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DOCTORAL STUDENT
Sonja Hightower
Sonja Hightower, a first-year doctoral student and former lecturer in the UNT College of Business Department of Accounting, is the first to be honored as a Grant Thornton Doctoral Fellow in Accounting. The fellowship comes with a $40,000 award to be divided over four years.
Hightower has more than 20 years of experience in accounting, finance and banking. Before enrolling at UNT, she was a senior vice president of internal audit and compliance for Vision Bank in Oklahoma. Her professional credentials include certifications as a public accountant and internal auditor. She is also a chartered global management accountant and a certified management accountant.
“With my background, I understand the challenges in bringing academia and practice together,” she said. “Practitioners and researchers are too far apart. I don’t want to just talk about what isn’t working. I want to determine how we can make accounting better and help bridge the gap between academics, practitioners and standard-setters.” |
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ALUMNUS
Bob Kimmel ('61)
Bob Kimmel and Dr. O. Finley Graves were inducted into the College of Business Hall of Fame at this year's Awards Gala on April 7, 2017.
Kimmel has been an advocate of UNT since graduating in 1961 and was awarded the UNT Distinguished Alumni Award in 2015. He serves on the UNT Foundation Board and has provided leadership through the Campaign Steering Committee and Campaign Action Team for the College of Business and UNT basketball team, respectively. Kimmel also serves as secretary on the UNT Alumni Association Board.
In addition to his leadership at UNT, Kimmel is also the past president and CEO of Davis H. Elliot Company, which he grew from 500 to more than 1,700 employees, and currently owns BK Energy.
We are honored to have both Bob Kimmel and Dr. Graves in our UNT Hall of Fame. To see a complete list of College of Business Hall of Fame inductees (as well as Rising Star awardees), click here. |
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Westheimer New Venture Competition awards top team $10,000
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In a room full of twelve DFW business leaders and venture capitalists, UNT students competed to win cash prizes of up to $10,000, thanks to UNT alumnus and competition founder, Jerome “Bruzzy” Westheimer.
With only twelve finalist teams selected to compete in the final round, students aimed to convince a panel of judges that their business ideas were worth investing in, using only a PowerPoint presentation and 15 minutes of their time. Much like Shark Tank, judges brought heat to the situation by interjecting presentations with thought-provoking questions to keep contestants on their toes and thinking like an entrepreneur.
“It all seems unreal,” said Natalie Boyd, who pitched the winning business idea and took home $10,000. Boyd, a College of Business senior majoring in real estate, was skeptical to submit her idea in the first round, but ultimately “decided to just go for it and see what happens.” READ MORE... |
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UNT logistics fundraiser offers $50,000 challenge
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The UNT Center for Logistics Education and Research will be hosting its 5th Annual Transportation Breakfast on Friday, May 19 with a special challenge attached.
Thanks to the generosity of longtime UNT logistics supporter and PGL Chair William "Bill" LaMothe, all donations up to $50,000 will be matched to make an even greater impact.
The event, which will take place at Big Brothers Big Sisters in Irving, will begin with breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and feature guest speakers Chuck Cooperstein, Dallas Mavericks radio play-by-play, and John Sharp, group president for TFD Group Companies.
Following the program, all attendees are invited to Bill LaMothe's home for free, front-row seats at the AT&T Byron Nelson Championship golf tournament. This will be the last year to participate, so don't miss your chance to double your impact and enjoy an entertaining program.
Tickets are on sale now for $99 a seat, or $699 for a table of eight. Silent auction donations are also being accepted. READ MORE... |
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Texas ranch helping trauma survivors gets help from UNT class
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A North Texas ranch that helps people and animals when other therapies fail received some help itself from a group of University of North Texas marketing students.
Founder Bob Williams started Ranch Hand Rescue as a combined rescue facility for animals and counseling center for trauma survivors who don’t respond well to traditional therapy. The organization’s mission is strong, but as many small nonprofits with limited budgets understand, marketing resources are limited.
To help the ranch, teams of marketing students enrolled in an Applied Marketing Problems course and created business plans to help Ranch Hand Rescue deal with its biggest issues: how to expand throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth region, how to make the brand recognizable and how to improve the message of what it does.
“I’ve gotten to apply what I’ve been learning, and it’s very rewarding to be able to say I’ve helped rebrand this organization that touches you personally,” said Robin Kelley, UNT senior majoring in marketing. READ MORE... |
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FEI job shadowing program gives students inside perspective
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Each spring, the Dallas Chapter of the Financial Executives Institute (FEI) invites UNT students to follow in the footsteps of local executives. This “Financial Executive Experience” gives students an inside perspective of what it is like to be in a senior-level position – and this year, ten UNT accounting and finance students were welcomed to participate.
The three-part program involved an etiquette dinner, a day of job shadowing, and an evening of networking at the local Dallas chapter meeting in April. Christian Sutanto, accounting major graduating in 2019, was partnered with executive vice president and chief financial officer of T-System, Paul Miller.
Sutanto learned, first hand, about the day-to-day operations of a CFO, while also getting to meet with other high-level officers and controllers of the company.
“I just wish [the job shadowing] was more than one day,” said Sutanto, who appreciated the opportunity to network and learn about life outside of the classroom. READ MORE... |
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North Texas Community College Accounting Conference becomes annual event
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Spearheaded by Bruce Runyan, senior lecturer in accounting at the College of Business, UNT hosted its first North Texas Community College Accounting Conference on April 7. With nearly twenty participants, the conference shared best practices across colleges and districts, including excel certification and qualifying exam boot camps.
Attendees benefited not only from earning 3 hours of CPE credits, but also from the value of content provided. One attendee wrote, “As an adjunct accounting/business professor I found this very informative. My goal was to learn a few tidbits of advice on instruction and class management, but I found the day so much more nourishing given the breadth of topics discussed.”
The overwhelmingly positive feedback from every participant reinforced the idea of continuing the conference on an annual basis. Be on the lookout for future dates in 2018. |
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ISACA supports UNT students with $5,000 contribution
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Information Systems Audit and Control Association, or more commonly known as ISACA, is an international association whose aim is to promote the IS audit, control and security profession.
ISACA’s support of UNT College of Business students has been invaluable over the years, including a CISA boot camp in 2016, which led to its 19 student participants earning a 71% pass rate on the CISA exam.
This April, ISACA announced its continued support in the form of a $5,000 contribution to help fund scholarships, student groups and CISA review materials to UNT.
“Their ongoing commitment to our academic excellence is recognized as a key component to our coverage of accounting systems and its associated IT audit components,” said Ananth Seetharaman, accounting department chair for the College of Business. |
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