Spears School recognizes outstanding alumni at annual Hall of Fame banquet

Monday, November 15, 2010

The Oklahoma State University Spears School of Business held its annual Hall of Fame Banquet on November 5 in Stillwater. At the event, three Oklahoma State University alumni were inducted into the Spears School Hall of Fame, three others were recognized as Outstanding Young Alumni, and six alumni were recognized as Orange Star Award recipients.

The annual Spears School Hall of Fame Banquet recognizes OSU graduates who have distinguished themselves in their professional careers, displayed effective leadership, made exemplary contributions to their communities and freely given meritorious service to others. Induction into the Hall of Fame is the highest honor the Spears School can bestow. In 2001, the Outstanding Young Alumni award was established to recognize alumni who have provided significant service and achievement early in their professional careers. The Orange Star Award recognizes outstanding Spears School alumni who have made significant contributions to their alma mater.

James Carreker, former CEO of the Bombay Company, James Click, co-owner of the Jim Click Automotive Team, and Neal Patterson, co-founder and CEO of Cerner, were honored for their successful careers and contributions to OSU. The Spears School also recognized Peter Davidsson, Behfar Jahanshahi, Kimberly Snyder and Mark Snyder as Outstanding Young Alumni.  This year, the Spears School added the Orange Star Award recipients to the annual Hall of Fame Banquet, honoring alumni David Holsted, Rex Horning, Dan Howard, Michael Hyatt, Griff Jones and Mike Pregler for their dedication to the Spears School.

James Carreker has had a long career as a leader of world-class companies. Throughout his career, Carreker has served as president of Burdines Department Stores, president of Wyndam Hotels and Resorts, president and CEO of Trammell Crow Company, CEO of the REIT, president and CEO of JDC Holdings, and chairman and CEO of the Bombay Company. Since 2005, Carreker has focused on private equity investments, and he currently serves on the boards of Crow Holdings, The Minto Group of Canada, Westec Intelligent Surveillance, Aimbridge Hospitality and the UT Southwestern Board of Visitors.

Carreker was born in Oklahoma City and attended Oklahoma State University on a football scholarship. He earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing with a minor in mathematics and graduated as the Marketing Student of the Year in 1970. He remained at OSU to earn a master’s degree in business administration with a specialization in finance in 1972. Carreker has been inducted into the OSU Alumni Hall of Fame.

Carreker is an active member of his community and has served as director of Junior Achievement in Dallas and vice-chairman of United Way for both Dallas and Miami. He currently resides in Dallas with his wife, Robin, and is a member of the Park Cities Presbyterian Church. He and his late wife, Jane, have two sons, Court and Chris, and four grandchildren, Dylan, Holland, Cohen and Rett.

James Click is the co-owner of the Tuscon, Arizona-based Jim Click Automotive Team, which includes: Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Mazda, Nissan and Hyundai. He and his business partner also have several dealerships in Orange County, California, and they were ranked 22nd in the 2000 Automotive News “Top 100 Dealerships” group.

Click is a third-generation car dealer from Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. He graduated from OSU in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in business. He was a Scholastic All-American football player, received the Big 8 Medallion Award, and was captain of OSU’s football team. In 1985, Click received OSU’s Distinguished Alumni Award, and he has been inducted into OSU’s Hall of Fame.

Click participates in countless philanthropic organizations, including the Boys and Girls Club, Junior Achievement, the Capital Fund Drive, the Jim and Vicki Click Club, The Click Family Foundation, LINKAGES, and the Cristo Rey High School in Tuscon, Arizona. Click and his wife Vicki have one daughter, Carrie.

Neal Patterson is the chairman, chief executive officer, president and co-founder of Cerner, the largest stand-alone supplier of healthcare information technology in the world. Patterson is also co-founder of the First Hand Foundation, Cerner’s non-profit foundation that provides assistance to children with critical healthcare needs, and he serves as a trustee of the Midwest Research Institute.

Patterson grew up on his family’s farm near Manchester, Oklahoma, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in finance and his master’s degree in business administration from OSU.

In 1973, Patterson began his professional career as an information system consultant with Arthur Anderson & Co. He and two of his colleagues formed Cerner in 1979. For 31 years, Patterson has helped expand Cerner. He has five times been named as one of Modern Healthcare’s “100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare.” In 2010, Patterson was fourth on Forbes’ list of “America’s Best-Performing Bosses.”

Outside of healthcare, Patterson said he is passionate about the Kansas City Wizards Major League Soccer team, of which he is co-owner, and the 111-year-old American Royal livestock, horse show and rodeo, of which he is a lifetime director.

Peter Davidsson is an execute director and the global co-head of the Oil Derivatives Trading at Morgan Stanley. He oversees a team of traders in New York, London and Singapore.  

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in finance and international business from OSU in 2001, Davidsson began his career with Morgan Stanley as an analyst in the firm’s Fixed Income Division. He began overseeing Morgan Stanley’s Global Oil Option Trading in 2007 and has been in his current position since April 2010.

Davidsson currently resides in New York City with his wife Maria, who is also a Spears School graduate. They have a 22-month-old son, Alexander, and they said they are happily expecting their second child in February.

Behfar Jahanshahi is the founder, CEO and president of Interworks, Inc., a full-service IT consulting firm in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The company serves hundreds of clients around the world and employs experts across four states and two countries. Since founding Interworks, Jahanshahi has consistently grown the company’s revenue. In 2010, Interworks was listed 45th on the CRN Fast Growth List. Jahanshahi also acts as the CIO and technology director of dozens of organizations around the country.

Jahanshahi earned his bachelor’s degree in management information systems from OSU in 1998 and his master’s degree from the same university in telecommunications management in 2000. Jahanshahi and his wife, Staci, have a two-year-old daughter, Sophia.

Kimberly Snyder was a tax specialist with Metronational Corporation, a privately held billion-dollar real estate investment, development and management company. While at Metronational, she prepared the company’s tax provision, federal and state tax returns, and sales and use tax returns, in addition to managing multiple property exchange projects.

Kimberly received her bachelor’s degree in accounting and her master’s degree in accounting taxation from OSU. After graduation, Kimberly was employed for four years by the Houston branch of Ernst and Young in their tax department. Today, she is a stay-at-home mother. She said she enjoys chasing her 15-month-old daughter, Kherington, and going on dates with her husband, Mark.

Mark Snyder is an IT project manager with ExxonMobil Global Services Company. In the eight-and-a half years he has been in this position, Mark has managed IT projects for ExxonMobil Exploration, Development and Production and Upstream Research Companies.

Mark earned his bachelor’s degree in management information systems from OSU and a master’s degree in finance and management from Tulane University.

Mark said he also enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, in addition to playing golf.

David Holsted is the manager of Hall Capital Partners, a group of private equity funds for The Fred Jones Companies. Before earning this position, he served as the chief financial officer for The Fred Jones Companies for 18 years.

Holsted graduated from OSU in 1983 with bachelor’s degrees in accounting and agricultural economics, and he became a Certified Public Accountant in 1984. Holsted is still an avid supporter of higher education, currently serving as a trustee of the OSU Foundation, a trustee for OU Medical Center, and a member of the advisory boards for the Spears School and the School of Accounting. Holsted recently formed an endowed scholarship for undergraduate accounting majors at OSU.

Holsted and his wife, Nancy, reside in Edmond, Oklahoma, and they have three children: Nicole, Philip and Erin.

Rex Horning is the current president of Stillwater National Bank. In the past, he has served in the U.S. Peace Corps and as president, CEO and other executive officer positions with banks throughout Oklahoma, Kansas and Alabama.

Horning graduated with a business degree from OSU in 1974. He said he still loves OSU, and he is a trustee for the OSU Foundation, as well as a board member for the OSU Center for Innovation and Economic Development and the OSU Alumni Association. Horning is also an active member of the Stillwater community, having once been chairman of the Stillwater Chamber of Commerce and been awarded Stillwater’s Citizen of the Year award.

Horning and his wife, Charlotte, have two children, Meredith and Judd, and two grandsons, Carson and Cooper.

Dan Howard is a business, internet and intellectual property lawyer with the firm Rubenstein, McCormick & Pitts in Edmond, Oklahoma. He is also the co-founder of the real-estate investment firm Two Pokes, LLC, and ThinkFast Enterprises, Inc.

Howard received his bachelor’s degree in computing and information sciences and a master’s degree in business administration from OSU. In 2003, he earned his Juris Doctorate from Oklahoma City University, graduating magna cum laude.

Today, Howard is a leader in his community, serving as a board member for the Edmond Chamber of Commerce, Edmond Young Professionals and the Children’s Medical Research Institute of Oklahoma. In his free time, Howard said he enjoys spending time with his wife and his seven-month-old twins.

Michael Hyatt is a financial adviser with UBS and the senior vice president of UBS’s Investments Regional Institute Sales Group in Ft. Worth, Texas. As a UBS financial adviser, Hyatt is a consultant to individuals and institutes regarding investment accounts, asset allocation and business retirement plans. He has worked as a financial professional for more than 40 years.

Before beginning his career, Hyatt earned his bachelor’s degree from OSU and his master’s degree in business administration from Texas Christian University. He now serves on the OSU Foundation Board of Governors and is an active member of his community, holding leadership roles throughout the Ft. Worth area.

Griff Jones is the co-founder and CEO of Twin Eagle Resource Management, LLC, a start-up natural gas and power marketing firm based in Houston.

Since graduating from OSU in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting, Jones has spent his career in the energy business, working for Natural Gas Clearinghouse and co-founding Eagle Energy Partners and Champion Energy Services before starting Twin Eagle.

Jones is also active in charitable organizations, and he leads numerous Christian, non-profit groups and serves as a trustee of the OSU Foundation. He and his wife, Mindi, have two children, Kennedy and Kale.

Mike Pregler is the manager of Real Estate and Facilities Shared Services for ConoccoPhillips. He is a certified internal auditor, a member of the OSU Accounting Advisory Committee and the chairman of the Spears School of Business Executive Associates.

A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Pregler earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from OSU in 1975. Upon graduation, he began his career with ConoccoPhillips as an accounting trainee. Throughout his years of service, Pregler has served as senior supervisor of Natural Gas Liquids Accounting, director of finance for Research and Development, director of consolidation for Corporate Financial Staffs, manager of Financial Processes and Controls, chief ethics officer and senior audit manager for ConoccoPhillips.