Dr. Sulman Ahmed, BS’0l, founder, chairman and CEO of DECA Dental Group, popularly known as Ideal Dental, delivered the keynote speech at the 2024 Scholarship Breakfast, the Naveen Jindal School of Management’s largest fundraiser.

His talk highlighted the profound impact of scholarships on student success, including his own, and announced a new endowed scholarship by a successful alumnus. Ahmed shared his journey from hwnble beginnings in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), to the U.S. and finally to Dallas, where he ultimately enrolled in the business administration program at UTD. He credited this experience with helping prepare him for his successful dental practice chain.

He offered advice related to his winding journey to success to his audience, including dozens ofJSOM students who are scholarship recipients.

“You never know how life will unfold and your dreams will manifest themselves,” he said. “You just don’t always. Keep learning, even from your failures. It prepares you for the future. It always takes longer than you think. It’s not a race. This is something I am still learning today.”

John Barden, a clinical professor in the Jindal School and dean of Executive Education, hosted the event, held at the Davidson Gundy Alwnni Center. He opened the festivities by announcing that the Jindal School’s development efforts had resulted in more than $30 million in scholarship funding between 2014 and 2024. Roughly 9,100 students have benefited from this fundraising, with an average of $3,200 of support per recipient.

Dr. Hasan Pirkul, Caruth Chair and Jindal School dean, welcomed the special guests, including Ahmed; his wife, Dr. Julie M. Covino; Dr. Richard C. Benson, UT Dallas, president; Dr. Inga Musselman, UTD vice president for academic affairs and provost; Dr. Kyle Edgington, UTD vice president for development and alwnni relations; Dr. Rafael Martin, UTD vice president and chief of staff; and Dr. Calvin Jamison, UTD vice president for facilities and economic development.

Pirkul then updated the audience on new developments at JSOM.

“It is safe to say that we are always among the top 10 to 15 public business schools in the nation,” he said. “So we are doing very well on that front.”

He shared that the Jindal School continues to dominate in research productivity rankings, as demonstrated in the UTD Top 100 Business School Research Rankings™, which he helped create. The Jindal School was ranked No. 20 in the first edition, released in 2005.

“Fast forward to today, we are No. 2 in the world.” he said. “Financial Times, which uses twice as many journals, 51 journals, I believe, also does a ranking, and they think we are No. 6 in the world.”

Finally, he shared the news about an expansion of the Jindal School’s physical footprint on the UT Dallas campus (see page 32). The day before the Scholarship Breakfast, he and other UTD and JSOM leaders had donned hardhats and had plunged their shovels into the ground at the groundbreaking ceremony.

“Yes, we are building a new building, a third building in our complex – the Jindal School Complex,” he announced. He described his favorite part of the addition, a 125,000 sq. ft. structure known as JSOM III that will house Executive Education and the undergraduate programs.

“My favorite part of the design is a large courtyard that has ample shaded space, trees and ample seating,” he said. “(It has) water features – so think of a Zen place where our students, our faculty, our staff will be able to sit in an environment that’s peaceful, interact with each other, talk (and) create. Our current facilities are great, but we lacked such a space and so I’m glad that we are able to include it in this building.”

He then introduced student speaker Maria Sarmiento, a business administration senior and recipient of the Cornet Global North Texas Chapter Scholarship which, she said, has been pivotal in her academic journey.

“This recognition is more than just financial support; it is a vote of confidence in my potential and a reminder that we as students at UTD are never alone.” she said. “It has alleviated the financial burden of my education, allowing me to focus on not only my studies but also my financial well-being.”

Sarmiento announced the Dr. Sulman Ahmed Scholarship Fund, a permanent endowment for the support of students in the Jindal School’s Young Scholars Program, which serves predominantly underrepresented and first-generation students. She also shared with the audience that, by practicing resilience, she has been able to craft a brighter tomorrow.

“Born and raised in Venezuela, I learned to find opportunities in challenges,” she said. “Five years ago, I didn’t speak English, and yet here I stand today, sharing my story in my second language.”

Similarly, Ahmed, the keynote speaker, conveyed his journey to the U.S. and his adjustments to a culture with which he was not familiar when he arrived in 1997.

“Growing up in Zimbabwe, when you walk around, everything’s very slow,” he said. “People talk to each other, you know, walk out and have a conversation with someone selling mangoes on the street, and they know you and they know what’s going on. So the pace was just certainly a lot faster (in the U.S.).”

His journey took him from Miami to Jacksonville, Fla. and finally to Dallas, where he found more diversity at UT Dallas.

As for his dental practice chain, he said UT Dallas’ diversity helped him home in on his career direction because it showed him how to listen and understand. These skills, he said, helped him better understand emotional intelligence, which he credits as a key to his success.

“You can have all the qualifications and all the experience, but if you cannot read people, if you cannot read a room, you’re just going to be off,” he said.

Those skills helped him realize his calling: to find his unique niche in dentistry.

“I didn’t change dentistry,” he said. “I didn’t invent the filling. I found a better, more efficient way to do it. And I said, you know, dentistry should not be boring. It should be six days a week, because toothaches don’t have a schedule, and it shouldn’t be this depressing sign with a dentist. It should be bright and lit up and it should be a retail healthcare setting.”