Meet the Austin GMAT Review team, committed to your best learning experience and business school goals. Our professors have scored in the 99.9th percentile or higher on the GMAT exam.
Dr. Ajay Amar, founder of Austin GMAT Review and Austin Elite Prep for GRE preparation, holds a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA from MIT's Sloan School of Management. He scored a 790 (100th percentile) on the GMAT in 2024.
Dr. Amar brings in-depth knowledge and experience from the corporate world as well as academia. A veteran of semiconductor industry, he is best known for leading his organizations with an integrated vision of strategic operations, optimizing product costs, and driving risk-benefit analytical thinking within the industry. Dr. Amar credits his education for his success in business and management.
Dr. Amar has a long-time commitment to academic excellence. In his early years at the University of California, he worked as teaching assistant to a renowned Nobel Laureate. He subsequently won Berkeley's prestigious Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor award.
A published researcher, Dr. Amar has taught and mentored students who have gone on to a variety of graduate programs. His abiding belief in the value of a high-quality education is the foundation of our company.
The quintessential Austinite who has rarely missed an Austin City Limits festival, David Lyon holds bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from MIT.
In addition to teaching GMAT classes at Austin GMAT Review and GRE classes at Austin Elite Prep, David holds strong philanthropic interests. David's community work includes his current involvement as the principal of Big Picture Social Impact Consulting, and a seat on the advisory board for Tomberg Family Philanthropies, which works on issues such as education, health, and poverty. In the past, he was managing director of fundraising for a non-profit organization for at-risk youth.
David landed a 780 (99.9th percentile) on the GMAT including a perfect score on the GMAT verbal section. He brings his talent for test-taking and his passion for teaching to the GMAT classes that he leads in Austin and Monterrey, Mexico, where he teaches our GMAT Verbal Immersion Course. David also runs our GRE preparation course.
Elaine Conces, the VP of Graduate Programs, has been with Austin GMAT Review from its inception in 2008, collecting a wealth of knowledge about business schools and their admissions policies along the way. Originally the head of marketing, she began helping our students with the application process in 2010. Since then, she has assisted numerous students in gaining admission to a range of business schools, including all of the Top 25 ranked schools in the U.S., all of the top ranked Texas business schools, and top schools in Canada and Europe.
Elaine brings an extensive editorial background to her work with our students. She has published extensive research on consumer markets; led teams of professional writers in their coverage of business and technology topics at D&B Hoovers and semiconductor firms; and managed the content programs for multinational corporate websites. However, she believes her unique talent lies in how she successfully guides our students to tell their best stories through compelling written and video essays and MBA interviews.
