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Associate Dean Bob Dittmar shares what sets the Virani Undergraduate School of Business apart and delves into his fascinating research on how to assess risk more clearly, especially when the signals aren’t obvious.

Owl Have You Know

Bob Dittmar has big goals for the Virani Undergraduate School of Business. As the school’s associate dean and Houston Endowment Professor of Finance, he aims to increase Rice Business’ national footprint, making it a household name for top-tier business education from coast to coast.

Dittmar came to Rice in 2022 after teaching for nearly 20 years at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. He’s taught finance courses across Rice Business’ degree programs, including in the undergraduate and MBA programs.

On this episode, Dittmar joins co-host Maya Pomroy ’22 to share what sets the Virani Undergraduate School of Business apart from other undergraduate business programs — and his advice for prospective students who are trying to decide if Rice Business is the right fit for them. He also delves into his fascinating research on options and how to assess risk more clearly, especially when the signals aren’t obvious.

Subscribe to Owl Have You Know on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

[00:00]Maya Pomroy: Welcome to Owl Have You Know, a podcast from Rice Business. This episode is part of our Up Next series, where faculty researchers and alumni weigh in on the trends currently shaping the world of business.
Our guest today on Owl Have You Know is associate dean of the Virani Undergraduate School of Business and Houston Endowment Professor of Finance, Bob Dittmar. We’ll explore his early influences and pathway into academia, what he learned during his nearly two decades at the University of Michigan, and what drew him to Rice.
We’ll discuss his fascinating research on risk, its misconceptions, and why those risk signals are so hard to spot in real time. He’ll also share his motivation on stepping into a leadership role at the undergraduate level and what he hopes to build at Rice Business.
Welcome, and congratulations on the new role!
[00:55]Bob Dittmar: Thanks so much. I really appreciate it. It's been a learning experience, a lot of fun, and we have lots of challenges ahead of us, but that's what makes jobs interesting. So, you know, I am looking forward to continuing on in this role.
[01:10]Maya Pomroy: So, you have had a very distinguished and robust career in academia. Is this something when you were a young child, you were like, "You know what, I want to be a professor"?
[01:21]Bob Dittmar: Well, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a scientist, so I didn't know that being a scientist maybe meant being a professor potentially at some point in time. But my earliest recollection is wanting to be an astrophysicist, which, obviously, I am not at this point.
[01:39]Maya Pomroy: Not yet. There's still time.
[01:42]Bob Dittmar: I'm running out the clock as far as that's concerned, I think, at this point. So, you know, I spent a lot of my young years wanting to do that sort of thing. I grew up in a town that had a national lab, and so I was surrounded by a lot of other kids whose parents were scientists.
[01:59]Maya Pomroy: Where did you grow up?
[02:00]Bob Dittmar: I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago in a town called Downers Grove. So, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago was my favorite place to go. Yeah, science was a big part of it, and I think a huge driver of why I thought eventually I might want to go into a career like this. I knew I wanted to do research. I just didn't know what kind of research I wanted to do.
[02:22]Maya Pomroy: So, when was finance and, you know, the markets and all the psychology, the building blocks of all of it, when did that start to begin to, sort of, pull you in that direction?
[02:34]Bob Dittmar: Yeah. So, what I really remember, in middle school, I want to say it was eighth grade, I got involved in some stock market competition, you know. So, we were supposed to pick stocks, follow these stocks, and, you know, whoever made the most money over the course of the competition on paper, of course, would wind up winning. And I wish I could say it was because of my own skill, but our team did wind up winning the competition, so, you know, we got a pizza party or something like that. But I remember…
[03:06]Maya Pomroy: What stocks did you pick?
[03:07]Bob Dittmar: I couldn't tell you to save my life.
[03:08]Maya Pomroy: Oh, that would be fascinating to know which stocks you picked.
[03:12]Bob Dittmar: But I mean, I remember, you know, at that time there was no internet or anything like that, but I would run, you know, when the paper came in the morning to check the, you know, sort of stock page from the newspaper and see how everything had gone. And I think from then on, that was just something that I really became interested in. So, at that time, I didn't even really know you could do research in finance. But the idea of the stock market and, sort of, trying to understand how those things work just really, kind of, hooked me when I was probably, you know, 12 years old or something like that.
[03:47]Maya Pomroy: Hmm. And now you can wake up at 3 a.m. when you can't sleep and look to see the pre-market prices of all of these stocks.
[03:54]Bob Dittmar: Well, the funny thing is, I look at the markets page much less now than I did at that particular point because I'm a little bit more of the belief that, "Well, the markets are going to do what the markets are going to do." And so, I spend a little bit less time agonizing about those questions.
[04:10]Maya Pomroy: Yes. So, when you decided to go to school as an undergraduate, why did you choose where you chose to go? Because that's something that, now being the associate dean of an undergraduate business school at Rice, the students that are going to cross your path are in that same situation of "Where do I go? What’s going to draw me here?" So, tell me about your journey.
[04:33]Bob Dittmar: Back in those days, you know, admission to college was a lot easier of a process than it is today. So, I have a ton of sympathy for all the kids who are out there applying for schools, going through all the pressure and the craziness that it takes to get admitted to a competitive program. At that particular point in time, you know, I was growing up in Chicago.
The University of Illinois was a very solid business school, and it had the virtue for me as a senior in high school of not requiring an essay and granted automatic admission if you had a certain combination of GPA and test scores, which I qualified for.
[05:13]Maya Pomroy: Because you were a scientist, and you wanted to go into science, not so much into, like, the liberal arts of writing, and yeah.
[05:20]Bob Dittmar: Well, it was, you know, I mean, actually, probably, my skills were stronger… You know, I always have done better on verbal sorts of sides of my test scores than my math side. And social science and English were actually probably my stronger kind of performance in high school. But I was interested in business. My parents were attracted by the fact that tuition at the University of Illinois at that time, I think, was $1,250 a semester.
But it was a situation where I knew it was a really good program. I thought I'd fit in. I'd had experience with the University of Illinois before. I came from a high school of, you know, 3,000 students, so I, kind of, was attracted to the, sort of, big college kind of experience. And so, I think all of those things, sort of, came together to, you know, make U of I be a really great choice for me.
[06:10]Maya Pomroy: And while you were there, were there any mentors or professors that stood out to you that helped guide you?
[06:18]Bob Dittmar: Yeah, I had a few in particular, one whose name I can't remember, unfortunately, but was the one who planted the seed for me to go back and get my Ph.D. And a couple others that were in finance that made me really interested in some of the things that I'm interested in today. So, I had one professor, Morgan Lynge, who actually wrote me a recommendation at some time, who was a banking professor. Through him, I learned a lot about banking and got interested in, you know, the possibility of banking as a career.
And another professor, George Pennacchi, who taught a class called, I think, Money, Credit and Banking, if I'm not mistaken. And it was really about the connection between finance and the macroeconomy. And I found that to be really fascinating to me, and that's driven a lot of my research that I've had to this day, has tried to have a link to some sort of economic explanation for what's going on in markets. The professor who I can't remember, unfortunately, his name was actually a strategy professor, I think, and he was, you know, just, kind of, sat down with me and asked me what I really wanted to do for a career.
And I told him, "Well, I'd really like a job where people just paid me to think about the questions that I want to think about." And he said, "You should really think about a career in academia." And that, sort of, stuck in the back of my head. I credit that for my eventual decision to go back to graduate school.
[07:45]Maya Pomroy: Yes. And you did. You went, and you have a Ph.D. in finance, and you went on to really learn more about the market specifically. And for me, whenever I look at it, I feel like there's a big psychological piece to the markets. And some of the research that you did was specifically about options. Can you talk me through that? It was published in the Journal of Finance. Tell me about that research and how that, sort of, ties in to everything really that's going on right now, because we're really in a unique time in the market as well.
[08:15]Bob Dittmar: Absolutely. So, you know, I'll try to make sure that I keep it at sort of a ground level. I mean, even the description of my research, when I hear somebody else reading it aloud, I'm, kind of, like, "What the heck does that actually…" Well, one of the things that's really cool about options is that they're basically inherently a view of how the market is at forecasting that prices will move.
[08:40]Maya Pomroy: A predictor.
[08:41]Bob Dittmar: Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, all stocks or all assets are forward-looking in the sense that what you're doing is trying to discount back future cash flows. But options in particular, because they, sort of, depend on what a stock's price is going to wind up being at the option expiration, really gives you a lot of information about investors' forecasts of what's going to happen in the future.
So, in that options research, what we're trying to get at is a concept that's called “skewness.” And “skewness” tells you a little bit about how much the sort of distribution of expected payoffs, so how much people are expecting, is tilted, kind of, below the mean, or above the mean. So, when we look at normal, kind of, bell curves that I think most people are familiar with, outcomes are what we call “symmetric around the mean.” So, there's just as much likelihood that something is going to happen below the mean as it's going to happen above the mean, or the expectation.
And when we have a negatively skewed distribution, what's, kind of, going on is a lot of the, what we call the “mass of the distribution,” a lot of the possible outcomes that investors are forecasting, are worse than average, and so, give us a sense then, basically, of, well, are investors forecasting bad outcomes, kind of, in some senses.
And I've evolved a lot in my thinking about these things over time. As a younger scholar, I guess I was a little bit more dogmatic and hardheaded. I called myself, sort of, a defender of the faith of, you know, efficient markets.
[10:27]Maya Pomroy: Yeah. The invisible hand.
[10:30]Bob Dittmar: Yeah. You know, I mean, how we're trained, kind of, as economists, is to believe that sort of thing. And one of the reasons that I like doing research is that, you know, some of those behavioral explanations sometimes sound too simple to me. I mean, they seem like they're just a really easy way to rationalize what, or not rationalize it, because it's not rational, to explain what's going on in markets. And so, especially early in my career, I worked really hard at, sort of, saying, "Well, we haven't thought about these problems correctly in, kind of, the rational way."
And so, incorporating measures of these things, like “skewness” are one way of, kind of, thinking about that because we could say either, "Okay, investors are just putting too high of a price on the negative," or "They really are afraid of the negative, and so they're demanding a higher price in order to sell you insurance against that bad outcome." So, throughout a lot of what I do, I wouldn't say I ignore investor psychology. That seems a little bit too trite. Especially after the Great Recession, it became harder and harder for me to completely say, "I didn't think that prices were driven by behavioral biases."
But in that work, we're, sort of, treating prices as if they're being formed by what we would call rational agents, people who actually, kind of, follow the rules of economics that we think they ought to.
[12:12]Maya Pomroy: That you teach.
[12:14]Bob Dittmar: Yeah, exactly. You know, I mean, it's convenient because it gives us a benchmark for thinking about what's going on. So, if everybody behaved exactly the way that we thought they ought to behave, we, kind of, can say, "Well, this is what prices should look like." And when we see a deviation from that, then we have to think to ourselves, well, what's driving that deviation?
And often the answer does seem to be investors make bad forecasts, or they believe something more that they want to believe than is actually maybe objectively true. But the truth of the matter is, we don't often know what objective truth is, and so it's often really hard to say whether something is irrational or rational because you have to measure that against some sort of objective truth of what's going on, and we just don't know what that is.
[13:07]Maya Pomroy: Hmm. So, since you know you are the associate dean at the Virani Undergraduate School of Business, and, you know, that is something that has been such a gem to Rice Business, to have an opportunity to have this undergraduate school, and to have, you know, the best of the best come to Houston, and to really be on the ground level, really, because, you know, the undergraduate business program started in 2021, and you just had your first graduate class, the first set of graduates in May.
And then it was the Virani’s gift that named it the Virani Undergraduate School of Business, which was incredibly generous of them to do. And so, in your classroom now, when you see undergraduates as opposed to, you know, people like me that were an Executive MBA, that, you know, are a bit in a different part of their lives where they really don't think they know anything anymore, whereas the undergraduates think that they do know everything, and so, how, as a professor, do you manage, or teach, or try to instill wisdom into this next generation that's going to be coming through this Rice undergraduate business school?
[14:14]Bob Dittmar: You know, that's a great question. I mean, I think I'm a little bit fortunate in that students who are interested of business undergraduate education and finance in particular, although they may be a little bit attracted to some of these bright, shiny objects that are out there, still have in the back of their mind that they want their career in investment banking and, kind of, know that they need to learn some fundamentals.
And so, I have the good fortune, I think, to some extent, of teaching students who are receptive to what I want to say, just because they know, maybe somewhat cynically, that their careers depend on it in some sense.
I mean, look, I mean, one of the things, so right now the only class, because I'm a dean, that I'm teaching is the core finance class for undergraduates, which is one of those classes that I think I wish that everybody in the world would take. It's so hugely beneficial to people to understand present value, sort of the idea of diversification, how to walk through evaluation, things like that. So, I really love getting to teach that, and just, you know, the students, I think, can really see that this is important material that they have to learn.
One of the things that I do in the class, so one of the stocks that's always, sort of, mystified me as to why it's worth as much as it is, is Tesla. Not trying to bash, you know, anyone here, or anything like that. Certainly, as a car company, it doesn't make any sense that Tesla's worth what it is. Even if they were able to sell an electric car to every person on the planet who can drive, it's not clear to me that the price you pay for Tesla necessarily is reasonable based on that. So, one of the things that I just try to do in class, and I actually use AI for this, is that I ask AI to try to rationalize Tesla's value.
So, first, you know, I'll have the AI tool walk through just a basic valuation exercise for Tesla. I think when I did it last fall, that it came up with a value of, like, $90 per share when it was trading at roughly $400 per share.
So, you know, so I was like, "Okay,” I told the AI, “Let's be a little more liberal with our assumptions and see if we can get a little closer to this price." And it, sort of, said, "Okay, well, if I really stretch, I can get a price of $200." And I'm like, "Okay, so that's still 50% overvalued." And so, then I asked it, "Well, let's make another set of assumptions and just really shoot for the moon." I mean, imagine that Tesla's robotics and, you know, really high-margin kind of businesses just grew at exponential rates and so on and so forth.
[17:11]Maya Pomroy: Like SpaceX and all those other tangents, yeah.
[17:12]Bob Dittmar: Yeah. All of that kind of stuff. And it got to $350. So, it still wasn't quite there. And I think the reason that I think this is illustrative is I want to ask students, when they're thinking about something, what it's worth, to say, "Well, what can really justify this valuation?" When I see an asset that's out there that's worth whatever it happens to be, at some level, something has to be fundamentally worth something to people for some reason.
And so, I just think to myself, let's come up with really concrete assumptions that we would have to have to justify this asset's value. And if you can't come up with those concrete reasons, then I would avoid that asset. That's just the way that I, kind of, think about it.
[18:06]Maya Pomroy: Like GameStop, these meme stocks.
[18:08]Bob Dittmar: Yeah. Well, you know, it's really funny because my students at Michigan, in the student-run fund, actually had invested in GameStop, but long before the meme stock thing happened, because they were actually investing at a time when GameStop was holding on to more cash than the market value of its equity actually was. You're, sort of, saying that the book value of just its cash is worth more than the stock. And so, okay, that's a reasonable thesis. And then they happened to sell out of it, I think, just before the meme stock thing happened.
[18:43]Maya Pomroy: It's painful. That's so painful.
[18:45]Bob Dittmar: One of those things that basically, you know, unfortunately, timing is everything, and timing is often not correct.
[18:52]Maya Pomroy: And luck.
[18:53]Bob Dittmar: Yeah, exactly. But if you can justify it, then fine. If you can't justify it, and, you know, Bitcoin is an example of this, I just don't know why it's worth what people are willing to pay for it right now.
[19:08]Maya Pomroy: Well, don't you think it's similar to, you know, Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point, where, like, Crocs… I'm sorry, Crocs are not, like, attractive shoes. But everybody started buying. It was one of the first books that I read in business school as an undergraduate, was The Tipping Point. And I was like, "Wow, Crocs." Like, "Why is that tipping? It doesn't make any sort of sense. People are paying $67," I recently did, for my daughter, for these Crocs that, like, it doesn't… And then you've got, like, the little things that you put inside of it.
And it, for me, whenever I see something like that, it's like a trend, right? Where it's like, well, if everybody's doing it, then I need it, too. And if everybody's wearing Crocs, then I…and everybody's buying Tesla. Like, you're stupid not to buy Tesla, and you're stupid not to do... It's that FOMO thing.
[19:50]Bob Dittmar: There certainly is some aspect of it. And, you know, if I was a fund manager and I didn't hold onto Tesla, and Tesla's price rocketed up, my shareholders would be incredibly mad at me and start withdrawing funds. I mean, the thing about Crocs, though, is I don't find them particularly attractive either, but they do provide some sort of utility in some ways. You know, you can wear them. People say they're comfortable.
But a Bitcoin doesn't deliver me any utility whatsoever. It's one of the reasons that I have a hard time figuring out what the price of gold should be. You know, gold isn't really that good for anything besides making pretty things.
[20:32]Maya Pomroy: Well, it's a hedge-
[20:33]Bob Dittmar: Yeah. But why? The question is, “why,” right?
[20:33]Maya Pomroy: … against inflation, and debt, and everything else.
[20:38]Bob Dittmar: I'm always like, when the zombie apocalypse comes, my gold is going to be worth nothing. I would much rather have invested in canned goods, basically. But, I mean, the point is, I feel like an asset ought to give you something, basically, in order for it to have value. I can't figure out what it's giving to you at all, and so I'm not sure how to assess the value of Bitcoin.
[21:02]Maya Pomroy: Isn't that similar to dot-com? Like, where it was like, you know, everybody was…
[21:05]Bob Dittmar: Well, dot-com at least, I was, kind of, like, in the dot-com era, we thought this was going to be useful for something. We just didn't know exactly what and what the best way to use it was going to be. So, not that I necessarily don't think that the dot-com era was a bubble, but a lot of that was being driven by, here, we have a new technology that's going to be a big deal, we think, and we just don't know what the right use case is for it. And we see other sort of asset bubbles, things like that happening, like around the, you know, railroads and stuff like that in the United States.
You got these big speculative bubbles that basically happened, and the railroads were a real productivity driver eventually. It's just people didn't really know necessarily how to assess the value of them. And so, that's, sort of, what I think about with the dot-com bubble. People suggest that with Bitcoin that might be the same thing, but with blockchain, blockchain's been around for a really long time now, and most of the use cases I've seen for it seem like you could do it much more simply and efficiently with something else.
And so, I guess I'm just, you know, again, sorry, all of the haters out there I'm just not a big believer in blockchain technology, so.
[22:27]Maya Pomroy: So, one of the other things, and we, sort of, touched on this a little bit, is about your research on risk. What do people usually get wrong about measuring risk?
[22:38]Bob Dittmar: Wow. That's a good question. People are very bad… I mean, this is just something psychological. This is not a critique of anyone by any means. But people are very bad at thinking probabilistically, just in general. People have a tendency to anchor on that expectation a lot without thinking about, sort of, the range of possible outcomes that potentially could happen.
[23:03]Maya Pomroy: So, they have their blinders on.
[23:05]Bob Dittmar: Yeah, to some extent. You know, I mean, you see it in like polling numbers where you have a candidate who's expected to win and then suddenly doesn't, and people are just like, "But wait, the polls said they were going to win." And no, the polls didn't say they were going to win. They said, "Our expectation is that they're going to win."
[23:25]Maya Pomroy: Probability, yeah.
[23:26]Bob Dittmar: Exactly. But there's risk around that. So, there's uncertainty. And I think uncertainty is something that's really tough to grasp in some senses. We know how to measure standard deviations, for example. We talked about that, I'm pretty sure, in our class, you know?
[23:45]Maya Pomroy: Regressions, all of those fun things.
[23:46]Bob Dittmar: Yeah. You can do all of those kinds of things. You use past data basically to come up with some measure of how much uncertainty there might be about things, but that's not really what I think of as uncertainty. It's a measure of how much, historically, something has, kind of, moved around, what its risk has been sort of historically.
But when we're thinking about what I call ex-ante, when we're thinking about looking forward, there's a lot of uncertainty potentially that hasn't been captured in that measure. And, you know, among the things are just, you know, were the last 10 years different than we expect the next 10 years to be for some reason.
[24:30]Maya Pomroy: 100%.
[24:32]Bob Dittmar: Well, yeah, but I mean, but all of our measures of risk are going to be based on, well, what happened over the last 10, or 15, or however many years you want it to be. People will say, "Well, should you include the Great Recession and the financial market crash when you're calculating risk? Because…
[24:49]Maya Pomroy: Or COVID.
[24:50]Bob Dittmar: Yeah. Because those were rare events, and you're, kind of, like, "Well, rare events seem to happen much more frequently than we actually think that they're going to, to some extent."
[24:59]Maya Pomroy: Like freezes in Houston.
[25:00]Bob Dittmar: Yeah, freezes in Houston, for example. It's kind of funny, you know, I remember Donald Rumsfeld talking about the unknown unknowns, and I think the unknown unknowns are a huge problem when it comes to risk. What I think is also, you know, that was… Not something that he brought up, but something that I think a lot about is the unknown knowns. So, things basically that you think you know about, but you don't actually know about, basically that there's more uncertainty about it than you have, you know, sort of…
[25:35]Maya Pomroy: Calculated into that equation.
[25:36]Bob Dittmar: Exactly.
[25:38]Maya Pomroy: So, we are in a really unique time. I think maybe everybody says that whenever they're, you know, whatever decade, or whatever moment that they're in. But this, sort of, feels a little bit different. We are a global society, but now we're deglobalizing, and all of these, you know, uncertainties and externalities are happening all at the same time. So, based on all of that, how hard is it to teach undergraduate students of how to enter…
Because, honestly, right now, even with my own children, I'm like, you know, you need to think about whatever industry you want to go into that is not going to be replaced by AI, right?
[26:16]Bob Dittmar: Yeah. No, it's a really challenging question, you know? And I, sort of, joke that I've never been happier to be in my mid to late 50s than, you know, I am in this current environment, because I'm like, "Okay, I think I can hold on for 10 more years before, you know, AI replaces me basically."
[26:33]Maya Pomroy: It'll never replace professors ever.
[26:37]Bob Dittmar: I think the big problem right now is that any job that requires just pure pattern recognition, in some senses, computers are better at recognizing patterns than we are. That's just the way it is, because we're all mushy. We get emotions and things like that really, kind of, mess around, basically, I think, with our ability to see patterns. So, if you're doing something that's pure, you know, pattern recognition, just can be automated, then it's a real problem. The way I characterize AI as it stands right now is as an incredibly capable and extremely dense research assistant. So, I use AI every day now in my work.
[27:25]Maya Pomroy: I think most people would think if you don't, you should, yeah.
[27:26]Bob Dittmar: Most people do, you know, and it is definitely a productivity enhancer. But it comes back with some really dumb answers.
[27:34]Maya Pomroy: Weird stuff.
[27:35]Bob Dittmar: Absolutely. And it's sycophantic. It's trying to tell you what you want to hear, basically, as well. So, you need to, sort of, think critically about these things. And I do think that there's a level, I don't know how long it'll last, but basically being a coach for your AI, kind of, in some senses, that people can still pursue careers in what they were interested in doing.
But they need to maybe learn how to be a better coach for AI. So, one of my colleagues here, Kerry Back, is teaching this class that's basically AI-assisted financial analysis. I'm actually going to audit it myself this spring because I'd like to bring something like that into the undergraduate program, because I think it would be very useful.
[28:22]Maya Pomroy: And that's also one of the best things about Rice is that if you are an alum, you can always go back and audit a class.
[28:27]Bob Dittmar: Yeah, absolutely. No question about that. So, but sort of prompt engineering, sort of, understanding the output of what the AI has given you is still really, really important at this point. Again, like for one of my exams, I had AI generate a valuation problem. And the number of things it just did wrong were just, sort of, amazing to me. But if I didn't have the fundamental knowledge of what was going on, I wouldn't have known that it made mistakes.
And so, I still think we're at a point, and hopefully we're at a point for a while, where look, simple regurgitation of facts is not going to help you basically at this point.
[29:11]Maya Pomroy: Not going to cut it.
[29:12]Bob Dittmar: But I think we're still in that era where AI and humans as a team are more powerful than either alone. And so, I think learning these tools and how to use them efficiently is actually what's going to be a huge advantage in the workforce going forward. That being said, if all you can do is, sort of, put together a spreadsheet without really understanding, kind of, what's going on with it, I think that you're going to be left behind at this point.
[29:43]Maya Pomroy: So, you have been at many phenomenal institutions, Michigan and UNC-Chapel Hill, and Indiana, and now you're at Rice. So, could you tell me what makes Rice Business and the undergraduate school really stand out from the rest?
[30:02]Bob Dittmar: It's kind of interesting to me, because I was doing a student focus group this last week with some of the undergraduates, and I mentioned the fact that, you know, I'll get prospective students who will ask to talk to me, and they'll say things like, "Well, I'm trying to decide between, you know, Ross at the University of Michigan and coming to Virani at Rice." And my response is usually, "Wow, you can't have chosen a more diametrically opposed set of schools in terms of just kind of culture and atmosphere and things like that."
And one of the students in my focus group said, "That was me, you know, three years ago. I was exactly trying to make this decision." And he said that despite any challenges that he can, kind of, mention, he's so glad that he made the decision to come to Rice as opposed to go to Michigan, which I'm not saying is meaning to be something against Michigan by any means. It was a great institution. I loved having my time there. But at the business school at Rice, you get a lot of what I think makes Rice as an institution special.
Which, you know, our students are a little quirkier maybe, but they're also a little nicer and less, you know, maybe not quite so cutthroat, I guess, maybe is what I would, some ways.
[31:24]Maya Pomroy: More collaborative.
[31:26]Bob Dittmar: Exactly. Much more collaborative. And so, I think that combined with the fact that Rice has this STEM focus that it always has, so it's grounded in a really rigorous way of, kind of, approaching things, really combines together to make this a very special place to get your business degree. You're going to be with a very different set of students, I think, basically, than you would've found at a Ross or you'd find at a Wharton, or a Stern, or something like that. And if that's your personality, that's what I think you should do.
You know, I mean, there's a part of me that says, when you go to an undergraduate institution, it's really important to think about what the personality of that overall institution is.
[32:14]Maya Pomroy: And the fit.
[32:14]Bob Dittmar: Yeah, you're going to be spending four years at this college, some of the most formative years of your life. You know, I became a professor. I loved it so much that I wanted to do it for the rest of my life. Basically, you know, this is an incredible opportunity. And if you go to a place just because you know it's the number one-ranked business school or something like that, I think you're missing out on a really important piece of your formative existence.
To me, what I always encourage students is think about Rice as an institution and think about if it's the place that you would like to learn about business at, and if it fits your personality in that kind of sense. Then I think it dominates…
[32:57]Maya Pomroy: All the others.
[32:58]Bob Dittmar: You know, I have nothing bad to say about UT, but a student who's going to like the atmosphere of UT is going to probably be a very different student than likes the atmosphere at Rice. That's okay. There's room for both of those people in the world. But I think that's one of the main things that should drive people's decisions.
[33:16]Maya Pomroy: So, tell me about your hope and your vision for the future of the Virani School.
[33:24]Bob Dittmar: Yeah, I think the biggest thing is, so look, I know that we have a set of incredibly talented students here who can compete with any students at any school across the country when it comes to applying for jobs and getting positions and things like that. My goal at Virani is really largely to try to expand Rice's national footprint to some extent. So, I think, you know, if you grew up in Houston, you know a lot about Rice, and you know Rice is a great institution.
[34:02]Maya Pomroy: And really hard to get into.
[34:03]Bob Dittmar: And really hard to get into. Yeah, absolutely. But I do think that Rice needs a little bit more visibility on the coasts, and that's especially important in business and finance in particular, where New York is so much the center of activity.
So, we have some initiatives. They're not quite ready for prime time at this point, so I can't be too specific about it. I'm hoping to, in particular be able to give some really co-curricular, extracurricular sort of training to help them compete a little bit better for those jobs in coastal institutions, to get them a little more access, basically, to the networking that you need to get involved with people at those kinds of banks and consulting firms and so on and so forth. So, that's what a lot of my effort has been towards. So, I think the two things that I've wanted to concentrate on the most and that we're building programs for are, sort of, that more national placement, that's one, and two, just creating a Virani identity, basically, as well.
I mean, Rice students, it's great. I mean, I think they already have a great identity and so forth, but we want them to feel an identity with the school as well. And so, I think there's a lot of social stuff that we're trying to do to build that identity that a finance guy like me usually would say, "Well, what's the point in doing that sort of thing?" But somebody with a better…
[35:32]Maya Pomroy: The marketing part of you.
[35:33]Bob Dittmar: A marketing/behavioral organization sort of person might recognize as, you know, being valuable of building that team, building that sense of belonging, and trying to create an identity.
[35:47]Maya Pomroy: Well, “You belong here.” That's the tagline.
[35:49]Bob Dittmar: Yeah, exactly. There you have it.
[35:52]Maya Pomroy: So, there you go. And one last question. If there's a student that's listening to this and they have a couple of choices, some of the top choices, and one of them is Rice undergraduate, the Virani Undergraduate School of Business, what would you tell them about why they should choose Rice?
[36:09]Bob Dittmar: This goes back to, a lot to, “Who are you and who do you want to be?” And if you're the kind of person who will do anything that it takes to get ahead and succeed, this may not be the right place for you. That's not the culture that I want here. It's not the culture that we've built. If you want to be at a place that's truly collaborative, that has a rigorous education and provides opportunity, and really cares about its students, then I think Rice is the right place for you.
Think about Rice as a whole institution and how you feel on campus, and compare that to how you feel on the campuses of these other universities. And again, this is a little weird to say, because I'm a finance guy. I'm supposed to be cold and rational about all these things. But how you feel about these kinds of things, I think, is usually a pretty good indication of what actually is right for you and what's going to suit you.
[37:12]Maya Pomroy: Well, I think everybody should go to Rice, so that's my plug.
[37:17]Bob Dittmar: Well, I have to be a little diplomatic, and, sort of, at least say that there's a lot of great institutions out there. I may be biased and think Rice is much better in some ways, but what I really am concerned about, and I mean this genuinely, is I want students to make the right choice for them.
[37:35]Maya Pomroy: And feel like they're at home.
[37:36]Bob Dittmar: Exactly. I mean, it takes a lot of introspection. This is a really important part of your life, so think hard about it. My feelings wouldn't be hurt if you chose to go someplace else, but we would be so sincerely glad if you decided to come here, and we will do everything in our power to make sure that you can achieve whatever goals it is that you've set for yourself.
[38:00]Maya Pomroy: And reach that potential.
[38:01]Bob Dittmar: Exactly.
[38:03]Maya Pomroy: Well, Professor Dittmar, it's been a pleasure. Thank you for joining us today. Really enjoyed our talk.
[38:08]Bob Dittmar: Thanks very much, Maya. I appreciate it, too.
[38:12]Maya Pomroy: Thanks for listening. This has been Owl Have You Know, a production of Rice Business. You can find more information about our guests, hosts, and announcements on our website, business.rice.edu. Please subscribe and leave a rating wherever you find your favorite podcasts. We'd love to hear what you think. The hosts of Owl Have You Know are myself, Maya Pomroy, and Brian Jackson.

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A roundup of news from Rice Business and beyond

The Virani Undergraduate School of Business

This spring, the Virani Undergraduate School of Business launched two new initiatives: the Moody Business Scholars Program and a concentration in marketing.

The Moody Business Scholars Program, announced at the annual Spring Fling, will offer co-curricular programming to selected business majors through tracks in finance, management and marketing.

Earlier this year, marketing joined finance and management as the third concentration for business majors and will offer support for students seeking roles in product and brand management, digital marketing, consulting, entrepreneurship and more.

The Virani Undergraduate School of Business, which celebrated its one-year anniversary in October, has flourished to include more than 451 current business majors, 133 business and entrepreneurship minors, and promising career outcomes — with 95% of Class of 2025 business majors securing postgraduate roles within six months of graduation.

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93%

According to the 2026 Financial Times rankings — which ranked Rice Business as the No. 1 MBA in Texas, No. 16 in the United States and No. 38 globally — our school earned the top spot worldwide on one metric in particular: “Aims Achieved.”

The 93% score represents the share of Rice Business alumni who reported that the Rice MBA helped them achieve the goals they set before enrolling. As just one of many criteria for the Financial Times’ global MBA rankings, we are extremely proud of scoring so high — as no program in the world ranks higher for helping students reach their ambitions. Read more about our school’s recognition at business.rice.edu/magazine.

Awards and Recognition

Peter Rodriguez was named Poets&Quants’ 2025 Dean of the Year at the publications’ annual awards ceremony in late October. Since his appointment as dean in 2016, Rodriguez has guided Rice Business through extraordinary growth and innovation — including the launch of the MBA@Rice and Hybrid MBA programs, the establishment and naming of the Virani Undergraduate School of Business, and the construction of the new building next to McNair Hall. Rodriguez has also overseen a rise in student enrollment, growth in the school’s faculty and staff populations and continuous top placements in rankings worldwide.

Kerry Back, the J. Howard Creekmore Professor of Finance, was recognized with an Innovation in Teaching Award from the Financial Management Association International for his Generative AI in Finance course. “I view the role of the course as threefold,” Back said. “I want to show students how to use new tools for financial analysis, to show them the ways in which generative AI is implemented in and impacting the finance industry, and to deepen students’ understanding of core finance and related topics.” To hear more from Back, see Page 20.

Jing Zhou, deputy dean of academic affairs and Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Management and Psychology in Organizational Behavior, co-authored a paper that was selected by the American Psychological Association for its December 2025 Editor’s Choice list. The paper, “How and for Whom Using Generative AI Affects Creativity: A Field Experiment,” examines how generative AI affects employee creativity in actual organizations.

News and Events

In January, Rice Business launched the new Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Management program. The 10-month, credit-bearing professional credential is designed for current and aspiring leaders in the business of healthcare and emphasizes practical application, peer networking and real-world insights through relationships with the Texas Medical Center. The new graduate certificate serves as a path for those seeking to deepen their business expertise in healthcare.

Learn more at business.rice.edu/healthcare-certificate.

Leading Rice Alliance

Honoring Brad Burke
Brad Burke will conclude his tenure as director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship on June 30, 2026. Since joining Rice Business, Burke has established the university as a global leader in entrepreneurship through opportunities like the Rice Business Plan Competition, which grew into the world’s largest and richest student startup competition under his leadership. Burke shares his thoughts on his 25-year career at Rice Business on Page 40.

Welcoming JR Reale
JR Reale began serving as interim associate vice president and Rice Alliance executive director on April 15. A longtime Rice supporter, Reale has contributed more than 17 years on the Rice Alliance Advisory Board and has served as a lecturer at Rice Business. Reale co-founded Station Houston and has supported countless local startups. He joined the Rice Alliance as managing director in 2025.

The Playbook

In “Private Equity Mastery: The Ultimate Playbook,” veteran executive, investor and educator Robert Foye ’88, ’90 demystifies one of the most powerful — and least understood — forces in the global economy. Drawing on more than 30 years leading companies, including Accolade Wines, Treasury Wine Estates and The Coca-Cola Company, Foye offers a clear insider’s guide to how private equity firms raise capital, create value and drive rapid transformation. The book is written for founders weighing a sale, operators navigating PE ownership and investors seeking stronger returns —anyone who needs to understand the financial engine reshaping modern business.

5 Things You Should Know About Private Equity From Robert Foye

Fundraising and returns drive everything.
Private equity firms live or die by their ability to raise the next fund — and that only happens if they deliver strong, fast returns.
The clock is always ticking.
Most investments have a three- to seven-year window, which creates relentless pressure to improve performance and prepare for an exit.
Cash flow and EBITDA are the North Stars.
Strategy, culture and brand matter only if they move the numbers that determine valuation and debt repayment.
PE is active ownership, not passive investing.
Firms don’t just buy companies — they reshape leadership, operations, capital structure and growth plans to create value quickly.
It’s not going away.
With trillions under management and growing influence in retirement plans, public markets and corporate ownership, private equity is becoming a central force in the global economy.

A Look Back

Terminal Velocity. Before smartphones delivered market updates instantly to your pocket, there was this: the Bloomberg Terminal, with its glowing amber display and rainbow-colored keyboard — a portal to Wall Street that few outside the financial world could access. In the mid-1980s, a Bloomberg Terminal cost upwards of $20,000 annually per station — roughly $60,000 in today’s dollars. Having one on campus meant Rice Business students were learning the markets the same way traders at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley did: in real time, with live data streaming across the screen. The terminal’s specialized keyboard, with its yellow function keys and color-coded commands, required real training to master. Students who did could pull company financials, track bond yields, analyze currency movements and follow breaking news. It was as close to sitting on a trading floor as you could get without leaving campus.

That tension between access and mastery, between technology and the knowledge to use it, is one Rice Business has navigated across every era. Today, as AI reshapes how finance is taught and practiced, the question we wrestle with isn’t so different from the one facing professors in 1985: how do you prepare students to use a powerful new instrument they’ve never seen before? Each era of the school has carried the same ambition to bring students as close to the real thing as possible, and the next chapter is already under construction. From the Woodson Research Center Collections

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Rice Business in the social sphere.

What we’ve been up to on social media

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Rice Business in the news in the spring of 2026.

The case for not loving your job

Nov. 26, 2025

Research from Rice Business is adding nuance to long-standing debates about work and motivation. Assistant professor Mijeong Kwon explores what happens when intrinsic motivation — loving work for its own sake — takes on moral weight.

“When a neutral preference becomes charged with moral meaning, social scientists call it ‘moralization,’” Kwon says. “Once intrinsic motivation becomes moralized, loving what you do is seen by coworkers and employers as not only enjoyable but virtuous.”

While “doing what you love” has real benefits, Kwon’s research suggests that treating it as a moral imperative may contribute to guilt, burnout and overlooking other legitimate needs, like financial stability.

Why AI boosts creativity for some employees but not others

Jan. 6, 2026

A new study co-authored by Jing Zhou, deputy dean of academic affairs and the Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Management and Psychology – Organizational Behavior, finds that generative AI can enhance employee creativity — but not equally for everyone.

Published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, the research identifies metacognition — the ability to plan, monitor and evaluate one’s own thinking — as the key differentiator in who benefits from AI tools.

“Generative AI does not automatically make employees more creative,” the authors write. “What matters is whether employees have the metacognition to use AI in a reflective way.”

For leaders, the findings suggest that successful AI adoption requires more than new technology. Organizations must also invest in developing employees’ capacity for reflective, strategic thinking.

Trump’s proposed credit card cap spotlights Americans’ debt. Would it help?

Jan. 16, 2026

As credit card debt surpasses $1 trillion nationwide and average interest rates hover around 22%, President Trump’s proposal to cap credit card rates at 10% has reignited debate over consumer lending.

The plan has drawn sharp opposition from major banks, who warn it would curtail access to credit — particularly for higher-risk borrowers. Benedict Guttman-Kenney, assistant professor of finance, echoes that concern, but adds a layer of complexity:

“It’s not clear that people are going to be better off,” he said. “They’re still paying similar amounts of money.”

Guttman-Kenney notes that banks might respond by raising fees or tightening lending to lower-credit-score customers — though he also points out that some bank expenses are bloated enough to absorb the impact.

The proposal has bipartisan support in Congress, but significant political and industry hurdles remain.

Understanding corporate leaders’ muted Minnesota response

Feb. 6, 2026

When federal immigration enforcement operations swept through the Twin Cities in early January — detaining workers, raiding restaurants, and entering a Target store — corporate America’s response was telling.

More than 60 CEOs from Minnesota’s largest companies signed a public letter calling for peace and a “swift and durable solution,” while carefully avoiding any mention of specific policies, officials or victims by name. Alessandro Piazza, associate professor of strategic management, who studies corporate political engagement at Rice Business, argues the letter reflects a broader collapse in the conditions that once enabled corporate activism.

“Corporate activism might always have been more about positioning than principle,” he writes.

Companies that once staked out progressive stances with limited risk now face retaliation from both government and activists — what Piazza calls a “triple bind.” His research suggests that until the political landscape shifts, hedged language and cautious coalition letters are the new normal.

Rice research explores how shopping data could reshape credit scores

Feb. 20, 2026

More than a billion people worldwide lack access to credit because they have no formal borrowing history. New research from Jung Youn Lee, assistant professor of marketing, offers a promising solution.

By analyzing everyday retail purchases — at grocery, pharmacy and home improvement stores — Lee and her colleagues developed an algorithm that generates credit scores for people with no traditional credit history.

In a study conducted with a Peruvian company, the model raised approval rates for unbanked applicants from 15.5% to 47.8%, while also reducing default rates among first-time borrowers.

“The key takeaway is that we can create a new kind of credit score for people who lack traditional credit histories, using their retail shopping behavior to expand access to credit,” Lee says.

The research also raises important questions about transparency and consumer consent in the use of personal spending data.

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News and notes from Rice Business alumni.

1984

Anita Eisthen
Anita Eisthen is running two businesses in two locations and loves what she does. Eisthen lives in the Cincinnati-Dayton area of Ohio. She also trains and shows dogs in AKC Obedience and Rally and judges those sports. Her contact information is on the judge’s directory on the AKC website. She would love to talk to alumni who are also into dog training.

1996

Kevin Riley
Since graduation, Kevin Riley has been building, running and selling health-tech startups. He has had four successful exits, including the sale of Vlocity to Salesforce (2020), Virtical.ai to Simplify Health (2024) and Aetion to Datavant (2025). Riley also ran healthcare and life sciences for Salesforce from 2020 to 2023. In 2026, he launched an AI company, actAVA, focused on healthcare and life sciences.

1997

Steve Crower
Steve Crower celebrated 13 years as CFO, secretary and treasurer of Sage Energy Partners, a Native American-owned and operated energy infrastructure company focused on the vast resources of the Uinta Basin. Sage Energy bought out their Hong Kong investors in December 2024 to own 100% of a sophisticated salt water disposal facility located in the heart of the basin. In January 2025, Sage became the 24th Baker Hughes channel partner worldwide delivering oilfield chemicals and artificial lift equipment. In 2025 a Rice MBA Capstone team finalized a strategic plan to dominate the Uinta Basin.

Carolyn Galfione
Carolyn Galfione is celebrating her 30th year at Linscomb Wealth as a senior wealth adviser in Houston. After being recruited from the Rice MBA program in 1996 to be Linscomb’s CFO, she transitioned to working with clients through financial planning, investment management and other financial advice.

2001

Carlos Garibaldi
Carlos Garibaldi is currently executive secretary of Arpel, the association of oil, gas and renewable energy companies of Latin America and the Caribbean, based in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Manuel Sanchez
The daughter of Manuel Sanchez, Katia, will be joining the Rice Class of 2030! Sanchez is very proud that there will be a second Owl in the family.

Whitney Wiener
Whitney Wiener just celebrated her 25th anniversary at Williams, where she is one of the managers in the Rates and Regulatory Group.

2002

Ted Dimitry
In late 2025, Ted Dimitry was interviewed by the American Oil & Gas Reporter (AOGR). The article was recently published at aogr.com/magazine/markets-analytics/insurance -market-softens-in-many- areas-but-still-expects- discipline.

2004

Nat Kreamer
Nat Kreamer recently finished serving as the executive chairman of AMP, which provides AI-powered robotic sortation technology, at industrial scale, to the waste industry. During his leadership, the AMP secured over $1.5 billion in revenue, raised $100 million in growth equity, and successfully recruited the current Postmaster General and former Waste Management CEO, David Steiner, as well as Republic Services COO, Tim Stuart, to the board of directors. Today, Kreamer is the founder of Fairtide Partners, which has private equity investments in category-defining companies. Fairtide is investing out of its third fund.

2008

Colin Caughran
Colin Caughran recently started a new role at Morgan Stanley after 17 years with Macquarie.

2010

Bennett Walton
Bennett Walton started his own personalized cataract, LASIK and EVO ICL practice, Bennett Walton Vision, in the Bellaire area of Houston.

2014

Celeste Barretto Milligan
Celeste Barretto Milligan is thriving in her role as deputy director of student impact at Digital Promise, serving schools and districts across the country. This year she sent her son to the High School for Law and Justice Early College, her daughter to middle school at Meyerland Performing and Visual Arts Middle School, and her middle son is preparing for his high school selection process this spring. Anaye, Milligan’s husband, launched his business in January.

2015

Daniel Lopus
Daniel Lopus was married to the love of his life, Joselyn Villalobos, on Jan. 30, 2026, in Costa Rica.

Edgar Vargas-Castaneda
Edgar Vargas-Castaneda recently joined abip Advisors as the director of transaction advisory services, primarily serving LMM and small corporates. He is based in the Houston office. Vargas-Castaneda brings with him a decade of global M&A experience from his time at Trans-Perfect and EY-Parthenon.

2016

Raj karan Gunukula
In 2025 Raj karan Gunukula relocated to Seattle. After seven years with Amazon, he is now working for Coinbase.

Robert Nnake
Robert Nnake is running for Fort Bend County Commissioner, Precinct 4 (Richmond, Sugar Land, Rosenberg and parts of Houston). A Fort Bend native, Nnake served on Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s senior team, leading countywide community relations and supporting residents through major emergencies, while managing complex operations and large public budgets in the nation’s third-largest county. He welcomes connections from fellow alumni interested in volunteering, offering strategic advice or supporting the campaign: nnakeforfortbend.com.

2017

Charlie Groover
Charlie Groover and Kathleen Groover recently purchased Texas Swim Shop at 10425 Post Oak from long-time owners Terry and Susan Matherne. Texas Swim Shop is the only Houston-based and locally owned swim shop for competitive swimming apparel and related equipment. The business was originally founded in 1972 by former Rice Professor Bob Bland and opened its first storefront in 1978.

Jerry Peruchini
Jerry Peruchini and his spouse, Alyssa, recently celebrated a pair of professional milestones. Alyssa was promoted to vice president at The GMS Group, recognizing her leadership and continued impact with the firm. Peruchini recently transitioned from Deloitte to Bain & Company, where he is excited to begin the next chapter of his career. They marked the occasion at one of their favorite restaurants, March, and are grateful for the continued support of the Rice Business community.

Margaret Schneider
Margaret Schneider recently started a new role as a founding value engineer at Norm Ai, a legal and compliance platform.

Valerie Walker Harris
Valerie Walker Harris enjoys cheering for their son Luke (7) and his basketball team, the Rice Owls. Their newest Owl, Vance Walker Harris, was born Dec. 13, 2024.

2018

Daniel Barvin
Daniel Barvin, the vice president of operations and patient advocacy at COYA Therapeutics, shares that COYA successfully launched its phase 2 clinical trial in ALS and has received IND approval to initiate a phase 2 trial in frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

2019

Debnil Chowdhury
Debnil Chowdhury married Diane O’Brien in a joyful Bengali Hindu–Christian fusion wedding. Though they met years after his graduation, their story began with a shared love of Rice — first kindled by Diane O‘Brien‘s photos in Rice gear beneath the Sallyport, a familiar symbol that quietly brought them together.

Grace Grundy
Grace Grundy and Will Grundy welcomed baby Mac in Dec. 2025. Mac joins two older brothers, Hobbs (5) and Everett (3), who are smitten with their new brother.

2020

Neil Driscol
Neil Driscol joined Sysco Corporation as a senior analyst. As an update, Driscol will be graduating this spring with an MS in data analytics from Texas A&M University. He still resides in Houston and recently joined Sysco’s Digital Transformation Team.

Nicholas Harris
Nicholas Harris was promoted to director of investments at Humphreys Capital.

Jeff Price
Jeff Price announced the launch of LevelEstimate™, an AI-powered, first-of-its-kind, self-serve concrete leveling quote tool created by Houston-based Texas Slab Guys. Built to solve long-standing pricing opacity in a traditionally low-tech industry, LevelEstimate™ gives homeowners instant, pressure-free pricing using real job data and modern AI systems.

2021

Chris Wang
Chris Wang is the founder and CEO of Liniotech Energy Inc., a renewable energy company launched in 2022 from an idea developed during his MBA studies at Rice. The company provides scalable energy storage solutions for residential and commercial applications. Under Wang’s leadership, Liniotech Energy has reached approximately $3.5 million in annual revenue, with projected growth of $5 million by 2026.

2022

Jacob Alpern
Jacob Alpern got engaged to his girlfriend, Amina, this past October. Alpern also received a promotion to product marketing manager at his employer, Emerson.

Jon Clark
Jon Clark spent a couple of years in investment banking before making a well-timed escape into energy finance. He is now working at a growing public energy company, where he enjoys the pace and complexity of the business. Outside of work, Clark spends most of his free time with his 5-year-old son, usually chasing him around playgrounds near Rice Military and Heights.

2024

Sameera Bhamidipati
Sameera Bhamidipati recently gave birth to a baby boy and named him Arka, Sanskrit for “the Sun,” to symbolize their love for the sun’s warmth and energy.

David Levy
David Levy was recently promoted to managing partner for Mercer Advisors, overseeing the Houston, Austin, San Antonio and New Orleans markets.

Xavaier Oliphant
Xavaier Oliphant recently celebrated a beautiful milestone: his engagement to his soon-to-be wife. Their story began during Oliphant‘s time at Rice, where the two met and quickly formed a bond that made it clear he had found someone he couldn’t imagine life without.

2025

Alejandro Arbelaez
Shortly after graduating, Alejandro Arbelaez stepped into a new role at Chevron as senior adviser to the president for base assets and emerging countries — also serving as chief of staff. He is deeply grateful to the faculty who pushed him to grow, inspired his thinking and shaped the leader he is today.

Patrick Garvey
Patrick Garvey accepted the position of chairman of the division of plastic surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Selah Qiu
Selah Qiu recently founded RALI, a Houston-based pickleball lifestyle brand focused on building community through accessible movement and play. Inspired by her experience at Rice Business and its entrepreneurial ecosystem, Qiu hosts local RALI Play Day events that bring together professionals.

Clair Tracy
Rice University gathered Jan. 11 at Wiess College to honor the life of sophomore Claire Tracy, whose unexpected death in December deeply affected the campus community. The Wiess College Commons was filled with students who came together to support one another and remember a friend, teammate and classmate whose presence left a lasting mark at Rice.

A Wiess College resident and business major with plans to pursue a career in finance, Tracy was actively involved in Rice Women in Business, served on its social impact committee and was a member of the Rice Eclipse finance board. She had already completed an internship in private equity and was known among her peers for her ambition and dedication.

Tracy was also a standout student-athlete. She joined the Owls women’s soccer team as a freshman as part of a recruiting class ranked No. 32 nationally and was named to the 2024–25 American Athletic Conference All-Academic Team. Before coming to Rice, she was a four-year all-state soccer player who helped lead Brookfield Academy to a Wisconsin state championship in 2021, and she won six club state championships with SC Waukesha and Wave.

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Does Gender Diversity Attract Investors? It Depends.

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In startup accelerator programs, gender diversity alone doesn’t engage investors.

In startup accelerators, founders often assume that having a gender diverse team will help them stand out to investors. New research suggests that assumption is incomplete.

A study of 984 startups in Techstars programs, co-authored by Associate Professor Alessandro Piazza and published in Organization Science, finds that diversity alone does not increase investor engagement. What matters is whether founder and mentor teams share the same gender composition.

Because accelerator programs connect founders and mentors to mediate investor engagement, founder teams are not evaluated in isolation. Investors respond to how well founder and mentor teams work together.

What the research shows:

Investor engagement increases when founder and mentor teams are aligned in gender composition — meaning, both teams are either male-dominated or gender-diverse.
When teams are misaligned by gender composition, investor engagement does not rise.
The strongest engagement occurs when both founder and mentor teams are gender-diverse.
Alignment in gender composition improves how mentorship functions in practice.

When teams share similar gender composition, coordination appears smoother, which strengthens investor conversations downstream.

What this means for founders and accelerators:

Treat diversity as a relational strategy, not a stand-alone signal.
Consider mentor matching as carefully as team composition.
Build alignment intentionally if investor access depends on team-to-team collaboration.

For programs that broker investor relationships, the takeaway is clear: How teams fit together may matter more than how they look on their own.

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The Front Line Against Elder Financial Abuse

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A “permissive governance” policy is empowering financial advisers to fight the exploitation of older Americans.

Research from professors Bruce Carlin and Tarik Umar finds that allowing financial professionals to flag suspicious activity and delay risky transactions reduces elder financial exploitation.

Elder financial abuse is a growing and often underreported threat, rooted in the intersection of aging, cognitive decline and concentrated wealth. More often than not, the perpetrators are not strangers but trusted caregivers, friends and family members.

To address the vulnerability for seniors, the Model Act to Protect Vulnerable Adults from Financial Exploitation (2016) gave financial professionals permission to report suspicious activity and pause questionable transactions.

Has the Model Act made a difference? Can a flag or wire transfer delay actually deter elder financial abuse? Professors Carlin and Umar discuss their findings:

What did the Model Act change for financial professionals, and why did that matter?
Carlin: Before the Model Act, financial professionals could notice that something seemed off, but they often had very little room to respond. A client might appear confused, pressured or unusually eager to move money, yet privacy rules made it difficult to step in without risking overreach.

The Model Act changed that by giving advisers and broker-dealers permission to report suspected exploitation, place a temporary hold on a suspicious disbursement and contact a trusted person designated by the client. That may sound like a small legal change, but in practice it was significant. In cases like these, timing matters. Once the money leaves the account, it can be very hard to recover.

Umar: And what matters is that the law did not require financial professionals to act. It allowed them to act. A permissive policy lowers the barrier to intervention without turning every questionable transaction into a compliance exercise. It gives advisers legal cover to use their judgment when they see red flags. In that sense, the Model Act created an early-warning system. Sometimes the most effective intervention is just a minor delay, or a call to a trusted contact, or simply an extra layer of scrutiny.

How did you study whether those new protections were actually reducing elder financial abuse? What did the data show?
Carlin: We wanted to know whether this legal change had a measurable effect, so we looked across all 50 states from 2014 to 2020 and compared states that adopted provisions of the Model Act with states that did not.

To do that, we used two main sources of evidence: reports filed with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, and state-level crime data from the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System. That gave us a way to study the policy from more than one angle. Rather than relying on anecdotes, we could look for broad patterns in both reporting behavior and actual incidents of exploitation.

Umar: The data showed this was not just a symbolic policy. In states that adopted the Model Act, elder financial exploitation fell by about 15% relative to the average level of abuse.

We also found that the effect was strongest in places with a higher concentration of financial professionals, especially in counties with more presence from large bank holding companies. The results were strongest where there were more people in a position to notice suspicious behavior and act on it. In other words, once professionals were given the legal room to intervene, many of them did, and the decline in exploitation was meaningful.

Why did a policy without a mandate still work, and where else could this kind of approach help protect vulnerable people?
Umar: We think it worked because it changed the timing of intervention. The law gave financial professionals a chance to act before the damage was done, not after. If an adviser can pause a suspicious transaction, or contact a trusted person, that can be enough to stop exploitation before funds leave the account.

Carlin: There is also a deterrent effect. Once people know those protections are in place, they may be less likely to attempt something improper in the first place.

Just as important, we found no evidence that financial professionals abused this authority. Customer complaints did not rise, and regulatory actions against advisers did not increase in states that adopted the law. That suggests the policy created a useful safeguard without creating a new problem.

Umar: That is what makes this finding so encouraging. The policy did not rely on a new mandate, a new penalty or a heavy enforcement regime. It simply gave professionals permission to use their judgment. More broadly, it points to a model that could apply in other settings where vulnerable people depend on expert intermediaries, including healthcare, law and social work.

Carlin: Yes, one lesson from this research is that a well-designed policy does not always need to force action. Sometimes giving people clear legal cover to step in responsibly is what makes meaningful intervention possible.

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Teaching Finance in the Age of AI

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Rice Business Wisdom

A chat with Professor Kerry Back about how AI is changing finance — and the way we teach it.

In November 2025, Professor Kerry Back received the Financial Management Association’s Innovation in Teaching Award. We sat down with him to talk about how AI is changing finance — and the way we teach it.

A lot of people are feeling anxiety about AI. You’ve written about how this isn’t the first time education has gone through a shift like this. How do you think about that history as you’re teaching in the finance classroom?

It’s worth remembering that every major technology has created classroom anxiety. When calculators came out, people worried students would never learn math. When Excel showed up, there was panic about students losing the ability to compute by hand. Socrates famously worried that writing would “produce forgetfulness” and create “the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom.”

Generative AI fits into a very old pattern. The tools change, but the core concepts don’t. Students still need to understand finance. They still need to interpret results, question assumptions and think critically.

What changes is how much time we spend on the mechanics. We don’t teach square roots by hand anymore, and that didn’t hurt anybody’s understanding of math. AI is simply another step in that direction.

You started trying AI tools with students early on. Where did that interest begin?

Honestly, it started with realizing how much we were still forcing into Excel because it was the tool we had. Spreadsheets are perfect for pro formas and discounted cash flows, but they’ve never been great for a lot of the other analyses people in industry now handle with more powerful tools.

Once the AI models became good enough to write and run code, the barrier disappeared for students who don’t know how to program. Suddenly, students could use the same kinds of tools professionals rely on without being programmers. That’s what pulled me in.

As the tools have improved, my teaching has shifted naturally from showing students what AI can accomplish to having them build with it: apps, workflows, automations, etc.

What does AI-enabled teaching look like when you’re in front of students?

The biggest shift is that we treat AI as the interface. Instead of opening Excel or searching through menus, students “chat” with the model. They tell it to pull data, sort stocks or run regressions — and the model writes the code and executes it.

I’ve even built what are essentially “skills” for the model — prompts that tell it exactly how to perform certain finance tasks — so students can say, “Use your skill,” and it knows what to do.

The goal isn’t to turn students into coders. Instead, they’re designing workflows, checking results and iterating with the model until the analysis is correct.

When students first work with these tools, what jumps out at them?

The first thing that hits them is just how much AI can do. Most of our students have never programmed, so watching the model generate code feels almost unreal. But then they hit the other side. They’ll ask the model to do something, and it gives an answer that doesn’t make sense.

My classes help them shift their mindset. You have to chat with the tool like a colleague until you get the result you want. Once they get past that, it gets exciting. Things they once struggled to build in spreadsheets can be automated with a simple prompt. I had a student say, “I’ve never programmed before, and now I can build apps.” Moments like that tell you it’s working.

How closely does that classroom work track with what finance firms are doing right now?

Pretty closely. Firms are trying to automate the exact same things students practice — the repetitive analyses and formatting that eat up so much time for junior analysts.

What firms really need are people who understand finance and can also work with AI to build simple, customized tools. In some ways, the classroom is actually ahead of the curve, because students can experiment without the constraints firms face in production.

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The Long Bet

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A career that began in corporate America became a decades-long bet on founders, ideas and the power of building something that lasts.

Brad Burke

A career that began in corporate America became a decades-long bet on founders, ideas and the power of building something that lasts.

As I wrap up nearly 25 years leading the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, I’ve found myself reflecting on a career path I never could have predicted.

I didn’t set out to work in startups or to help build an entrepreneurial ecosystem. I began in a much more traditional place — as an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, joining Exxon (now ExxonMobil) and moving to Houston in part to escape Chicago winters.

Exxon was an extraordinary training ground. I moved across roles that offered a full view of how a business operates — from financial planning to operations to sales. It was structured, rigorous and deeply practical. But after 15 years, I felt the pull toward something less defined. I stepped into consulting, joining a large firm as a principal, thinking it might help me figure out what came next.

The real shift, though, started on a flight to Paris in the mid-1990s. The internet was just beginning to take shape, and I remember thinking, simply, I want to be part of that.

In 1998, I got my chance. I joined a startup called Viant, moving from a billion-dollar corporation to a company with $20 million in revenue and a lot of ambition. It was my first real career risk. I told myself that even if it didn’t work out, I would figure out the next step.

For a time, it worked. Viant went public in 1999 and grew quickly. I opened the Houston office, signed a 20,000-square-foot lease downtown and built a team of 40. We were helping companies like Compaq and Enron develop their early web platforms — and for a moment, it felt like we were building the future in real time.

And then, just as quickly, it shifted. The dot-com bust arrived in 2001. I had turned on the lights in our office the year before; now I was turning them off.

Like many people at that moment, I expected to take time to reset. Instead, an unexpected opportunity appeared. That same summer, Rice Business was looking for someone to lead the newly launched Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship. I had encountered the Alliance as a sponsor and judge at its first business plan competition. It seemed interesting — meaningful, even. I told myself I would do it for a few years.

Nearly 25 years later, I’m still here.

What I didn’t understand at the time was that I was stepping into work that would feel both deeply personal and endlessly energizing. The Alliance wasn’t just about startups; it was about people — founders willing to take risks on ideas that might or might not work.

Over time, that became the throughline.

I’ve had the privilege of watching founders — students and alumni alike — move from early ideas to real companies. I’ve seen them gain the confidence, mentorship and networks they need to keep going, even when the path isn’t clear. There is something uniquely satisfying about being part of that moment when someone decides to build.

At the same time, I’ve watched Houston evolve. When we began, the idea that the city could become a center for technology entrepreneurship felt aspirational. Today, that ecosystem is real and growing — shaped by collaborations between startups, investors and major companies searching for new solutions.

If there is a single expression of that growth, it’s the Rice Business Plan Competition. In 2001, nine teams competed for $10,000. Today, 42 of the top student startups from around the world compete for more than $1 million. But the scale tells only part of the story. What matters most is the community around it — hundreds of investors and mentors who show up each year not just to judge, but to advise, connect and support. For many, it has become a highlight of the year.

Along the way, Rice Business itself has changed. When we started, it wasn’t ranked in entrepreneurship. Today, it is consistently recognized among the best — a reflection of a sustained commitment to building something distinctive.

What I carry with me most, though, are the lessons. The value of passion and vision. The importance of building a team that believes in the work and in each other. The power of momentum — how small successes, over time, become something much larger. And perhaps most of all, the importance of listening — to founders, to partners, to the people you serve — because they will tell you how to improve, if you’re willing to hear it.

Looking back, what strikes me is how little of this was planned. The career I imagined is not the one I ended up with. And yet, in many ways, it has been far more meaningful.

What began as a short-term decision became a long bet — on people, on ideas and on the possibility of building something that lasts.

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Kickstart

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Celebrating 10 years of Lilie: A Top 10 List

10 Years of Lilie

Rice has long known that big ideas don’t just happen — they need a place to grow. The Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie) is the home of entrepreneurship and innovation education at Rice — and it just celebrated its 10-year anniversary. To honor every year of that entrepreneurial spirit, here are 10 things everyone should know about Lilie Lab.

Here’s to the next decade of impact!

$16.5 million
Founding gift from the Liu Family Foundation that established Lilie.

2015-2016 Academic Year
The year Lilie launched to centralize entrepreneurship education at Rice.

1,600+ undergrad and grad students annually
Participate in Lilie programs, workshops and courses each year.

4,000 square feet
Dedicated co-working space to support students’ entrepreneurial ambitions.

All majors represented
Students from across Rice — engineering to business to humanities — participate.

60+ mentors and advisers
Founders, investors and alumni working directly with students.

$250,000+ in annual student funding
Distributed through grants and competitions, including the H. Albert Napier Rice Launch Challenge, Innovation Fellows, and the Summer Venture Studio — all equity-free.

150+
Student-led startups actively supported at any given time.

300+
Ventures that have emerged from Lilie since its founding.

#1
Rice Business’ ranking for best graduate school for entrepreneurship from The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine — the 7th year running — thanks to Lilie Lab and Rice’s broader entrepreneurial ecosystem, which also includes the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and the Rice Business Plan Competition.

Check out our podcast interview with Professor Yael Hochberg, head of Lilie Lab: business.rice.edu/podcast (or search for Owl Have You Know wherever you listen to podcasts).

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