FALL 2008 - McMurry University

McMURRY’S RISING STARS“Job success isn’t dependent on where your degree comes from,but on the values that you learn there through the collegeexperience. Those values serve you well in the workplace.”After graduation, Jorge was hired by the localFOX-TV affiliate in sales, and a year later joined theKTXS-TV sales team. According to Jorge, “Everyonekept telling me youhave got to have salesexperience, so I went intothe television business. Ireally liked it and startedmoving up. The peopleat KTXS took noticeand I was hired.” FromKTXS, Jorge accepted aposition as a sales managerin Montana, where herepresented four NBCstations. “At the time, itwas just Shannon and me,so we considered it anadventure. We were therefor four years and loved it.”But Jorge was destinedto return to Abilene. Afterhearing of a job openingfor general manager atKRBC-TV, he made adecision to set a new coursefor himself and his family.“We were expecting ourfirst son, Logan, at the timeand Shannon had familyhere, so we chose familyover beauty [of Montana]and came back in 2003,” he explained. When KRBCmerged with CBS affiliate KTAB in 2004, Jorge returnedto KTXS as general sales manager. Because of his pastwork experience, it proved to be an easy transition. Inaddition to the ABC affiliate, he also manages The CWNetwork, the San Angelo ABC affiliate and the Spanishlanguage station KTES-Telemundo.Regarding his educational experience atMcMurry, Jorge states, “When we got out into thebusiness world, even though we were competing againstpeople with degrees from bigger universities, we sawthat job success isn’t dependent on where your degreecomes from, but on the values that you learn therethrough the college experience. Those values serve youwell in the workplace.”In addition to their son, Logan, who was bornafter the family’s return to Abilene, a second son, Finley,was born almost two years ago. According to Jorge,“Abilene has always been a great community. We knowa lot of people here and it is a nice place to raise ourfamily.” He adds, “It would take a lot for us to movefrom here, but you always have to keep your optionsopen.”In his role as father, Jorge is already planningahead. He stated, “McMurry was great to Shannon andme, and it’s a great place to get an education. When ourkids are ready, we will certainly encourage them to goto McMurry.” The University looks forward to the nextgeneration of Montoya children, who will join otheralumni in shaping a bright future, whether in Abilene,Texas or Vitoria, Spain. •M cMurry University 11