Leslie Cedar has been named the new executive director and CEO of Texas Exes, the alumni association for The University of Texas at Austin. Cedar will succeed Jim Boon, who announced last July that he would step down after 16 years to lead the newly formed Texas Exes Scholarship Foundation.
Cedar has most recently served as senior vice president of strategic alliances for Rearden Commerce, Inc., a leading e-commerce platform company based in Silicon Valley. She joined Ketera Technologies, which Rearden acquired in 2010, in early 2003 and was responsible for the acquisition of many of their longstanding enterprise client relationships and partnerships. She has more than 13 years of experience in major revenue-management roles across sales, marketing, business development, account management, and services in consulting and software firms.
Before her time at Ketera and Rearden, Cedar was a director at ICG Commerce, a hybrid technology and procurement outsourcing firm, responsible for sales execution and services delivery. She was also a management consultant at Deloitte Consulting and began her career in architecture and teaching.
Cedar is from Texas and received a B.S. in architectural studies from The University of Texas at Austin in 1989 and an MBA from the McCombs School of Business in 1998.
A search committee comprised of former presidents and the president-elect of the association conducted an extensive search for the next executive director.
Current Texas Exes president and search committee chair Richard Leshin said, “The committee feels confident that Leslie will best continue the strong leadership of the Texas Exes, exemplified by Jim Boon and his predecessors. We look forward to seeing Leslie implement her vision for the association.”
Cedar will begin her tenure in late June as the sixth executive director and the first female executive director in Texas Exes’ 125-year history.
The Texas Exes was founded in 1885. The mission of the Texas Exes is to unite, inform and involve alumni and friends for the purpose of promoting, protecting and preserving The University of Texas at Austin. Today there are about 93,000 members whom the association strives to connect to each other and to the past, present and future of the University through career counseling, travel, reunions, continuing education, fellowship, legislative advocacy in support of higher education and The Alcalde magazine. For more information or to become a member, visit the Texas Exes online.
