McCombs Alumni Honored with First MBA Alumni Awards Celebration
AUSTIN, Texas—As a new way to honor McCombs School MBA alumni, the Graduate Business Council and the McCombs MBA Alumni Network created two alumni awards—the Rising Star and Outstanding Chapter Event Awards—which were presented Oct. 28 at the University of Texas Club.
The Rising Star Award, which recognizes an alumnus who has achieved distinguished professional success and has helped strengthen the Alumni Network within 10 years after graduation, was awarded to Jeff Hoogendam, MBA ’95.
Hoogendam is the founder and CEO of SmartPrice.com, a free service offering advice to businesses and consumers about telecommunications providers, such as long distance phone carriers and data suppliers. Prior to starting SmartPrice.com, he served as CEO of InfoGlide Software, providing fraud detection and alias identification software. Hoogendam also has more than four years experience in the venture capital industry and has been involved with six startup companies. These companies, including Accipiter and Lambda Technologies, have yielded returns of 92 percent for investors each year since launching. He is a board member of the MOOT CORP® Foundation as well as a judge in the annual MOOT CORP® competition.
Hoogendam earned his MBA from The University of Texas at Austin in entrepreneurship and finance. He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University.
This year’s Outstanding Chapter Event Award, created to recognize the hard work of our chapter leaders and honor an exceptional event held within the year, was presented to the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter. Under its newly appointed president, Alan Stein, and the executive committee, the chapter has arranged a slew of events and consistently secured sponsors for speakers in its Executive Speaker Series.
The Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter’s executive committee includes Reggie Cobb, MBA '94 of Alliance Data; Marissa Jarratt MBA '04 of Frito Lay; Max Locke MBA'95 of Beacon's Light; Scott McNeil MBA '99 of Raymond James; Ben Soderquist , MBA '72 of Corporate Communications, Inc; and Alan Stein MBA '94 of LiveLogic LLC.
McCombs students and alumni, as well as McCombs MMA Network advisory board members and McCombs’ Deans George Gau and Steven Salbu attended the event.
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
 Jeff Hoogendam, MBA '95, was awarded the Rising Star Award by Dean George Gau at the Alumni Awards Celebration Oct. 28. |
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