Department

Class Notes

News and Notes from Rice Business Alumni

2002

Ted Dimitry ’02
Ted was promoted to managing director at Higginbotham in January 2024. As a leader of Higginbotham’s energy and marine practice in Houston, Ted specializes in compiling risk management programs for commercial clients engaged in a wide variety of operations, ranging from offshore risks and maritime ventures to onshore risks like exploration and production, pipelines, storage facilities, logistics, petrochemicals, ports, terminals, international operations and renewables. He also has managed sizable service teams and maintains a vast network of insurance market relationships across the globe. Ted is more than just a transactional insurance broker. He is also a risk management consultant with deep experience across multiple verticals within the energy and marine space.

2003

Chris Jensen ’03
Chris has accepted the role of CTO at BrainMatterZ, a well-funded startup bringing an innovative sleep apnea diagnostic device to market. This is an exciting opportunity to guide product development and commercialization and to grow a company as part of a stellar leadership team.

2009

Henry Richardson ’09
“I'm proud to announce Define Living, Houston’s first well-being apartment community,” says Henry. Define Living is a multifamily residential concept envisioned by Henry (DEFINE founder) and Blazer Building. Define Living is a 260-unit, multifamily community in West Houston with a variety of health and well-being services for residents, including nutrition consultations, personalized goal setting, fitness classes, meditation classes, cooking classes and a variety of community building events. For more information, visit: www.defineliving.com or follow the group on social media: @definelivingwell

2013

Jody Lee ’13
Jody and her husband, Sae, welcomed their first child, Sophie Esther Ga Yoon Lee, on July 29, 2024. Her combined middle name is taken after Jody‘s late mother and a Korean name, which translates to friendliness, happiness, family-oriented and leadership.

2014

Isaias Alonso ’14
The Alonso family welcomes Luke Ezra Alonso, born on Jan. 25, 2024.

Celeste Barretto Milligan ’14
Celeste and her husband Anaye (a UT-McCombs MBA ’04), are busy raising their blended family in Houston. Camilo, who used to run around in McNair as a toddler, is now 13 years old and a thriving, hilarious and maturing teenager. Graham and Ella, 12 and 10, are joyful, athletic and silly. Celeste is actively involved in advocating for kids in Houston ISD as the co-chair of the District Advisory Committee. She serves on the Regional Advisory Board of IDEA Public Schools–Houston and as an advisor to Momentum Education. She will soon join the governing board of a local arts education nonprofit. She is an avid supporter of Latinos for Education and an active member of Leadership for Educational Equity. Celeste is excited to share a new career move — while she expanded her leadership coaching and professional learning business, she and Anaye reestablished it with a newly co-founded Tessilys Group, LLC. In other news, she will join Digital Promise Global, an education technology nonprofit, to impact over 650,000 students across the country as the deputy director of student impact.

Jennifer Rossi ’14
Jenn and her husband, Drew, welcomed their son, Theoden George Rossi, in early June. Jenn continues to work at Sendero Consulting while building her side gig,The Cause Urban Winery.

2016

Nick Girardi ’16
Nick was promoted to vice president, financial planning and analysis, at WillScot. Caroline and Nick celebrated their 10-year wedding anniversary and a few birthdays: Jillian turned 5 and Eliza turned 3.

2017

Gregory Surabian ’17
Gregory and his wife, Lily, welcomed a beautiful baby boy, Garen Surabian, on March 19, 2024. They are overjoyed, and everyone is doing well.

2019

Facundo Mitre ’19
Facundo recently was promoted to senior manager (M&A and Restructuring) at Deloitte.

2020

Patrick Ray ’20
“My wife, Sophie ’22, and I have started as resident associates at Baker College! Sophie is also starting her first semester as clinical faculty at Rice’s Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. That means we’ve jumped headfirst into campus life, and are excited to be a part of the first and best college at Rice! Hell Yeah!”

2022

David Liu ’22
David and his wife, Connie, welcomed their first child, Blake Eleanor Liu “Bel,” on April 17. David also started his new job as legal counsel at Huntsman Corporation in their global legal department. Huntsman Corporation is a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated and specialty chemicals with 2022 revenues of approximately $8 billion from their continuing operations.

2023

Alma Sotelo Castro ’23
Alma recently changed companies from EDF Renewables to Urban Grid, a Brookfield Renewables Company, as director of contracts and procurement.

Vivane Nguyen ’23
Goldie, jeans fit finder and winner of Napier Rice Launch Challenge 2023, just launched its newest version at www.fitgoldie.com. Goldie was founded by Full-Time Rice MBA alumni Viviane Nguyen, Stephanie Zhou and Samantha Wong. “We loved all the support behind Goldie in its early stage and would love for you all to give its newest version a try,” writes Nguyen.

William Pahl ’23
In May, William started a new role at Goosehead Insurance managing their marketing analytics.

Ash Shepherd ’23
This year, Talos Low Carbon Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Talos Energy and founded by Ash, was sold to TotalEnergies. TLCS was focused on carbon capture utilization and storage hubs along the Gulf Coast. Ash is excited to announce that he has joined CarbonCycle, another growing CCUS company, as chief commercial officer and head of strategy.

Valarie Tran ’23
During Al Danto's Entrepreneurship Lab, Valarie was awarded a HealthSource Chiropractic franchise, which is scheduled to open Sept. 24 in Spring, Texas, just outside of Creekside Park in The Woodlands. Valarie encourages the Rice community to support a fellow Owl by visiting and following them on Facebook.