Lionel Sosa to Serve as Visiting Professor at Incarnate Word

Lionel Sosa

He's counseled several presidents of the United States. He's advised numerous U.S. senators, congressmen and governors. He founded the largest Hispanic advertising agency in the country. And his previous business clients are a who's who of some of the largest companies in the world – American Airlines, Anheuser Busch and Coca-Cola, among the many.

Now Lionel Sosa will bring his knowledge to the classroom and serve as a role model to the next generation of business leaders and entrepreneurs at the University of the Incarnate Word. He's the first recipient of the Lionel Sosa Visiting Professorship at the H-E-B School of Business and Administration. The professorship was named after Mr. Sosa in recognition of his exemplary success in the business world.

“In my years of business, I have been exposed to good planning and how businesses achieve their goals,” Mr. Sosa said recently in the San Antonio Express-News in discussing the professorship. “And in my own way, I will be bringing that entrepreneurial way to look at how we have opportunities that we've never had before.”

Unlike many other universities that usually target individuals they attract in such professorships almost exclusively to master's and doctoral students, Incarnate Word will make available Mr. Sosa's wisdom and experience to undergraduate business students. The San Antonio native, who once taught at Harvard University, will teach an undergraduate class entitled Secrets of Success in Business & Life: Creating Leaders for the 21st Century.

“The university's focus on the undergraduate program is designed to enrich the learning experiences they (students) receive at an earlier age, when their excitement for new opportunities is high,” said Robert Sosa, UIW Director of Foundations, Corporate & Government Relations, who conceived the idea for the professorship and who happens to be Lionel's brother.

The Lionel Sosa Visiting Professorship will begin in January 2004. The class size will be limited to approximately 30 students in order to keep with the University's philosophy of offering small classes so that the professors can get to personally know the students and provide each with individual attention.

The long-range plan for the professorship after Mr. Sosa's tenure calls for featuring other proven success stories in business and other disciplines by including prominent community leaders. Incarnate Word has already secured gifts and pledges totaling $76,000 toward an overall goal of $100,000 that would allow the professorship to become a permanent feature at the University.