Since 2017, members of the HKEC Advisory Board help shape the culture, programming and goals of the Herb Kelleher Entrepreneurship Center, McCombs entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives as a whole. Board members are instrumental in launching and shaping programs that contribute to an entrepreneurial mindset in future innovators in all majors at the University.
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Brian is an entrepreneur, investor, author, and is currently the Founder & Executive Chairman of AlertMedia, a company he started in 2013. AlertMedia is now the world’s leading provider of emergency communication software, used by over 2,500 enterprise companies in 130+ countries to keep employees safe from threats to their health and safety. Before AlertMedia, Brian co-founded Xenex, where he and his team developed a germ-killing robot, now used in over 700 hospitals around the world, preventing infections and saving thousands of lives each year. He is also an investor and adviser to dozens of early stage startups through his investment firm, Marketdriver Ventures. Brian’s focus on starting companies with a positive impact stems, in part, from his experience working at Enron, where he was part of mass layoffs when the energy giant went bankrupt in 2001. He turned his Enron experience and the lessons learned into a best-selling book and later a movie. Brian is a graduate of the University of Southern California and received his MBA from the University of Texas.
Felipe is Co-founder and CFO of Merama. Based in Mexico City and Sao Paolo, Merama builds and grows the largest e-commerce brands in Latin America. While at UT Austin, he received the Walter B. Smith Scholarship and was Vice President for Latin Economics and Business Association (LEBA). Felipe is also a partner and board member at Beetmann, a qualified supplier in the Mexican Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) and a renewable energy plant developer where h was previously CEO and CFO and managed all M&A and structured transactions. Previously he was in Investment Banking at J.P. Morgan and serving as financial consultant to startups in LatAm.
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Billy is a lifelong entrepreneur, turned investor, who resides in San Antonio. A fourth generation Texan and Dallasite, following graduation from UT in 1981 he joined a family business, Chair King Furniture, bringing that retail concept to the San Antonio and Austin markets. In 1984, he co-founded Travis Telecom, initially the private telephone and cable operator in Dobie Center, and subsequently a long-distance telephone provider in the Austin, San Antonio and Midland-Odessa. In 1989, he co-founded Call Home America, the country’s largest provider of inbound 1-800 telephone services to parents of college students.
Since 1994, he has been a principal in Nueces Partners, a diversified investment partnership with interests in consumer products, energy service, technology, and telecommunications, as well as a substantial real estate portfolio. He’s been a licensed Texas real estate broker since 1986. He also leads a family ranching operation in Bexar and Medina Counties.
A longtime supporter of Entrepreneurial Education, he taught the first Entrepreneurship and Venture Creation course, as an upper division business elective, ever offered at Trinity University, from 1996-2008. Since 2018, he has served as the Investor-in-Residence at Trinity University, in support of both the University and its Entrepreneurship Department.
In 2023, Mr. Freed endowed the Freed Family Pitch Competition, formally DisrupTexas, through the Herb Kelleher Entrepreneurship Center (HKEC). He also serves on the advisory board for HKEC, a co-curricular student center within McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.
He has served on numerous boards of private companies, bank and non-profit organizations. He is currently the Board Chair of the San Antonio Zoo, and recently completed a term as the Chair of the Texas Cavaliers Charitable Foundation.
Mr. Maeker has extensive director/senior director level experience in franchising with franchising industry leaders Mobil Oil, TGIFriday’s, Jack in the Box and Papa Murphy’s Take N Bake Pizza. He is a nationally published & award winning franchise consultant with industry leader FranChoice. He is a co-author of international best seller <i>Franchising Freedom</i>. He and his wife Christy are also top performing multi-unit franchisees in Sola Salon Studios, one of the 160+ franchisors that he represents. Mr. Maeker has two grown children, Sydney and Barnes, and a French Bulldog named Harold. He and Christy are both elders at Grand Lakes Presbyterian Church in Katy, Texas.
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Steve Ronnel is President of Metal Recycling Corporation, a second generation scrap metal recycling and commodity trading company based in Little Rock, Arkansas. Prior to joining the family business in 1999, Mr. Ronnel worked in Washington, DC for almost a decade, serving in the White House as an advisor to President Bill Clinton and the United States Senate as a legislative aide to Senator David Pryor of Arkansas.
Mr. Ronnel graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1990 with a BBA in management. He is a past Chairman of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and a past President of the Arkansas Recyclers Association. His proudest accomplishments include marrying his wife Jennifer (UT BA ’90, Harvard Law School ‘96) and their three children, Jason (current UT McCombs student), Marilyn (current NYU student) and David (current high school student).
Quoc is an entrepreneur and loves helping founders start and grow businesses.
He is the CFO for FarBridge, Inc. where he manages the financial health and growth for a team dedicated to making games and immersive experiences.
Previously, Quoc was an Advisor and VP of Operations to SURVIVR, which aimed to make communities safer through immersive and responsive law enforcement training. SURVIVR was adopted by police agencies, universities, and private firms across 10 states – as well as the U.S. Air Force and Department of Homeland Security. In August 2021, SURVIVR was acquired by InVeris Training Solutions.
Before that, Quoc was CTO or technical director for a variety of startups and worked on computer-vision based shopping assistants, software for medical devices that could remove tumors in outpatient surgery, and a no-code platform that reached 3 million app developers.
You can connect with Quoc on LinkedIn here.
After 20 years in retail and merchandising executive leadership, Michael Tucci founded Rebel Capital, a growth investment company, in 2016. His previous roles include CEO and managing partner of Rag & Bone, president of North America Group and North America Retail for Coach, Inc., and executive vice president at Gap. Michael began his career at Macy’s, where he became president of specialty store division, Aeropostale. Michael is an advisor for Allbirds, a direct-to-consumer shoe brand and past director of The Fresh Market. He is the chief of corporate development and a board member of the STEER for Student Athletes, a committee member of Trinity College’s The Future of Athletics Campaign. He lives in Rye, New York with his wife Kim and they have four children, including Ellis Tucci, a finance major in McCombs.