Jude Lugo

Southern Methodist University, Cox School of Business

“Problem-solver, advisor, and entrepreneur who enjoys trips to Costco and decaf coffee.”

Fun fact about yourself: My sophomore year, I studied abroad in the fall and visited 20 countries!

Hometown: Flower Mound, Texas

High School: Flower Mound High School

Major: BBA Management

Minor: N/A

Favorite Business Course: Prof. Steve Denson’s Negotiations

Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles During College:

Voting Student Member, SMU Board of Trustees
Recipient, Texas Business Hall of Fame Robert Dedman Future Business Legend Award
First Place Winner, Cox Graduate Entrepreneurship Club Business Accelerator Program
7x Big iDeas Pitch Contest Winner
Tournaments Director, SMU Mock Trial
Membership Chair, SMU Student Senate

Where have you interned during your college career?

eBay, San Jose, CA, Strategy and Operations Intern

Fidelity Investments, Westlake, TX, Associate Experience Intern

Area Cooling Solutions, Barcelona, Spain, Strategy Intern

Where will you be working after graduation? I am fortunate to have two traditional corporate offers on the table right now and I have a third option—to pursue my passion for entrepreneurship. As I approach graduation, I am considering the right balance between exploring a corporate opportunity or my entrepreneurial calling. No matter the path I take post-grad, I plan to continue working on my education technology startup LectureLogger, which I created as an SMU Cox student. It supports student success with innovative attendance tracking and I want it to be used more broadly in colleges and universities.

Who is your favorite business professor? Adjunct Professor of Accounting Eric Marrs. Before my business classes, I used many financial accounting concepts in my entrepreneurial projects, but didn’t see the full picture. Professor Marrs helped me to complete that picture and speak the language of business. Since we met in class, Professor Marrs has consistently supported me as I’ve developed my attendance tracking and student success app called LectureLogger, and he was one of the first professors to use the app in his classes.

What is the biggest lesson you gained from studying business? While academics are important, I’ve learned to consider the bigger picture outside of courses and GPA.

By taking advantage of what I like to call my “second major” — building my startup LectureLogger — I’ve learned real-world skills with the support of SMU Cox resources and mentors. In addition, my time serving as the student member of SMU’s Board of Trustees has provided me with insights into how business decisions are made by some of Dallas’ most successful business leaders.

Throughout my time at SMU, the people I’ve met and what I’ve learned from my extracurricular experiences will stick with me for years to come and inform my career as an entrepreneur and businessperson.

What advice would you give to a student looking to major in a business-related field? Keep your mind and options open. Work to maintain balance. You never know which opportunities might present themselves — while goals are important, being well-rounded will position you well to take advantage of these opportunities.

College is a great place to explore your passions and interests — and even take detours should they present themselves. While prestigious internships, jobs, and titles can be exciting, you’ll find the most fulfillment when you chase your passions in a balanced manner.

Looking back over your experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently in business school and why? Take more accounting classes! As much as I’ve loved learning by going, I would love to know more about the language of business.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What is one insight you gained from using AI? While I don’t use AI in many of my classes yet, I have used AI in my entrepreneurial projects. Generative AI has helped me to create new business plans more quickly, understand my ideal customer, and stay on track with my projects.

As AI continues to grow, we can’t just copy and paste what AI spits out. Instead, I’ve found AI is best used to supplement our own insights and automate menial tasks. Business schools should continue looking for ways to integrate AI into their curricula. I believe it’s the next Google — and here to stay.

Which academic, extracurricular or personal achievement are you most proud of? I’m most proud of serving as SMU’s Student Trustee, alongside 47 global business and community leaders on the SMU Board of Trustees. This year, I have had the opportunity to serve as the sole voting student member of SMU’s board, representing the voice of 13,000+ students during a historic year at SMU. It has been an honor to provide the student perspective to board members as they make long-term strategic decisions, and I have learned so much about governance, strategy, and decision making throughout the process.

Which classmate do you most admire? My good friend Yousuf Nadir is the classmate I admire most. Yousuf is studying finance and biology on the pre-dental track, with plans to attend dental school next year. I admire Yousuf’s discipline in achieving his ambitious goals of mixing finance with his interest in dentistry. Yousuf isn’t just in it for the money or prestige — he’s following his passions in a unique and bold way, and I can’t wait to see what he accomplishes.

Who would you most want to thank for your success? There are many stakeholders at SMU who have helped me to navigate challenges in my entrepreneurial projects, but Dr. Michael Hites stands out in my mind.

Dr. Hites is SMU’s Chief Information Officer, but he has consistently supported my development as both a leader and an entrepreneur throughout my four years at SMU. Through his advice and mentorship, I have gained real world experience in advocacy and entrepreneurship.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? One of my top two professional bucket list goals is to run my own business full-time — with an emphasis on balancing my business and personal goals so that I can do well by doing good.

My other top goal is to serve as a consultant/advisor for small, local businesses. I’ve always had a passion for small “mom and pop” businesses.

What made Jude such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2025?

“Jude Lugo is one of the most unique students I’ve ever worked with at SMU Cox. He is that rare talent who has an entrepreneurial mind, but always puts his skills to use in a way that helps his community solve problems. My favorite story of working with Jude is his experience with his startup company LectureLogger. Jude noticed that SMU could use a better way to track student course attendance and use that data to help with university retention efforts. While tools like this were already on the market, they were clunky and left both students and faculty unsatisfied. Jude somehow managed to create a course attendance tool that the entire campus loves. It’s so good that the Cox School’s faculty have adopted it and use it daily.

Jude has become a go-to student for all things at SMU. He is a devoted Student Senator and was appointed to serve as the student representative to SMU’s Board of Trustees. The University Trustees respect his voice so much that he was asked to serve on the search committee to help select the next President of the University. Jude told me recently that his service on this committee was the greatest honor he had in his time at SMU. Of course, from our perspective, it was our honor that he agreed to lend a hand to such an important task. Spend just a few minutes with Jude and you’ll know he’s going to do great things. I will not be the slightest bit surprised someday when Jude Lugo is considered one of the great entrepreneurs of our time. I’m just glad he’ll get to tell everyone he got his start at SMU in the Cox School of Business. He’s made us better, and I can’t wait to see what he does next.”

Jim Bryan
Associate Dean, BBA Program
SMU Cox School of Business

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