TCU Executive Education Mini MBA

Business leaders have long faced challenges that intersect with – and at times, test – their organization’s values and ethical considerations. In today’s environment of disruption, uncertainty, and rapid change, these situations are more frequent and complex. This session guides leaders through values-based decision-making by examining contemporary and forward-looking scenarios, and by helping establish a clear ethical compass to navigate complex and unprecedented challenges.

Executive presence is more than first impressions – it’s a leader’s ability to make a meaningful impact in key moments for their teams and organizations. Leaders with strong presence build connections, show up with confidence, and convey a compelling perspective that inspires action. This session explores the skills and capabilities that drive executive presence and offers practical tools and opportunities to practice them in real-world scenarios.

In today’s fast-paced business world, building and maintaining a strong, cohesive culture while scaling an organization is one of the greatest challenges leaders face. Often overlooked during periods of growth, culture can become both a deeply engaging asset and a powerful competitive advantage when addressed proactively. This session focuses on key strategies and practical approaches for scaling organizational culture and creating alignment across functions, departments, and geographies.

Businesses, organizations, and the very nature of work continue to evolve at an accelerating pace. This session explores how growing complexity in the business environment is placing significant new demands on leaders and organizations. The focus will be on how today’s challenges – business, societal, organizational, and environmental – require fundamentally different approaches to leadership and organizational structure, particularly in the areas of strategy, innovation, culture, and people.

In today’s rapidly evolving economy, financial fluency isn’t optional – it’s essential. This session equips business leaders with the financial acumen needed to make informed, strategic decisions. Through a practical, hands-on curriculum, participants learn to interpret financial statements, analyze performance and financial metrics, and evaluate investment opportunities. Ideal for non-financial managers, entrepreneurs, and executives, the course bridges the gap between finance and strategy, enhancing decision-making capabilities across industries.

From digitization and advanced analytics to the rise of AI, today’s disruptive technologies are reshaping industries at light speed. This session equips leaders at all levels with the right tools, strategies, and mindsets to think strategically, assess risk, and seize opportunities in a constantly evolving business climate.

In times of complexity and uncertainty, leaders need a clear framework to think and act strategically – fast. With the pace of change accelerating dramatically, new tools and approaches for strategic thinking are essential. This session introduces strategic frameworks designed to help leaders build strategy and think strategically at the speed of change.

In today’s fast-paced, ever-evolving business environment, uncertainty is inevitable. Whether it’s economic volatility, shifting market dynamics, or unexpected crises, leaders must navigate ambiguity with resilience, adaptability, and foresight. This session explores the critical competencies required to lead with confidence in times of uncertainty, incomplete information and unclear direction. 

In today’s data-driven business environment, leaders must interpret and apply data to make informed, strategic decisions. This session equips participants with practical tools to analyze information, uncover insights, and avoid common data pitfalls. Leaders will also learn how to communicate data-driven decisions clearly, with a focus on people, context, and content.

From securing funding for an innovative project to scaling a new business, leaders must be able to craft persuasive business cases and present them in a compelling way to gain support for new ideas. This session explores the essential components of a strong business case – capturing the relevant information needed to inform, engage, and ultimately persuade key stakeholders. Participants will explore and practice the critical elements of delivering high-impact pitches that influence decision-makers and build support for new initiatives. 

Change agility encompasses the mindsets and capabilities that enable leaders and organizations to quickly and effectively pivot in the face of change, uncertainty, or disruption. For leaders, it involves openness to new ideas, flexibility in decision-making, a systems-thinking perspective, and the ability to maintain energy in the face of challenges or setbacks. For organizations, it requires rethinking structures, processes, and operating principles to better support agility and innovation. This session focuses on key strategies for enhancing change agility in both leaders and organizations.

Leaders at all levels must be able to build strong, trust-based connections with key individuals and groups who influence their work, decisions, and outcomes. This session focuses on using both interpersonal skills and strategic approaches to engage stakeholders, influence decisions, and align around shared goals. It also explores common challenges leaders face with stakeholders – including building trust, forming new relationships and repairing damaged ones.

Abbie Shipp

Professor
M.J. Neeley Professor of Management

Dr. Abbie Shipp is the M. J. Neeley Professor and former Department Chair of the Management & Leadership Department at TCU. She is an award-winning professor, working with undergraduate, graduate, and executive audiences on topics such as adaptive leadership, employee engagement, and leading change. Her research focuses on the psychological and subjective experience of time at work including: the perception of trajectories at work, how individuals react to change, how time is spent on work tasks, and how individuals think about the past/present/future. She has published a two-volume book (“Time and Work”) and is an Associate Editor at Academy of Management Review, the top conceptual journal in management. Prior to joining TCU, Dr. Shipp taught at Texas A&M University, the University of North Carolina, and Oklahoma State University and she was employed by The Boeing Company and TV Guide. Prior consulting engagements include Ernst & Young, Marriott International, AT&T, Halliburton, Texas Transportation Institute, Inspirus, and Working Solutions. She is also a member of the board of directors of United Way of Tarrant County and serves as chair of the strategic planning committee. Dr. Shipp holds an MBA from Oklahoma State University and a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Cameron Potter

Manager of Employee Success, TCU

Dr. Cameron Potter is the Human Resources Manager of Employee Success at Texas Christian University (TCU). Cameron has also served as a Professor in the TCU Honors College, College of Education and Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences. At TCU, Cameron’s work is focused on the growth of Executives, Managers, and Supervisors – dynamically developing leaders to succeed through experiential coaching, creative problem-solving, influential decision-making, and implementation of meaningful feedback systems.

Cameron’s expertise lies in the intersection of values and action – an area of personal and leadership congruence he calls “Praxis”. He draws on his experience as a school principal, experiential educator, certified coach and trained facilitator to design leadership inflection points.

Prior to joining TCU Cameron served as a Senior Learning Partner for Carskadon & Associates (C&A). During his time with C&A Cameron partnered with local nonprofits, businesses, and private/public schools – including Los Angeles Unified School District – to train, develop and assess senior executives and administrators. In addition to facilitating training sessions, Cameron accomplished this through collaborative coaching, change navigation, transformational learning and formal accreditation reviews (e.g. Western Associated of Schools and Colleges/WASC).

He is credited with multiple publications and presentations including; Ethical and Moral-Meaning Making Through Intercultural Initiatives, Development of Situational Judgment, and The Promise of Systematic External Review for Professional Leadership Education Programs.

Cindy James

Instructor

Cindy has more than 25 years of leadership experience managing teams of 20 employees up to several hundred employees in size. Her experience is focused primarily as a senior human resources leader with additional expertise in operations and business management. Cindy is currently the Senior Director of Talent Acquisition and Employee Development for Elbit Systems of America in Fort Worth Texas. Prior to her role at Elbit, she was the Vice President of Human Resources at the Options Clearing Corporation and was previously a Senior Vice President at AmeriCredit. Her depth of expertise in the human resources function includes talent acquisition, employee relations, HR systems, organization development, culture, business partnerships, training, and total rewards. She has developed a multitude of learning and development programs targeted at individual, team, and organizational development. Cindy is also a partner in her family’s agricultural business based in the Fort Worth area.

She holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration and Master’s in Human Resources Management from Dallas Baptist University. From the same university, she is currently a PhD candidate in Leadership Studies, basing her research on the confidence of women leaders who work in male-dominated organizations. She is certified in 360^o degree feedback from the Center for Creative Leadership, certified in Hogan Assessments, and is a certified coach from the International Coaching Federation.

Eric Harris

Founder, GatherRound

Eric started GatherRound after his experience in brand- and agency-side leadership roles exposed him to a frightening phenomenon: The pervasive reliance on presentation software for attempting to sell in ideas. Eric believes presentations deserve more respect, because the better we are at creating buy in, the more cool stuff we’ll get to do. So Eric and his team invented and now teach The Campfire Method. Since 2015, Eric has had the privilege of coaching enlightened teams – at organizations such as Activision, Texas Health Resources, and YUM! Brands – who know storytelling and leadership are synonyms.

Jeremy Lane

Jim Roach

Executive Director
TCU Neeley Executive Education

Mr. Roach has 25 years of experience in corporate human resources leading learning and development programs to build leadership capabilities, enhance organizational effectiveness and deliver improved business results. He spent more than 20 years at Verizon leading the organization effectiveness initiative and developing custom leadership and functional development programs. He also spent 15 years leading executive education leadership certificate programs at SMU and five years leading programs for L-3 Link Simulation & Training. He has been honored with several teaching excellence awards and has designed and delivered courses on subjects such as executive presence and communication, authenticity, presentation style, leading in today’s business environment, learning agility, creativity and leadership, retaining top talent, and building and managing the employment relationship. He holds a BA and MS in economics from the University of Illinois.

Michael Sherrod

Instructor III
Director, Innovative Teachers Guild
William M. Dickey Entrepreneur in Residence

Michael Sherrod joined TCU Neeley in 2011 after a successful career of entrepreneurial thinking, innovation and creativity. He began his career in 1976 by starting a magazine publishing company right out of grad school. He transitioned from the print world into the online world in 1985 when he helped manage a video-text news service for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. In his career Michael has founded or co-founded 15 companies, including Black Dove Media, DigitalCity.com, AOL Local and Examiner.com. Additionally, he has served in senior management roles and started new companies inside CapCities/ABC, AMR Information Services, AOL, Ancestry.com, and The Anschutz Companies. In 2010, he served as the first Publisher of The Texas Tribune (www.texastribune.org), a non-profit, non-partisan media site covering Texas government, politics, and public policy and is founding board member.

Michael is Chairman of the Board of the Urban Library Council, Past Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Kinsey Institute, the world’s leading research institute for sex, gender and reproduction, and a former board member of the Craigslist Foundation. He also serves as board member and advisor to a number of online organizations around the world and is an active Angel investor. Michael is an author and frequent speaker on online, cultural and media issues. Michael holds a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, where he studied in the interdisciplinary Great Books Program, an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Missouri at Columbia and an MBA from The Neeley School of Business at TCU.

Renee Olvera

Professor of Professional Practice
Director, Master of Accounting Program, Faculty Lead, MSBA

Ryan Stafford

Instructor

Ryan Stafford brings significant operations experience and human resource expertise to the classroom. For the past 25 years, Ryan has held numerous leadership positions at AT&T. Over the past decade he has turned his attention to Human Resources unbridling his passion for leadership development, culture, and talent strategy. He currently serves as AVP – Human Resources serving the AT&T Network Organization as the HR executive overseeing 30K employees. Ryan also has significant labor relations and learning and development experience.

Ryan holds an MBA from the University of Dallas and Masters in Human Resource Management from Colorado State University. He holds the SHRM-Senior Certified Professional certification. Ryan enjoys developing the next generation of leaders teaching: leadership foundations, talent development, coaching, communication, conflict management, and change management, at Collin Corporate College and Texas Christian University.

Ryan and his wife live in Dallas.  Their son is attending Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. Ryan and Brandy love to travel and go on bike adventures with their favorite rescue dog, Bella.