Each CED program is created in partnership with the client, and the structure, content, curriculum and location are designed to achieve the goals of each individual organization.

While many business schools offer executive education programs, one differentiator of the CED at Mays is that every one of its programs is custom-designed for the client. Through a series of meetings with the CED leadership, the organization identifies its goals, and devises plans for programming. The structure, content, and location of each program are tailored to the client’s needs. After a plan is created with the client, the program courses are designed and taught by top instructors from Mays Business School, who are able to dive deep into each company’s individual challenges and opportunities.

By designing custom courses for each client, Mays faculty can use proprietary examples – from analyzing the company’s actual financial statements to using advertisements to illustrate marketing strategy.

Ken Fenoglio ’70, vice president of AT&T University, says Mays’ executive education programs “have added significant, bottom-line value to AT&T … The most valuable aspects of the programs are their timeliness, depth and degree of customization.”

He says the CED programs helped the company reach a priority set by its top-level executives: to raise the financial analytical competency levels of its management team.

Fenoglio says the impacts of each training session have been immediate. “We have literally had Mays faculty discussing and teaching our financial results and earnings call within 24 hours of the call.”

Far-reaching offerings

The customization of CED programs goes beyond the learning in the classroom. The CED serves a client base of about 1,500 people across six continents, and classes are held at Mays and at the global offices of its clients, in locations such as Buenos Aires, Argentina: Panama, Republic of Panama; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Jakarta, Indonesia; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Lagos, Nigeria; London, England; Moscow, Russia; Aberdeen, Scotland; and Villahermosa, Mexico.

Most programs last a week and contain about 30 students. Almost 40 Mays faculty members from all disciplines teach in CED programs. Most CED faculty teach MBA and Executive MBA courses as well, so they bring their expertise in designing content for an experienced, executive audience.

Cindy Bigner, director of global diversity and inclusion and the corporate liaison between Halliburton and Mays, compliments how heavily invested the faculty members are in the success of their corporate clients. “They are professionals, and they work closely with us to make the class experience as challenging and applicable as possible,” she says of the courses. “We know they will emphasize our core values and our overarching goals because CED has taken the time necessary to develop a great understanding of what we do.”

Long-term partners

As organizations grow, the need increases for leaders to have an understanding of all parts of businesses – not just specific areas of responsibility. To be effective, leaders have to cross-functional, and able to add value across the board. Many of the CED’s most popular programs are designed to address this issue. In programs such as “Financial Leadership for Non-Financial Leaders,” employees learn the nuts and bolts of their organization’s financials, which enables them to make better strategic decisions for the company, and to consider how those decisions affect the company’s financial success as a whole.

CED clients vary in size, industry, and mission, but are unified in their goal to develop the future leaders of their organizations. CED currently provides 83 weeks of programming a year across six continents.

Taking it a step further, some organizations offer their employees a “mini-MBA” from the CED – which provides a broad overview of their entire business model.

Fenoglio says he has seen the benefits of this strategy in action. “Our employees leave these programs with a much greater understanding of our organization, its real value drivers and how their efforts contribute to its financial success.”

Another asset of the CED is the ability to analyze, adjust and enhance education plans based on the needs of the organizations. Some companies may start with a narrow focus for their programs, but as their challenges grow, so do the opportunities to increase the training of their employees.

Bigner says she appreciates the long-term relationships the CED fosters with its clients. She says the center provides more than just an education – it engages in a true partnership.

Halliburton has expanded from an initial roster of five courses a year when they began eight years ago to its current schedule of 69 weeks, all around the world.

“Everything they do for us is top-notch,” she says. “Our partnership is unparalleled.”

Changing the way business looks at change

After their training sessions, participants return to their companies with new skills, a broader perspective and strengthened relationships with their coworkers. But the process doesn’t stop there. After each program, a review occurs to gauge its success, and any adjustments are made. Follow-up programs are usually developed, as well, to ensure long-term success and continued growth.

Ben Welch, who has been director of the CED since 1999, said he has seen many changes over the years but he has also seen one constant: “the culture within CED, and our desire to impact lives.”

Welch says the CED takes pride in delivering customized programs to each of its clients. And he says it is exciting to be involved with the development of the top asset of any organization – human capital. “Our collective efforts in CED help to shape the future of tomorrow.”

Give and take: Instructors on the value of teaching CED courses

Mary Lea McAnally, associate dean of graduate programs and professor of accounting, says teaching for CED brings her many benefits in her roles:

“Meeting executives and hearing stories of how they grapple with business problems lends richness to my research and teaching. Each time I am with a group of execs I deepen my understanding of the role accounting information plays in the real world. Plus, I leave with some very good stories to tell my full-time MBA students.”

Ricky Griffin, management department head and distinguished professor, says he values teaching in the CED and Executive MBA programs in addition to undergraduate courses:

“I find each venue to be unique, but each also helps inform the other. Teaching in CED helps keep me grounded. When you present an idea or concept to an executive audience you have to be able to explain how it applies to the real world.”

Michael Shaub, clinical professor of accounting, says he brings information from the CED’s corporate clients into the auditing class he teaches:

“I hate the word synergy but if I have any in my life, it is between my CED teaching and my auditing classroom. My CED experiences have regularly enriched the lives of my undergrad students. It also helps my students sense that the things we are learning have practical implications in the real world.”

Duane Ireland, distinguished professor of management, values the feedback on the relevance of the information he shares in his CED courses:

“Working with executives affords opportunities for me to ‘test’ different ideas I develop from time to time about what practitioners might do to increase the value they create for their organizations. In turn, feedback about the potential value of these ideas and the practices associated with them can be folded in my teaching of students pursuing their MBA and undergraduate business degrees. In this regard, I always gain significant insights about managerial practice by exchanging ideas with the successful executives with whom we are honored to work through our executive development programs.”

For more information

• Visit the CED website

Janet and Mark H. Ely ’83

Mark Ely, who received a bachelor’s degree in finance from Texas A&M, is president and CEO at EBR Energy LP, a Houston company that engages in crude petroleum and natural gas extraction. He says key faculty members at Mays impacted his personal life and business career in immeasurable ways. “In some instances, it took years for me to recognize the impact of those teaching professionals on my career and the reasons for the demands that they place on us during the educational process,” he explains.

Ely says he wants to aid Mays in recruiting and retaining talented faculty members who are dedicated to teaching and preparing students for the challenges they face in life and in the business world.

He says he and his wife were inspired to give the gift after a recent discussion with new faculty members at Mays. “Our hope and prayer is that, through this gift, Mays Business School will be meaningfully impacted in achieving the strategic priority of recruiting and retaining talented faculty at Mays Business School. With that goal in mind, we are confident that the students of Mays will return one day and honor Texas A&M and those talented teaching professionals in their own meaningful ways.”

“Mark and Janet Ely’s most generous commitment to our school will positively impact our students and programs,” said Mays Dean Jerry Strawser. “The appointment to an endowed position is the ultimate honor a faculty member can receive, and we appreciate Mark and Janet’s generosity in allowing us to recognize our outstanding faculty in this manner.”

About Mays Business School

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,000 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. Its mission is to create knowledge and develop ethical leaders for a global society.

1st Lt. Matthew Vandegrift ’03

Matthew was a Marine who had been stationed in Iraq since 2007 and was part of a team responsible for training Iraqi security forces. His decorations include the Purple Heart, the Iraqi Campaign Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the National Defense Medal.

The 1st Lt. Matthew R. Vandegrift’ 03 Business Honors Scholarship will support a student from his hometown of Austin who is graduating from the high school named in his honor. Recipients of the scholarships will be graduating seniors from Vandegrift High School who are accepted to Mays Business School’s Business Honors Program.

Matthew’s father says he was a proud Aggie. He served in the Marines ROTC outfit H-1 Raiders at Texas A&M University and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in international business. “He had a great time and was proud to have gone there,” he recalls. “He was an excellent individual who I would have thought highly of even if he weren’t my son.”

“Matthew Vandegrift is an outstanding role model for our current students,” said Mays Dean Jerry Strawser. “Through this scholarship, Matthew’s service to our country and leadership will be a visible example to our students for many years to come. We feel fortunate that we can honor his life in this way.”

In September 2012, the Capital City A&M Club hosted the Matthew Vandegrift Memorial Scholarship Golf Tournament to raise funds for the scholarship. The Center for Executive Development at Mays will match up to $50,000 in funds to endow this scholarship.

About Mays Business School

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,000 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. Its mission is to create knowledge and develop ethical leaders for a global society.

The EBV offers training in entrepreneurship and small business management to post-9/11 veterans with disabilities resulting from their service to our country. The EBV at Texas A&M is a significant collaboration between the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship (CNVE) and the Center for Executive Development at Mays. The cost is about $5,000 per participant, but thanks to the generous support of corporate sponsors and private individuals, the veterans are allowed to attend the entire program — including tuition, travel and accommodations — at no cost.

The Texas A&M Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities Class of 2012 (view more photos)

Pamela Curry, the EBV program coordinator and unofficial “mom” to each class that comes through Texas A&M, commented on the friendships that formed throughout the program. “The first night, I prayed that the right people would be brought together,” she recalled during the commencement ceremony. “God put a magnificent puzzle together, putting these people together. Each group that comes through this place, I think it can’t get any better – and then it does.”

Class member John Signorino called the program “a one-week MBA course on steroids,” and remarked on how “professionally and smoothly” it was presented. “You brought people from all around the country and all walks of life and executed the whole thing beautifully so that it impacted every one of us. We really appreciate it.”

At Texas A&M, ranked 7th nationally by the Military Times Edge for being a “veteran-friendly” campus, information shared by top faculty members and seasoned business owners provided a baseline of knowledge for participants.

This year’s class members hailed from around Texas, Georgia, Louisiana and Florida. Their projects ranged from the technical to the eccentric to the touchy-feely, and everything in between. Pam Tilley, creator of a plush toy shaped like a soldier’s helmet that will generate funds for veterans, dreams of selling them in H-E-B stores. Douglas Frederick of El Paso hopes to move to Georgia and emulate the renovation reality show “Property Brothers.” Liza Matos is working to export computers to Median, Colombia.

Cornelius Nash, a graduate from the EBV’s 2010 class, returned from Tombstone, Ariz., to serve on a panel to give advice and answer questions. While he was attending his class in 2010, the Marines chose his company as a subject matter expert on improvised explosive devices. “The things I learned in EBV and the mentors I met continue to help me to this day.” His wife attended the EBV family program at Florida State.

Rep. Bill Flores ’76 spoke to the veterans at the opening dinner. Gen. Hal M. Hornburg  ’68, a four-star U.S. Air Force general and commander, was the keynote speaker at the commencement ceremony. He told the graduates in their closing ceremony that life is “all about balance,” then he thanked them for their service – “not for what you have done, but for what you will do. Be a beacon in your communities, be a stalwart in the PTO meetings and the civic organizations. Take the things you’ve learned here and use it to make this a better place.”

ABOUT THE EBV CONSORTIUM

The EBV Consortium was formed in 2008 as a national educational initiative designed to help veterans with disabilities to make the transition to self-employment, develop professional networks and ultimately start and grow sustainable businesses. In addition to Texas A&M, the EBV Consortium is composed of the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles, the College of Business at The Florida State University, the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University, the College of Business at the University of Connecticut, the E. J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University and the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University.

The class is a natural progression for the program that provides customized management training for organizations in a variety of industries. Each program is created in partnership with the client.

The inaugural Fire Service CEO class will be June 4-8 at the CED on the Texas A&M University campus. Topics covered will include the challenges of leadership, ethics, creativity and innovation, strategic management and planning, managing change and transition, media relations and stress management.

“It is a tremendous opportunity for officers in the fire service,” said Brandi Plunkett, program director for Leadership Development at TEEX’s Emergency Services Training Institute. “We are very proud to offer a program that is of exceptional quality, yet is accessible for volunteer and municipal fire officers in terms of time and expense. This new certificate program will provide fire service leaders an opportunity to gain a broader perspective of executive level issues as they interact with business professors, corporate leaders and fellow fire chiefs from around the state and nation.”

The four-day program will be presented by professors from Mays who deliver classes for the Executive MBA Program as well as corporate clients of the CED.

For more information about the CED at Mays Business School, go to ced.tamu.edu.

The program, which runs from August 6 to 13 on the A&M campus, provides education and training in entrepreneurship and small business management free of cost to military personnel injured in the line of duty since 9/11. The program is designed to help participants learn essential skills that will help them start, grow and successfully manage entrepreneurial ventures.

“We have the opportunity to change lives for men and women who have given so much to us through their service to our country. It is a great honor and privilege that all of us share who become associated with the EBV program,” says Richard Lester, clinical associate professor, and executive director of the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship (CNVE). The CNVE hosts EBV at Mays, where Lester oversees the program. (Click here to see coverage from previous years’ EBV programs at Mays.)

The EBV program was introduced by the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University in 2007. Now the program is offered in consortium with Mays, UCLA, Florida State University, Purdue, University of Connecticut and Louisiana State University.

The program consists of a three-week online self-study, a nine-day on-campus residency period, and a year of mentorship with a faculty member volunteer as participants launch their new ventures. The program provides participants not only with the practical skills necessary to make their new venture a success, but also a network of support that will be vital as they launch their ideas. New to the program this year is a panel discussion featuring past EBV participants who have started businesses.

Thanks to the generous support of corporate sponsors and private individuals, the entire program — including tuition, travel and accommodations — is offered at no cost to the veterans. (To give to this program at A&M, visit the Texas A&M Foundation website.)

Contact the Mays EBV Program Director, Richard Lester, for more information at rlester@mays.tamu.edu or (979) 862-7091.

The inaugural Mays Business School Summer Learning Seminar could not have gone more smoothly, says David W. Blackwell, associate dean for graduate programs and event coordinator. “Feedback from the participants was outstanding, and the presenters felt heard and understood. There were a lot of great questions and comments from the audience,” Blackwell recalls.

Professor Asghar Zardkoohi talks about human resources to attendees at the 2011 Mays Summer Learning Seminar. (view more photos)

Keynote presentations included “The Economic Outlook for Investors and Business Decision Makers” by Mark Dotzour, chief economist and research director of the Real Estate Center, and “Domestic and Global Economies and the Implications for Human Resources” by Asghar Zardkoohi, the T.J. Barlow Professor of Management. Other presentations ranged from demystifying the Federal Reserve to props for PowerPoint.

Dotzour interpreted the economic outlook for consumers, business and government, and cited a federal debt of $43 trillion in unfunded liability for Social Security and Medicare. He said consumers are “cleaning up their balance sheets,” paying down debt and spending money again, and the business sector has “right-sized their balance sheet and is sitting on $2 trillion in cash.” The government sector, however, has postponed correction – at enormous expense to the American taxpayers, Dotzour explains. The 10-year U.S. Treasury is not signaling inflation, Dotzour says. Instead, he predicts, “the bigger threat to the U.S. economy is another wave of deflation.”

“This is not playing Barbies. It’s not fun or pleasant,” he said. “If you are not afraid of what’s going on in America right now, you are either not informed or you are pretending things aren’t the way they are.”

Several people from throughout the surrounding community attended the seminar. Sallye Lucas, who makes investments for the city of Bryan, said she came mainly to hear Dotzour speak. “He always has the latest information, and he presents it in a way anyone can understand,” she said.

Jackson Lane ’13, a finance major, says the program will be “an integral part of my future success,” and solidified his desire to be part of MBA/EMBA events. “It was a great opportunity for industry professionals, undergraduate and graduate students to see the best of what Mays has to offer,” he explains.

Craig Hooker, a prospective MBA student who attended the lunch and afternoon session, says he appreciated being involved in the Summer Learning Seminar while he was on campus for the MBA program’s Super Saturday event, an orientation for accepted MBA students that allowed them to meet their prospective professors. “I was able to make several deeper connections with former, future and current students I had met during the day,” he says

Liping Chen, an engineer with the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program at Texas A&M who has helped judge the MBA technology transfer program, considers the program a “great learning opportunity – not only learning from the informative seminars by well-known professors, but also learning from participants networking.”

“The seminars covered a broad business aspects, from practical – using Power Point in business – to a global perspective of business environment, provided a vision that any successful business should possess, pointed out the challenges and chances we are all facing,” Chen says. “I also learned from my fellow participants during breaks and the reception, and it was valuable to listen to the experience from a diverse group. I especially enjoyed the brief visit with some of the distinguished alumni.”

Bob Hancock ’82, a CPA at a Houston bank who got his bachelor’s degree from the business school, said he welcomed the opportunity to stay connected and to continue his personal education. “I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to network and to hear about the current news in the business world,” he said. “It’s important to stay connected.”

Notes from the program are posted at mays.tamu.edu/sls2011 and photos from the event are available on the Mays Flickr site.

Charles McKellar, a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne division, had completed nearly 50 jumps in his career without incident. Then, on a routine jump simulating combat conditions, he was involved in what the Army called a “high-altitude entanglement”: he was sucked out of the aircraft with another paratrooper. McKellar remembers seeing the tail of the plane rushing toward him, knowing he was probably going to die, praying that he would be spared. His parachute collapsed and he was knocked unconscious.

The Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities Class of 2010 (view more photos from EBV 2010)

“I hit the earth and the next thing I remember was some beautiful woman looking at me saying, ‘Can you hear me now?’” he chuckles as he recounts his brush with death.

Along with the personal motto, “Everyday you wake up is a good day,” the incident left him with a traumatic brain injury (TBI), the signature wound of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Frequently caused by bomb blasts, TBIs can affect thinking, sensation, movement, language, and emotions. Like hundreds of thousands of other U.S. soldiers, McKellar will struggle with the effects of this injury, perhaps for the rest of his life. The extent of his wound led to medical discharge from the Army, ending his eight-year career in the military.

Today, he works at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, teaching IT classes to wounded warriors. While McKellar is fortunate to have a job, many soldiers with TBIs, and the more common and similarly disruptive post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), find traditional employment extremely challenging. A down economy and a scarcity of job opportunities only add to the difficulty.

Entrepreneurship offers these self-sacrificing men and women an opportunity to work on their own terms. Although small business ownership is challenging and risky, the rewards can be great.

Those potential rewards brought McKellar to the A&M campus last month. He was one of 18 participants in the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities program, which offers free training in small business ownership and operation to vets wounded in service after 9/11.

Fed through the fire hose

Piloted by the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University four years ago, the program is now offered in consortium with Mays and four other schools across the nation. It provides participants with the practical skills necessary to make a new venture a success, and an exceptional support network that will be vital as they launch their new ideas.

Participants came from all branches of the military and all parts of the country. With a variety of experiences and ideas, the common theme among the soldiers was a desire to make a difference—in their own lives, in the lives of other veterans, in their communities—through their proposed business ventures.

During their week on campus, three of this year’s EBV participants recorded daily video updates. (see more video blogs)

Some participants already had a business in operation at the time of the program and were able to apply EBV course materials directly to improve their ventures, from private security to clothing design.

For others, the week helped them to shape an idea and turn it into a concrete plan of action.

Stephanie Bowers was one such participant. An Army medic, sergeant Bowers doesn’t look like a woman who has seen action in Iraq and Afghanistan. She’s petite and perpetually smiling, with a pleasant southern drawl that gives her away as a native of Tennessee. She currently works at a VA hospital, caring for veterans in much the same way as she did when she was in the military. Her business idea was born out of her experiences as a caregiver and a wounded soldier.

“When I came [to A&M], I knew I wanted to create a patient advocacy business in my hometown,” she said. Over the course of the three-week online training and nine-day residency period on campus, Bowers learned about financial planning, accounting basics, management, intellectual property laws, marketing, personal selling, and other topics. “We were fed through the fire hose,” she says, commenting that it felt like two semesters of business school crammed into one short period.

More important than any one concept mastered during the experience, Bowers says EBV has given her the confidence she needed to be successful. “The biggest thing that I didn’t have when I came that I have now…is the confidence to actually take that leap of faith to start the business.”

Striving for greatness

Likewise, McKellar says the information provided through the EBV program has empowered him. “This program has given me energy beyond my wildest dreams. I know that my business idea will soon become a business reality,” he says. “I know this. I can feel it in my gut. I am so confident about what I’m doing right now.” Currently, he operates a computer repair and web design business in addition to his duties at Fort Bragg. In the near future, he plans to launch a venture called Winners Information Technology Training and Consulting, which will provide IT training and job skills to diverse demographics, from at-risk youth, to injured soldiers, to the elderly.

“This program has given me energy beyond my wildest dreams,” said EBV participant Charles McKellar. “I know that my business idea will soon become a business reality,”

A large guy, McKellar might look intimidating if not for his kind eyes and the jokes and smiles constantly on his lips. Quick with a word of heartfelt encouragement for anyone in need, it is entirely appropriate that his venture is people-focused. He is especially passionate about helping at-risk youth. “I am going to save somebody’s life with education and job stabilization,” he says. “I want to train them because some of them are underprivileged and live in rural or dangerous environments. They have given up on hope. I want to teach them to dream big and to strive for greatness!”

McKellar will lead by example. “You can’t get anywhere by staying where you are. You’ve got to get up and you’ve got to do something. I’m so glad to be [at EBV] because [the instructors] have encouraged me to get up and do something,” he says.

You can see more about McKellar, Bowers, and one other participant, Andrea Carlton, by watching video blogs created during their residency week at A&M.

Thanks to the generous support of corporate sponsors and private individuals, the entire program–including tuition, travel, and accommodations–is offered at no cost to the veterans. This year, PepsiCo joined the program as a corporate sponsor, giving $1.5 million to EBV nationwide. To donate to the Mays EBV program, visit the Texas A&M Foundation.

Contact the Mays EBV Program Director, Richard Lester, for more information at rlester@mays.tamu.edu or (979) 862-7091.

To meet this need, the Center for Executive Development at Mays began offering an accelerated certificate program in business management created specifically for the needs of engineers. The course, offered each August, is three weeks of 8-to-5 days in the classroom. The 50 student participants cram in 120 hours, or the equivalent of three 3-hour courses in that short span. The students are drilled in the basic principles of accounting, finance, management, and marketing.

It’s intense and exhausting, but a worthwhile investment in their future careers.

Max Leutermann ’12, a computer engineering major, says that though he knows about leadership as a member of the Corps of Cadets, he wanted to learn more specifically about management in a business setting. He hopes that the certificate from Mays will help him gain admission into an MBA program in the future.

“Engineers with MBAs are really sought after,” echoes Matt Fransted ’10, a nuclear engineering major and naval officer. He graduates soon and will continue his position with the Navy, working on nuclear reactors. He’s looking ahead, making plans to earn an MBA, and after his military career is finished, start his own business.

Chemical engineering student Kelsey Fuller ‘10 is preparing for a career with ExxonMobil after graduation. She was interested in the certificate program, as she will soon be working in a corporate environment—something she knows little about. A firm grounding in the basics of business will be helpful as she makes workplace decisions, especially as she aspires to be a manager. While some of the material covered in the course, such as team building, was not new to her, she appreciated the finance and accounting lessons, as they provided practical information she’d never encountered before. Beyond the corporate applications, Fuller says that the material will also serve her well as she considers matters of personal finance.

Several MBA programs around the country, including Harvard’s, offer similar certificates, but offering such a course to undergraduates is a unique feature of the Mays program.

Fully one-half of the center’s corporate clients are international. “They’re from all over. From Latin America, from Africa,” said Ashley Hilgemeier, program manager for the center. “This week alone we have people from Indonesia, Scotland, Brazil, and different parts of Europe.” Depending on the location and class size, frequently Mays faculty travel to present a course rather than bring the participants to campus, traveling to destinations such as, Russia, Egypt, Canada, and Malaysia.

The three-week course taken by Craig Anderson has attracted law enforcement officials from across the state to the Center for Executive Development.

“It’s great because it gives us a chance all around the world to showcase Texas A&M, which many of the participants have never heard of before,” says Ben Welch, assistant dean of education for the center and clinical professor of management at Mays.

Housed at Texas A&M University, the center is a big business: in the 2008 fiscal year, the center’s revenues exceeded $3 million, touching 1,222 participants at seven organizations through 60 weeks of programs (some programs run consecutively). All of this is accomplished with a small staff: five full-time employees, one part-time (Welch’s position is divided between the center and teaching in the management department at Mays), and a handful of student workers.

No matter where, people are the key element

“The key factor that we see in executive ed is the commitment that the employees have to be here,” says Welch. “They have a sense of humility and a great desire to learn everything they can.”

Welch sees the mission of his center as being closely aligned with the purpose of a university: outreach and education to many audiences, bringing the latest research to the business place where it can be applied. The CED routinely covers topics such as marketing, finance, and effective communication with its management clientele, incorporating information and examples specific to each company.

“Our purpose, our mission is to provide customized training in the area of executive education. We find out what our customers need and then pair our best faculty with them to meet those needs,” says Welch. “We cover all the disciplines.” Depending on those organizational needs, the center occasionally invites top faculty from other colleges within Texas A&M, as well as experts from beyond the university.

The center uses a variety of techniques and approaches to provide customized training in the area of executive education.

The center is focused on building the human capital of an organization, says Welch. “Your human capital is so much more important than your [financial] capital within the business, because it’s your human capital that creates your sustainability within an organization.”

From Halliburton executives in Russia to golf course managers for the military, the center’s staff sees a wide range of businesses represented in their classes. The common denominator among them all is leadership and maturity: most have a college degree and a minimum five years of supervisory experience; some have advanced degrees and have been with their companies for more than 25 years. “They bring a wealth of experience to the classroom,” said Welch, contrasting the executives with the undergraduates he also teaches.

Depending on the business location, it can be very expensive for a company to contract with the CED staff for this specialized training, so participants are handpicked by their organizations to participate. The average class size is 30.  Programs last from three days to three weeks, with the average being one week.

“In an economy where there’s such an economic downturn, what the company is saying to this employee is, ‘we believe in you and we believe in your contribution to our success,’” says Welch. “The company is making a financial contribution to that individual…the company expects to see a return on investment. They want to see how it will change them as a manager and leader.”

Cindy Bigner is Halliburton’s director of human resources for the Eastern Hemisphere. She’s spent 18 years with the company, the last two in Cairo, Egypt. Staff members from the CED traveled to work with her and others in her area for a recent program. “We have seen tremendous value from these courses and from having them both in College Station and within the regions of Eastern Hemisphere,” she says. “Every person who takes a CED course, without fail, tells me that it is the best course they have ever taken.”

“The training with the CED has played a part in many opportunities for me within Halliburton,” said Bigner. “It has shown me most of all how much the company cares about employees’ growth and development.”

No matter the location, language barriers are not usually a major concern, says Hilgemeier. Most of the participants speak English, as it’s increasingly becoming a business necessity, especially within the leadership of the company. The international aspect brings with it other challenges, though, as the staff must be sensitive to the customs of a wide variety of people.

Closer to home

Patrol cars cruising down dark alleys. Officers on foot, pursuing dangerous criminals. These are the images that come to mind when most imagine a career in law enforcement, but what about the less glamorous tasks? Financial spreadsheets? Scheduling?

Craig Anderson was a sergeant with the College Station, Texas, police department when he first came in contact with the CED. Anderson liked his job, but knew he wanted more—he wanted to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant.

Mays and CED faculty members, such as Clair Nixon, hold classes in College Station and around the world.

Not everything he needed to know for promotion could be learned on the job, said Anderson, such as how to create a budget or interact with the media. “As police officers, as we go through our careers, we need executive training to improve our skills,” he said. To achieve that end, Anderson took part in a three-week course offered through the CED that was tailored to Texas law enforcement officers.

The course was challenging, but Anderson says it was worth it. “It helped me out on things I needed to know so that I could move into a leadership position,” said Anderson, who made lieutenant shortly after completing the program.

In his current position, Anderson is often called on to speak publicly on behalf of his division. “The training has helped me develop leadership skills so that people can have confidence in the police department…I’ve taken those tools I learned in the classroom and applied them to my career,” he says.

Anderson’s advancement is the sort of story that excites Welch. “It’s all about people development,” says Welch. “We want each of [our participants] to feel that we have developed them as a leader.”