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Business leaders bring expertise to University

By Chris Thomas

Daily Texan Staff

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Published: Monday, February 15, 2010

Updated: Monday, February 15, 2010

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Rachel Taylor/The Daily Texan

C. P. Smith, left, asks a question during an energy panel discussion, part of the McCombs Executive Summit on Saturday.

To avoid creating another recession, corporations need to be more transparent and have more integrity, said Pamela Friedman, a UT finance lecturer and speaker at the 2010 McCombs Executive Summit.

The event, which was held Saturday in the McCombs School of Business, brought seven highly trained executive professionals from different corporations around the country together with more than 100 McCombs students to talk about the government’s role in business in today’s economy.

“Corporate social responsibility used to be a given. I hope we can eventually return to where that is again the case,” said Paul Markovich, senior vice president of residential services for clean-energy provider Green Mountain Energy Co.

The summit began with a discussion panel involving all seven speakers, who discussed the government’s influence on their respective corporations.

Mike Crowley, marketing manager for Ford Motor Co., said the government doesn’t play a huge role in the marketplace at Ford.

“Free trade will drive free thinking,” he said.

Markovich agreed with Crowley.

“In terms of energy, at least, the government has a hands-off role in Texas,” Markovich said.

After the opening panel, the summit split into two different groups. Half of the students attended an energy breakout session led by summit committee member Alan Goldstein, and the other half attended a finance breakout session led by finance senior Ankit Dalal. A third breakout session on the health industry was canceled because snowstorms in Washington, D.C., prevented several of the health care executives from traveling to Austin.

In the energy session, Crowley, Markovich and Shell Oil executive Kelley Lang discussed what the government can do in the current economic climate and how their own companies are responding.

Jeffery Gunther, assistant vice president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, said during the finance session that the country needs to be careful to avoid a complete economic meltdown, as was the case in Greece and Iceland.

Dalal called the event a huge success.

“It was meant to put students in touch with big-name executives in America’s corporate world, and it did just that,” Dalal said.

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