When it comes to leveraging the Cox network, Chris Hanna ( MBA ’02) is a seasoned expert. He entered the Cox MBA program with the goal of eventually starting his own business, and today, thanks to the guidance and support of his Cox professors and mentor, he’s well on his way. “Early in my MBA program,” Hanna recalled, “I started participating in the Associate Board executive mentoring program. That’s where I established a relationship with my mentor Phil Guthrie, CEO of Denham Partners LLC, a private investment company. I graduated from Cox more than three years ago, but Phil continues to find time in his busy schedule to meet with me, answer my questions, and offer valuable advice. I benefit from his business acumen and experience every day.”
After finishing the core classes in his MBA program, Hanna enrolled in John Terry’s Starting A Business course, where he formulated the idea for a new business called the Texas Whitewater Stadium. For the remainder of his MBA studies, Hanna viewed each subsequent class through the eyes of an entrepreneur. “I asked myself, ‘How can this particular class help me improve my business plan?’” he noted. “I also continually bounced ideas about my business plan off of Professor Terry and Phil Guthrie, and they provided valuable input.”
During the final year of his MBA program, Hanna presented the plan for Texas Whitewater Stadium at the 2003 SMU Cox Business Plan Competition… and won. SMU then sponsored his plan in the 2003 Rice University National Business Plan Competition, where he placed sixth, ahead of MBA students from Carnegie Mellon, Duke, Stanford, and Yale.
After graduating from Cox, Hanna spent two years working at Lexmark International, where he was named Consultant of the Year and received the company’s prestigious Diamond Award for excellence. Despite his success at Lexmark, he kept his entrepreneurial drive alive.
Then in early 2005, Guthrie mentioned to Hanna a new medical device manufacturing company called Neuro Resource Group (NRG), where Guthrie serves on the board. NRG had begun its operations in May 2004 with $6 million in private startup capital, but the company needed to raise an additional $10 million through institutional investors. To accomplish that, NRG was looking for an experienced business person with the unique talent of being able to write a compelling business plan. Through Guthrie, Hanna contacted the NRG leadership team and impressed them so much that they hired him as their 20th full-time employee.
“NRG’s CEO Tommy Thompson, COO Dave Turner, and I worked together through the summer of 2005, writing the business plan, private placement memorandum, and investor presentation,” Hanna said. “We expect to complete our final $10 million in investment funds in early 2006, and should reach positive cash flow from operations in early 2007.”
In addition to managing the company’s information technology, product manufacturing, and medical reimbursement activities, Hanna is working with Guthrie to develop the business plan for a medical device distribution company in Latin America that will distribute the NRG product line.
“Thanks to my Cox MBA and the guidance and support of Professor Terry and my mentor Phil Guthrie, I am now well on my way to gaining the necessary experience to start my own business one day,” Hanna said.
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