The University of Texas at Austin
McCombs School of Business
Stephen E. Courter
Lecturer
Department of Management
MBA, George Washington University
BS, Pennsylvania State University
Professor Stephen Courter is an award-winning faculty member in the department of
management at The University of Texas at Austin and a former top corporate executive with
experience worldwide.
Following graduation from Penn State, Steve Courter served in the US Army, reaching the
rank of Major. After stints at KPMG and IBM, he became Vice-President and General
Manager of Sprint/Global One in Brussels, Belgium in 1987, where he worked until 1998.
He became CEO of Enertel Communications in Rotterdam, The Netherland, and later served
as CEO and Chairman of Neon Communication in Boston. In 2006, he became CEO of
Broadwing Communications in Austin, and led the organization until its purchase in 2007
by Level 3 Communications. Courter also served as a Director at Globix, Inc., and is
presently Chairman and Director of Pointserve, Director of Cadiz Inc., and an Advisor to the
State of Texas Emerging Tech Fund.
Professor Courter’s academic career began at the University of Maryland in 1981, where he
taught for fourteen years, and later at Bryant University, where he taught in 2005-2006. He
joined The University of Texas in 2007. His areas of interest include corporate
diversification; mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; and venture capital. He teaches a
graduate course in Strategic Management and an undergraduate course in Strategy,
Organizational Behavior and Entrepreneurial Management. Courter has been honored for his
teaching, with recognition on the Faculty Honor Roll (2008), MBA Faculty Honor Roll
(Spring 2010 and 2011), Texas Executive MBA Faculty Honor Roll (Spring 2011) and with
the Executive MBA Outstanding Faculty Award 2012.
In recent years he has conducted several MBA Global Connections work study programs to
Viet Nam, Thailand and India, facilitating consulting projects for large companies in those
countries.
He received his undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1977and his
graduate degree from George Washington University in 1981.