AB Profiles - Herb Kelleher Entrepreneurship Center

Chad Auler

Chad Auler is a lifelong resident of Austin and sixth generation Texan. Chad has deep roots in the Texas alcoholic beverage industry. After graduating from the University of Texas in 1992, he joined the family business at Fall Creek Vineyards. After receiving an MBA from the McCombs School of Business at UT, Chad co-founded Deep Eddy Vodka, which was acquired by Heaven Hill Brands in 2015. Chad also has business interests in oil and gas, real estate, commercial ranching operations and private equity. He is currently the President of C. Auler Holdings LP. Chad and his family own and operate Fall Creek Ranch in Llano County and Rancho Aparejo in Presidio County. Chad has served on numerous boards and currently serves on the McCombs School of Business Alumni Board, the University of Texas Development Board and the Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee. He is also President of West Austin Youth Association, a privately funded organization that provides recreational opportunities for over 5000 kids in Austin. Chad is an avid golfer and outdoorsman, and he and his wife, Stacy, have a daughter and a son.

Andres Barrios

Andres is an entrepreneur and angel investor with more than 9 years of experience in the startup scene. He recently sold his tech company to a major telecommunications player and in early 2017 he joined Mountain Nazca as a Managing Partner. Andres has ventured in industries such as real estate, transportation and mobility, health and tech since 2008.During this time he has been active as an Angel investor investing in more than 10 companies.

Before jumping into the entrepreneurial scene he worked in the private equity and investment banking industry for more than 8 years. Andres has a bachelors degree in Civil Engineer from Universidad Iberoamericana and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Ross Cockrell

Ross is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Escalate Capital, an Austin-based growth capital firm focused on technology and healthcare. Since inception the firm has invested nearly $900M in over 100 private companies. Previously, Ross was a partner at Austin Ventures where he invested in early-to-late stage software and Internet companies. Representative investments include: HomeAway, RetailMeNot, Active Network, Everyday Health, Convio, Workfront, Reactivity, Staktek, iMark, and WhisperWire. He received an MBA from the McCombs School of Business and a BA from Harvard University.

Randy Cohen

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Brian Cruver

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.

William Cunningham

Dr. Cunningham served as Dean of the College and Graduate School of Business (1983-85), President of The University of Texas at Austin (1985-1992), and Chancellor of The University of Texas System (1992-2000). Dr. Cunningham serves on a number of public corporate boards including Southwest Airlines, Lincoln Financial, John Hancock Mutual Funds, LIN TV, and Resolute Energy Corporation. His current research interests focus on corporate governance and marketing strategy.

Connie Easley

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Ed Easley

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Carol Frank

Having developed three multi million-dollar pet companies, Carol Frank combines her insider’s expertise in all aspects of pet businesses to help entrepreneurs, business owners, and investment executives shorten the learning curve and maximize the value of their businesses and investments.

As a one-time auditor for a large CPA firm, she gained an inside-out understanding of how companies operate. Her first business was a pet shop in Dallas called The Animal Kingdom. Through this retail endeavor, she discovered her passion for the pet industry, which fueled her next business: Avian Kingdom Supply. From 1990 to 1998, Carol owned and operated what grew to be a distributor of 2,100-plus pet products, which she sold to Central Garden and Pet in 1998. In 1996 she launched Avian Adventures, one of the world’s largest designers and importers of exclusive birdcages and accessories, which she operated for 11 years before selling to Midwest Homes for Pets.

She then leveraged her significant experience in both finance and entrepreneurship to start BirdsEye Advisory Group. BAG is a boutique investment bank that helps pet companies and private equity firms in the areas of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), Exit Planning, and M&A strategy. Carol was a Managing Director with MHT Partners from 2015 to 2019 and a Managing Director with SDR Ventures from 2010 to 2015.

Billy Freed

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.

Frank E. Gordon

Frank serves as the Managing Partner at Crofton Capital, L.P. in Nashville, Tennessee. He served as Vice President of Development and Managed Care of MediSphere Health Partners and has been a Director at Sy.Med Development, Inc. Frank served as Director of Provider Relations at HealthWise of America from 1993 to 1996 and served in this capacity through the acquisition of HealthWise by United HealthCare. He has also held various marketing and development positions with Hospital Corporation of America, Surgical Care Affiliates and Geriatric Medical Care. Frank also serves as a Director of Nashville Capital Network and has been a Director of HealthStream, Inc. since 2002. He serves as a Member of the Investment Committee of NCN Angel Fund I, NCN Angel Fund II, Tennessee Angel Fund and NCN Partners Fund. Frank earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Texas in Austin and a Master’s in Business Administration from Georgia State University.

Ashish Gupta

Ashish Gupta, CFA is the Chief Financial and Strategy Officer and on the Board of Managers of 4ToldFintech. From 2008 to 2018, he was the Founding Partner and Portfolio Manager for Arete Investment Group and Partner at Vollero Beach Capital, both long/short equity funds investing in the energy and industrial sectors with assets under management approaching $800mm at their peak. Gupta began his career at Trilogy software in where he incubated a new online business focused on financial advisory services, and subsequently, worked in Capital Markets and Investment Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

He graduated summa cum laude from the Business Honors Program from the University of Texas with a concentration in Finance. Gupta serves on the boards of iTexico, a near shore IT Services Company; M3 Ventures, a VC firm focused on consumer retail; Pratham USA, a non-profit organization dedicated toward Children’s literacy; and Herb Kelleher Entrepreneurship Center at the University of Texas; among others.

Dave Heitzer

David Heitzer has over 30 years of experience in the Process and Energy industries. Since 2009, he has served as a lead consultant responsible for EDF Trading North America’s overall business origination of large, energy-intensive commercial and industrial clients in major North American electricity markets. Throughout his career, Mr. Heitzer strived to develop unique market offerings in order to creatively optimize solutions for his customers’ evolving needs.

Prior to his contract with EDF, Mr. Heitzer was Vice President, Commercial and Industrial for Reliant Energy (NRG Energy) with overall responsibility for electricity supply to these complex business sectors. Earlier in his career, Mr. Heitzer held positions with Air Products and Chemicals, The Parsons Corporation, and IT Corporation. Mr. Heitzer holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware in Newark DE, and an M.B.A. from the University of Texas in Austin, TX. He is a Professional Engineer licensed in the State of California and proudly serves on two University of Delaware Advisory Boards, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Horn Program in Entrepreneurship, a personal passion.

Outside of his professional responsibilities, Mr. Heitzer maintains additional investments in real estate, high tech, and retail.

Jason Hsiao

Jason bought his first property in college. Since then he has closed over $22 million worth of real estate. Jason is also part of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties. His team and he love passing on what they have learned in the past 15 years to help their clients maximize the value of their properties. None of this could’ve happened of course if it wasn’t for his humble upbringing working in the family manufacturing business. The entrepreneurial spirit and work ethic were instilled in Jason from an early age.

In his free time, Jason volunteers with organizations related to hunger, homeless, and education such as Habitat for Humanity. He is also involved in various entrepreneurial events with his alma mater University of Texas at Austin and University of Washington. Jason is an avid snowboarder, hiker, photographer and if my knees feel healthy he’ll partake in an occasional game of tennis or volleyball.

Eddie King

Eddie King lives in Dallas, TX. He is the founder and CEO of King Architectural Metals which provides material, production and design solutions to metal fabrication industries ranging from decorative staircases and furniture to elevators and light structural applications. Since its inception in 1990, King Metals has grown from a single location in Dallas to a nationwide organization with facilities in California, Texas, Georgia, and Maryland including manufacturing & distribution relationships on 4 continents. Mr. King is also active in real estate development/management.

Mr. King received his BBA in Marketing from The University of Texas at Austin in 1989. He is actively involved in the University of Texas at Austin Alumni Association, American Red Cross Clara Barton Society, YMCA, PHASA Wildlife Conservation Trust, Dallas Safari Club and Young Presidents’ Association. He serves on the boards of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Education Foundation and Journey To Dream Foundation. When not working, he is an avid hunter, conservationist, philanthropist, soccer coach and proud father.

Libby Mathai

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Thomas Mathai

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Katie May

A former Management Consultant with Booz & Co, Katie got involved in start-ups when she joined the Executive Team at as head of Marketing & Product. She invested 6 years building the SEEK brand and leading the product effort at this award winning website through IPO. Katie then founded , the largest and most successful online website for mothers in Australia and New Zealand, selling to News Corp in 2011. Katie has a BBA in Accounting and earned her CPA shortly after studying at the University of Texas at Austin. Katie later returned to the same university to earn her MBA with a concentration in marketing. She joined ShippingEasy as the CEO in 2012, moving the headquarters to her hometown of Austin and kicking off the aggressive growth efforts following its founding in Sydney, Australia.

Scott Plantowsky

BBA in Finance from UT Austin (1985)
Plantowsky’s Furniture: Vice President and General Manager (Houston, 1986-1993)
BindView Development: SVP, CFO & Director (Houston, 1993-2001)
- Network and systems management software
- Led company through IPO in 1997 and secondary in 1998
- Company acquired by Symantec
rsrfinance – Founder & Manageing Partner (2019)

Gabe Puente

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Jordan Reber

Jordan F. Reber is the Chairman and CEO of OvareGroup. Working from the Los Angeles and Vancouver offices, Jordan leads a holding company with companies spread across the U.S. and Canada that are dedicated to creating growth for businesses through effective strategy, content solutions and marketing activation. He also oversees all acquisitions, operations and the investment strategy for OvareVentures, the company’s new business and product incubator. Jordan currently sits on several corporate boards including Quixote Studios, a leading entertainment company with operations across the U.S.

Steve Ronnel

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).

Kristin Spindler

Kristin is the Director of IncubatorCTX and faculty member at Concordia University Texas. In her role, she helps entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses. In addition to teaching business classes at Concordia University, she has been an active Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN) member since 2014 and a former board member. She also enjoys judging business plan and startup competitions.

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Kristin was a Vice President and Credit Officer at Citigroup, New York. She then built her own real estate development company from a startup into a multi-million-dollar business. Now, Ms. Spindler blends her financial expertise and project management skills for emerging businesses by leveraging her international banking and entrepreneurship background.

Kristin holds a BA from Duke University and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. She is also an avid traveler and sailor.

Jay Steinfeld

As founder and CEO of Global Custom Commerce (GCC), Jay was an early mover in e-Commerce. In 1993 he bootstrapped his website, built for just $1500 and operated from his garage, into the world’s #1 online window coverings store, Blinds.com. In January 2014, GCC merged with The Home Depot, when he continued to lead GCC as its CEO and joined the Home Depot Online Leadership Team, driving and integrating GCC’s platform into Home Depot’s interconnected retail strategy.

Jay earned his BBA in Accounting with honors at UT (1976). After working as a CPA at KPMG and VP of Finance at Meineke Mufflers, Inc., in 1987 he and his wife started a small brick and mortar retail store selling custom window coverings. They sold their store in 2001 to go online exclusively.

GCC has been recognized multiple times as The Best Place to Work in Houston, Top 5 Workplaces in Texas, one of the 50 Most Engaged Workplaces in America, the American Marketing Association Marketer of the Year, and many others. Jay is an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year and has earned a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Houston Technology Center.

Jay is currently on the Innovation Board of The XPRIZE, whose mission is to bring about “radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity”, an Entrepreneur in Residence at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, serves on the Advisory Council at The University of Texas’ Herb Kelleher Entrepreneurship Center, is on multiple start-up boards, and supports numerous charities.

Jay still sings enthusiastically in his barbershop quarter, formed on campus in 1972 with three fellow UT students, called The 40 Acre 4.

Matt Thomas

Matthew Thomas is an entrepreneur who has spent most of his career working in Austin-based start-ups with a particular focus on Education Technology and Software-as-a-Service. Most recently he co-founded AcademicWorks, which provides cloud-based software to help colleges, universities, and community foundations manage their scholarship processes while increasing donor engagement. That’s a fancy way of saying that AcademicWorks encourages the virtuous cycle of giving by ensuring that scholarship dollars are used to help kids pay for college while recognizing donors for their impact and contribution so that they will in turn be inclined to help more students.

In April 2017, AcademicWorks was acquired by Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB).

Prior to AcademicWorks, Matthew had the privilege of serving in several capacities, including the executive management team, at Austin-based PeopleAdmin, which was sold to Summit Partners in 2008.

Outside of entrepreneurial endeavors, you’ll usually find Matthew running around Lady Bird Lake or fighting his way through a marathon with Nutella to make up for the homebrew he just finished. You’ll also likely see him at an Entreprenuers’ Organization event, which is always filled with fantastic and inspiring people.

Quoc V. Tran, CFO, MBA

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.

Michael Tucci

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.

Colby Young

Colby was born and raised in Houston, Texas, but has made his home in East Austin. Colby graduated undergrad from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business with a BBA in International Business. Following undergrad, he worked in Houston doing Asset Management for Quantum Partners, an FDIC contract and consulting firm. After five years in Houston, he came back to Austin and graduated in 2015 from the full-time MBA program at McCombs focusing his studies on Entrepreneurship and New Venture. During his MBA program, he worked on his own business idea and since graduating he has joined his second software start up, SourceDay. In the last two years, he has helped the company grow from three to twenty-one employees, helped secure seed funding and series A funding. His professional passion is in Entrepreneurship, while his personal passions are in the outdoors, Longhorn sports, music, cooking, and my family and friends. Hook’em!

INSPIRATION

RESOURCES

OPPORTUNITIES

ENCOURAGE

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EDUCATE

HKEC ADVISORY BOARD

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Shaping our

VISION

Meet the HKEC Advisory Board

Chad Auler is the Co-founder of Deep Eddy Vodka

Andres Barrios is Managing Partner at Mountain Nazca

Ross Cockrell is the founder of Escalate Capital

Meet the HKEC Advisory Board

Chad Auler

Andres Barrios

Ross Cockrell

Randy Cohen

Brian Cruver

William Cunningham

Connie Easley

Ed Easley

Carol Frank

Billy Freed

Frank Gordon

Ashish Gupta

Dave Heitzer

Jason Hsiao

Eddie King

Libby Mathai

Thomas Mathai

Katie May

Scott Plantowsky

Gabe Puente

Jordan Reber

Steve Ronnel

Kristin Spindler

Jay Steinfeld

Matt Thomas

Quoc Tran

Michael Tucci

Colby Young

THE HERB KELLEHER ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTER Making Entrepreneurship Accessible to All Longhorns

FOLLOW US

Inspiration

Resources

Opportunities

THE HERB KELLEHER ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTER Making Entrepreneurship Accessible to All Longhorns

FOLLOW US

Inspiration

Resources

Opportunities

Chad Auler

Andres Barrios

Ross Cockrell

Randy Cohen

Brian Cruver

William Cunningham

Connie Easley

Ed Easley

Carol Frank

Billy Freed

Frank E. Gordon

Ashish Gupta

Dave Heitzer

Jason Hsiao

Eddie King

Libby Mathai

Thomas Mathai

Katie May

Scott Plantowsky

Gabe Puente

Jordan Reber

Steve Ronnel

Kristin Spindler

Jay Steinfeld

Matt Thomas

Quoc V. Tran, CFO, MBA

Michael Tucci

Chad Auler is the Co-founder
of Deep Eddy Vodka

Andres Barrios is Managing
Partner at Mountain Nazca

Ross Cockrell is the founder
of Escalate Capital

THE HERB KELLEHER ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTER
Making Entrepreneurship Accessible to All Longhorns

THE HERB KELLEHER ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTER
Making Entrepreneurship Accessible to All Longhorns