SMU honors 2010 outstanding alumni, emerging leader

DALLAS (SMU) —A lawyer, a businessman and a media executive received the Southern Methodist University Distinguished Alumni Award — the highest honor the University bestows upon its graduates — during formal ceremonies Thursday, October 21.

The 2010 recipients included George W. Bramblett Jr., Gary Crum and Stephen Mulholland. Tammy Nguyen Lee received the Emerging Leader Award, which recognizes an outstanding alumnus or alumna who has graduated within the last 15 years.

George W. Bramblett Jr.

Bramblett is a partner at Haynes and Boone, LLP. He has litigated many high profile cases and, in recognition of his exceptional work, the Dallas Bar Association named him Trial Lawyer of the Year in 2001. He is the recipient of numerous other awards, including the Jurisprudence Award from the Anti-Defamation League in 2005, the Dallas Bar Foundation Fellows Award in 2008 and the Dallas Lawyers Auxilary’s Justinian Award for his dedication to community service in 2009. Texas Monthly also has named him one of Texas’ top 10 lawyers.

Bramblett earned a Bachelor of Arts in social sciences in 1963 and a juris doctorate from SMU in 1966. In 2001, he received SMU’s Dedman School of Law Distinguished Alumni Award.

Bramblett also has served on the board of trustees of the Dallas Citizens Council, The Hillcrest Foundation, Phi Gamma Delta Educational Foundation, Salesmanship Club of Dallas and the Southwestern Medical Foundation.

Gary Crum

Crum is a founder and former director of AIM Management Group, Inc. Founded in 1976, with three employees, two chairs, a table and a telephone, AIM grew into a leading investment firm. After many acquisitions, the company remains among the world’s largest independent global investment managers with more than 5,000 employees.

Crum earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from SMU’s Cox School of Business in 1969, and was honored in 2001 with the school’s Distinguished Alumni Award. He earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business and was inducted into that school’s Hall of Fame in 2004. He is also the former chair of the McCombs School Advisory Council. Crum is a member of SMU’s Board of Trustees and is on the Executive Board of the Cox School of Business.

In 2006, Crum provided the leadership gift for the 43,000-square foot Crum Basketball Center, which opened in 2008. Other Crum contributions to SMU include the Crum Auditorium in the Cox School of Business’ Collins Executive Education Center and scholarship support for Cox.

Since retiring in 2003, Crum and his family foundation, CFP Foundation, have promoted and shaped minority education in Houston and the State of Texas.

Stephen Mulholland

Born in Ireland, Mulholland grew up in South Africa where he was a swimming champion in high school. His success in the sport led him to SMU and the Mustang swim team, where he became a two-time All-American and Southwest Conference champion.  He earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics, cum laude, in 1960.

In 1962, Mulholland returned to South Africa and became a journalist, contributing to The Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek and Fortune. As managing editor and chief executive officer of Times Media Limited (formerly South African Associated Newspapers), he was an integral part of the apartheid talks between President F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela. Later, when Mandela was president, Mulholland was an advocate and improved press freedom.

From 1992 to 1996, he served as CEO of one of Australia’s largest diversified media companies, John Fairfax Holdings, now known as Fairfax Media. He later returned home to South Africa to become chairman of the country’s largest computer retailer, Connection Group Holdings. He retired from the company in 2009.

Tammy Nguyen Lee

Born in Saigon, Lee was 3 months old when she and her family fled her native Vietnam. She eventually settled in the Dallas area, and attended SMU where she was a student leader. She was also very involved with Dallas’ Vietnamese community and won the title of Miss Asian American Texas 1999-2000.

Lee earned a Bachelor of Arts in cinema with double minors in French and business in 2000. She then went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts from the prestigious Producers Program at UCLA.

After working in Hollywood, Lee returned to Dallas and soon founded Against The Grain Productions, a non-profit organization focused on promoting issues facing Asian-Americans. Against The Grain Productions also creates social-issue media and helps raise funds for international orphanages. 

Lee’s passion for her native country inspired her to write, produce and direct, the award-winning documentary, Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam. The documentary tells the story of the mass evacuation humanitarian airlift of more than 2,500 Vietnamese orphans to the United States in 1975.

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