Finance Center Contacts

Jill Foote
Director
Lecturer of Management
Email: jfoote@rice.edu
Phone: 713-348-3146

In addition to serving as director of the El Paso Corporation Finance Center and a senior lecturer in finance, Foote is director of the M.A. Wright Fund, the student-managed investment portfolio, and is faculty advisor to the Rice Finance Club. Her principal teaching responsibilities are in investment management. She has 13 years of experience from Goldman Sachs in New York, where her later seven years were spent as a vice president, managing a large group involved in strategic initiatives, new business ventures, risk management, and operational, regulatory, and financial audits and risk reviews. The first six years were spent as a sales associate in fixed income: first in money markets, then in emerging debt. Foote holds a Ph.D. in economics from Fordham University, an M.A. in economics from New York University, and a B.A. in economics and managerial studies from Rice University, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She also has a Chartered Financial Analyst designation.


Nolan Waugh
Manager
Email: nwaugh@rice.edu
Phone: 713-348-3166

Nolan handles day-to-day operational matters in the Finance Center, educates students on analysis tools they'll see in the finance workplace, and works with faculty members to develop ways to integrate the Finance Center's resources into the curriculum. He graduated from Rice University with a B.S. in computer science in 2003 and is currently working toward his MBA at Rice Univeristy's Jones School.



Barbara Ostdiek
Academic Director
Associate Professor of Finance
Email: ostdiek@rice.edu
Phone: 713-348-5384

A member of the Jones School faculty since 1994, Barbara teaches international finance, applied risk management, and the economic environment of business. She was the 2001 winner of the Jones School Excellence in Teaching Award. Her scholarly interests include information and market linkages, volatility modeling, and risk management. She has published in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Futures Markets and other top academic journals. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.A. in international affairs from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1986. She received a Ph.D. in business administration-finance from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in 1994. Prior to returning to school for her Ph.D., Ostdiek was a portfolio manager and was awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.