KINGSVILLE (October 3, 2023) — The College of Business Administration (CBA) at Texas A&M University-Kingsville will host its annual Economic Forum from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1, in the Grand Ballrooms of the Memorial Student Union Building, 1050 W. Santa Gertrudis. Admission to the forum is $12 and includes lunch. A table of eight is $96. Advance registration is required by Oct. 23.
This year’s keynote speaker will be Adriana Cruz, executive director of Texas Economic Development and Tourism under the Office of Governor Greg Abbott. She will talk about The Future of Economic Development and Tourism in Texas.
This year’s forum will feature a study of Kleberg, Aransas and LaSalle counties. Dr. Thomas Krueger, J.R. Manning Endowed Professor of Innovation in Business Education and chair of the Department of Accounting and Finance from the College of Business Administration, will present his research entitled Kleberg County, Aransas County and LaSalle County: Three South Texas Counties with Similar Levels of Tourism.
To reserve your seat at the economic forum, visit
http://www.tamuk.edu/business/researchoutreach/economic-forum.html or call 361-593-3801.
About Adriana Cruz
Adriana Cruz is the executive director for Texas Economic Development and Tourism (EDT). She was appointed to this position under the Office of the Governor in October 2019. EDT markets Texas as one of the world’s premier business and travel destinations. As executive director, Cruz provides leadership to Business and Community Development, Economic Development Finance, Texas Tourism, Texas Workforce Investment Council, Texas Music Office and the Texas Film Commission.
She has more than 20 years of leadership experience in economic development, marketing and international business. Prior to her appointment to lead the Texas Economic Development and Tourism office, Cruz was president of the Greater San Marcos Partnership, the regional economic development organization established to encourage and nurture economic growth in San Marcos and Hays and Caldwell counties. Previously, she was the vice president of Global Corporate Recruitment for the Austin Chamber of Commerce.
In April 2020, Cruz was appointed by Governor Greg Abbott to the Strike Force to Open Texas, a team of nationally recognized private and public leaders to advise the Governor on safely and strategically reopening the state of Texas. In January 2020, Governor Abbott appointed her to the Advisory Council on Cultural Affairs and named her vice chair of the council. The Governor appointed her to the Texas Freight Advisory Committee in 2021.
She also serves on the Texas Economic Development Council and the Texas Workforce Investment Council. From 2016 to 2019, Cruz served on the Texas Economic Incentives Oversight Board, to review the efficiency of Texas’ incentive programs.
In 2016, she won the Austin Business Journal’s Profiles in Power: Central Texas Women of Influence Award She holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from University of Texas at Austin.
About Dr. Thomas Krueger
Dr. Thomas Krueger is the J.R. Manning Endowed Professor of Innovation in Business Education at Texas A&M-Kingsville. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a master’s degree in business administration from Minnesota State University and a doctorate in business administration in finance from the University of Kentucky.
Since joining Texas A&M-Kingsville in 2011, Krueger has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses.
Krueger has authored over 120 refereed journal articles and has been cited 1,709 times in other articles. Perhaps his most widely-read article, titled “Super Bowl Stock Market Predictor,” was published in the top-tier Journal of Finance.
He was chosen for the 2015 Teaching Excellence Award, an acknowledgment as the best instructor in the finance discipline, by the Academy of Finance, an international association of Finance Professionals. From 2014 through 2019, and again in 202, Krueger was the recipient of the College of Business Administration’s Distinguished Research of the Year awards.
He was the 2002 and 2017 President of the Academy of Finance, 2017-present chair of the accounting and finance department at Texas A&M-Kingsville, and a member of the Graduate Education Advisory Committee of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board from 2016-2019, where he has played a role providing inflation–adjusted information regarding student loan debt and graduate education costs in Texas.
-TAMUK-
