RICEBUSINESS M A G A Z I N E O F T H E J O N E S G R A D U AT E S C H O O L O F B U S I N E S S AT R I C E U N I V E R S I T Y
BLUE SKIES AHEAD Rice Business Takes Over Houston
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The second-year MBAP-Evening class traveled to Santiago, Chile,
for their Global Field Experience last fall. The trip highlighted a visit to Kingston Family Vineyards, a boutique winery in the Casablanca Valley. Tim Kingston — also chairman of Goldman Sachs Chile — hosted the students for a wine tasting and food pairing during lunch in the vineyard’s newly renovated space. Kingston discussed the challenges he and his family faced running the operation, expanding the business and shifting focus to the American tourist as their priority market. His family has dedicated their lives to giving back to the community by hiring locals to provide reliable opportunities. During their trip, students completed more than 20 consulting projects working with a mix of large and small local Chilean businesses. In addition to completing the projects, they explored the Casablanca wine region and hiked the Andes Mountains. See a photo of the students on p. 8.
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contents S P R I N G
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Features
28 Hotel Texas Monthly
Building a “brand house” at SXSW
44 Pitching It Forward
42 startup teams shine at the 19th annual Rice Business Plan Competition
50 Igniting a Passion
Entrepreneurs share their stories
Departments
8 Rundown 26 Impressions 36 Word Watch 40 Rice Business Wisdom 62 Around the Water Cooler 67 Peter’s Page
52 Valuation Art or Science? 54 Someone You Should Know
The man behind the Verne F. Simons chair
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RICE BUSINESS Dean Peter Rodriguez Executive Director Marketing and Communication Kathleen Harrington Clark Editor Weezie Mackey Design Director Bill Carson, Bill Carson Design Rice Business Wisdom Claudia Kolker Jennifer Latson Marketing Ashley Daniel Tricia Delone Dawn Kinsey Eduardo Martinez Michael Okullu Kevin Palmer Contributing Writers Deborah Blumberg Mark Halpern Jennifer Latson Weezie Mackey Rosalee Maffitt ’20 Siddharth Sen ’09 Comments or Questions? We’d love to hear your thoughts about Rice Business. Send an email to Weezie Mackey, editor and associate director of communications, at wmackey@rice.edu.
Rice Business is published semiannually for alumni and friends by the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. Current and back issues of the magazine are available online at business.rice.edu/RB. business.rice.edu/RB
Photo above: Rice Business from the air. Photo: Tommy Lavergne
Change of Address? New Job? Update the online directory with your new contact information at business.rice.edu/alumni. business.rice.edu/alumni
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Contributing Photographers Bill Carson Darice Chavira ShauLin Hon Tommy Lavergne Kevin Palmer Hannah Vickers James Zhao ’15 Elisabeth Zook Printing Chas. P. Young Co.
FROM THE
dean
I
t’s that time again. As I study the pages of this magazine — just a few days before graduation and the moment of investing our students with their academic hoods — I see what makes up the experiences of being a student here. It’s immersive, intense, social and enlightening. This university, this school and this community transform students. Being a part of it never grows old. Very soon the names and faces that make up student life here will change again, as they do every year. Some will graduate and take a new job or start a new venture. Others will come back for reunion, May 17 and 18. Still others will be preparing for the start of their journey at Rice. The constant renewal is one of the best features of our academic community. The cycles repeat with near perfect regularity, like the phases of the moon. And somehow, I am still surprised and moved to see students graduate and begin again. We’ve had an incredibly fast few months this 2019. We welcomed the largest attendance ever at the Women in Leadership Conference and convened a crazy popular and intellectual evening with DFW alumni and Rob Kaplan at the Federal Reserve of Dallas. We delighted in our weeklong presence in an Austin store front with Texas Monthly at SXSW that also conceived a podcast based on our professor’s research. We took a trip to Vietnam to deepen relationships with local schools and finalize plans for a global field course we’ll launch next year. Our wonderful MBA@Rice students came to campus for their first Intensive Learning Experience, which coincided with International Partio. We enjoyed a wild and wonderful few weeks of venture pitches at Lilie’s Al Napier Rice Launch Challenge and the 19th annual Rice Business Plan Competition. There is much to absorb in the pages of the magazine. The stories really capture this place, its vibrancy and relevance. I am continually inspired by the energy and devotion of our community. I write this note as a small measure of thanks to all of you, an ode to the pleasures of this place. Enjoy the longer and warmer days, Peter.
Barb and Peter tour Vietnam.
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by the numbers a random accounting
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450 50 attended Women in Leadership Conference
years teaching accounting at Rice, Professor Dick Viebig
178 guest speakers in classrooms fall semester, 2018
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prospective students at Women@Rice weekend
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years of the Rice Business Plan Competition
40 150 MBA@Rice students attend on-campus ILE
Podcast in session at SXSW
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attended the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas presentation
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A ROUNDUP OF NEWS FROM RICE BUSINESS AND BEYOND
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In January, Professor Haiyang Li led a group of full-time and professional students to the headquarters of Alibaba Group and Alibaba Business School of Hangzhou Normal University. During the visit, students spoke with Brian Wong, vice president of Alibaba Group, and Alibaba partner Yu Zhang about the company’s humble beginnings, its business model and its global leadership initiatives promoting entrepreneurial ventures. This global offsite elective covered 10 days in Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai, providing a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the economic background, business culture and entrepreneur environment as catalysts for growth, and economic and social prosperity in China.
Second-year MBAP-Evening students gather outside Kingston Family Vineyards in the Casablanca Valley of Chile
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Owlympics 2019: What a day to join classmates and family for games and trivia. 15 teams of full-time students, P’s and EMBAs. Ten students per team. Nine games, including egg on spoon race, bocce ball, paper airplane throw and faculty pie in the face — thank you professors Crane and Sachdeva!
MBA@Rice student Lizette Melendez traveled from Austin, where she works as a City of Austin Mayor and Council policy aide, to attend the Women in Leadership Conference. “The conference created a space for a diverse set of women to vocalize the challenges, triumphs and lessons they’ve learned on their journey towards leadership. It provided
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women, like myself, a moment to connect with other women who challenge the status quo of male-led industries every day, and succeed. I’m proud to be a part of the Rice community; a university that understands the importance of creating an environment that empowers women to be the leaders we need them to be.” The first generation college and graduate student is pursuing her MBA to gain skills in non-profit organizations that advocate for education equity in lower socioeconomic, ESL and immigrant communities.
Above: A record 450 attendees packed the 19th annual Women in Leadership Conference hosted by Rice Business Women’s Organization. The day-long, student-run event featured professional development panels and networking opportunities with a powerhouse of speakers across industries. CEO of Siemens US, Barbara Humpton, pictured, was the morning keynote. Alumna Robyn O’Brien, best-selling author and vice president of rePlant Capital, wrapped up the afternoon keynote. A conference highlight included men for the first time in the Male Advocacy: Engaging Men as Allies panel, addressing a more balanced workplace.
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Rice Business Executive Education
Leadership Academy Nepal
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Professor Brent Smith focused the last three days of the program on leading oneself, teams and organizations. LAN plans to launch online certificate programs through Rice Business Executive Education and our online learning systems.
An hour and a half outside Kathmandu, in the shadow of the Himalayan mountain range, 40 leaders from different industries in Nepal gathered for the inaugural Executive Leadership Development program, a new partnership between Rice Business Executive Education and the Leadership Academy Nepal (LAN). The program — meant to create a culture of talent development for local organizations — was a long time coming for Michael Koenig, executive director of executive education and associate dean of innovation initiatives. Koenig worked with past business partners and friends Arun Joshi, founder and chief technical officer of LAN, and Sriram Mathe, chairman and CEO of LAN, to put the training program together. It represents a long-term commitment to personal and organizational growth in learning and development in the region. Professor Balaji Koka kicked off the week with two intensive days on strategy formulation and implementation.
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Rice Business Insights Series
The Rice Business Insights Series, “Cause and Effect. Making Sense of Data” with Professor James Weston, was originally planned to be held in a classroom, but as registrations grew, it was moved to Shell Auditorium to accommodate the crowd. An additional 54 joined via live stream. When Weston’s not teaching core finance and corporate finance to MBAs or econometrics and statistics to Ph.D.s, he’s researching. Lately he’s reflecting on how we look at data and collect the information to make better decisions. “If we want to know something about the world, then we’re generally thinking about it in terms of a causal relationship. Does X cause Y?”
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He tries to teach his students, does it make sense? Is there a simple, clear relationship between X and Y? Do you have enough causal inference that you can say you’ve tested a scientific hypothesis? “We have all this data,” Weston warns. “It’s so easy to get seduced by crazy relationships from these giant data sets that have been explained to us through weird algorithmic structures.” His recommendation? Keep your focus on the old-school scientific method and answer the questions: Do you have a simple mechanism that connects X and Y, and does the thing you’re testing make sense economically and scientifically?
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2019 Innovations That Inspire Award Rice Business Wisdom has been recognized as a champion of change in the business education landscape by AACSB International, the global business education network and accreditation association. The award represents how business schools are using research and thought leadership as a foundation to engage in collaborative partnerships.
Rice Business Wisdom
303 3 7 Articles Published
It finally happened. The first in-person intensive learning experience for the MBA@Rice program. Forty students from around the world — one who took a 22-hour flight — gathered on campus over a long weekend in April to meet each other in person, learn from the professors who built the curriculum and, most importantly, bond. The first evening kicked off with International Partio, an annual celebration of the students’ diverse cultures, cuisine and entertainment, where MBA@ Rice students met fellow classmates — “I didn’t think you were that tall!” — and the on-campus community. The energy and camaraderie grew throughout the weekend. From eight-hour days in rigorous courses — Leading Change with Professor Scott Sonenshein and Negotiations with Professor Jing Zhou — to
Friday night dinner at the faculty club, where they met their professors and section leaders in person, the MBA@Rice students became true members
Magazines
Cartoons
of the Rice Business family. As with every good family dinner, stories were shared. Heather Price encouraged faculty to continue challenging them,
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saying “Don’t let up!” Mike Narvaez told how he waited to pursue his MBA while putting family first. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
Coming Soon As of July 1, we have six new tenured and tenure-track faculty joining Rice Business.
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Karthik Balakrishnan – Associate Professor of Accounting, currently at London Business School
Al Napier Rice Launch Challenge.
Ten finalist teams competed in the H. Albert Napier Rice Launch Challenge with ventures ranging from real estate plays to medical devices to trading card platforms. Rice students and alumni stepped up in a big way to compete, emcee, judge and sponsor. Here’s a look at the winners: • Grand Prize: UrinControl (another MGMT 799
• Audience Favorite: LilySpec, a team formed
team!) won the judges over with a compelling product that can drastically improve the life of children with bladder problems. Congratulations to Drew Hendricks Rice MBE ’19, Hannah McKenney Rice MEng ’19, Sylvie Kalikoff Rice MBE ’19, Annie Graff Rice MBE ’19, and Pooja Sheth ’19.
in MGMT 799 Healthcare Innovation and Entrepreneurship, took home $2,500. Congrats to Joanna Nathan ’19, Christine Luk Rice MBE ’19, Danilo Pena, Kevin Smith Rice MBE ’19, and Katelin Cherry Rice MBE ’19.
• Best Undergraduate: CardStock Exchange swept this category and landed $12,500. Congrats, Andrew Ledet Rice ’21! • An active team at Lilie and an Owlspark alum, WellWorth, blew the judges away and won $12,500. Congrats Vinay Acharya ’19, Samra Nawaz and Ken Boothby ’20.
Guest Emcee: Rassul Zarinfar Rice ’04, Founder, Buffalo Bayou Brewing Judging Panel: • Claire Shorall Rice ’10, Principal, NEO • Dan Watkins Rice ’85, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Mercury Fund • Gray Hancock ’00, Founder and COO, Decisio • Samantha Lewis ’17, Director, GOOSE Society • Yan-David Erlich Rice ’00, Partner, Coatue Management
• Best Alumni: Rice Business alumna, Abbey Donnell ’17, not only placed first in this category, but she did it 40 weeks pregnant! Her company Work & Mother has been expanding around Houston, so keep an eye out.
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Hailey Ballew – Assistant Professor of Accounting, completing Ph.D. at Ohio State Bruce Carlin – Professor of Finance, currently at UCLA Arun Gopalakrishnan – Assistant Professor of Marketing, currently at Washington University Stephanie Johnson – Assistant Professor of Finance, completing Ph.D. at Northwestern Marlon Mooijman – Assistant Professor of Management (OB), currently a post doc at Northwestern Kate Odziemkowska – Assistant Professor of Strategic Management, completing Ph.D. at Wharton See next issue of Rice Business Wisdom magazine for bios of all new faculty.
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branded
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Anyone heard the ads on Pandora, NPR or ESPN radio? Noticed billboards along I-10, 45 and 59? Banners at the airports? We’ve launched a sixmonth brand campaign in Houston to build awareness of the business school. Our takeover tactics are meant to saturate the market through radio, outdoor, airport, streaming video, digital, email and direct mail. We hope you like what you see. Over the next few years, we hope to gain more qualified candidates who apply to our MBA programs, increase the number of individuals and companies accessing our Executive Education programs, recruit more companies who want to hire our top students, and serve more diverse audiences in the Houston business community.
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Thanks to E.J. Santillan (aka Mumbles) from The Roula and Ryan radio show on 104.1 KRBE. His pristine photo of the city and the iconic “Be Someone” captured our favorite billboard. Best #photobomb ever.
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Opposite page: Top: Southwest gates at Houston Hobby Airport, highlighting Rice Business and Rice University Middle: Bush Airport, Terminal C Bottom: On the way to baggage claim, Houston Hobby Airport
In the summer of 2017, Andres Cuadrado ’18 wondered why Aguardiente, a very special drink in the Colombian culture, didn’t have a premium brand, as do tequila and mescal, one that could excel as a category and become a global flag for Colombians abroad. During his second year in the MBA program, he enrolled in marketing classes and leveraged faculty, classmates and
staff to help his entrepreneurial venture. This summer, the transformation from engineer to entrepreneur will be complete with the launch of Cumbé, a finely hand-crafted spirit that’s oak barrel rested and has no added sugar. Andres wants to showcase why Colombians are one of the happiest people in the world. #LetsCumbé!
International Partio highlights our students’ diversity and our love of good food and entertainment. Hosted by the Global Business Association, the popular event had student-prepared food from 10 countries as well as Louisiana, Texas and Hawaii. Music filled the night with the Rice Mariachi band; a student K-Pop group; a country western duo; traditional Tongan songs, thanks to Doug Fiefia’s family; and, of course, a few different styles of Indian dance — Rajasthani, Punjabi and Bollywood.
OwlSpark, a Rice-affiliated accelerator, has announced its summer program will office at Station Houston, the downtown hub for tech startups. “Being embedded alongside other high-performing startups, OwlSpark founders will become part of a growing community of like-minded leaders and innovators. We see tremendous value in the collaboration and idea generation Station Houston will help facilitate,” said Kerri Smith, managing director of OwlSpark and associate managing director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship.
Alumnus Ope Amosu ’14 and his restaurant, ChòpnBlok, a West African pop-up that debuted in 2018, will be featured in the upcoming season of celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson’s PBS series “No Passport Required,” which focuses on a specific immigrant subculture in an American city in each episode. Find out where and how you can dine at chopnblok.co locally.
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MBAdmit The admissions team had a blast hosting 55 admitted students and 18 guests at our second three-day MBAdmit event. This weekend gave our admitted students a chance to explore Rice Business and their new home. They connected with the Rice Business community at Dean’s Partio, student-led round table discussions, breakfast with the deans, a staff and faculty meet and greet, and a career mapping session. We showed off Houston with a Montrose food tour and Dynamo Soccer game. We can’t wait for these new owls to come back to campus in the fall!
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partio
Dean’s Partio happens once a year in the spring, and everyone is invited — students, staff, faculty, families and, this year, admitted students. Food and drinks, music, dancing, hula hoops, a photo booth with costumes and a warm night reminded everyone why we love Rice Business so much. And why it’s a great place to come to work and study and play.
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Dean profp_rod gives a warm welcome to admitted students and the usual suspects.
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||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Sneak Peek at results from the Alumni Attitude Study Project. This study is the first of its kind for Rice Business and has been completed by over 800,000 alumni at 300 educational institutions over the last 18 years, including some of our peer schools. Study findings help us identify areas of focus for the future. You’re talking. We’re listening. Learn more at Reunion 2019.
How would you rate your decision to attend Rice Business?
85%
“great decision”
Which of the following best describes your experience as a Rice Business student?
Which of the following describes your overall current opinion of Rice Business?
73% “excellent”
Please pick the three words that you feel best describe the qualities of Rice Business alumni.
Entrepreneurial
Hardworking
SMART
If a prospective student asked you, “Why a Rice MBA,” what would you say?
Life changing Class Size Close knit Great value Great program
Excellent faculty Culture Small Class Size Networking
Great School
Reputation 20 RICE BUSINESS
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veterans business battle
Twenty veteran-owned companies from across the country pitched their ideas to investors during the fifth annual Veteran Business Battle. The two-day event hosted by the Veterans in Business Association, a student group of military veterans at Rice Business, awarded $14,000 in prizes. Nashville-based SafeStamp, creators of a nanotech indicator to seal medicine packaging and allow consumers to verify its authenticity, earned $55,000 as the winner of the competition. The top five businesses repeated their presentations Saturday and were offered $120,000 in initial investments, with additional money being negotiated.
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RICE BUSINESS IN THE NEWS
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Dholakia believes this new kind of label-less luxury isn’t necessarily a replacement for brand-name luxury — rather, it could be a stepping stone for shoppers. “It’s an entry point for many consumers to discovering really high-quality products,” he says. “Once you’ve discovered high-quality products and have disposable income, you will likely graduate to luxury product.” Longterm, Dholakia continues, “this could have a positive impact on luxury brands. This is all good for the Hermèses of world.” And more choices — at more price points — is a win for consumers too.
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M.B.A.s from the Yale School of Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, among others, reported making tens of thousands of dollars a year more after graduating from the two-year programs.
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EARNED MEDIA DRIVES REPUTATION EARNED MEDIA DRIVES REPUTATION Media Mentions EARNED MEDIA DRIVES REPUTATION Yes, the cost of business school is soaring, but a new survey shows that career-switchers can reap substantial Media Mentions financial rewards from getting their masters of business administration. EARNED MEDIAMedia Mentions DRIVES REPUTATION
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’It’s great news for workers,’ said Peter Rodriguez, dean of Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business. ‘More jobs were filled (in Austin last month) than there were new entrants to the workforce.’ Rodriguez said the strong demand for workers and the stretched labor market are likely to put pressure on local businesses to raise pay as they compete to hire, a pattern he noted has been slow to materialize in Austin and many other places statewide and nationally, particularly for low-wage earners in entry-level positions. ‘It does signal the market should respond now going forward with higher wages,’ Rodriguez said.
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“ When the fire chief asked
for a three-year fleet study, I was able to apply concepts from my analytics class and give him everything he needed. He said, ‘I can see your MBA is paying off already.’ I really hope to keep applying what I’m learning in class and from my cohort so the fire department can be more efficient, more fiscally responsible. It doesn’t have to be done the same way it’s always been done. You can ask why. When you have the language of business behind you, you can ask the right questions and come up with the right answers.” Ruy Lozano, EMBA ’20 B.A. Communications, University of Houston ’11 Assistant Fire Chief, Houston Fire Department
Shortly before Hurricane Harvey, Ruy Lozano, a 20-year veteran of the Houston Fire Department, was promoted. The former paramedic, high-rise firefighter and bilingual public information officer was appointed assistant fire chief in charge of the resource management division. That meant he oversaw the department’s infrastructure — 93 fire houses and a fleet of about 300 vehicles, including 88 fire engines, 38 ladder trucks and 100 ambulances. He was also in charge of the procurement of equipment, budgeting and strategy. During Hurricane Harvey, he had to give the chief constant updates. “I had been in the position about a month. We lost fire trucks, fire stations and equipment. There was so much damage. I thought, how do we recover? You have to have a procurement plan. It’s so important to master your business processes. I knew immediately I had to get an MBA.” Location: Fire Station 8, Downtown Houston 26 RICE BUSINESS
“ Three things happened. I de-
cided I wanted to do something else, but I wasn’t sure what. When I started looking, a lot of roles preferred an MBA, and I didn’t want that to be a reason I wasn’t considered for a job. Finally, Dean Rodriguez had been my professor at A&M. He was my mentor, encouraged me to pursue investment banking and helped me get an internship with JP Morgan, which led to a full-time job. When I heard that he was going to be the new dean, I thought maybe the time was right to think about going back to get my MBA.” Adrienne Mangual, EMBA ’19 B.A. Communications, Texas A&M ’02 Managing Director Anapolsky Advisors Inc.
The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Adrienne Mangual grew up in Lufkin, Texas, was the first in her family to graduate from college and this spring will be the first in her immediate family to earn a graduate degree. Following a 10-year career in investment banking and a fiveyear career in corporate finance at an oilfield service company, she knew she wanted to do something more when she applied for the EMBA program. She left her job as assistant treasurer and started the EMBA program just before Hurricane Harvey. With a four-year-old and a oneyear-old at home, she decided to spend the first year of her transition at home with her kids. The following September, she cast a wide net in search for her next role. “The MBA program presented a lot of opportunities that I hadn’t thought of. In the middle of the fall semester, I was taking Adjunct Professor Jeff Anapolsky’s corporate financial restructuring class. When he found out about my background in capital markets and finance, he thought I would be a good fit at his newly launched financial advisory practice. Two weeks later I joined his team.” 27
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Welcome to the Hotel Texas Monthly
South by Southwest is an annual conglomerate of film, interactive media, musical performances and conferences that takes place in Austin, Texas. Reaching 300-500 affluent consumers daily during the festival, Texas Monthly provided sponsors with an ideal audience for brand engagement.
I
f you missed the “brand house” we co-hosted
set the mood each day at the afternoon happy
with Texas Monthly in Austin during South
hour. A songwriters showcase took place Friday
by Southwest, we’re hoping the pictures will
afternoon to kick off the weekend, featuring
give you a feel for the actual store on
musical performances by Paul Dally,
South Congress, right next to Allens
Jess Williamson, Jesse Woods, RF
G & CO LLATE RAL Boots. Transformed into a retro pop-
• 43% of SXSW
attendees were ages 21-34.
• Visitors to Hotel Texas
Shannon, Molly Burch and Migration of Wolves.
up hotel, the eight-day experience offered up a complimentary travel
On the Main Stage Professor
concierge to help people find their
Stylish, retro Identity System for Pop-Up Hotel includes map, postcards, etc. Yael Hochberg participated on a way around SXSW, a coffee+beer bar, five days of live music, and
panel titled “How Can Big Compa-
seven live podcast sessions with
nies (BigCos) and Entrepreneurs
Rice Business professors and others
Collaborate?” where experts from
discussing the future of business.
top business schools and corporate innovation groups discussed best
We had a chance to welcome
Monthly’s came from alumni, current and prospective Washington, Maryland, South Carolina, Kansas, Branded freebies for staff and faculty, and we’re students, California and Indiana.guests And traveled from as hoping to continue our partnership far away as Puerto with Texas Monthly, so stayed tuned. Rico, Germany, Ireland, Iceland, Australia and New Zealand. When: March 9-16, 2019 Where: 1512 Congress Avenue, Austin, TX Buzz: 1.8 mm impressions
practices for startup-BigCo collaboration. BigCos often don’t know how to identify startups with relevant technologies or how to best work with entrepreneurs. Many entrepre-
Other Details “Hotel” guests en-
neurs would benefit from working
joyed complimentary coffee all day,
with BigCos as test customers and
plus an open bar featuring Fancy
partners, but are concerned with
Lawnmower and Art Car IPA by
IP or adapting to the structures and
Saint Arnold Brewing and Rambler
policies of corporates. The panel
Sparkling Water. Stetson, Lucchese,
brought together unique perspec-
Santa Fe Vintage and Maufrais had
tives fromNo academic experts concierge deskwho is
complete without pens. have studied and worked with these
pop-up shopping Art will imagine hotel location with sign,for fun. As for
including Rice Business name. music, Kinetic Ensemble, a modern classical music collective from Rice’s Shepherd School of Music,
collaborations, and the innovation executives who have implemented them.
Clean, artful map will provide travel wisdom for SoCo folks. 29
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Pop-up shop entrance on South Congress Glimpse into Rice Business session Dean Peter Rodriguez being filmed Professor Anastasiya Zavyalova and Tim Taliaferro of Texas Monthly watch a session Lightboxes at the concierge desk Rice Business and Texas Monthly branded freebies Professor Erik Dane before his session epiphanies Gabriella Rowe, Marc Nathan and Lawson Gow discuss entrepreneurship in Texas
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This page, left to right, top to bottom
Dean Peter Rodriguez talking about the economics of live performances The crowd watched intently The Shepherd School of Music’s Kinetic Ensemble playing during happy hour Professor Utpal Dholakia getting ready to talk about pricing Claudia Kolker after her talk about what Americans can learn from immigrants Outside the pop-up Kaylie Huizenga and Kyle Rowland outside the shop Professor Doug Schuler talking about food insecurity
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THOUGHTPROVOKING PANELS THE SURPRISING SCIENCE OF SCANDAL Professor Anastasiya Zavyalova, a scholar of scandals, revealed startling truths about public-facing scandals, from the NCAA to the Catholic Church. IS TEXAS STILL FULL OF WILDCATTERS? A discussion featuring Gaby Rowe, CEO of Station Houston; Marc Nathan, VP Client Strategy, Egan Nelson; and Lawson Gow, Founder and CEO of The Cannon Houston, explored the questions of whether and how Texas stacks up for starting businesses, taking big risks and forging new industries. LIVE LONG AND PROSPER — WHAT AMERICA’S NEWCOMERS KNOW ABOUT LIVING LONGER & SAVING MONEY Rice Business Wisdom Editor Claudia Kolker explored some surprising ways Americans can benefit from the skills and habits of people new to the U.S. INSIDE THE MAGIC OF WORK EPIPHANIES A conversation with Professor Erik Dane about epiphanies at work and in life: how they happen and what they tell us about the nature of problemsolving.
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THE STRANGELY IMMOVABLE ECONOMICS OF LIVE PERFORMANCE A conversation with Dean Peter Rodriguez on his research into what live performance reveals about our economic future. THE CANTANKEROUS COMMUNITY MEAL A discussion featuring Professor Doug Schuler examining the challenges in social sector collaborations to address food insecurity.
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UNMARKETING: A GUIDE TO NOT BUY ANYTHING A conversation with Professor Utpal Dholakia (pictured left), a marketing expert who encourages people to buy and consume prudently to maximize pleasure.
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The Global Field Experience As part of an initiative to expand into frontier markets, Rice Business Global launched an elective in East Africa. A diverse group of MBAs, 13 in all, spent a week pursuing themes of entrepreneurship, education and health care as the foundation for Uganda’s future sustainable growth.
“I grew up in China and have covered business in the Asia Pacific in my professional life. I had never been to any part of Africa, and Uganda would be the first time I visited this vast continent. After living in the U.S. for 16 years, and traveling to different parts of Asia and Europe a number of times, I was looking for a culture shock that would challenge my view of life. Uganda was the perfect choice.
“I was expecting a rougher accommodation and yellow landscape. I was
expecting dirty streets, poor food and bad public facility. While I read that Ugandans are ranked the happiest people in East Africa, I did not quite believe it. I was surprised 34 RICE BUSINESS
to find lush greens everywhere we went, great hotels and food. Clean streets and public facilities at most places we visited. The warmth of Ugandans overwhelmed me, and I am deeply affected by their humble, happy and grateful attitude towards life.
“Ever since I came back, every morning I remind myself to be humble and grateful,
like the Ugandans I met. I see both the great privilege and injustice in the good life I enjoy and the struggles that average Ugandans experience. It curbs my ego and gives me a sense of responsibility to help those less fortunate.” —Zhen X. Mahoney ’20 EMBA 35
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word watch
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Response Time What do we owe the people who reach out to us? By Jennifer Latson
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R
ecently, a man I don’t know emailed me about a story I’d written on loneliness. The message was brief and vague. “I’d like to connect with you regarding the article you wrote,” he said, adding only that “mental health will be a key initiative we are undertaking” at the large marketing firm where he works. I’m wary of emails with no clear purpose, since they often seem to lead to long conversations and burdensome requests. Still, I meant to respond. Then I got distracted — by other emails, work demands, a rumor that there was cake in a nearby office — and never got around to it. A few weeks later, the man called my office at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, where I write about faculty research. When I didn’t answer, he began irately dialing every department in the directory, first insisting that an admissions officer track me down and ultimately demanding to speak with Rice Business Dean Peter Rodriguez — presumably to tattle on me for my email truancy. People across the building were miffed, and I was mortified that I had set all this in motion. Obviously, it was my fault for not answering the man’s email promptly. But was it? What response do we actually owe the sender of an unsolicited email? There’s no question that email is a growing burden for many of us. A 2019 study by management professors at the University of Arkansas, Michigan State, Florida International University and the University of Massachusetts found that the average “knowledge worker” — someone who gets paid, at least in part, for thinking — spends more than a quarter of their workweek reading and responding to email. And while answering email may not seem to require much effort, it is in fact one of our most taxing duties, the researchers found. “Email is a unique job demand in that it entails a high workload combined with lower levels of control due to strict workplace norms around being responsive,” they write. That makes it one of the biggest sources of workplace overload, taking a toll on our wellbeing and our overall productivity. Managers, especially, are drained by the demands of their inboxes, which siphon time away from more critical tasks, the researchers note. Luckily for me, it’s a battle Dean Rodriguez can relate to. “I triage aggressively and periodically go on maniacal purges to get to inbox zero. It’s not pretty,” Rodriguez says. “By triage, I mean that I respond right away to anything urgent and to key stakeholders with whom I work closely. This is about half the emails I receive. For the others, I tend to let them linger while I think about how I want to respond. That’s the big delay.”
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“Yes, we’re all overwhelmed with email. One recent survey suggested that the average American’s inbox has 199 unread messages,” writes Grant. “But volume isn’t an excuse for not replying. Ignoring email is an act of incivility,” writes Wharton Professor Adam Grant.
Still, many of us expect a response to every email we to every email, not that you say yes to every request.” send — and a quick one, at that. Some people argue that Rodriguez agrees that every email — unless it’s it is simply common courtesy to reply to those who reach an unsolicited sales pitch — deserves a response. The out to you. All of them. And while the digital age may be problem is that responding to everyone cuts down on the to blame for a general decline in courtesy, the fault time you can devote to each answer. ultimately rests with email-ignorers — like me. “I think we’re all uncomfortable with the fundamental “In recent years, it’s become more and more tradeoff. You either offer shorter, less useful responses ‘acceptable’ to not respond promptly to emails, or to everyone or just don’t respond at all to a significant worse, to not respond at all,” writes Tasha Eurich, an number of emails,” he says. “I’ve been trying to emulate organizational psychologist who heads an executive a few people I know who handle this well and I’ve been development firm. “Listen, I get it. We’re all busy. But half successful at best. They do a good job of the one-liner that’s no excuse for bad behavior. Response time is a responses: ‘Thanks Peter — I’ll get back to you soon.’ Or non-verbal cue that speaks volumes about who we are, ‘Interesting. I appreciate your work on this.’ As a response for better or for worse.” to a lengthy email, these can seem cold or like a subtle “Responding in a timely manner shows that you brush-off. But I’ve come to see them as the ‘something vs. are conscientious — organized, dependable and nothing’ tradeoff a busy inbox creates.” hardworking,” Wharton professor Adam Grant On the other hand, there are those who wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed. Not believe no response is a legitimate response, just responding quickly — or at all — means you as an Irish goodbye is a perfectly acceptable “You’ve are… not. way to leave a party. In its extreme form, got “Yes, we’re all overwhelmed with however, not responding becomes ghosting: mail.” email. One recent survey suggested that the disappearing from an ongoing conversation average American’s inbox has 199 unread in which the other person rightfully expects a messages,” writes Grant. “But volume isn’t an response — like when a recruiter actively pursues excuse for not replying. Ignoring email is an act of a job candidate and then cuts off communication incivility.” completely, never to email again. It may also mean you’re bad at your job. Researchers More recently, workers themselves have begun have found that one of the surest signs of an ineffective ghosting employers, leaving a job without giving notice manager is being slow to answer emails, Grant explains. and not responding to calls, emails or texts, which Meanwhile, some of the busiest people are the fastest economists have taken as a sign that the economy is so to respond — and they see slow replies as a red flag in strong they have no trouble finding new opportunities people they might want to work with. — and no qualms about burning bridges with previous Molly Beck, founder of the podcast creation website employers. Messy.fm and author of the networking guide Reach Out, This seems like a bad idea, professionally speaking. responds almost instantly to emails, and expects the But any unanswered email could potentially do contractors and vendors she hires to do the same. professional harm. That’s because our default response “My email philosophy is: If you are on top of your to being ignored is to take offense — even if the silence inbox, you are on top of your life,” she wrote me — was unintentional, says Terri Kurtzberg, a management approximately 90 seconds after I emailed her. “It’s professor at Rutgers Business School. Often, it’s simply a perfectly fine to respond to an email with ‘Thanks for question of whether the person you emailed was free to reaching out, but this isn’t a fit/not something I need right respond the moment she received the email — because now/not something I have the bandwidth to do right.’ if not, countless other requests for attention have likely Responding to every email just means you respond buried it since then. 38 RICE BUSINESS
“Our research shows that attention is more and more divided, and there are more and more requests for our attention. That means we have to prioritize more and that more things slip — and that there are enough other demands for our attention that if one does slip, it doesn’t rise to the surface again,” Kurtzberg says. “It’s coupled with the fact that so many more people can figure out how to get access to us: People can find your email and send you direct requests so easily.” Personality types factor into our response times, as well. “There are people who will answer within 20 seconds, no matter what time of the day or night, and there are people I call a black hole: You’ll just never ever hear back,” she says. The 20-second answerers, naturally, tend to expect others to behave the same way. The black holes may not give it much thought. “Personally, I don’t think it’s a particularly crazy idea making sure every email I receive gets a response within 48 hours, maximum,” Elena Lockett, a marketing assistant at the British firm FM Outsource, writes. “Surely this is the norm?” But that’s exactly the problem: There are no norms when it comes to email etiquette, Kurtzberg says. “This is one place where our society doesn’t have a rule yet,” she explains. “It’s a little bit of a free-for-all.” It’s up to each of us to set our own standards regarding who to respond to, and when. There are no right or wrong answers, she says. Of course, there’s no established set of etiquette standards for email senders, either, but it always helps to be considerate of the recipient’s time. “My least favorite emails are the ones that end with ‘Thoughts?’” Rodriguez says. “Seriously? It always seems like a challenge to show off my insightfulness. Come see me, let’s have a drink or go for a walk. That’s the environment for sharing my thoughts. In an email? It’s either skip all the really good stuff or spend all day working on one message.” In an ideal world, we’d communicate more in person, or at least by phone. But it takes more initiative to start a conversation those ways, and often a lot more time. Email, however, is still a step above texting, where curt replies 39
are the norm — but there’s an even greater expectation of a quick reply. “I get more and more texts from work colleagues, and I think this has something to do with the acceptable tone on texts. You’re expected to write one or two lines and that’s good, but there is also the imagined finger-roll-ondesk urgency of a reply,” Rodriguez says. “Sadly, my emoji game is awful. There are no easy wins, it seems. “So do we owe a response to everyone? Is it uncivil to ignore someone, even when it’s a stranger who wants to connect with you — and you don’t? “Personally, I think it’s not civilized to demand attention from a stranger without an invitation to do so,” Kurtzberg says. “I find telemarketers uncivil in interrupting my day, so I don’t find it uncivil when I hang up on them.” u Jennifer Latson is a senior editor at Rice Business and the author of “The Boy Who Loved Too Much,” a nonfiction book about a genetic disorder sometimes called the opposite of autism. She finds email difficult.
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C O L L A B O R AT I O N P E E R | R E V I E W E D R E S E A R C H
MEAL PLAN
Without A Coordinated Fight Against Hunger, The Hungry Don’t Eat. Based on research by Douglas A. Schuler and Balaji R. Koka • Collaboration is often seen as the best way to solve
humanitarian issues. • But institutional barriers from donors or governments,
along with a competitive mindset, can impede collaboration. • New thinking about donors, public policies, backbone organizations and the mindset of organizational leaders is needed to prompt widespread collaboration.
Say you work for an organization fighting famine in the Horn of Africa. Thousands of refugees cross the borders there in dire need of attention. Lacking food, water and shelter, most are malnourished, and many are suffering from contagious diseases. Your organization is tasked with helping these people. But there are dozens of other organizations that also want to help. Some focus their efforts on promoting human rights, others on providing medical care, still others on distributing food. Each group wants to be seen as a leader, partly to attract more donor and government support. So what happens? At first, there’s a spirit of cooperation. There are so many people who need help and not enough hands to do it all. As more organizations arrive, however, competition creeps in. The refugees begin to suffer as support becomes less coordinated. What started as an emergency evolves into a full-blown catastrophe. Finally, it becomes clear that without concerted action, hundreds or even thousands of lives will be lost. How can these competing organizations, all of whom have the refugees’ best interests at heart, band together to serve them better?
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Rice Business professors Douglas A. Schuler and Balaji R. Koka set out to discover what factors can bring organizations together to solve a humanitarian problem — and what factors ultimately drive them apart. To study the challenges, they examined similar issues affecting Houston’s food deserts: areas where residents have limited access to affordable, nutritious food. Half a million Houstonians live in areas the USDA defines as food deserts, most of them in predominantly minority and lower-income communities. And nearly three-quarters of a million Houstonians don’t know where their next meal is coming from – a statistic that puts the city above the national average for food insecurity and has drawn the attention of a number of charitable organizations. Schuler and Koka observed that while there was some degree of cooperation between these organizations, there was also considerable discord. Informal coalitions and collaborations did help deliver quality food to those who needed it, but the coordination wasn’t systematic, which meant that the problem of food insecurity was a long way from being resolved. Why would it take multiple organizations to tackle this issue? One factor had to do with ambiguity in the ways different groups perceived the problem. Some groups saw food scarcity as a nutritional issue, and others as a matter of injustice. Still others saw it as a reflection of the need for community agriculture. The sheer variety of definitions meant there was an opportunity for multiple groups to work the problem from different perceptual angles. Each group also defined its target demographic in a different way, the researchers found, which meant that their combined efforts helped a large and diverse group of people. Actually solving the problem, however, would take more than multiple groups with multiple approaches. While the groups could work together in loose coalitions, there were barriers that prevented them from working together systematically. The first was bureaucratic: funding institutions and government agencies often imposed requirements that limited the flexibility of aid workers. In some instances, these institutions actually created disincentives to systemic collaboration. Funders tended to focus on quick metrics, such as number of meals served, pounds of food distributed or number of children enrolled in a nutrition or gardening program. The researchers also found that donors might make just a short-term commitment, funding programs for a year or two to address problems that could take a decade or more to actually solve.
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Similarly, public policy often worked against collaboration by imposing tight parameters on the kinds of services that could be offered. Under these circumstances, Schuler and Koka concluded, it was more likely that organizations would compete with each other than work together. In the effort to bring healthy food to Houston’s food deserts, as in other humanitarian endeavors, there was no single coordinating agency to keep all the groups in line, so priorities tended to shift over time. The result? The long-term goal of finding a sustainable solution to food insecurity loses out to the short-term incentives of outperforming other organizations. But there are ways to encourage teamwork even among unrelated groups. Funders and government agencies should be willing to invest more in capacity-building efforts, the researchers concluded, and to move away from measuring short-term programmatic outputs, such as the number of meals served by a particular pantry in a single day. Shifting to a long-term understanding of a problem would limit the competitiveness that creeps in when groups vie for better quarterly metrics to attract grants and donations. Other measures to promote cooperation might include forming a backbone organization to coordinate services across disparate organizations. Importantly, Schuler and Koka argue, organizations could make great strides by changing their mindset from one of competition to one of cooperation. They argue that organizational leaders need to refocus their efforts on core social goals instead of private organizational goals. The goal of humanitarian aid, after all, is not to please donors, but to help people in need. And getting credit for your good work only matters if that work alleviates people’s suffering — now and in the future. u
See business.rice.edu/wisdom for more. Douglas Schuler is an associate professor of business and public policy and Balaji Koka is an associate professor of strategic management at Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. To learn more, please see: Schuler, D. A. & Koka, B. R. (2019). Challenges of social sector systemic collaborations: What’s cookin’ in Houston’s food insecurity space? Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Rice University.
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The Li River in Guilin is one of my favorite places to visit in China. This stunning landscape is decorated with rolling karst hills, steep cliffs and fascinating caves. A short hike up the Xiang Gong Mountain will reward you with one of the best bird’s-eye views of the Li River (Picture Shown). Photo by James Zhao ’15.
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Pitching It Forward 42 startup teams hit it out of the park at the 19th annual Rice Business Plan Competition By Deborah Lynn Blumberg
I
n the Shell Auditorium, Randy Paris steps up to the podium to present his pitch. A hush falls over the crowd as hundreds of angel investors and venture capitalists train their eyes on the University of Chicago Booth MBA, who has 15 minutes to make his business case. Paris, CEO of coffee startup BrewBike, and his team have made it to the final round of the 19th annual Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC), the world’s richest and largest student startup competition. Alongside 41 other teams from across the globe, for three days Paris and his team have vied for what was ultimately a record $2.9 million in prize money to invest in their growing businesses. The stakes are huge. “You can only keep driving if you have gas in the tank,” says Paris before the competition kicks off. His team of four includes BrewBike founder Lucas Philips from Northwestern University. The company delivers cold brew coffee in a more convenient way to students at Northwestern and UT Austin through a business model that’s 100% student run. Their goal is to expand to dozens more universities across the U.S. After closing an $850,000 seed round in September, BrewBike applied
LilySpec team members from Rice University pose at Moody Center for the Arts’ “Sideways to the Sun” installation by Natasha Bowdoin.
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to RBPC to further fuel its expansion. “Getting ready for a competition like Rice is such a valuable exercise in and of itself,” Paris says. “You’re making the case for why your company makes sense. And once you’ve convinced yourself, you can convince investors.” Paris and Philips were among an impressive group of teams at RBPC this year, from the U.S. to the U.K. to Singapore. The event is hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and the Jones Graduate School of Business. With enthusiasm, props and catchy slogans, teams presented their business solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues — heart disease, cancer, student loans, clean drinking water and immigration. For months leading up to the event, they worked on refining their financials, their sales and marketing plans, and their exit strategy. This year’s team from Rice, LilySpec, has set out to overhaul the vaginal speculum, making the OB/GYN experience a more comfortable one for women. During pitches at RBPC, Rice MBA student Joanna Nathan waved a metal speculum through the air. “This device has been torturing women for the past 150 years,” Nathan tells judges, all volunteers, as she opens the device. “It’s in serious need of an innovative, patient-centered overhaul.” LilySpec took home $29,000 in prizes, and won best elevator pitch. Personal experience influenced other teams’ products as well. NABACO from Texas State University applied to RBPC to help raise $500,000 for its Natuwrap coating, a spray that extends the shelf-life of fruits and vegetables. NABACO COO Damilola Runsewe grew up in Nigeria, where food traveling long distances often spoils. “The level of the competition here is absolutely world-class,” Runsewe says. “Just being here is stimulating. The hardest part was seeing it come to an end.” Caleb Carr, CEO of Vita Inclinata Technologies from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law, developed the Load Stability System (LSS) after his search and rescue teammate Don died from a heart attack following an unsuccessful airlift. The LSS prevents the wild swing of precious passengers and cargo as they’re being airlifted during helicopter operations. “We know what our mission is,” says Carr, who was finally accepted into RBPC this year after four unsuccessful applications. “It’s to ensure people won’t die because of the swinging. Every time I go on stage, I’m focused on that life-saving aspect.” The best 42 minutes in capitalism A launching pad for innovative companies across industries — technology, energy and life sciences — RBPC provides participants with invaluable feedback to
hone their pitches and ultimately attempt to launch their businesses. In a given year, more than 300 teams apply for the 42 spots. In classrooms, over box lunches and in the hallways, teams get ample opportunity to network with investors. Business cards are exchanged, meetings are scheduled. The competition kicks off Thursday afternoon with a practice round before the rapid-fire Elevator Competition in the Shell Auditorium. “They say the Kentucky Derby is the best two minutes in sports,” Rice Business Dean Peter Rodriguez tells students as they gear up to deliver their 60-second elevator pitch. “Well, this is the best 42 minutes in capitalism.” On Friday, teams split into seven tracks, present to judges, then address questions during a Q&A. One crowd favorite, Resonado, played the song “Englishman in New York” by Sting for the judges after the team’s slide presentation. “Join us in replacing all the speakers in the world,” CEO Brian Cho told the judges, holding up the flat core speaker he and his father developed. “It’s almost like a final exam,” says Paris, who handed out cups of cold brew coffee before BrewBike’s pitch. “You can get a question about anything in the textbook. You have to be prepared.” Friday afternoon, each team receives 15 minutes of feedback. At an evening reception, the 15 semi-finalists are announced — the top two from each track, plus the highest-scoring third place team. Saturday morning, semi-finalists compete across three tracks, delivering their pitches yet again. The remaining 27 teams compete in a Wildcard Round for a spot in the finals. At noon on Saturday, in a standing-room only Shell Auditorium, the finalists are announced. Then teams have one last chance to convince the critics before the winners are revealed Saturday night at a company showcase and banquet. Supporting entrepreneurs The GOOSE Society of Texas provides RBPC’s top, $350,000 prize, and often upsizes it. The winner is invited to pitch to the entire GOOSE group, a meeting that many times results in millions more in funding. GOOSE has invested more than $20,000,000 in a dozen RBPC companies, more than 40 percent of its total capital invested. Four companies have exited, returning more capital than GOOSE initially invested. GOOSE co-founder Jack Gill, founder of the Palo Alto-based Vanguard Ventures, has judged at RBPC since 2005. “I love to support entrepreneurs at the core level,” says Gill. “RBPC is like the Super Bowl. Prizes are big, the competition is tough, and the process is very intense. My favorite part is meeting all these dynamic entrepre-
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“ The Rice competition changed our lives. We refer to our company as pre-Rice and post-Rice. The competition sent a message that we can build something really big; it gave us even more confidence. It’s something we’ll never forget.”
Below: Winner Vita Inclinata Technologies bested 41 other teams hailing from some of the world’s top universities in the 19th Rice Business Plan Competition.
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neurs, the fun, the excitement when you see all that energy and aspiration in the room.” In addition to GOOSE, more than 200 other corporate and private sponsors support RBPC. Even teams that don’t make it to the finals have the potential to walk away with hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money. For judges, RBPC is not only an investment opportunity, but also a chance to reconnect in person with colleagues from across the world. Of the 300 judges this year, more than 26 percent were women, up from six percent in 2001. “We’re on our way to 50 percent,” says Rice Alliance Managing Director Brad Burke, who served as the competition’s host and emcee. CISCO, which sponsors the $100,000 CISCO Global Problem Solver Prize, first partnered with RBPC in 2016. This year it sent seven judges to the competition. “Venture capital is an area that’s underinvested,” says Mary de Wysocki, senior director with corporate affairs at CISCO. “We were evaluating incubators globally, and one that rose to the top was Rice. I always feel the pool of talent is really high.” This year, CISCO awarded its prize to Rhaeos, a Northwestern University team that’s developed a wearable sensor to help better monitor patients with hydrocephalus, a condition where excess fluids builds up in the brain. In 2016, CISCO chose Neopenda from Columbia University, which makes sensors to monitor newborns. Last year, de Wysocki visited Neopenda’s trial in Uganda. “It was life changing,” she says. “Young people care, and you see it in action in some of these startups.” Diana Murakhovskaya, principal and co-founder of the recently-launched The Artemis Fund, Houston’s first, female-focused fund, says Houston is the place to be for founders. “It was great to see so many companies with female leadership,” Murakhovskaya says. This year’s $100,000 Artemis Investment Prize went to Zilper Trenchless from the MIT Sloan School of Management, which is working to reduce the cost of infrastructure by developing new technologies related to water pipeline construction. Changing lives Since 2001, when nine teams competed for just $10,000, RBPC has seen more than 229 competitors successfully launch their ventures. Past competitors have raised nearly $2.3 billion in funding and created more than 3,000 new jobs. Thirty-two companies have seen
successful exits valued at more than $1 billion. “The competition helped us get that initial leadership and funding together,” says Emma Fauss, CEO of Medical Informatics Corp, Rice’s 2013 team. “Going out into the world, we felt we could answer any question.” Fauss’ company develops technology to help clinicians focus more on patients and less on documentation. Her team didn’t place at RBPC, but they still walked away with $28,500 in prize money. Days before this year’s com-
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20 employees across three continents. Nanograf is working with Ford, GM and Chrysler, and it’s on the cusp of commercialization. “The Rice competition changed our lives,” says Mayekar, who still has the giant foam check they received tacked up on the wall in his office. “We refer to our company as pre-Rice and postRice. The competition sent a message that we can build something really big, it gave us even more confidence. It’s something we’ll never forget.”
petition, Medical Informatics announced it had raised $11.9 million in Series A funding. Samir Mayekar, CEO of Nanograf, a battery technology company, won RBPC in 2013 when he was an MBA student at Northwestern. His team took home $911,000, which grew to over $1 million in the months following the competition. The company has expanded from three students when Mayekar competed at RBPC to now more than 49
A transformative experience Saturday night at the Westin Galleria, investors chat with teams as they browse their tables at the Company Showcase. Later, in the ballroom, Houston-based street artist Dual puts the finishing touches on an original piece of art he’s created for, and during, the competition. The 2019 finalists — running on fumes — huddle on stage. An excited chatter spreads across the room as the winners are announced. In fourth place, Rhaeos ends up with more than $450,000 in prizes. Fifth place winner Zilper Trenchless takes home $435,000, and BrewBike takes sixth, bringing home $100,000. “This experience was one of the most exhilarating I’ve ever undertaken,” Paris says. GOOSE upsized its prize once again this year, handing out an additional $925,000 spread across five teams. The OWL Investment Group also upped its prize money and handed out $400,000. Resonado and Vita Inclinata stand side by side as the second-to-last envelope is ripped opened. Cheers erupt across the ballroom. Resonado takes second place, earning $425,000 in prizes. Vita Inclinata is the first prize RBPC 2019 winner, walking away with over $550,000 in cash and prizes, including the chance to ring the closing bell at the NASDAQ in New York. “Winning Rice was not only a great catalyst, but also a great validation for our technology,” says Carr. “You can literally transform your business over three days. Rice is very much catapulting our opportunities.” u Deborah Lynn Blumberg is a Houston-based freelance writer specializing in business, finance and health and wellness whose work has appeared in publications including The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, The Christian Science Monitor and Newsday. Previously, she was a reporter at Dow Jones/The Wall Street Journal. (deborahlynnblumberg. com; @dlblumberg)
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IGNITING A
PA S S I O N Entrepreneurs share their stories By Rosalee Maffitt
“Two years ago, our speaker
was sitting in your chair. Please welcome Dr. Brittany Barreto.”
W
With those words, Jack Gill — scientist, professor, venture capitalist and philanthropist — introduced the first speaker for the IGNITE 2019 conference for entrepreneurs. In the audience sat seasoned entrepreneurs, generous conference sponsors and students interested in learning about how to create and build high-tech entrepreneurial companies. Ph.D. students and medical doctors from Rice, UC-Davis, Baylor College of Medicine and the Texas Medical Center Innovation Institute had technical knowhow in computer science, biology, chemistry, physics and medicine to develop technologies. MBA students from Rice, UC-Davis and Lamar had the know-how to monetize and commercialize them. After spending the previous day visiting startups in the Silicon Valley, everyone had gathered at UC- Davis to listen to a long line-up of entrepreneurs talk about their experiences when taking ideas to market. Barreto kicked it off, describing being a genetics Ph.D. student at Baylor College of Medicine, feeling she hadn’t yet arrived at what she wanted to do, but knowing it was an important stop along the way. She worked countless hours in the lab to advance her professional career and was dating to grow roots in her personal life. Then one day, under the hood in the lab mixing chemicals, she thought, why not use the science I know to create a dating app?
She found a friend who could build the app, gathered a team and started to hustle — sharing her idea with different audiences, beta testing it with consumers and finding investors. Pheramor came into creation. Today, it’s a dating app that matches people using physical chemistry and social alignment. And Barreto has moved from conference participant to lead-off speaker. She also set the perfect tone. While not sparing the challenges with which she grappled both from entrepreneurial and personal viewpoints, she encouraged the audience to pursue ambitions, making everyone there believe that he or she, too, could be standing at the front of the room, telling everyone about his or her success story. Over the next two days, entrepreneur after entrepreneur stood at the front of the room, recounting his or her story. Nicholas Seet had created and commercialized audio technology acquired by Adobe. Sally Edwards, an Olympic athlete and founder of the running store Fleet Feet, talked about her new app, Heart Zones. Ben Lyon, a lawyer, talked about his improbable entrepreneurial journey that at one point landed him in Russia in the 1990s. Today, he is working with IMMiX BioPharma to develop and bring novel cancer therapies into practice. Two speakers, Brad Chisum and Mark Randall, touched on their next phases of entrepreneurship, which actively support the next generation of entrepreneurs. Chisum, CEO of Launch Factory, has created this company to incubate new start-ups. Randall, retired VP of Creativity at Adobe, is now taking his well-known Adobe Kickbox innovation process to a broader audience through foundation work. Like Barreto, each narrated his or her entrepreneurial journey through a chronological lens that brought technical, business and personal successes and challenges into view. Everyone described different leadership styles, as well as strategies and techniques for developing companies. Their organizational techniques, skills and capabilities also differed. Yet they all shared common attributes — one being key connections to Rice, UC-Davis or Lamar that helped propel them to success. Some had, in fact, participated in the Rice Business Plan Competition. While entrepreneurship isn’t for the meek, the personal and professional rewards can be phenomenally worthwhile. As they left the conference hall, amused smiles spread across audience members’ faces, as collegial small talk broached the question: Who from this audience might find himself or herself at the front of this room, speaking, in a few years? u Rosalee Maffitt is a 2020 MBA candidate at Rice Business.
50 RICE BUSINESS
51
SPRING 2019
Valuation: Art or Science?
By Siddharth Sen ’09
What was the commodity price you used for your valuation?
I
“
think our valuation is wrong,” I announced breathlessly. How else to explain the different metrics from my model compared to a press release on the acquisition of an upstream oil asset in the Rocky Mountains? A recent hire, I had rushed into my manager’s office to explain my concern. Before sharing my panic, he asked some questions. “What was the commodity price you used for your valuation?” Then, “What was the acreage position?” And, “Is the oil production curve you used the same as the one used by the companies that bought and sold the asset?” And many more. Slowly, but surely, it dawned on me. My valuation model wasn’t wrong. It was just different!
52 RICE BUSINESS
The red seat in the sea of green at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, marks the spot of the longest home run ever hit at Fenway – 502 feet by Ted Williams on June 9, 1946.
Time and again, I’ve had to face similar situations. A comment I hear often — mostly from those who don’t work directly on asset valuations — is, “This analysis is completely incorrect.” I’ve also found that most of the time there’s a logical explanation for differences. Most analyses can be validated. So why are these comments so prevalent? It all boils down to this conundrum: Is valuation a science, with well-defined steps and consistent processes? Or is it an art, reflecting the insights and choices a skilled analyst brings to bear? To analyze an upstream, onshore, oil-producing asset, I need a set of facts, including acreage position and capital to be invested. These facts become part of the set structure within the valuation models. 53
Then I have to build out the asset development plans and estimate costs. These inputs are assumptions, and may be challenged. Imagine the number of factors involved in a single metric: such as commodity prices. A commodity price analyst, frustrated by market volatility, might say, “Over the past several quarters, we have not been able to come up with a forecast that has reflected actual price movements, even though we have spent countless hours analyzing it.” This ambiguity can be driven by multiple factors, all the way from the economic health of the country down to the individual user at the pump. And this is just one of the assumptions used in an asset valuation model. Recently, the valuation for one of our assets was on the lower side of that provided in the asset deal announcement. We double-checked the analysis. The facts were accurate. Assumptions on metrics, such as cost estimates, were in place as well. By simply making our forecast more aggressive, we found that we could match the valuations provided in the deal announcement. “I think our valuation model is wrong, and I don’t know why,” my newest team member told me. He had followed the steps exactly as he’d learned them. His inputs were complete. He had gone over the process in his mind multiple times and was distressed that it was not giving him the results he wanted. Smiling to myself, I asked him, “What was the commodity price you used for your valuation?” u Siddhartha Sen is a 2009 Jones Graduate School of Business alumnus currently working at IHS Markit. He has more than 10 years of asset valuation experience.
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someone you should know
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V
E
R
N
E
F.
S
An avid traveler, Verne Simons (in tie) stands with hat in hand between his sons, Herbert (right) and Elwyn (left), in front of the General Sherman Tree, Sequoia National Park, California, 1946.
54 RICE BUSINESS
I
M
O
N
S
“”
He aimed at theory, insisting the student acquire a knowledge of principles. It was a scholarly approach rooted in a conviction that an intelligent man can always work out his problem if he understands the essence of the problem.
Y
ou might find Rice alumnus Herbert Simons
When Simons retired from Rice in 1969, a
‘57 on campus carrying an unwieldy tome in
Houston Chronicle article quoted a former student:
his soft leather briefcase. The unconventional
“He aimed at theory, insisting the student acquire
book — simply titled “Verne Franklin Simons” — tells
a knowledge of principles. It was a scholarly approach
the story of his father and his family’s ancestry. Part
rooted in a conviction that an intelligent man can always
memoir and part biography, the detailed tribute was
work out his problem if he understands the essence
pulled together by Herbert’s older brother Elwyn from
of the problem.” After Simons’ death in 1981, more than 200 family,
a collection of letters, photos, newspaper articles and
friends and former students contributed to a scholarship
memories.
in his name, including Mackey, then a successful busi-
Simons senior was born in Howard, Kansas in 1900 and was enrolled at Kansas State University when he
nessman. The scholarship is designated for graduate or
joined the Army in 1918. After the end of World War I, he
undergraduate students who have shown demonstrated
served as an artillery captain in the Reserve Army Corps.
excellence in accounting.
Simons eventually graduated with a master’s degree in
Three years later, Mackey retired as CEO of Life-
accounting from the University of Kansas in 1925 and
mark and wanted to give something back to the universi-
taught there for two years before he took a job as a
ty that he said had such a positive impact on his life. He
teaching assistant at the University of Chicago’s business
endowed two chairs at the business school, one in his
school. He came to Rice University in 1929.
name and the other in his mentor’s name to support the work of nontenured and tenured faculty, the first of its
Simons taught accounting at Rice for 40 years
kind. The endowed chairs were combined in 2008.
and also gave his time as bursar at the university and
Today the chair is held by Brian Akins, the
treasurer of the faculty club. For several years he ran the Rice book store. Along the way, he taught and mentored
William S. Mackey, Jr. & Verne F. Simons Distinguished
William S. Mackey Jr. ’43 (father of John Mackey, who
Assistant Professor of Accounting. When Bill Mackey died, Herbert Simons wanted to
started Whole Foods). Mackey followed his mentor’s example and began teaching accounting in 1946. With
return the favor that Mackey had bestowed on his father.
the university’s approval, the two started an accounting
He assisted Carl Isgren ’61 in spearheading the effort and
firm on the side to keep up with the changing conditions
contacting former students to establish the William S.
in practice so they could be relevant in the classroom.
Mackey, Jr. Scholarship Fund in 2008. u
55
SPRING 2019
Wall of Honor Named in honor of Jesse H. Jones, a Houston business and civic leader, the Jones Graduate School of Business received its initial funding in 1974 through a major gift from Houston Endowment Inc., a philanthropic foundation established by Jones and his wife, Mary Gibbs Jones. This gift inspired others who believed that Houston needed a great business school. • In 2017, the Rice Business Leadership Society was established to recognize those who believe in the strength, progress and success of the business school. The following is a list of Rice Business Leadership Society donors from July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018. Thank you for your enormous impact on the Rice Business community.
CHAIR’S CIRCLE ($50,000+) David Anderson Peggy Ann Anderson & Keith T. Anderson ‘83 Dorothy Kay Brockman & Robert T. Brockman Lynn Laverty Elsenhans ‘78 & John W. Elsenhans ‘84 Patti Everett ‘66 & C. Richard Everett ‘67 Fayez Sarofim & Co. Debra H. Friedkin & T. Dan Friedkin ‘92 Linda Gill & Jack M. Gill, Ph.D. Barbara Hines & Gerald D. Hines Karen M. Kreidler & R. Chris Kreidler ‘85, ‘87 Cindy Liu & Frank Liu ‘78 Barbara Mackey ‘14 Dacia Napier, M.D. ‘93 & A. Lanham Napier ‘93 Newfield Exploration Company Becky O’Connor & Ralph S. O’Connor Sailaja Puducheri & Mahesh R. Puducheri ‘10 The Robert and Janice McNair Foundation William Keen Robertson ‘05 Adam Saleh ‘18 Stephanie Anne Sick & William N. Sick ‘57, ‘58 Herbert D. Simons ‘57 Lynne P. Turley & James S. Turley ‘77, ‘78 William Stamps Farish Fund Suzanne Youngkin & Glenn Youngkin ‘90
VISIONARY ($25,000 - $49,999) Judy Ley Allen ‘61 Nancy Packer Carlson ‘80 & Clint D. Carlson ‘79, ‘82 Janet Langford Carrig & John A. Carrig Maxann S. Collins & T. Jay Collins ‘68, ‘69 Molly J. Crownover & James W. Crownover ‘65, ‘66 Jonathan Finger Sarah L. Foshee, M.D. & Douglas Lee Foshee ‘92 Sarah Gelb ‘85 Kalli S. O’Malley & Terry M. Giles Melissa D. Griffy & Tim T. Griffy ‘79, ‘80 Maureen E. Hackett & James T. Hackett Merrill Hafner & Joseph A. Hafner, Jr. Starlett Hollingsworth & B. B. Hollingsworth, Jr. ‘64 Cathy Isgren & Carl Isgren ‘61 Elizabeth P. King & John Robert King ‘67, ‘14, ‘06 Larry W. Lawson Susan L. Baker & Michael R. Lynch ‘73 Suzanne Potter & Robert Lynn Potter ‘73 Eric J. Pulaski Revati Puranik ‘14 Ginny Simmons & L.E. Simmons Amy L. Sutton ‘89, ‘90 & Gary W. Chiles, Ph.D. ‘86 Shirley Tsang & Henry Tsang ‘80
STRATEGIST ($10,000 - $24,999) Joanie Andrews & David B. Andrews ‘99 Laura Arnold & John Arnold Subha V. Barry ‘85 & James Barry ‘84 Leslie E. Blanton ‘81 & Jack S. Blanton, Jr. ‘01 Cecile Bott & Julian Mark Bott ‘90 Kristine A. Bradley ‘93 & Beau B. Bradley ‘93, ‘94 Carlyse Franzia Ciocca & Arthur A. Ciocca Janet F. Clark Kevin Cumming ‘08 Donna Danto & Allan D. Danto ‘00 Susan S. Ding & Kevin Ding, Ph.D. ‘93, 95, ‘03 Janey Isaacks Fallen & Steve Fallen ‘70 Nancy Fallen Sandie Fallen Connor Nanette Finger John A. Fogarty, Jr. ‘77, ‘78 Patrick M. Good ‘94, ‘96 Caroline Caskey Goodner ‘92 & Sam Goodner Sandi Heysinger & Richard Williams Tamara Monson Hughes ‘16 Janet Y. Wong-Huie & Tommy O. Huie ‘87 Cindy Kane & Michael Adam Kane ‘83, ‘84 Julie King & John King Mary J. Klein, MSN RN & David Klein ‘71, ‘76
56 RICE BUSINESS
Gustavo Kolmel ‘08 Isabel Stude Lummis & Ransom Clark Lummis ‘89 Shashi K. Dharma, M.D. & Mahendra B. Mahatma, M.D. Florence Lyons McCants & Michael Malcolm McCants ‘63 Kris Diane McGee & Richard K. McGee ‘83 Hannah Hartland McNair ‘11 & D. Cal McNair ‘95 Angela Minas ‘86, ‘87 Elizabeth Napier & H. Albert Napier, Ph.D. Judy Nyquist & Scott Nyquist Barbara Ostdiek, Ph.D. Debra J. Patton & Christopher J. Patton, CPA ‘92, ‘92 Waverly Ford Peakes, M.D. ‘95 & Adam C. Peakes ‘95 Karen Polzin & Ward Polzin ‘86 Beverly Postl & James J. Postl Robert L. Royall ‘82, ‘84 Jeanette K. Thornton-Schwab & Peter M. Schwab ‘79, ‘80 Madeline Crisamore Spector & Brian Spector ‘88, ‘96 Carol Sugimoto ‘88 & Jim Zimmerman, Ph.D. ‘83 Anne Taylor Leticia F. Trauber ‘86 & Stephen M. Trauber ‘84 Frank E. Watson ‘60 ADVISOR ($5,000-$9,999) Gregory Lee Armstrong Peggy Barnett ‘55 & Bill Barnett ‘55
Sheryl Barrett & Stephen Phillip Barrett ‘87 Beth Allison Colle ’03 Kristina Cottrell & Frank David Cottrell ‘18 Jami L. Daniel & David B. Daniel ‘92 Michael P. Darden ‘02 Allison Diano ‘97 & Giovanni Diano ‘00 Gregory Ronald Dillard ‘18 Edmund A. Donaldson ‘91 Michael P. Friezo ‘88 Joan Friezo & Charles Friezo Jill F. Gilbert Eric Glocer ‘18 Kimberly Egan Gonzalez & George Y. Gonzalez ‘90 Kathy Goossen & Martyn E. Goossen Meredith Diane Jeffrey ‘18 Mary Lou Song & Alex Kazim ‘88 Ivor Kristiansen ‘15 Gina Luna & Carl Aurelio Luna ‘04 Merritt McReynolds Marinelli ‘92 & Jon R. Marinelli ‘98 Carol E. Quillen, Ph.D. & George L. McLendon, Ph.D. Gillian Miller & Charles Lynn Miller, III ‘05 Brian Patterson ‘84 Nancy Peiser & Robert A. Peiser Cheryl Raspino & Louis Raspino Amy Ritchie ‘96, ‘97 Kathleen E. Rodriguez & Peter Louis Rodriguez, Ph.D. Katherine Schieffelin & Michael Schieffelin Derek W. Scott ‘96, ‘97 Natalie Smith & Jeremy Morgan Smith ‘95, ‘06 Ryan Justin Wilson ‘16 BENEFACTOR ($2,500 - $4,999) Ralph Abendshein ‘13 Michael Douglas Acuff ‘99 Anne-Marie Ainsworth ‘00 & Christopher Spiller Bradley Keith Alford ‘79, ‘83 Bethany Elise Andell ‘01 Jim Andrews ‘16 Steven D. Arnold ‘88 Sameer Bandhu ‘07 Sandra Beno Christopher Russell Bentley ‘18 Gene Brieck ‘10 John William Byers ‘94, ‘96 Minda Caesar & Bill Caesar Joanna Catlin & John Edward Catlin ‘17 Tatiana Chavanelle ‘09 & Daniel A. Chavanelle Byron Nelson Cooper ‘16 William G. Coyle Michael Daniel ‘12 Aaron Keith Davis ‘10 David Andreas DellOsso ‘13 Tracy Black Dennis ‘00 & John P. Dennis, III ‘93 Michael Elliott ‘16 Winston Elliott ‘17
Linda Katherine Elmer & David Christopher Elmer ‘00 Peggy Faulk ‘00 Carolyn A. Galfione ‘97 & Ron Galfione, M.D. Karen Ostrum George ‘77, ‘78 & Larry D. George Margaret Laurel Gibson ‘90 & Wes Gibson Fernando Gil ‘04 Antoinette Gomez & Fabian Gomez ‘93 Kristy Gregory ‘12 & Andy Gregory ‘16 Andrew S. Gruber, CPA ‘88, ‘89 Hazem Abdel Halim ‘16 Loyd Hayton ‘90 Rusty Campbell Jaggers ‘73 & John V. Jaggers ‘73 Sima Jani ‘14 Basil Michael Karatzas ‘99 Anton Karl ‘03 Jennifer Kern & Wesley Kern ‘95 Joy Elise Brown Kirst ‘12 & Carl L. Kirst, III ‘93 Ed Klein Keith Kreuer Edward John Kroger ‘17 Greg Kusinski, Ph.D. ‘14 Aleini Lacombe & David Lacombe ‘09 Rod Larson ‘07 Robert Douglas Lawler ‘02 Michael Pengfei Lee ‘08 Ms. Y. Ping Sun & President David W. Leebron Kristin Lehnhoff ‘18 Sarah R. Levinne ‘01 Melinda Litherland ‘80, ‘81 Khanh Tuong Ma ‘18 Sreedhar Ammanji Mandayam ‘18 Bryan William Marlborough ‘18 Kathryn Martinez & George Martinez ‘63 Troy Matherne ‘91 Ernest Greene Mayfield ‘18 Chris McCaffety ‘18 Margaret E. McConn ‘76, ‘77 & John L. McConn Shelby Winkelmann Nielsen & Eric C. Nielsen ‘93 Alice Obuobi, M.D. ‘16 Robert Anthony Ochoa, M.D. ‘18 Sylvan Odobulu ‘16 Denise Ozene Gabriela Gonzalez & Jesus Andres Patino ‘10 Raul B. Pena ‘18 H. Russ Pitman ‘58 Ann Bunch Pollard & Richard M. Pollard ‘57 Uday Popat, M.D. ‘16 Ashley Gayle Price ‘15 Rob Priske ‘99, ‘05 Maria Kang & K. Ramesh, Ph.D. Daniel Joseph Rehg ‘18 Carole D. Riekert ‘05 & John Riekert Jessica Sellers ‘16 Zain Shauk Kim Shull & Richard M. Shull ‘93 Wesley Sinor ‘97 57
Sheri Skipper & David Robert Skipper ‘05 Laura Smith & Brent Smith, Ph.D. Jennifer Soliman ‘13 Jody Sommer & Allan Sommer Yu-i Stephens & Walter Timothy Stephens ‘17 Kimberlin K. Sturgis ‘18 Nasri Andre Toutoungi ‘88 Phoebe Brian Tudor & Robert B. Tudor, III ‘82 Jesse J. Tyson Edgar Alexander Vargas-Castaneda ‘15 Aparajitha K. Verma ‘18 Sally Marie Nguyen & David Hun West ‘06 Brent N. Whiteley ‘06 & Thomas O’Neill Brian Williams Nancy Woo & Don M. Woo ‘16 Anita Ying, M.D. ‘94, ‘13 Diane S. Yoo ‘18 Jennifer Young, M.D. & George Young, M.D. ‘96 Alison Young ‘11 & Jelani Kendrick Jianing Zhu ‘12 AMBASSADOR ($1,000 - $2,499) For class and corporate ambassadors, and alumni who have graduated within the last five years Miyoung Lee Adkins & Jonathan Spencer Adkins ‘18 Cyrus Aghili ‘15 Jasmine Sung, DDS & David William Duke Aldrich ‘15 Jesus Almaguer ‘18 Brian Anderson ‘13 Afolabi Arikenbi ‘16 Olusolapo Ayandele ‘17, ‘18 Anton Berdyyevich Babaniyazov ‘18 Jamie DuVal Bailey ‘18 Daniel V. Baxter ‘18 Federico Becerra ‘16 Fatimah Oyinlomo Bello ‘18 David Michael Bonem ‘18 Nick Brandon ‘16 Blake Bumpous ‘18 Walter Dale Tennison Chambers ‘17 Edward A. Clark ‘18 Zachary Michael Coffin ‘18 Edward McHugh Coles ‘18 Maria E. Connolly ‘18 Lisa Costello ‘17 Caitlin Crotty ‘17 & Kevin Crotty Justin Ryan Cunningham ‘18 Eleanor Meyer De Groot, Ph.D. ‘14 & John F. De Groot, M.D. Ojas Pankaj Desai ‘18 Shaun Gregory Dilney ‘18 Phuong Lan Dinh ‘18 Aragorn Earls ‘18 Elena Engles Colom ‘18 Jana Exner & John Benjamin Exner ‘13 Bruno Forissier ‘16 Jorge Luis Garduno ‘18
SPRING 2019
Kyle Brandon Greer ‘16 Vigneswaran Nagulan Gulasingam ‘16 Rachel Ann Hasan ‘18 Steven James Henderson ‘18 Grant Ross Henderson ‘18 Jane Hilburn Henry ‘18 & Matt Henry Chris S. Hill ‘18 James Guerry Hood ‘16 Bonnie Claire Houston ‘11 & Jeffrey Kenton Houston John Thomas Joswiak ‘18 Jalal Kapadia ‘18 Leslie Kyle Kelso ‘18 David Laborde ‘18 Veronica Garza Gutierrez & Fernando Andres Villarreal Marcos ‘16 Sean Phillip Marshall ‘18 Laurel Gabriella McConn ‘14 Roger Steven McCubbin ‘18 William Edwin Melton ‘16 Pietro A. Milazzo ‘18 Darrell Sherod Morris ‘18 Erica Margaret Murphy ‘07 Thony Kwambamba Ngumbu ‘18 Kelly Nolan & Brian F. Nolan ‘15 Colin Richard Ocker ‘18 Matthew Ari Okmin ‘18 Carlos Eduardo Franco de Paiva ‘18, ‘88 Eddie Lee Patton, M.D. ‘18, ‘90 Alex B. Porter ‘18 Neil Ragbirsingh ‘16 Ahmad Ramadan ‘18 Anonymous Varun Sagar Reddy ‘18 Christopher Gregory Rios ‘18 Ahmed B.H.M. Rosowsky ‘18 Prabhakar Reddy Sanka ‘18 Ryan Sauer ‘13 Norma Serrato ‘13 Pratik Dilip Seta ‘18 Mona D. Shah ‘18 Ji Shen ‘18 Wei Si ‘15 Stephen Sibley ‘18 Alexandre Rezende Silva ‘18 Aaron Walker Sims ‘17 Ryan Sims ‘15 Ajit Singh ‘17 Nicholas Stellas ‘18 Svetlana A. Stytsenko ‘17 Pinlu Tao ‘18 Olawale Oladimeji Temowo ‘16 Shawn Duffy Thomas ‘18 Adrian Troemel ‘18 Vinay Venkatesh ‘16 Mark Vennekotter ‘18 Geoffrey Andrew Vernon ‘14 Oscar Alberto Villanueva ‘18 Valerie Carole Walker ‘17 Kirk Hjelte Waltz ‘18 Kandace Williamson & Mark P. Williamson ‘97 Christy Anne Woodruff ‘18 Darin Woolwine ‘16 James Yue Zhao ‘15
memoriam
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It has been a season of loss for Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business family. We dedicate the following pages to longtime friends and colleagues.
58 RICE BUSINESS
Robert C. McNair (1937-2018) Known to a generation as the man who brought NFL football back to the City of Houston as founder, senior chairman and CEO of the Houston Texans, Bob McNair was a legendary figure in business, sports and philanthropy. He is remembered fondly at the Jones Graduate School of Business as a Rice University trustee who approved expansion of the business school at a crucial time, and then paved the way for its new building. Janice and Robert McNair Hall was completed in 2002 and has since become one of the busiest buildings on campus. With growing graduate programs and a popular undergraduate minor, the school also hosts events open to the Houston business community and visitors from around the world. His vision for what the school could and should be has been realized. Bob and Janice have been champions of philanthropy for more than 50 years, giving generously to many deserving causes, including relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Harvey in 2017. They founded The Robert and Janice McNair Foundation, the Houston Texans Foundation and The Robert and Janice McNair Educational Foundation in Forest City, North Carolina. From humble beginnings, Bob moved his young family to Houston in 1960, two years after he graduated from the University of South Carolina, with $700 to his name. The transplanted Texan became a successful businessman, first building a truck leasing enterprise, and then founding Cogen Technologies, which became the largest privately-owned cogeneration company in the world. After selling Cogen, he formed The McNair Group, now known as McNair Interests, a private investment and management company focused on trans-
59
formative projects in real estate, equity investing and life sciences. Along the way, Bob and Janice’s dedication to Rice University grew. Beyond the business school, where the Foundation also provides a McNair Scholar with a two-year tuition package each year of participation, they established one of the university’s first Baker Institute for Public Policy endowments — Janice and Robert McNair Chair in Public Policy, held currently by Baker Institute Director Edward Djerejian. They endowed the McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth in 2015, and Bob was honored in 2009 for his professional achievements and dedication to public service with the Baker Prize for Excellence in Leadership. The philanthropic interests of Bob and Janice McNair embrace a wide array of scientific, literary, educational, human service and faith-based organizations. Bob also served as a member of the board of trustees of numerous institutions, including Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine, the Texas Heart Institute, Houston Grand Opera, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Greater Houston Partnership, the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Free Enterprise Institute, the Sigma Chi Foundation, the Federal Reserve Banks of Dallas and Houston, and the Young Presidents’ and World Presidents’ Organizations. Bob McNair’s vibrant contributions in this city in life — and beyond — will live on as his legacy. Bob McNair is survived by his wife, Janice Suber McNair, children Ruth McNair Smith, Robert Cary McNair Jr. and wife Kate, Daniel Calhoun “Cal” McNair and wife Hannah, and Melissa Eileen McNair, as well as 16 grandchildren and two great-grandsons, all of Houston.
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memoriam
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George H.W. Bush (1924-2018) From 1977 until 1981, when he became vice president of the United States, George H.W. Bush was an adjunct professor of administrative science at Rice Business. He’d only recently returned to Houston, which he’d represented in Congress in the 1960s, after a stint away as U.S. liaison to China (from 1974 to 1975) and as CIA director (from 1976-1977). With his worldly experience and down-to-earth manner, he offered invaluable lessons to students — and to everyone who got the chance to work with him. “The president and his wife, Barbara, were dear friends of Rice University. It was President Bush who bestowed upon the university its proudest moment on the world’s stage: hosting the G-7 Economic Summit in 1990,” said Rice President David Leebron. “Students who attended Rice in the late 1970s had the honor of taking classes from the future president at what is now Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business. A generation later, our graduates of the class of 2000 listened as former President Bush delivered a commencement address in which he reminded students that ‘actions speak louder than words.’” Bush’s own actions spoke volumes, say those who knew him during his time at Rice Business. Richard J. Smith, a retired Rice history professor specializing in Chinese history and culture, met the future 41st president in 1977, when Bush gave a talk at Rice about the need for stronger ties with China. After Bush passed on Nov. 30, 2018, Smith eulogized him in Houstonia magazine. “Political pundits from around the globe remarked on his breadth of experience, decency, humility, strength of character, public service, statesmanship and patriotism,” Smith wrote. “But another admirable quality of Bush 41 has escaped notice amidst all the high-profile encomia: his kindness to the little people in his life. Like me.” Although Smith was, at the time, a “lowly assistant professor without a book and without tenure,” as he puts it, both George and Barbara Bush treated him with respect and kindness, and their friendship lasted even after the Bushes took up residence in the White House. “Their graciousness was boundless,” Smith remarked.
60 RICE BUSINESS
G. Anthony Gorry (1941-2018) Tony Gorry was a beloved teacher and mentor, prolific writer and nationally recognized scholar in management, medicine and computer science. One of the first Ph.D.s in computer science from MIT, he spent much of his career working on artificial intelligence, publishing and lecturing on the effects of information technology on society. Tony was a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics. Tony joined Rice University in 1975 and joined the Jones School faculty in 2000. Officially, he held many positions, inlcuding Friedkin Professor of Management at Rice Business, professor of computer science in the George R. Brown School of Engineering, director of Rice’s Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning, founding director of the W. M. Keck Center for Computational Biology, a vice president for information technology at both Rice and Baylor College of Medicine, a member of the
Edward E. Williams (1945-2018) Ed Williams — formerly the Henry Gardiner Symonds Professor of Management and professor emeritus of entrepreneurship — launched the graduate entrepreneurship program at the business school in 1978, many years before the academic discipline of entrepreneurship had been established and before most universities were teaching the subject. After 36 years of teaching entrepreneurship at Rice, Ed retired on July 1, 2014. He estimated that during his career, he taught more than 3,000 students in 100+ courses, including the first graduating class at the business school. His efforts laid the foundation for what is now a globally recognized entrepreneurship program. In 2016, Ed was recognized — along with Al Napier, his co-founder of Rice’s entrepreneurship program — with the Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year Award, one of three lifetime awards presented by the United States Association for Small Business Entrepreneurship. He was also recognized as one of the top two entrepreneurship educators in the country by Businessweek in 1996. Ed studied economics and finance at Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania and, by age 22, earned his Ph.D. in finance at the University of Texas. The recipient of so many teaching awards he had to ask the school to stop honoring him, Ed left an indelible impact on the Rice community, and on furthering entrepreneurship education. He was a beloved presence here at the business school and leaves behind an incredible legacy. Ed is survived by his wife and best friend Susan Horowitz Williams, daughter Laura Warren and Christopher, and son David Warren and Morgan, five grandchildren; his sister Shirley Lange and two nieces.
61
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Baylor neuroscience faculty for more than 40 years, and a faculty member in management and computer science at MIT. To his friends at Rice, he was a bright light, a devoted writer of poetry and memoir, a friend. To his daughter, Kate ‘16, he was “my wonderful dad.” At his celebration of life, she wrote, “My dad went from so healthy to so ill. But he lived on for almost a decade and not once did he take his frustrations or his pain out on others. He wanted to be alive. His brain kept him with us and gave us so much more than was predicted when he was first diagnosed with a 16% chance of survival nine years ago.” He is survived by his wife Anne, his daughters April, Kate and Meghan and their families.
around the water cooler
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Class of 1985
Class of 1991
Class of 2003
spending seven and a half years
Susan Brown Snook has
Eric Elfman is the cofounder
Nathan Byman and his family
with SNC-Lavalin, a global EPC
recently been elected as the
of Onit, a global leader of en-
(Deirdre, Aurelia, Asher, Everly)
company, working as the VP of
Episcopal Bishop of San Diego,
terprise workflow solutions for
have relocated to Austin. They
engineering, VP of operations,
and will be consecrated as
legal, compliance, sales, IT, HR
started a manufacturing tech-
and general manager of their
diocesan bishop on June 15,
and finance departments. Onit
nology company there (Wolfram
Engineers & Constructors
2019. After graduating from the
recently secured a $200 million
Manufacturing) in 2011, but only
Division. She has also held roles
Jones School, she worked for
strategic investment from a
just completed the move this last
with Exterran and Conoco. Cyn-
ten years in public accounting,
major investment company.
fall to get closer to family and
die held previous management
take the business to the next lev-
and engineering roles working
change. She was ordained as an
Class of 1997
el. The business is off of Dessau/
for Merichem for 14 years prior
Episcopal priest in 2003, serving
On August 10, 2018, Steve
Cameron. Feel free to drop by
to her role at Exterran.
in churches in Arizona from
Crower was named chief
and visit!
2003 to 2017. From 2006 to 2017,
financial officer for Sage
she made use of her entrepre-
Energy Partners LLC (Sage) and
Class of 2004
Huston launched his new
neurship skills by founding a
completed the acquisition of
Darren Lincoln got the idea for
company called ERP Advisors,
vibrant, self-sustaining, growing
a Salt Water Disposal Facility
a liquor company while at Rice
LLC. This is his second company
Episcopal church in Scottsdale,
in Duchesne, Utah. Sage is
and launched Cotton Hollow
since graduating from the
Arizona. In 2017, she moved to
majority owned by Cleve Pike,
Distilling in 2012. Cotton Hollow
EMBA program. Kevin sold his
Oklahoma, where she has served
a member of the Northern Ute
has been sold across Texas,
first company after 10 years
in the bishop’s office for two
Native American Indian Tribe.
but this year Cotton Hollow has
and completed a three-year
years as the Canon for Church
Sage is private equity backed
moved into Georgia, California
succession plan and term with
Growth and Development. As
by a Hong Kong-based group
and Florida. The venture would
them last fall. Please feel free to
Bishop in San Diego, she will
of investors to bridge the gap
not have been possible without
reach out for further informa-
oversee over 50 churches, social
between the state, counties,
the support of the Rice alumni
tion around their ERP advisory
service organizations, schools,
producers, and the Tribe for
network.
services.
and other institutions in a wide
long-term development of the
geographic area stretching from
Uintah Basin’s significant natural
Class of 2006
Class of 2007
the southern border to San Cle-
resources, while respecting and
Cyndie Fredrick has been
Heidi Pozzo recently published
mente, and from Yuma, Arizona,
preserving the rights, beliefs and
appointed to the position of se-
her first book, “Leading the
to the Pacific Ocean. Susan is
culture of the 3,200 members of
nior vice president and general
High-Performing Company.”
married to Tom Snook, Rice ‘83,
the Northern Ute Indian Tribe
manager of Merichem Process
She shares lessons from her
and they have two daughters,
that control 4.5 million acres in
Technologies. Her responsibil-
work transforming companies
Sarah Snook Brunson and
Northeast Utah.
ities include leadership of the
both as a CFO in her corpo-
business unit sales, marketing,
rate life, and consulting with
and then experienced a career
Earlier this month Kevin
Julia Snook. Steven Ebel joined XPO Logis-
product execution, R&D and
tics last November as vice pres-
financial performance. She has
ident customer relations and
over 25 years of experience in
operations based in Houston.
downstream, midstream and technology licensing. Cyndie comes to Merichem after
62 RICE BUSINESS
Meagan Crawford has
On October 1, Ian Hernandez
DeSoto ISD in DeSoto, Texas.
named by Thinkers 50 as the
launched a new venture capital
and his family welcomed new
She already misses Houston but
World’s #1 Executive Coach,
fund. SpaceFund, based in Aus-
Houstonian, Austen Maximiliano.
is excited to serve Texas children
calls this book “An essential
tin, invests in frontier-enabling
Brothers Ethan (15), Andrew (12)
in a new way with her 7-year-old
guide for leaders who want
technology companies — those
and Jack (6) are thrllled by the
son, Camilo, and her 2-year-old
their company to achieve new
startups that are addressing
new addition to the lineup.
Doberman Pinscher, Rue, in tow.
heights and grow as a leader.”
the multi-billion dollar space
Class of 2012
Go OWLS!
markets of today, while also
Scott Vanderpoel introduces
positioning themselves to
the newest Vanderpoel, Asher
Ope Amosu’s “Chopd+Stewd”
After 20 years in the legal arena
capture the trillions of dollars of
David, born on February 27, at
pop-up dining series, which is
in private practice and as an
value that will be unlocked with
7lb 3oz.
serving as the testing ground for
executive and general counsel/
humanity’s breakout into space
chief compliance officer/
over the coming decade. Space
Class of 2013
spired restaurant, ChòpnBlok,
corporate secretary at various
Fund invests in early stage
Dr. Anita Ying was promoted to
will be featured in celebrity chef
publicly-traded, oilfield services
space technology companies in
vice president, ambulatory medi-
Marcus Samuelsson’s TV series,
and equipment companies, Alex
the transportation, communica-
cal practice, at UT MD Anderson
“No Passport Required.”
Cestero has taken on a new
tions, human factors, supplies,
Cancer Center in December
role doing something that he
and energy sectors of the
2018. In this role, Anita is the phy-
Class of 2015
always wanted to try, especially
rapidly expanding ‘NewSpace’
sician administrator overseeing
Kyle Rojas writes that Ivor
economy.
the 35 outpatient centers in the
(‘15) and Sarah Kristiansen tied
gram. Alex is the new president
Texas Medical Center and five
the knot at Lake Louise in Banff
of AccuFleet International, Inc.,
Class of 2011
Houston area locations.
National Park, Canada in July of
a privately-owned company
After chairing the city’s 2018
executives. Marshall Goldsmith,
Class of 2008
after completing the EMBA pro-
his upcoming West African-in-
2018. Many proud OWLS were in attendance.
with a longstanding tradition of
Bond Study Committee and
Class of 2014
excellence supporting domestic
serving over two years on Plan
Lin Hicks took a retail fuels
and international airlines
Commission, Dylan Hedrick
territory manager job with
Class of 2016
and airports with interior/
is now the councilman-elect
ExxonMobil in the United States
Chris Attar and his family,
exterior industrial cleaning, full
for District 7 in Garland, Texas.
Northwest (Washington, Idaho,
Eileen, Leo, Brady and their dog
ground-handling and passenger
Dylan looks forward to continu-
Montana, North Dakota,
Clementine, moved to Denver at
services, warehousing and other
ing to serve his fellow Garland
Wyoming and Colorado). He
the end of 2018. Chris has started
specialty industrial services.
citizens in his new public service
and his family will be relocating
working at the DaVita Dialysis
role. Infrastructure develop-
to Bozeman, MT effective
headquarters doing corporate
Class of 2009
ment, economic growth and
June 1, 2019.
real estate strategy.
Siddhartha Sen presented
affordable housing will be issues
at the USAEE Houston Chapter
he will focus on during his term.
Emmett Walsh and Lisa
meeting in March 2019 and will
Dylan will utilize the skills he
Gonzalez Walsh (both ’14)
be a speaker at the SPE Rough-
developed during his time at the
welcomed their first child,
Neck Camp for 2019. Sid also
Jones School to help Garland
Samuel Valdemar Walsh, into the
authored a piece on valuation in
continue to be the best place
world on September 30, 2018.
this issue. See page 48.
to live, work and play in North Celeste Barretto has moved
Texas.
to Dallas County to become the chief academic officer of
63
SPRING 2019
around the water cooler
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Class of 2017
Antonio market. His scope of
2018 was a busy year for Matt
work includes the design, in-
Owen and his family. First was
stallation and service of access
the arrival of Samuel “Sammy”
control, intrusion detection,
Paul Owen on June 7th, 2018.
video and visitor management
Sammy is a happy, healthy boy
solutions for commercial
whose nickname is Sammy Go
buildings. If there are any Rice
Go due to the fact that he is
Business readers out there who
happiest when moving (whether
would like to connect about the
by his own will or others). At
industry, or general business
the end of 2018, Matt accepted
ownership, feel free to reach
a position with Crow Holdings
out to Jeff through Rice Portal,
Industrial as vice president
Sallyportal or LinkedIn!
1
Photos: 1. Susan Brown Snook elected as the Episcopal Bishop of San Diego 2. Ian Hernandez and family welcomed Austen Maximiliano 3. Nathan Byman and his family have relocated to Austin 4. Darren Lincoln launched Cotton Hollow Distilling 5. Scott Vanderpoel introduces Asher David 6. Emmett Walsh and Lisa Gonzalez Walsh welcomed Samuel Valdemar Walsh
2
of capital markets. The family is thankful for these positive
Meg Schneider started a new
moments and looking forward to
job as a consultant at ZS Associ-
the future.
ates in Philadelphia.
TJ Hoffman was recently pro-
Class of 2018
moted to chief operating officer
Christopher Rios started a
at Sibme, a software company
new job as tax consultant at
based in Houston. TJ’s Rice MBA
Industrial Valuation Services in
has been crucial in helping him
Houston.
3
4
5
6
grow professionally and in helping Sibme grow as a company.
Deren Koseoglu and Yuliia
Sibme’s mission is to change the
Pron were married in August of
way that people learn at work by
last year after graduation.
connecting people in a secure, fully-integrated web- and
Amanda Haywood an-
mobile-application to facilitate
nounced the birth of her first
evidence-based, job-embedded
child, Emma Olivia Haywood, on
professional learning.
December 30, 2018 at 11:56pm! She was almost a New Year’s
In February 2019, Jeff Ye was
Eve baby.
awarded a franchise from a national commercial security
Patrick Laskey welcomed baby
company (Security 101) to devel-
Evelyn Claire Laskey to the world
op and grow the San
on November 27, 2018! Ky and Emilie Cooksey welcomed their new daughter, Caroline Rose Cooksey, on March 6, 2019.
64 RICE BUSINESS
IN MEMORIAM Photos: 7. Ope Amosu’s ChòpnBlok will be featured in Marcus Samuelsson’s TV series, “No Passport Required” 8. Ivor (‘15) and Sarah Kristiansen tied the knot at Lake Louise 9. Matt Owen announced the arrival of Samuel “Sammy” Paul Owen 10. TJ Hoffman was recently promoted to chief operating officer at Sibme 11. Deren Koseoglu and Yuliia Pron were married in August 12. Amanda Haywood announced the birth of her first child, Emma Olivia Haywood 13. Patrick Laskey welcomed baby Evelyn Claire Laskey
7
8
9
12
Robert Jack Huston, Jr. ’02, known by family as Robbie or RTG, and by friends as Bobby or Reno, passed away February 26, 2019. He is survived by his wife Amanda and daughter Harper Ray, his parents and stepparents, sisters, brother-in-law and niece. A group of classmates met at Valhalla in March to celebrate his life. Ralph S. O’Connor, an entrepreneur, civic leader, philanthropist, Rice trustee emeritus and Council of Overseers member from the very beginning, died December 30, 2018 at his home in Houston. He was 92. O’Connor was the founder and chief executive officer of the investment firm Ralph S. O’Connor & Associates. He held a B.A. in biology from Johns Hopkins University and completed Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. O’Connor was named the inaugural recipient of the Chairman’s Award, the university’s highest honor for service, by the Rice Board of Trustees in May 2018. He is an honorary member of the Association of Rice Alumni and received the association’s greatest honor, the Gold Medal. For his support of Rice athletics, the R Association gave him the Honorary “R” Award. “He was such a mentor to me in both business and philanthropy, especially in encouraging my support of and participation with Rice,” said Rice trustee emerita Karen George (’77 and MAcc ’78), who has been an associate with Ralph S. O’Connor & Associates since 1987. She received a scholarship funded by O’Connor’s Highland Resources as a student at Rice before taking a job with the company in 1981.
11
10
George Keegan MBPM ‘82 died in April 2015 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. George spent most of his post-Rice career living in Buffalo, NY and working in the window business, working with architects, developers and builders. Surviving George are his widow, Isabella; three children, Mike, Catherine and Dan; and two grandchildren.
13
65
SPRING 2019
hiddentalents |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A Mentor Who Went to the Mat for Me By Jennifer Latson
I
f I regret anything about being my high school’s first female wrestler, it’s that I wasn’t all that great at wrestling. That wasn’t a dealbreaker for my coach, however. As long as you trained hard and left everything you had on the mat, you were welcome on Hagop Merjian’s team. The fact that I was a girl mattered even less. Like the rest of my teammates, I did spin drills until I was dizzy and ran stairs until my legs buckled. Merj, as we called him, pushed me harder than any other coach ever had, but he never yelled at me — or at anyone else. Hairy as a teddy bear, with a thick mustache and glasses that fogged up perpetually in the sweat-humid wrestling room, he’d walk across the mat, put his hand on your shoulder, and quietly tell you what you were doing wrong. LeanIn.org reports that the number of men who feel uncomfortable mentoring women has tripled since the #MeToo movement began. I can’t help but think that those men are not the mentors we need. Merj proved that a man can be an exceptional coach and mentor to a young woman even in a male-dominated, full-contact sport with moves like the Ball and Chain and the Saturday Night Ride. The wrestling league itself, however, only reluctantly allowed girls on the mat, and under different, discriminatory rules. Most of the boys I wrestled did so only as an exhibition; some refused to wrestle me at all. They were not penalized for this — it didn’t count
as a forfeit if it was to a girl. Merj, meanwhile, went out of his way to make me feel like a valued member of the team. One day at practice, while teaching us an advanced move, Merj started to say, “You have to have balls to pull this off.” He quickly corrected himself. “You have to have ovaries to pull this off,” he said. He never gave me a reason to feel like I was at a disadvantage. Even when I did get to wrestle in meets, however, I usually lost. Despite having the ovaries to pull off ballsy takedowns, I couldn’t help but notice that my body was changing in ways that did, in fact, disadvantage me against wiry male opponents with a third of my body fat percentage. The day I actually pinned an opponent, I can’t say who was more excited: Merj or me. After I won, I reached my hand out to help the other wrestler up off the mat, as Merj had instructed us. Instead of taking my hand, the boy slapped the mat and
SPRING 2019 66 RICE BUSINESS
angrily pushed himself up. Other coaches, it seemed, hadn’t done as much to instill the spirit of sportsmanship in their wrestlers. What I remember most about that day, though, is how proud Merj was of me, and how proud I was that his faith in me had been validated. Becoming a great wrestler wasn’t in the cards for me, but Merj gave me the chance to give it my best shot. More importantly, he made me feel like I belonged. My wrestling glory was short-lived, but that feeling has endured. u
Jennifer Latson is a staff writer and editor for Rice Business who contributes regularly to Rice Business Wisdom.
peter’s page SNAPSHOTS FROM THE DEAN
profp_rod hangs with Rice Business Creative Director Kevin Palmer and Marketing Coordinator Ashley Daniel at Hotel Texas Monthly during SXSW.
Above: profp_rod’s new hard hat for McNair Hall construction.
67
Below: Peter speaks to the MBA@Rice students during their first on-campus Intensive Learning Experience. Dinner at the Cohen House included faculty and staff.
SPRING 2019
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68 RICE BUSINESS