SMU Cox Honors Alumni Business Success

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Anna Martinez
annam@smu.edu

FOUR COX SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ALUMNI HONORED IN 2024

Awards Luncheon Celebrates Distinguished Alumni and Outstanding Young Alumni

Dallas, TX (SMU) Friday, Apr. 5, 2024—The SMU Cox School of Business honored four alumni at its annual Distinguished Alumni Awards Luncheon on April 5 in the Collins Executive Center on the SMU campus. The school presented two Distinguished Alumni Awards and two Outstanding Young Alumni Awards at the Collins Executive Center ceremony on the SMU campus. Award nominations are submitted to the SMU Cox Alumni Association for consideration by a selection committee.

In alphabetical order, this year’s SMU Cox Distinguished Alumni Award winners are: Pete Lodwick, BBA ’77 and Connie O’Neill, BBA ’77. The Cox School’s 2024 Outstanding Young Alumni honorees, also alphabetically, are: Brittany Dewan Frazier, BBA ’08, BA ’08, MSA ’09 and Chip Hiemenz, BBA ’06.

SMU Cox Distinguished Alumni 2024

Peter Lodwick received a BBA degree in finance, magna cum laude, from SMU in 1977. He went on to earn his JD degree cum laude from the SMU Dedman School of Law. Great at academics, Pete also excelled as an athlete. He was captain of the Mustang basketball team, a two-time Academic All-American, and a winner of the University’s “M” Award, the highest recognition bestowed upon SMU students, faculty, staff and administrators.

Another honor was bestowed upon Lodwick Thursday, April 4—the day before the Cox Awards Luncheon. SMU was informed that an anonymous donor has established the Peter A. Lodwick Endowed Scholarship at the Cox School of Business because of his service to the community and to SMU.

Lodwick was a partner at the law firm of Thompson & Knight LLP for 29 years. He later served as vice president and general counsel at The Container Store. In 2016, he became managing director and general counsel for RGT Wealth Advisors. In 2020, he assisted in the sale of RGT to CI Private Wealth—later Corient—a national independent wealth management firm, from which he retired as Managing Director just last year.

He is a Cox Executive Board member, and an alumnus with a strong family connection to SMU: his mother earned her master’s degree and taught speech pathology at SMU; his sister Sarah and brother Tim earned SMU undergraduate degrees; and one of his three children, Matthew, earned an MS degree in Finance from Cox.

Civic and philanthropic leader Connie O’Neill, another member of the SMU Cox Class of 1977, graduated summa cum laude with her BBA, and emphasis on accounting. Before graduating, she was heavily involved in campus organizations, including Mortar Board—a national honor society, the SMU Student Foundation, and she served as president of Chi Omega. She was also honored in her senior year as the Cox School’s Outstanding Business Student. After graduation, O’Neill accepted a position with Ernst & Young, where she was a CPA and became a senior manager of the Audit and Tax Department until 1985. That year, she also became president of the SMU Young Alumni. Her involvement and responsibilities grew, and she eventually became president of the SMU Alumni Association in 2007. She joined the Cox School’s and the Simmons School’s Executive Boards in 2010, and remains active with both.

O’Neill has been or is currently active with a number of non-profit organizations, including serving on the Boards of Directors for Children’s Medical Center, Children’s Health Services of Texas, Southwestern Medical Foundation, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, St. Mark’s School of Texas, and the Communities Foundation of Texas, where she is presently vice chair.

SMU Cox Outstanding Young Alumni 2024

Brittany Dewan Frazier earned two SMU degrees in 2008: a BBA in Accounting and a BA in Spanish. In 2009, she earned an SMU Cox Master of Science in Accounting. She began her career in New York City working with PricewaterhouseCoopers and later moved to their Dallas office as a senior associate. In 2013, Frazier joined Cain, Watters and Associates. She is a certified public accountant and an investment advisor representative.

An advocate of early-in-life financial literacy education, Frazier is involved with the 3-to-1 Foundation, which is dedicated to teaching financial literacy to DISD students and the community. In 2020, she founded the Women in Financial Planning Group at Cain Watters & Associates, establishing mentorship programs and productive meetings to develop and support women to advance their leadership careers.

Frazier and her husband are the parents of three children. She serves on the Board of Directors of The Family Place, a not-for-profit that empowers and advocates for survivors of family violence by providing housing.

She stays connected with SMU and serves on the SMU Cox Alumni Board, where she enjoys focusing on how to connect and engage with SMU and SMU Cox alumni.

Chip Hiemenz was grateful then and remains grateful now for the scholarships that allowed him to earn a BBA with a marketing concentration from SMU Cox in 2006. He received a scholarship as a University Scholar and received the Comiskey BBA Leadership Scholarship. Outside of the classroom, Hiemenz was involved in many aspects of student leadership, serving as Student Body President and as the Student Representative on the SMU Board of Trustees. He was captain of the SMU Lacrosse team all four years and in his senior year, he was named SMU Homecoming King. Hiemenz, like 2024 Distinguished Alumnus Pete Lodwick, was also a recipient of the “M” Award.

After graduation, Hiemenz worked for SMU in Development and External Affairs with a focus on Young Alumni. He was instrumental in establishing the Class Giving program and traveled around the country on behalf of the University promoting annual giving to SMU. During his tenure, Young Alumni giving increased by 98%.

After returning to his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, Hiemenz earned his MBA at Washington University’s Olin Business School. He was recruited by Hunter Engineering Company, a global leader in the automotive industry designing, manufacturing and marketing undercar service equipment. He currently serves as Vice President, responsible for managing key accounts. Hiemenz and his wife, fellow SMU Cox alumna Alexis Millenbaugh Hiemenz, have two children. He is involved with many nonprofit organizations in St. Louis and remains active with the Cox Alumni Board.

Nomination Requirements

SMU Cox Distinguished Alumni candidates must hold an undergraduate or graduate degree from SMU and a position of distinction in the business community; demonstrate outstanding career success; be active civic leaders and community partners; and be involved with SMU and the Cox School through activities and contributions. Those recognized as SMU Cox Outstanding Young Alumni must meet the same criteria but can be no more than 40 years of age at the time of the awards luncheon. Nominations for either honor may be sent to Kevin Knox, assistant dean of external relations and executive director of the SMU Cox Alumni Association at kknox@cox.smu.edu.

About SMU Cox 

The SMU Cox School of Business celebrated 100 years of business education at SMU in 2020. The Cox School is committed to influencing the way the world conducts business via prolific research that provokes innovation, change and global thought leadership. Cox faculty members strive to connect ground-breaking research to the classroom as well as the marketplace. Cox faculty are widely published in the world’s most prestigious management journals. The Cox School of Business offers a full range of business education programs including BBA, Full-Time MBA, Professional MBA (part-time), Executive MBA, Online MBA (OMBA), Direct Admit MBA and Master’s degree programs, as well as Executive Education. Consistently ranked among the world’s leading business schools, SMU Cox maintains an active alumni network and is accredited by the AACSB.