Thousands of fans raced to the Circuit of the Americas racetrack Nov. 16-18 for Austin's first Formula One Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton may have won the race, but McCombs alumnus Peter Chan, BBA '94, experienced a business victory of his own. Chan is the managing director of Lighthouse Technologies, the Hong Kong-based company that manufactured the LED video screens around the Circuit of the Americas racetrack. Lighthouse installed 21 LED screens: two in the grandstands, three in the pit and 16 around the rest of the circuit. Chan says the opportunity to work with Texas Star, Lighthouse's U.S.-based display provider, created a better experience for spectators (including himself) through high-tech signage and video.

"The partnership with the circuit brings a new standard of fan immersion to the world of motor racing," Chan said. "…The screens brought great visual clarity, color reproduction, minimal time delay for livecast and excellent reliability. All of these are very important to maximize the enjoyment and excitement of the race for spectators."

Chan moved to Hong Kong after his graduation from UT because of the booming technology and communications industry in China and around Asia. He joined Lighthouse in 2006 and became managing director in 2008. He said Senior Lecturer Herb Miller, his professor turned mentor and friend, helped him achieve his success and kept him connected with the McCombs School of Business.

Miller, who has known Chan for over 20 years, said that his former student is an exemplary representative for McCombs in the worldwide marketplace. "The fact that Red McCombs himself contributed so significantly to the inaugural Formula One Grand Prix race, and Peter's unique product involvement, speaks volumes for the global reach of our business school," Miller said.

"The bonds formed from the intensive learning at McCombs will last a lifetime, providing friendships, contacts and networks that serve me well in an increasingly inter-reliant world of business," Chan said. "McCombs encouraged me to think differently, to look at operations in a new way and to relentlessly question and challenge. It also had a significant impact on how I think, decide, act and relate to real-time current business challenges. It has definitely helped me to raise my bar and achieve more in a global context."

Reposted from McCombs Today

Kristal Braley, BBA '12, student speaker at the McCombs School of Business Fall 2012 commencement, knows something about accomplishing goals. She set her sights on a McCombs education and did everything she could to get here, often working three jobs at time while completing courses at a technical college in Madison, Wis. Once she made it to Austin, she established a new goal — to make the commencement speech at her graduation, and she worked tirelessly until the moment she stepped onto the Frank Erwin Center stage Dec. 7.

Braley’s college experience has been anything but typical. As a single mother raising a 3-year-old boy, Bryce, she had to learn time management as she learned about topics such as finance and marketing in her classes. She says that while the balancing act was difficult, those challenges inspired her commencement speech.

"Because of everything that I went through to get to graduation, I always had to know what I was going for," Braley said. "I had to have that one thing, that light at the end of the tunnel. I wanted others to know that you need to find something that can get you up in the morning, and it was easy to know that's what I wanted to speak on since [graduation] is what got me through."

Braley said that although the audience at commencement was large, she was ready to make her speech and share her experience with her classmates and peers.

"I think I was more nervous to waiting in the backroom than I was actually making my speech. By then, I was thinking, 'Oh, this is a piece of cake,'" Braley said. "It was fun because I recognized a lot of the people, and I just realized that we all had done it and that we all were in the same spot. That really lessened my nerves."

Braley left the listeners with one piece of advice for their futures.

"Make every day a chance to be inspirational," she said. "Your actions and what you do at any point and time can be inspirational for others, and it's important to remember that."

Reposted from McCombs Today