The 1911 Group

Lacey Horn, BBA ’04, MSA ’05, is a globally recognized financial executive and entrepreneur whose career has focused on advancing the economic future of Indigenous peoples. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, she is the Founder and CEO of Native Advisory, where she advises Tribal governments and companies seeking to work effectively with Indigenous communities. Lacey previously served eight years as...

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Tiffany Jones , founder of Avenue 8 Cocktails and an SMU Cox School of Business MBA alumna. Avenue 8 is a Dallas-based premium cocktail brand making organic, spirit-based ready-to-drink cocktails built on ingredient transparency, quality, and elevated design. The brand is 100% female founded, developed, and owned. Since entering retail in 2025, Avenue 8 h...

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Shelly Sender, founding Head of School at The Compass School of Texas, to talk about 45 years in education and what it takes to build a school from scratch. Shelly Sender is the founding Head of School at The Compass School of Texas, with more than 45 years in education. She earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from Southern Methodist Universit...

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Layne Tenenbaum (’21), founder and creative director of Dallas’s go-to floral studio, coffee, and matcha concept, Le Bloom. An SMU Cox graduate with a background in marketing and digital content strategy, Layne drew inspiration from California farmers markets to bring a fresh, elevated flower-stand experience to Texas. What began on Mother’s Day weekend i...

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Michael Harris, Leon Simmons Endowed Dean of the Simmons School of Education and Human Development. Simmons offers graduate and undergraduate degree programs spanning education, sport management, applied physiology and health, counseling, educational leadership, liberal studies, and more. As dean, he leads one of the nation’s top-ranked private schools of...

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Caroline Turnipseed, Founder of CWT Consulting Group, a boutique marketing agency that partners with retail and lifestyle brands to create strategic marketing initiatives that drive measurable growth. Since launching the firm in 2020, Caroline has helped brands acquire new customers, strengthen customer loyalty, and increase sales through thoughtfully exe...

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Mike Romo. Mike is Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Capital Raising and Investor Relations at ACORE Capital, where he oversees the firm's global investor relations and product development efforts. He brings more than 25 years of experience across business development, marketing and fundraising. Before joining ACORE, Mike spent nearly nine...

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with SMU alumnus Henry Bryan. As the North Texas Commission's Director of State Advocacy, Henry serves as liaison to our Government Affairs Committee, oversees the NTC’s statewide policy planning, develops organizational strategy on statewide advocacy, and leads advocacy efforts during the Texas Legislative Session. He has spent more than five years worki...

This week on SMU Stories, host Bora Laci sits down with Brooke Donelson (’18) to discuss her dynamic journey from the Hilltop to international consulting and global community service. Brooke believes some of life’s best opportunities for growth come from stepping directly outside your comfort zone. Since graduating from SMU’s Cox School of Business, she has built a successful career in consulting,...

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Bruce Blackwood, Managing Partner of Woodson Company, a real estate investment firm focused on value-add multifamily acquisitions in the growing suburban markets of Georgia and the Carolinas. Before founding Woodson Company, Bruce spent seven years at Greystar, the largest manager of apartments in the U.S., serving as Senior Director focused on capital fo...

Morganne Stewart is a creative strategist, entrepreneur, and marketing leader with more than a decade of experience building brands, leading high-impact initiatives, and connecting business, creativity, and community. She is the founder of Morganne Stewart Creative, where she partners with brands, founders, and organizations on brand strategy, creative direction, marketing, and storytelling. Her w...

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with SMU alum Marcello Andres Ortega, founder of Marcello Andres Ceramics and a Dallas-based ceramic artist redefining functional design. After earning his degree in economics and finance from SMU, Marcello began his career in business before returning to the craft he first discovered in high school. Today, his work is featured in restaurants across Dallas, in...

This week on SMU Stories we sat down with Aubrey Boswell (’06, ’09), an alumnus of Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business and Dedman School of Law, and Founder of Boswell PLLC, to talk about estate planning, probate, and high level trust work. Based in Dallas, Boswell PLLC helps clients organize their estates, plan generational wealth transfers, and handle complex situations like ble...

This week on SMU Stories we sat down with Justin Shugrue (’17), an SMU Cox School of Business alumnus and Founder of Shug’s Bagels, to discuss his transition from finance to establishing a Dallas staple. Originally from Westchester, New York, Justin grew up immersed in the local bagel and deli culture. While he initially pursued a traditional corporate finance path at SMU, he found those roles unf...

This week on SMU Stories we sat down with Ryan Ball (’08), an SMU Lyle School of Engineering alumnus and CEO of Rockwall Services, to talk about his path from engineering to entrepreneurship. Ryan shares how his mechanical engineering degree shaped the way he approaches problem solving, even though he quickly realized the traditional engineering path was not the right fit for him. After early role...

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Torrey Littlejohn, Senior Managing Director and North Texas Broker Lead at JLL, to discuss her career in tenant representation and strategic real estate advisory. A graduate of the University of North Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and an MBA from Southern Methodist University, Torrey represents local and national corporate o...

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Charlotte Hatterick, the Marketing Director at EIGHT Elite Light Beer. She is a proud SMU alum of the Meadows School of the Arts and the Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. In this episode, Charlotte talks about her journey from a student at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in Southern California to finding a second home on the Hilltop. She shares h...

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with James Landen Jr., SMU alumnus (Class of 2010) and Chief Revenue Officer & Market President at Security National Bank of Texas, a proud sponsor of the 1911 Group. James shares his family’s multi-generational connection to SMU, his academic path through the Cox School of Business, and the early career experiences from Bank of America’s corporate audit p...

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Douglas Newby (BS ’74, MPA ’80), past president of the SMU Town and Gown Club and founder of Architecturally Significant Homes. Doug’s career reflects a rare combination of scholarship, civic leadership, and real estate vision. From his SMU master’s thesis that helped lay the economic groundwork for revitalizing Munger Place to his role in establishing Da...

From NASA intern to investment banking to custom homebuilding. In this episode of SMU Stories, we interview Benjamin Lavine (BBA ’98, Cox School of Business), owner of Stone Acorn Builders, a Texas-based custom homebuilding firm. Lavine shares his path from finance major and NASA intern to management consulting and investment banking, and why he ultimately left the corporate sector to join his sis...

This week on SMU Stories, we spoke with Kyle Manley (MBA ’10), Partner and Client Advisor at Brown Advisory in Dallas. Kyle discusses his unconventional path from education and mathematics into finance, and how his time at SMU Cox positioned him as a true career changer. He explains why the school’s location in Dallas—and the access it provided to business leaders and real-world conversations—was...

This week on SMU Stories, we had the privilege of sitting down with Doyle Glass (SMU ’84, ’88), an SMU alumnus whose career reflects intellectual discipline, creative ambition, and a profound commitment to public service. Doyle Glass, a dedicated member of the Mustang Club Board and the Meadows School of the Arts Executive Board, has long been a driving force behind SMU’s continued growth. He and...

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Sam Sawyer — CEO of Pinnacle Realty Advisors and proud SMU alum from the Class of 2009. Since 2020, he has led Pinnacle from Austin, developing a cloud-based brokerage platform that enables real-estate professionals to retain 100% of their commissions while accessing streamlined tools, rapid support, and transparent monthly pricing. Sam refers to the mode...

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Ra Kazadi, SMU football alumnus, Dallas-based artist, and cofounder of Nostalgia and Noise, a creative agency merging art, music, and culture. Ra’s path began on the field at Southern Methodist University, but art has always been part of his identity. With the introduction of the NIL policy, he discovered how to merge his athletic discipline with his crea...

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Nick Clark, SMU alumnus, founder of Common Desk, and now co-founder of Stonethrow, a first-of-its-kind families-only private club coming to East Dallas. Nick graduated from Southern Methodist University in 2005 with a degree in Real Estate Finance and began his career in commercial real estate, focusing on project leasing and management in the Dallas mark...