The Naveen Jindal School of Management held its first ever JSOM Alumni Reunion May 4. More than 700 alumni spanning the school’s 49-year history gathered in the Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center along with friends, family and JSOM faculty and staff to “Reminisce, Reconnect and Rediscover.”
Two vendors with ties to The University of Texas at Dallas contributed directly to the festivities: Michael Peticolas, BA’95, who owns Peticolas Brewing Company, provided beer; Justin Williams, who attended UT Dallas and owns Intelligent Sounds DJ Service, spun the disks that got the crowd moving.
The event was such a success that Dr. Hasan Pirkul, Caruth Chair and Jindal School dean, announced that the event would be held annually. He even hinted at an activity for the 2026 event: Dunk the Dean.
“This is really our party, our celebration of you, our alums,” he said at the event.
Pirkul told the audience that with 11,000 students and more than 400 faculty members, the Jindal School’s two buildings were no longer large enough to contain its offerings.
“Our third building — 125,000 square feet — is currently being designed,” he said, “and we will break ground in six months… Hopefully a year-and-a-half from now, we will be using it.
He said that the new building would not quite be ready for the next Alumni Reunion but that it would be ready for the third annual event.
“We are going to make available Saturdays in that new building — I’m going to have some fancy digs — and Saturday is going to be Alumni Day,” he told the audience. “We will make that building available to all of you to come out and party.”
Twenty-five rooms throughout the School of Management were set aside during the event for program directors from each of the academic programs at the undergraduate, graduate and PhD levels to discuss advancements in their programs and for question-and-answer sessions to any alumni who were curious about what had become of their alma mater’s programs.
The day was special for Dr. Diane McNulty, MS’78, PhD’84. She started pursuing a graduate degree in Management Science at The University of Texas at Dallas in 1977 during the School of Management’s infancy. Since this was well before it had its own building or even most of its degree offerings, she has a longer perspective than most alumni.
“I was very nervous on the first day of classes,” she said. “I had been challenged by friends to pursue my master’s degree; I did not know anyone.”
She remembered on the day before she took her first exam, classmates were talking to one other. They were discussing theories about organizational behavior that she had never heard of. She had read the book and had taken notes during classes and the theories she was hearing from her classmates were vastly different from what she had studied.
“When I went in to take the test, I wondered — do I go with what I had been hearing or do I stick to what I think the answers are?” she said. “I stuck with my gut and I was the only one who made a 100 on that test. And it was a big class.”
McNulty said she has stuck to her gut ever since and that doing so has played a big part in her success. She went on to earn a PhD in Business Policy and Strategy at the Jindal School in 1985 and joined the faculty in 1987. She became an assistant dean in 1991 and for the past 28 years has been associate dean for external affairs and corporate development.
Sameer Ranjan, MS’20, was in attendance. He said he wanted to see his classmates and professors again.
“As I enter this campus, it always makes me feel like a student again,” he said. “As I leave campus, I always feel like ‘Oh! What am I missing again?”
Ranjan has stayed busy since graduating from the Jindal School with a master’s degree in business analytics, having founded a company called Catenate which uses artificial intelligence and data to help students and professionals discover their aptitudes, skills and knowledge gaps to help advance their careers. He was awarded a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a computer program used in a platform offered by the company. He is also in the process of launching other companies that use AI to make the world a better place.
His advice to incoming students is for them to trust their instincts because things will work out.
“There are good people here who will help you out,” he said. “Whenever you are down, there will be someone who will pick you up here.”
For Manali Pandya, BS’13, the event was an opportunity for a very specific reunion with her favorite UTD professor, Dr. Monica Powell, who is now senior associate dean and graduate dean. Pandya had taken a required freshman rhetoric class with Powell that has proven to be unforgettable. When Pandya was asked what she remembered most from the class was Powell’s “amazing energy.”
“It’s more-so after the class,” she said. “She was the one professor I stayed connected to the entirety of my four years and also afterwards. I still think about the impression that she left on me. Someone asked me why I’m here today and I said, ‘I’m here to see Monica.’”
One alumnus in attendance has maintained close connections with UT Dallas and the community ever since he graduated in 1985 with a double major in accounting and finance. Sunil Maini is a CPA who founded Sunil Maini CPA PC. He is also chairman emeritus of the U.S.-India Chamber of Commerce and board member of the UT Dallas International Center.
“Who I have become is because UTD was there,” he said. “I’ve tried to bring in interns from UTD every so often.”
Nalin Patel, EMBA’02, is a transformational leader for global services at Nokia. He said he attended because he had heard Pirkul was going to make a big announcement and that got his attention. He also said that it had been a while since he was on campus so he thought maybe some of his classmates might be there.
“There are a lot of changes I see around here,” he said. “There’s a lot of construction, a lot of greenery I see around here so that’s pretty good. And I think the business school itself is great.”
He visits the campus every couple of years. An engineer by trade with a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s degree in computer science and electrical engineering, he worked for 20 years afterward on the management side.
“This executive MBA brought some new things in my life,” he said. “I learned how to manage people correctly, psychological thinking. Having worked in telecommunications for more than 37 years, he started to see “a lot of churn” in the industry after the turn of the century.
“A lot of engineering jobs were outsourced,” he said. “It was important to keep the management skills and that’s how I think this school helped me.”
Dr. Maria Hasenhuttl, MBA’95, PhD’08, attended to reunite with some of the alumni she taught while they were Jindal School students, but also to party and celebrate.
“JSOM provided so many opportunities for me,” she said. “I wouldn’t be in a position where I’m without JSOM. I love this school and the opportunities it has provided me and I’m just privileged to be here.”
Her advice to Jindal School students so that they can transition into successful JSOM alumni is to “get to know your professors and classmates,” she said. “Connect with them because you never know who is going to lift you up. There are so many great people here.”
Caylin Blockley, director of alumni relations at the Jindal School, spearheaded the organization of the Alumni Reunion. He said the attendance and the atmosphere exceeded expectations.
“The clear success of the JSOM Reunion shows that our alumni are dedicated to their alma mater and are excited about the future of the school,” he said. “The goal of the reunion was to allow alums to reminisce and rediscover the opportunities the Jindal School can provide, we can’t wait for future events.”
