS’15

Senior Investment Associate, Diamond Realty Investments, Inc.

Tellez underwrites potential commercial real estate development projects across the country that his company may consider for investment. Tellez earned an MS/Finance at Jindal School. “The master’s degree I earned at UT Dallas 100 percent catapulted my career,” said Tellez, who completed his undergrad degree in economics at Texas Tech. “I was extremely hungry but I was struggling to get the attention of ‘big time’ finance players in Dallas due to lack of experience,” he says.

Kyle Frederick, BS’04

Residential Realtor

Frederick, who earned a BS/Business Administration degree at Jindal School, with a concentration in management information systems, is a residential Realtor.

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.

Thomas S. Ducote, Jr. , MBA’96

Vice President – Business Development, City National Capital Finance

Ducote, who lives in Austin, works in the equipment finance group for City National Bank, based in Miami.

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.

Sid Keswani, MBA’09

President, Pandora Americas

As president of the Americas region, Sid Keswani is responsible for PANDORA’s markets in North America, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Paulina Jesionek, BS’13, MS’15, MBA’15

Marketing Program Specialist, UT Southwestern Medical Center

Jesionek graduated cum laude in Fall 2013 with two undergraduate degrees – Global Business and Marketing. She delivered the commencement address that year.

Sejal Desai, MBA’99

Program Director, Entrepreneurs for North Texas

Establishing the Desai Family Fellowship at Naveen Jindal School of Management is just one thing Desai has done to improve the lives of others.

Joshua Levy, MBA’11

Program Manager, Pearson Education

Joshua Levy combined his lifelong love of teaching with the Jindal School’s project management program to map his future as a leader for Pearson Education, the world’s largest education company and book publisher. A few years into his career there, he noticed that many of his colleagues who were going places had graduate degrees.

Jonathan Seyoum, MBA’03

Partner and Chief Operating Officer, The Original Pancake House

Jonathan Seyoum never imagined a part-time job would one day lead to part ownership of one of DFW’s most well-known breakfast eateries.

Gaurav Sethi, BS’20

Investment Bank Risk Analyst, JP Morgan

Sethi works at JP Morgan as a specialist in counterparty credit risk calculations, doing the heavy analysis that most don’t even know exists – he investigates and explains derivative exposure variances and changes. Sethi earned both finance and actuarial science undergrad degrees. (Actuarial science is in the UT Dallas School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.) Notably, Sethi was awarded the prestigious $15,000 Mitchell Family Foundation Scholar Award from the Texas Business Hall of Fame Foundation, based on his work with CampusOven, a service that connects university employees and students with caterers who are focused on healthy eating options.

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.

Turning Adversity into Achievement: Abinav Bayya’s Academic Transformation

Abinav Bayya came to the Naveen Jindal School of Management to pursue his Master of Science in Supply Chain Management. After a turbulent first semester, Bayya found himself on academic probation.

Abhishek Sharma, Class of ’21

Finance Manager at Amazon

My background experience was a mix of technical qualifications as a software engineer and work experience as a futures trader and Sales Finance Manager. Even though I had worked in the finance domain in different capacities, I didn’t have experience of academic finance and when looking for options for my graduate level education my priority was to complement both my previous education and work experience. The MS Finance program at JSOM not only fulfilled all the criteria but also boasted of world class faculty and a very enhanced learning program and facilities.

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.

Salman Moti, MS’11, MBA’16

UT Southwestern Medical Center, Manager of Health System Decision Support

Moti knows the value of education – he holds four degrees, including two from Jindal School of Management – an MS/Healthcare Management and an MBA.

Shaun Robinson, MBA’01

Vice President- Product Management, AMX

Robinson, a Dallas resident, has been at AMX since 2002, and in his current position for three years, where he leads the AMX Product Management team.

Kate Reagan, BS’15

Assistant Vice President, Business Development, Texas Capital Bank

In Reagan’s role at Texas Capital Bank, she leans on both degrees she earned at Jindal School – a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a bachelor’s degree in marketing. “I connect with business leaders in the Dallas community to hear their stories and see if Texas Capital Bank can help them achieve their company’s goals,” she says. “In school, I had no idea how accounting and marketing would fit together and if I could even find a role that would allow me to utilize both my degrees.

J.B. Yett, BS’09, MS’10

Audit Manager, Grant Thornton LLP

Yett earned both his undergraduate and master’s degree in accounting from Jindal School, where he was part of the selective Professional Program in Accounting. The PPA offers top accounting students smaller classes along with training in soft skills and access to choice internships. Upon graduation, Yett joined Grant Thornton where his current responsibilities include managing multiple audit engagement teams and client relationships. His role includes ensuring high quality audit execution and distinctive client service.