University of Oklahoma’s 2013 Regents’ Alumni Award Honoree – Trae Anderson

Presented by the OU Board of Regents and OU Alumni Association, the Regents’ Alumni Award honors the important roles of OU alumni and supporters to the life of the university. A committee formed by the Alumni Association selects the award recipients from nominations made by alumni, friends, and OU faculty and staff. Each year’s recipients receive a plaque and their names are engraved on a permanent plaque in Oklahoma Memorial Union.

Trae Anderson has provided leadership to the OU Club of Dallas Board since 1999. In addition to 14 years of service on the club’s Board of Directors, he also has twice served two-year terms as president. As president, his goal was to keep the OU standard high above others in the North Texas area. Anderson embodies the Sooner Spirit, from helping with student recruitment, and the newly established Beat Texas Lunch, and the annual Sooner Club Caravan, to supporting University Development or rolling up his sleeves to set up tables at game day watch parties, he lives and breathes Sooner. His dedication to scholarship fundraising led the board to gifts of some $300,000 during his presidencies.

His first chaired event, “The Really Really Big Best Texas Party,” was focused on encouraging participation of younger alumni. As chair of the event from 1999 to 2004, the event generated more than $280,000.

Anderson’s creativity and dedication to OU is contagious to others on the board. As a leader, he embraced change and favored new ideas, even if they were not his own. To foster relationships with younger alumni, Anderson spearheaded an effort within the leadership of the OU Club of Dallas to involve and encourage new leadership through term limits. The result was a revitalized leadership in which no current board member has served more than eight consecutive years. The OU Club of Dallas provides the most volunteer and financial support of any OU Alumni Club. The achievements of the club, which celebrates its 65^th anniversary this year, have been made possible by the tireless leadership of alumni like Anderson, who is a 1994 graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations and a minor in History.

Trae currently serves as a Principal at Younger Partners, a top-rated Dallas Based Commercial Real Estate Firm.