Dear Colleagues,

It is my pleasure to let you know that Emily Reagan has accepted my offer to serve as the university’s first Vice President and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. She will start in this new role on November 9, leaving her current position as Chief Marketing Officer of the McCombs School of Business.

As Vice President and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Emily will drive the overall strategy, vision and direction of the UT brand, lead university marketing and communications efforts, manage our reputation and deliver consistent messaging in support of the university’s mission, brand, strategic goals and objectives. She will manage the University Communications team, overseeing all university-level marketing and branding, social media, internal communications, media relations and issues management. Though her specific role is new, she will be taking over many of the responsibilities previously held by Gary Susswein, who elected to step down as Chief Communications Officer earlier this month. Sarah Beavins will serve as interim CMO of McCombs as the school begins a nationwide search to fill the position.

As Dean, I hired Emily to be the first McCombs CMO in 2018, and my appreciation for her talent, leadership skills and vision has only deepened since then. As CMO, she helped build the business school brand in unprecedented ways — strengthening marketing and communications operations from top to bottom; sharpening the approach to public relations, social media and content creation; and establishing much-needed cohesion among a broad range of partners and entities within and connected to the school.

Under Emily, McCombs was able to tell its story and publicize research and faculty and student accomplishments at extremely high levels. This led to increased alumni and donor engagement, a vast improvement in the national and international reputations of the school, as well as a united sense of purpose and community among all who call McCombs home. That is precisely the type of success I know Emily is capable of bringing to The University of Texas at Austin as a whole, which is why she is the perfect person for this new position.

Emily is a proud Texas Ex, having earned an MBA at the McCombs School of Business, and she served as chair of the MBA Advisory Board. Prior to joining McCombs as CMO, Emily was Senior Vice President, Integrated Marketing at Bazaarvoice, a marketing services company based in Austin. She began her career in public relations at EDS. After earning her MBA, she worked on the West Coast as a senior strategist for Viant, a digital consultancy, working with clients such as Sony Pictures and Kinko’s. She then held numerous leadership roles in marketing at TXU Energy, RadioShack and Guitar Center Inc. Emily also held strategy and account leadership roles at Wunderman in Washington, D.C., leading the agency’s engagements with AARP, Audi of America and Procter & Gamble.

I am thrilled to welcome Emily Reagan to the leadership team at UT next month. She is truly a Longhorn for life and brings a dedication and passion for the university that few can match. I look forward to seeing all that she accomplishes in this new role during the months and years ahead.

Sincerely yours,

Jay Hartzell