A fortuitous reunion of friends at the Cameron School of Business changed the course of Roberta Konicki’s career. As a 2000 MBA graduate and current Vice President of Power Origination at RBS Sempra Commodities, Konicki is proof that networking works.

“One important aspect of being an active alum is networking and meeting different people in different industries,” she said. “There are a lot of very influential people who graduate from this school, and those connections can be mutually beneficial from a business and personal standpoint.”

What began as Afowiri “Kitz” Fondzenyuy’s 2006 Cameron School of Business MBA project on ethics and corporate social responsibility, eventually opened the door to a career in philanthropic nonprofit management and the opportunity to help to improve health and educational services in his native country of Cameroon, Africa.

Beginning with a simple shipment of soccer balls to his former village of Ngondzen, Fondzenyuy has nurtured the class project seed into Amom Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Amom recently raised funds to purchase 251 English textbooks for the primary school in his village.

“The Cameron School of Business has changed my life by helping me find my passion in life,” he said. “Dr. Simms taught us about social responsibility and entrepreneurship, and she gave us opportunity to go out into the real world to use our business education to make a difference. You tend to forget the impact that little things can have on people. That was the wakeup call that led me to where I am.”

As Cofounder and Chief Executive Officer of Tricon Homes, Jose Miguel Berlanga is using his business acumen to fulfill his vision of “building a better Houston.” Those efforts have been concentrated to improve the neighborhoods surrounding the University of St. Thomas, where Berlanga learned the fundamentals of business and earned a Bachelors of Business Administration degree in 1989.

“One of the benefits of attending a school in the same area where you build a business is that you are able to develop a lot of important business relationships for the future,” he said. “I feel like I got a head start on students from other universities!

“I’m proud to be a part of the continued revitalization effort of the area, and every time somebody asks me where I went to school, I am even more proud to say that I graduated from the University of St. Thomas,” he said.

When Burton Cole was enrolled in UST’s five-year BBA/MBA, he said he experienced roadblocks in securing internship interviews at Big 4 public accounting firms. He ultimately landed an internship and fulltime position at PricewaterhouseCooper’s predecessor, Coopers & Lybrand LLP, where he said he was an “anomaly among Longhorns and Aggies.” For the last 12 years, Cole has returned to UST to visit with accounting students to provide opportunities for internship interviews at PwC.

“I wanted to demonstrate that we could add some diversity to the firm by recruiting students who have a liberal arts background,” Cole said. “I have been coming back to UST to visit with accounting students for 12 years, and now we have upwards of 30 UST graduates working at the PwC Houston office. I really enjoy being able to give UST students an opportunity to interview for public accounting internships.

“The St. Thomas liberal arts education in conjunction with the five-year BBA/MBA accounting program has afforded me the ability to look within my work and consider the overall meaning and impact to my clients, my firm and the general public,” Cole said.

Read more about Burton Cole

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