The Council Building Tomorrow’s Business

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Brett Biggs is the executive vice president and chief financial officer for Walmart. He is responsible for Walmart Enterprise Solutions, which includes all finance functions as well as Global Procurement. Brett and his team work to deliver on Walmart’s commitment to everyday low cost in an effort to pass savings on to customers. 
 
Prior to his current role, Brett has held the roles of chief financial officer for Walmart International, Walmart U.S. and Sam’s Club. He has also served as senior vice president of international strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and as senior vice president of corporate finance. Brett was also the senior vice president of operations for Sam’s Club. 
 
Prior to joining Walmart in 2000, Brett held various M&A and corporate finance positions with Leggett & Platt, Phillips Petroleum Co. and Price Waterhouse. 
 
Brett is involved in various civic functions including serving on the American Red Cross Board of Governors. He serves on the Walton Arts Center Board and the Board of Trustees of the National Urban League. Brett also serves on the Board of Regents at Pepperdine University and is Walmart’s corporate representative on the McCombs School of Business Advisory Council at the University of Texas. Within Walmart, he serves on the Walmart Foundation Board as well as being an executive sponsor for the Hispanic/Latino Resource Group. 
 
Brett graduated from Harding University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and received a Master of Business Administration with Honors from Oklahoma State University. 
 
Brett and his wife, Kara, have two daughters and live in Rogers, Arkansas.

Michael Blue is the Managing Partner for the Austin office of Ernst & Young. Prior to assuming his roles in Austin, Michael was Partner in the firm's Capital Markets Group in Paris, France and was responsible for European multinational companies going public in the U.S. and other European multinationals registered on U. S. stock exchanges. He has also worked in San Jose, Frankfurt, Germany and Houston offices.  

Michael has over 30 years of experience serving high growth, technology companies, from venture backed start-ups to multinational public and privately held companies with a focus on the semiconductor, software and biotechnology industries. He has extensive expertise in SEC reporting, corporate governance, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, as well as international accounting and auditing, and strategic transactions.

His clients have included National Instruments, Cree, Inc., Silicon Laboratories Corporation, Cirrus Logic, Luminex, GenSet, Whole Foods, Business Objects, Epicor, Websense, SAS, and Xilinx.

Michael has a BBA in Accounting in 1985 from the University of Texas at Austin.

Bill Braun is Chevron’s chief information officer and the president of its Information Technology Company. Bill assumed this role in 2015 and is based in Houston, TX. 
 
Bill joined Chevron in 1991 as a programmer, and has held technical and management positions across the organization, including Chevron North America Exploration & Production, Supply & Trading and ITC. These positions included responsibilities in telecommunications, fraud management, project management and operations. He has served with the corporation in Texas, California and Singapore. 
 
Bill received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX, and completed the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program in 2014. He serves on the Board of Directors for SEARCH Homeless Services of Houston and as a co-chair for the Governing Body of the Houston CIO Executive Summit.

Stephen Chase is the U.S. Consulting leader of the firm’s Advisory practice and a member of the firm’s national Advisory Leadership Team. He has more than 20 years of consulting and technology experience. 
 
KPMG's U.S. Consulting practice is a multi-disciplinary team that delivers transformation services to leading global businesses. Steve was one of the founding leaders of this business when it was formed in 2009. 
 
Steve has served in a variety of practice leadership roles since re-joining KPMG in 2004. Most recently, he was the U.S. leader of the Management Consulting Technology Service Line and a member of the Global Management Consulting Leadership Team. 
 
As a client delivery partner, Steve has primarily served telecommunications clients and served as the Lead Partner on the AT&T account. His work is focused on large-scale technology and business transformation projects in various functional areas including billing and customer care, network, Information Technology, Finance, Supply Chain and Distribution, and Human Resources. 
 
Before re-joining KPMG, Steve was a Vice President and Practice Leader overseeing the Wireless and Cable business at BearingPoint. He began his career in the Dallas office of KPMG LLP in 1994 and was promoted to Partner in 1999. 
 
Steve has a Master of Business Administration degree and a Master in Professional Accounting from The University of Texas at Austin, and BA degrees in Economics and Philosophy from the College of William and Mary. 
 
Steve currently serves on the Board of Directors for Crossroads Community Services and he is a former Board Member Chair and Life Council member at the North Texas Food Bank. Steve and his wife Lydia live in Dallas with their two children. 

Tamara Fields is the Office Managing Director for Accenture in Austin, is responsible for bringing innovation to clients, recruiting and retaining top talent and strengthening Accenture’s impact in the Austin community. As a business veteran with more than two decades of cross-industry, multilateral project management experience, Tamara helps better serve clients with creative, strategic, and transformative solutions. 
 
In addition, she is also the Director of Operations for Accenture’s U.S. South Market Unit, responsible for executing the business strategy to drive growth and efficiency, and engaging and developing high performing leaders across the 13-state region. 
 
Passionate about promoting an inclusive and diverse workplace, Tamara serves as the U.S. co-lead for Accenture’s women’s employee resource group and the inclusion and diversity lead Accenture’s Austin office. In support of the company’s goal to achieve 50/50 gender balance by 2025, she advocates that Accenture’s rich diversity makes teams stronger—more creative, innovative and competitive—helping Accenture to better serve clients and communities. 
 
An Austin native and University of Texas graduate, Tamara serves on the Red McCombs School of Business Advisory and is Accenture’s former executive recruiting sponsor for UT. She is a board member of the Texas Conference for Women and Paul Quinn College, a historically black college in Dallas. Tamara serves on Austin Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Committee as Vice Chair of State and Local Advocacy Tamara and is a recipient of the Austin Chamber of Commerce’s Greater Austin Business Award for Executive Leadership. She was named the Texas Exes Black Alumni Network’s 2019 Legacy Alumnus of the Year and is a winner of Austin Business Journal’s 2019 Profiles in Power and the Central Texas chapter of the Texas Diversity Council’s 2018 DiversityFIRST awards. She also serves as a coach and mentor in and outside of Accenture, helping people find their voice and preparing them for career advancement. 

Kyle Hranicky is the CEO of Commercial Banking at Wells Fargo. He is also a member of the Wells Fargo Management Committee. 
 
Middle Market Banking provides local service and decision-making, a comprehensive suite of products, and industry expertise to serve the diverse financial needs of business banking, middle market, and government and institutional banking customers. The Commercial Banking team is comprised of experienced and accomplished relationship managers and industry specialists working together to bring the full range of Wells Fargo’s services to customers from offices across the United States and Canada. 
 
Before his current role, Kyle served as the executive vice president and head of Wells Fargo’s Corporate Banking group where he led the transformation to industry-specialized relationship businesses and managed Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, a specialized capital provider. He also partnered with other Wells Fargo executives to align Wells Fargo’s corporate banking and securities businesses to form Corporate and Investment Banking to serve the needs of corporate and institutional clients in a more integrated and simplified way. 
 
Previously, Kyle served as the executive vice president and head of the Wells Fargo Energy Group. Under his leadership, the team established a top-tier position in the Energy industry. In addition, he served as senior vice president and regional manager of the Loan Syndication group, part of Wells Fargo Capital Markets. 
 
Since 1995, he has served in leadership roles with Wells Fargo including Commercial Banking relationship manager and loan team manager. Before Wells Fargo, he worked for the Southland Corporation. 
 
Kyle earned his B.A. in business administration from The University of Texas at Austin, and his M.B.A. with honors from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona. 
 
He lives in Houston with his wife and their three children.

Vice President, Supply Chain Finance. Undergrad at UT with BA in Economics, MBA from TCU.

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Erin Scarborough grows broadband customer relationships via acquisition, retention, and go-to-market tactics, to include leading our Connected Communities sales team, overall distribution strategy as well as marketing and analytics.

Prior to this position, Erin oversaw the strategic planning, cross-company business operations and administration for the office of AT&T CEO, John Stankey. In addition, she led the Global Events, Flight Operations, and Executive Operations Support teams under AT&T CEO - AT&T Latin America and Global Marketing Officer, Lori Lee.

Erin has previously been responsible for AT&T's portfolio of consumer internet and wireline voice products across the company’s fiber, copper and fixed wireless networks. She led the strategy, roadmap execution and lifecycle management for all of AT&T’s broadband services and in-home connected experiences, while also overseeing deployment strategy for the company’s entire fiber and fixed wireless network infrastructure. Throughout the lifecycle of any broadband or wired voice product, Erin and her team were tasked with not only creating the best possible product but also managing costs and ensuring an optimal return on investments.

Erin also was an Executive Director of Broadband Strategy, where she managed the company’s multi-billion dollar fiber build plan, including all analytics, forecasting and competitive assessments necessary to successfully deploy this network.

Before working on AT&T’s broadband and wired voice business, Erin spearheaded the team responsible for managing AT&T’s over-the-top (OTT) digital streaming products: DIRECTV NOW, DIRECTV FreeVIEW, and Fullscreen. While DIRECTV NOW launched in a highly competitive streaming market, Erin’s team delivered impressive results and passed 1 million subscribers during the product’s first year. 

Erin also has served as Assistant Vice President, Chief of Staff, for the CEO of AT&T’s Entertainment Group. In this role Erin led a team that supported day-to-day operations of this executive office, overseeing strategy, marketing and operations for all of AT&T’s consumer products.

She began her 10-year career at AT&T in corporate strategy, leading financial modeling, strategic analysis and business case development for fiber investments, new video service platforms and other video-related projects. She also spent time overseeing more than 1,000 employees at AT&T’s vendor-run call centers.

Before joining AT&T, Erin was an auditor and financial project manager at BNSF Railway, where she evaluated investments, led capital expansion projects and guided BNSF financial procedures and controls.

Erin has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in International Business from The University of Texas in Arlington and Master of Business Administration from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas in Austin. Erin and her husband, Matt, live in Dallas with their three children.

Sharon Miller is the head of Small Business at Bank of America and is a member of the company’s Management Operating Committee. Her team is responsible for providing 11 million business owner clients a full range of financial products and services through Bank of America’s network of approximately 4,400 financial centers and 16,400 ATMs, and its award-winning digital banking platform. Miller’s team of approximately 2,500 associates deliver advice and guidance on cash management, business financing, personal lending, investments and retirement to business owners in local markets throughout the United States. 
 
Miller is a member of Bank of America’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Council and is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment within the company. She appears regularly on national and local TV and radio, discussing small business issues and advocating for the nation’s entrepreneurs as the engine that drives the U.S. economy. 
 
Miller began her Bank of America career in 1996 as a financial advisor in Houston, Texas, and has since held various leadership positions at Bank of America. Most recently, she was Central Division executive for Financial Center Sales and Merrill Edge® at Bank of America, where she led financial center teams working in nearly 900 locations across 11 states. Other roles include national sales executive for Preferred Banking and Merrill Edge®, complex director for Merrill Lynch in Texas, regional executive for Premier Banking and Investments, and market executive for Nevada. 
 
Miller currently serves as a board member for the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. Her other volunteer commitments have included leadership positions in United Way, March of Dimes, and Communities in Schools. She resides in San Antonio, Texas with her two children.

Niloufar Molavi is a Vice Chair, U.S. Energy Leader and Market Managing Partner (MMP) for Greater Houston for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Niloufar leads a practice comprised of 920 professionals serving U.S. energy clients in the oil and gas industry and is responsible for all client services – assurance, advisory and tax – for the geographic markets of Houston, Tulsa and New Orleans. 
 
She previously served as energy leader within PwC’s Tax practice and as the firm’s U.S. Chief Diversity Officer, overseeing the firm's diversity strategy and all of its related programs and initiatives. With over 20 years experience with PwC, Niloufar has served a wide range of energy companies both in the U.S. and abroad, advising clients on international and U.S. tax structuring, mergers, acquisitions and potential public offerings. 
 
Niloufar served on the firm's national tax Sarbanes-Oxley task force and co-developed the PwC Sarbanes-Oxley 404 tax training program. She serves on the national Tax Accounting Services Task Force and served as the local Houston office FIN 48 & FAS 109 technical leader. Niloufar also led the Tax IFRS efforts for the Energy sector. 
 
Niloufar began her career with PwC in 1991 and was promoted to partner in 2001. She joined the firm’s U.S. Leadership team in 2009. She earned her degree in Accounting as well as a Masters in Professional Accounting with a concentration in Taxation from the University of Texas at Austin. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas and also serves on the non-profit board of Dress for Success Houston. She is a licensed CPA in Texas and resides in Houston with her husband and two children.

Lawrence Pope is Executive Vice President of Administration and Chief Human Resources Officer for Halliburton, where he has global leadership responsibilities for Supply Chain, Information Technology, Human Resources, Real Estate Services, Corporate Aviation, Corporate Affairs and Security. He is a member of the Company's Executive Committee. 
 
Previously, Mr. Pope was Vice President of Human Resources and Operational Excellence. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President of Administration for Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR). 
 
Mr. Pope holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Texas at Austin and has a master's degree in business administration from the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. He is a graduate of Halliburton's President's Leadership Seminar (now called the President's Leadership Excellence Program), Halliburton's yearlong leadership development event in which a select group of high-potential senior managers, directors and first-time executives participates each year. He is also a Certified Compensation Professional.

Amin Sewani is the Performance Management & Commercial Senior Leader for Upstream Planning.

Tom Sweet is Dell Technologies’ Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He oversees all aspects of the company's finance function, including accounting, financial planning and analysis, tax, treasury and investor relations, as well as global business operations, Dell Financial Services and Dell Technologies Capital. He also leads corporate strategy, partnering closely with the office of the CEO to develop and execute a long-term growth strategy that creates value for Dell Technologies stakeholders.

Tom joined Dell in 1997 and held various leadership positions before assuming the CFO role, including vice president of corporate finance, controller, head of internal audit, and chief accounting officer. He oversaw external financial reporting in the years before Dell’s historic five-year shift to privatization and served in a number of sales leadership roles in education and in various corporate business units.

Prior to Dell Technologies, Tom was vice president of accounting and finance for Telos Corporation and spent 13 years with Price Waterhouse providing audit and accounting services to the technology industry.

Tom received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Western Michigan University and is a Certified Public Accountant. He serves on the board of directors of Trimble, an industrial technology company, and the advisory boards of the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and the Salvation Army of Central Texas.