The business and academic worlds lost a pioneer with the passing this week of Dr. Constantine Konstans, a professor of accounting and information management at the University of Texas at Dallas. “Connie” died suddenly on Monday, a day shy of his 78th birthday.
Funny and blunt and a deep thinker about business, Konstans foresaw the rising importance of corporate governance and created classes on the topic a decade ago. He also founded and served for years as executive director of UTD’s Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance. Later he created more classes in risk management and compliance, sensing the growing importance of those topics as well.
A month ago today, Konstans stood at a podium in downtown Dallas, accepting a “Lifetime Achievement Award” from D CEO magazine. If the audience was expecting him to be a little gruff, like he looked, his very brief talk was a pleasant surprise. He said he wasn’t going to thank anyone, because the people who needed to be thanked already knew who they were. He joked that he was only getting the award because he was old.
Visitation/memorial services will be held for Connie tonight at 7:30 at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church on Hillcrest Road. The funeral will also be there, tomorrow morning at 10.