UT Dallas Names New Members to the Executive Board

The University of Texas at Dallas named two new members and six ex officio members to the Executive Board at its meeting Sept. 22.

Members:

Kerry Wildenthal Fagelman is managing director of UBS Private Wealth Management. She joined the company in 2009 after spending 11 years at Goldman Sachs, and five years working for GE Capital in London, Amsterdam, Strasbourg and New York.

At UT Dallas, Fagelman is an emeritus trustee of the Callier Center for Communication Disorders Foundation. She also serves on the World Affairs Council Advisory Board.

As president and CEO of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce (NDCC), Ken Malcolmson is responsible for oversight of all chamber programs, operations, new member generation and communications with the board of directors.

Prior to joining the NDCC, Malcolmson had a lengthy career as an executive in the health insurance and benefits industry with Aetna, Towers Perrin, CIGNA, Express Scripts, Humana and, most recently, as CEO of Afferent Provider Solutions.

He has also served on the boards of directors for the YMCA of Metro Dallas, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Momentous Institute, the Dallas Breakfast Group, the Dallas Friday Group and the Friends of Katy Trail.

Ex Officio Members:

Will Brugge BS’89, MS’91, MBA’93 is a senior director of business performance at McKesson, a leading healthcare company. He currently is responsible for enterprise-wide project management initiatives.

Brugge has more than 20 years of experience in leading financial, business performance and supply chain service processes. Prior to McKesson, he served as CFO for Inova Health and worked at Ernst & Young as a management consultant implementing process improvements and merger integration strategies for global blue-chip clients.

He serves on both the UT Dallas Chess Advisory Board and the Supply Chain Management Advisory Board in the Naveen Jindal School of Management. 

Kris Fitzgerald has more than 44 years of experience in the IT sector in various industries spanning technology, EFT, telecom, health care, staffing, loyalty, manufacturing, professional services, retail, banking, public sector and higher education. As the former chief technology officer for NTT DATA, Fitzgerald led the company’s R&D and innovation programs.

At UT Dallas, Fitzgerald is chairman of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science’s Executive Council, a member of the Computer Science Advisory Board and a guest lecturer.

David Jacobs is a retired founding partner, chief financial officer, chief compliance officer and a member of the investment committee for E2M Partners LLC, which manages a series of real estate equity investment funds.

He was also a founder of Eiger Inc. and Dalcor Financial Inc., both real estate investment companies, and is a member of the Real Estate Council of Dallas and past president and board member of the Real Estate Financial Executives Association.

Jacobs is a member of the UT Dallas Center for BrainHealth Advisory Board. He also serves on the boards of the World Affairs Council of DFW, the Brodsky Charitable Foundation, Midway Hollow Crime Watch and the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University.

In 2007, Daniel Sessa was appointed executive vice president and chief human resources officer of Lennox International Inc., a global provider of climate control solutions. 

Prior to joining Lennox International, Sessa spent 11 years at United Technologies Corp. in a variety of senior human resources and legal leadership roles. He also served as vice president of human resources at Otis Elevator Co.

At UT Dallas, Sessa is chair of the Naveen Jindal School of Management Advisory Council.

Beth Thoele is president of the Callier Center for Communication Disorders Foundation, where she leads the separate 501(c)3 organization that serves as an advisory committee to the president of UT Dallas and the executive director of the Callier Center. She became involved with the Callier Foundation as a charity researcher for Crystal Charity Ball when the center was selected as a beneficiary in 2015.

She also serves on the boards of Methodist Health System Foundation, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas, the Senior Source and Lovers Lane United Methodist Church Foundation. She was previously chair for the Wilkinson Center Can Do Luncheon and a member of the Irma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School Advisory Council.

De’Edra Williams MBA’00 is the former vice president of customer success for Arturo, where she led the company’s global customer success team. Prior to this, Williams was customer success executive for SAP Ariba, customer success director for Salesforce, principal at Wipro Technologies, vice president, regional marketing manager at Compass Bank and a manager in Arthur Andersen’s business consulting practice.

Williams earned a BS in business administration, marketing and merchandising from Texas Women’s University and an MBA from the Naveen Jindal School of Management at UT Dallas. She is the recipient of Southern Methodist University’s Profiles in Leadership Award, as well as several fellowship awards.

At UT Dallas, Williams serves as chair and campaign chair of the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences Dean’s Advisory Council. She also serves on the board of directors for Reading Partners of North Texas, and previously served on several other boards, including the board of directors and as chair of the Racial Equity Committee for Big Thought, the KERA Community Advisory Board and the Literacy Instruction for Texas’ Board of Directors.