500 Megawatts and an MBA: Meet Victor Castleman

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Victor Castleman is one of the newest members of Rice Business’s Professional Evening MBA Class of 2028. We asked him to share a little bit about himself and his experience starting the program. Here's what he had to say.

Tell us a little about your current career and background.

• Education: Fordham University, BS in business administration with a marketing concentration
• Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Director of site selection and acquisition at Ocis Intelligent Energy LLC
• Career Highlights and Industry Experience: I lead site selection and acquisition at Ocis Intelligent Energy, a Houston developer of natural gas power generation and powered land for hyperscale data centers in the ERCOT market. My current project is a 500 MW development on 532 acres in Ellis County, south of Dallas. I run the land acquisition, grid interconnection and permitting work that turns raw ranchland into a site a data center operator can actually build on.
  
  Before Ocis, I was a lead project coordinator at Tesla, supporting construction of the company's first U.S. lithium refinery in Corpus Christi and helping manage setup, operation, and breakdown of the We, Robot event at Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles.
  
  On the side, I co-own Local Pixel, a web design studio I started with a few college friends as an excuse to stay in touch and build something of our own

What is a fun fact about you?

 I partially paid my way through college in the Bronx working three jobs at once: bartender, bouncer and karaoke MC. I can still bust out the mic for Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive."

Why did you choose Rice Business?

When I was in high school, I had a mentor named Jae Phan who played football for Rice. Every Wednesday I would come to campus, and he would help me with my chemistry homework, walk me through college applications, or just take me to work out in the student gym. He never asked for payment, a connection, or anything in return for his time. To me at that age, Jae was a superhero. I figured that if Rice produces people like him, then Rice is where I need to be.

That stuck. Rice has the strongest reputation of any school in Texas, and being back on this campus as a student is something my high school self would not believe.

Why did you choose our Professional Evening MBA program?

I chose the Professional Evening MBA to accelerate the career I already have rather than pause it. I want to grow into a C-suite role at my current company, and the honest gap in my profile was financial and strategic acumen. Evening classes let me close that gap while I keep running an active development project, which means everything I learn on Monday night, I can apply on Tuesday morning. Keeping my evenings structured also protects my weekends for rugby, family and the parts of my life that keep me sane through a program like this.

How are you feeling about starting your MBA? What are you most looking forward to?

Grateful, mostly. At the end of Launch Week I sat at Valhalla and cried, because I was proud of myself. If my high-school-self met me now, he would be in awe.

What I am most looking forward to is playing rugby for Rice. I played at Strake Jesuit and at Fordham, and being in the MBA program extends my eligibility, so I get to bring that experience to a young team and help steward it toward a successful season. Beyond that, I am looking forward to being challenged by people who are further along than I am and finding out what I am actually capable of.

How was your experience during launch week? What were your first impressions of the program and your classmates?

I was truly impressed by the Rice staff and administration — from the dean and assistant dean to the faculty and support team. Everything was well organized, and the clear communication made Launch Week smooth and enjoyable. My classmates immediately stood out as driven, motivated and intellectually curious. The cohort’s diversity was remarkable, and it was inspiring to see how eager everyone was to collaborate and share ideas. I was also amazed at how quickly a group of 25 of us bonded — taking time in the evenings to unwind and get to know one another made the experience even more memorable and teeing up for the next two years.

Victor Castleman is a Professional Evening MBA student in the Class of 2028.