The Allegacy Center for Leadership and Character hosted Bill Powers, Jr., chair of the Enron special investigation committee and former president of the University of Texas on March 30.
Powers offered students advice on creating a culture of ethical leadership. He encouraged students to get into leadership positions as often and early as possible and to use advice from generations preceding them to propel themselves forward. He pulled from many different relatable areas of life to reinforce that leadership is more than something to be practiced but something to be lived.
According to MSA student Kyle Snipes the talk helped reinforce that you should, “practice in a place where you can go out and skin your knee but not get a death sentence.” In order to figure out what the right thing to do was, Powers advised students to, “go out, do it, and trust your own experiences.” Professor Andrea Kelton followed up by stressing the importance of listening to the advice of others but trusting your own experiences at the same time. These things over time create a leadership mentality.
He also spent time with our undergraduates in BEM 365A, Ethics and Business Leadership, as a guest lecturer.
Powers was the second-longest serving president in University of Texas history when he stepped down in 2015. He joined the university in 1977 as a professor in the School of Law and would later become its dean, rising to national prominence when he was appointed to investigate the collapse of energy giant Enron. He served as Chair of the Special Investigation Committee, Enron Corp., which in 2002 produced the “Powers Report.”
Highlights from Tuesday’s talk can be found here: