[00:00]Brian Jackson: Welcome to Owl Have You Know, a podcast from Rice Business. This episode is part of our Flight Path Series, where guests share their career journeys and stories of the Rice connections that got them where they are.

I'm your host, Brian Jackson. And today, we have the privilege of speaking with a global marketing leader who has helped revitalize iconic brands, launched award-winning innovations, and continues to push the boundaries of what it means to be a purpose-driven leader.

Joining us today is Tanu Grewal, Rice MBA class of 2005 and vice president of marketing and innovation at AlEn USA. With over 15 years of experience in consumer products, luxury, and hospitality industries across Europe, the U.S., Middle East, Africa, and India, Tanu has built a remarkable career as a strategic marketer and brand builder.

Tanu, welcome to Owl Have You Know.

[00:54]Tanu Grewal: Well, thank you, Brian. Really happy to be here.

[00:57]Brian Jackson: Well, I'm very happy to be with you, especially, it’s my first episode as host of Owl Have You Know. Really want to start at the beginning of your incredible journey. Your career has spanned multiple industries and markets across the globe. I really want to know, what drives it? What first inspired you to pursue a career in marketing and brand building?

[01:19]Tanu Grewal: You know, that's a really interesting question. I think, at a very young age, I was really drawn to anything advertising and marketing. And I just felt that that had such power to, you know, really persuade people, drive people's decisions, and really, drive people's lives and impact lives. So, that was, kind of, what brought me in to start exploring branding.

And then I did my first internship while at Rice MBA at Coca-Cola, I actually went back to India and did the launch of a brand of tea and coffee, which is very strange because Coca-Cola is not a tea and coffee, kind of, brand, but they had launched a brand called Georgia Gold in Japan, had done really well.

And so, they wanted to replicate it in India, which is a big tea and coffee-drinking country. So, I went there and, kind of, really did, you know, the whole shebang, from going out on sales calls, working with the ad agency, working with the product, people. And that was it. That was the start of my love for marketing. I got hooked. And the rest, as they say, is history.

[02:23]Brian Jackson: So, in that pursuit and going back to India, did you draw on any cultural experiences, your background, in order to really understand this market?

[02:34]Tanu Grewal: Absolutely. So, like I said, the biggest competition for the brand was tea and coffee. And tea and coffee is, you know, brewed in people's homes. And to convince them to have, like, an out-of-home consumption. And this was, by the way, dispensed through a machine. So, a tea machine or a coffee machine. It was a very novel concept back then. So, really lots and lots of learnings on how to convince people, what are the, really, sort of, psychological motivations for someone to do that, how do you convince them that this is good quality, that it's worth, you know, the money to be spent, that it's something special that you can't make at home? So, lots of really, you know, interesting things. And I think it was, kind of, nice that I could go back and do this in India where I had grown up and I had that cultural nuance of tea drinking and coffee drinking habits.

[03:24]Brian Jackson: Yeah. I mean, the idea of tea, right? It's sitting down, it's home, it's comfort.

[03:29]Tanu Grewal: Exactly.

[03:30]Brian Jackson: Going to a vending machine and trying to convince folks that it's the same product…

[03:36]Tanu Grewal: Mm-hmm. And tea is so personal, Brian. Everybody has their own recipe for tea, right? Some people will put ginger in it. Some people will put cardamom in it. Some people will put, like, a whole, you know, we call it the tea masala. And again, it was so personal. But really, there were really good insights. You know, there was a lack of hygienic out-of-home consumption opportunities. So, there's at-home consumption. And then there were the what we call the tea wallahs, right? I mean, the roadside vendors selling tea, but their hygiene was, kind of, iffy. So, you know, the people were drinking that in a bind because it's a habit, right? You're out of home, you're in the office, you're running around, you're shopping, and you really crave that cup of tea. But the only place to have that was, you know, that roadside, kind of, guy. And you, kind of, are, like, you know, betting your life and drinking that cup of tea.

And so, I think that's where really… the machines were, you know, manufactured in Italy. And, you know, that you could customize your tea. And it was really just a very, very hygienic way. And, of course, the quality, its consistency, every time you could expect the same taste and the same level of whatever you had put in it, ginger or whatever. And those things were, really, I think, very different. And then we also chose to partner with McDonald's, which, again, I think was a big boost because that is where you expect a dispensed, kind of, beverage. So, just, yeah, it was really, really, really interesting.

[05:00]Brian Jackson: So, you know, you've also transitioned and you moved and you went across, it looks like, Europe, Middle East, Africa, eventually landed in the U.S., you know, working across these markets. What key challenges, opportunities have you seen? How did you navigate those?

[05:18]Tanu Grewal: So, yeah, that's a great question. I think one of the things that has really benefited me and I think, in a lot of places, is, I've spent most of my time in India and in the U.S. and then I did the expat in Europe. But just really, truly understanding the consumer has been a very, very, I would say, something that has helped me navigate the changes, not just in my industry and location, but also just trends, the marketplace and all that.

And I landed up in St. Joseph, Michigan, a very small place, right after my Rice MBA. You know, I needed an H1B, Whirlpool Corporation was based in St. Joseph. They were ready to do one. And they had a really great leadership program. You know, all the stars, kind of, aligned, and I went there.

By living in that small town, I got this really in-depth understanding of the American consumer that I don't think you get if you live on the coast or in a big city only, right? True America doesn't live there. True America who CPG wants their products to be consumed by lives in these smaller towns in the real America. So, I got a really good taste of that. And, you know, back in India, I had… my dad was in the army. We moved around a lot. So, I had had the opportunity to really, kind of, immerse myself in different cultures and really have the ability to talk to different people.

So, I think that's what it is. And even when I went for my expat assignment, I was managing 33 countries in Europe, Middle East, and Africa. And the first thing, you know, I said was, “I need to understand people.” So, we went out and did focus groups in different cities to really understand what does the brand mean to someone in France or somebody in Germany or in Israel. And I would recommend every marketer to really study there. And once you get an understanding, don't just stop there. Keep doing this, right? Because people change, people evolve, things around the people evolve. And I think the pace of change, if anything, has just, kind of, 10xed, right? So, that's, kind of, my secret sauce.

[07:14]Brian Jackson: So, really curious, in trying to get to know the consumer and, I mean, focus group, I think, absolutely, what do you do beyond that? How do you really connect with the small town? Let's say, for example, American. What matters to them? What is their concern with the product?

[07:31]Tanu Grewal: Great question. I find in-homes are really telling. You know, focus group, it's a great way to, kind of, get some understanding, right? But it's a manufactured, sort of, situation. And there's a lot of other dynamics, right? I mean, people will follow the most loud person and, you know, all of that.

In your home is what you truly are. And I have done a lot of in-homes, and some of them have been really interesting. You're like, “Whoa!” But it is very, very telling, right? So, when people are in their homes, first of all, they feel more relaxed and at home, of course, because they are in their home environment. But you can then go and say, “Hey, let me see you doing laundry,” or, “Let me see you clean or cook. Or, let me see what you have in your laundry cabinet.” And it's funny how many times they'll tell you something and then, when you open their cabinets, there'll be a completely different set of brands in there.

And sometimes, it even tells you that people don't pay that much attention. They're not trying to lie to you. They just don't pay that much attention to the brand. That tells you a lot as well. So, I think in-homes are really, really good. And now, with digital diaries, you have the ability to do a lot of these things online where they get a certain set of assignments. And again, you can do the in-home walkthrough digitally with somebody. And those are really, really telling as well.

[08:55]Brian Jackson: I would be terrified to have you walk through my home.

[09:01]Tanu Grewal: It is. I don't know if you know that, Brian, but when you go into people's homes, like, every category that I've ever worked for, I look at people's brands and I judge them.

[09:12]Brian Jackson: That's what I'm saying. I'm not going to have you over, Tanu. I'm sorry. I'm not willing to be judged. I can't. By what fabric softener I use or dishwasher detergent, I don't know what it says.

[09:23]Tanu Grewal: Or even, like, appliances. I mean, that was a big part of my life. Like, you know, it's just some second nature, right? You're like, “Oh, what lines do you have? Why did you buy this?” It's just really… I think consumer behavior is fascinating.

[09:35]Brian Jackson: Well, it is. I mean, you've taken iconic brands, right? Coca-Cola is one you've mentioned. Your past has been with Maytag, Whirlpool, Kohler, I mean, two of which I know are in my home. How do you work with a brand that is a household name, take it from something that seems reachable for everybody, but turn it into aspirational? How do you approach a product like that?

[09:59]Tanu Grewal: You know what? That is a great, great point. And I'll tell you an example, right? So, Whirlpool and Maytag, very different, kind of, similar things, though. They were really iconic brands and they were really a part of people's, like, people grew up with those brands. They were 100-year-old brands by the time I was working on them.

And then what happens is new entrants come into the picture, right? So, LG and Samsung were coming into the picture. There were electronic companies, to begin with. So, they were putting, like, oh, there's a big TV on the refrigerator. Do you really need it? No, but does it look really nice when you go shop for it? You're like, “Yes, I'm going to be looking up those recipes on that.” Of course, right?

And so, I think what ended up happening is, Whirlpool started to get this reputation of being literally somebody in a focus group who said, “That's my grandma's brand,” right? And that was a really, sort of, jarring moment. And we said, “We have to do something,” because we have all this, you know, we used to call it purposeful technology back then, like, technology not for the sake of technology, but because it actually does something, it forms a function, it enhances your life in some way, shape, or form. And so, we weren't doing a good, I think, communication of it.

So, we went out and started to do… we did a new campaign. We went to CES. So, CES was something we would go and have, like, a, kind of, like, a little washing machine and all that in a corner. And I had, you know, when I went to Europe, I had seen how the Europeans did their shows. And they know design and aesthetic. And I mean, that was something I really learned in my time there. There's a big show that happens in Milan every year. And we had put up a booth. And boy, that was a production. It was gorgeous. There were chefs cooking. There was, like, the whole thing there.

And then we came to CES and I told my boss, “We're not going with the sad-looking booth. We're creating, like, a nice booth that really conveys the story of who we are.” So, we actually did that. And it was really, everything in that booth was supposed to convey this idea that we are a technology-forward company as well. So, we actually went out all over the world. So, we had, you know, we had Asia and we had design centers there. And these design centers, they're always doing forward-looking, you know, like, concept cars. There's always concept appliances that we were creating, which is not sharing it. So, we actually created prototypes of those. And there were, like, really cool things. Like, there was this big fireplace kind of thing where it had a hot zone and a cold zone. You can cook on it, but you could keep your drink cold. This was supposed to be like in your living room. And we had a couple of these kinds of really nice things.

And then we bought some of our designers from all over the world to be able to talk to these things with the agency. We created this, you know, really big social media plan for the first time. We were live streaming with influencers from the booth. And I'm talking about, like, many years ago, right? So, this wasn't normal back then.

And so, really, what we had was, as an end result, we had people walking into the booth saying, “Oh, my god, I don't believe this is Whirlpool's booth.” It was like a dissonance in what they were expecting and what they were getting. And that's exactly what we were going for. So, that's sometimes you have to, kind of, do something a little jarring like that to really massively change perceptions.

[13:14]Brian Jackson: So, I mean, you're working in a crowded market, right? You talk about LG, Samsung, Whirlpool, Maytag, I guess, Speed Queen..

[13:22]Tanu Grewal: Speed Queen!

[13:24]Brian Jackson: All I know is, when I went to go buy a washer and dryer, my dad swore that Speed Queen was the machine I had to buy.

[13:32]Tanu Grewal: Oh, really?

[13:33]Brian Jackson: I was not willing to fork up Speed Queen money, but ended up with a Maytag. And he was okay with that.

But when you're working in a crowded market like this, if you're talking about standing out, being innovative, I think, is a huge part of that. What else do you see? You know, what other strategies are there?

[13:49]Tanu Grewal: I really think that understanding what the consumer needs that some nobody else is giving them, right? And then giving it to them in the right, sort of, pack size or format at the right price point and being available where they shop, classical for peace, right? You have to get that right. And research, again, like I was mentioning earlier, it's, you have to, kind of, get into the, sort of, really nitty gritties and get that one little nugget that is the one insight that really can change a lot of different things.

I'll give you an example. In my current role, we make cleaning and laundry products. And we were going into the market with…we have a very well-established fabric softener. It's actually the top selling fabric softener in the country. I mean, I won't mention competitor names, but the big ones, we sell more than that on the same shelf, right? So, we outsell them.

And really, we wanted to see, what was it? And I mean, we knew that there's a lot of the fragrance. It's a big part of the equity there. And, you know, we wanted to then go into more fragrant products, like dryer sheets and scent booster beads and things like that. And we could have gone and done… like, we work with the top fragrance houses in the world and we could have gone and done any kind of fragrance; but really, the insight that we got was that people, when they do laundry, don't want to use different scented products for different kinds of things, like, their detergent is smelling like flowers and then, you know, their fabric softener smells like something else. And so, they're like somebody said… and these things really stick with me from research and somebody's like, “I don't want to smell like a potpourri. Like, I want consistency in my fragrance,” also, because our consumer is a highly, highly scent-forward consumer. Like, the amount of fragrance they use, Brian, in overall, like, the number of products and in the laundry regimen, it's just interesting, right?

And so, what they wanted was they wanted aroma consistency. They wanted the same aroma in their detergent, in their softener, in their dryer sheets, in their booster beads. So, it builds up. One, it’s consistent, but it also builds up so the end result is a highly fragrant output.

And we wouldn't have gotten that unless we had gone and asked people, like, “Why do you do this? Why do you do this? Why are you looking for this? Why are you trying to combine this?” And once we found that, sort of, spot that nobody else was doing, that was something that helped us differentiate.

[16:13]Brian Jackson: Yeah, what an interesting… I mean, I think about the scents we use in our home. It has to be a consistent scent. I don't want one to smell like flowers and the other one to smell, I don't know, what's the other scent? Pine or something. It's interesting. So, at AlEn, in this role, they're based out of the U.S. But they also, it's out of Mexico, correct?

[16:34]Tanu Grewal: Yes. So, the easiest way to say this and explain it is, you know, we're the Procter & Gamble of Mexico. It's like that big. And our products in Mexico are in 95%-plus households. Really just massive, right? So, it's a 75-year-old company. It's family-owned. It's third generation now, which is very rare. And in the U.S., they started doing business, kind of, as a distributor, saying, “Hey, we have products. Let's sell them across the border.” And then, I would say, about 10, 12 years ago, they really started looking at it, McKinsey came in, did some sort of growth projections and said, “Hey, U.S. is where you really need to focus if you want generational growth.” And that's the benefit of family-owned businesses, that they can think in years and not in quarters, right? That's a plus point.

That's when they started really looking at it in a different way, brought on a new team on. And then, we started, you know, really doing insights work here, product development, specifically for the U.S. consumer. You'll be surprised that somebody who has, you know… because we, in Mexico, we sell a lot of products there. And for example, let's say there's a best-selling lavender there. That will not be the same lavender that will sell with a Mexican-American consumer who has lived here for 10-plus years.

Because you're a product of your environment. And so, when you live here, you moved here, you're living here, your expectations get formed by your ecosystem, right? And so, even just a small thing like that. And then, of course, habits. I mean, they don't have dryers there. So, we have to have, you know, laundry products have to be formulated differently here. Cleaning habits are different.

So, that's what we started doing. We started understanding the market here, the consumer, and really designing products for them here. And now, we are, I would say we're the, you know, one of the fastest growing companies in our categories. We have national distribution across all big retailers. Amazon, we have a big business. So, it's been very interesting.

[18:36]Brian Jackson: So, you're taking an existing product line, but then you're looking at a new market. You're adapting. You're looking at the consumer, “How can we take what we already have and adjust it, but also innovate?”

[18:48]Tanu Grewal: That was… yes, to begin with, we were doing that. We were taking it and adjusting it. Now, we're doing completely innovations done completely differently for both countries. So, across the years, we actually built a whole innovation ecosystem. We just inaugurated a huge R&D center. So, we actually do agile squad-based innovation, which is very tech, sort of. They used to have agile squad-driven innovation and we, kind of, borrowed it from them. And so, we have squads who are dedicated to the U.S. And so, they just make products only for the U.S. So, we actually have some products that we only sell here and we don't sell in the Mexican market.

[19:27]Brian Jackson: So, an agile squad, is it just a team that gets together, huddles, and problem solves?

[19:33]Tanu Grewal: They're all these together. So, yeah, it's actually a cross-functional team that works together. They have dotted lines into their own functions. But for all intents and purposes, they're a team. They actually physically sit together. They work on projects in sprints. And when we moved from what used to be, sort of, like, stage gate innovation to agile squad-based innovation, it cut out innovation time by a lot of months, because just because people are co-located and co-thinking, I guess, if that's a word, but, like, really, that power of thinking together and brainstorming and working and being faster versus, sort of, being in your silos and having to come together for a meeting once a week, that change was powerful.

[20:17]Brian Jackson: Yeah. Right now, I'm on a task force at work. And I prefer the term agile squad. It sounds far more important, so I might take that one.

[20:25]Tanu Grewal: Yeah, I think it, kind of, gives you this, sort of, idea of that movement is happening, right? Agile, you're really agile. But, you know, agile is more a mindset tool because we started with innovation, but we had to really make this change across the organization because innovation doesn't… the squad doesn't operate in a vacuum. So, I think it has made a big difference across the organization.

[20:47]Brian Jackson: So, I think, you know, out of all of this, kind of, background of growing, you've created a project, Art of Green. Could you talk about that process and give a little background to how that was developed?

[20:59]Tanu Grewal: Sure. So, Art of Green, I would say, has been one of the biggest learnings of my career. But we actually ended up shuttering the brand. So, we launched it about, I would say, maybe, was it, like, five years ago. And at that point in time, you know, there was a white space for green products that actually performed, because there's a big challenge in adoption hurdle is consumers don't think that green products actually work. So, we just really wanted to make sure that we were focusing on the performance, but at the same time, we were also not pricing them out of people's paying capability.

So, that was a white space. We entered the market. We were doing well. And then COVID happened. And I think just the timing wasn't right. I mean, there was so many other things happening in the company. We were growing rapidly on the three, the core brands that we call them. And just from a resource prioritization point, we had to make a hard call at some point and we decided to pause it.

Maybe, someday, we'll resurrect it, but I have to say that I learned so much from that entire experience. And we apply it to all our new launches now. We are also in the process of acquiring companies. So, we acquired a company called Lemi Shine that was based in Austin two years ago. And I think if we had not launched the whole Art of Green brand and learned what we did, I think Lemi Shine would have gone a little bit bumpier. But because we have those learnings, we were able to really make some different decisions on Lemi Shine.

[22:35]Brian Jackson: And it's those moments where things don't necessarily work out where we pick up little gems of wisdom, right?

[22:42]Tanu Grewal: I know. I think I will always carry Art of Green in my heart. It's just the ones that got away. But I think, in retrospect, there was so many things that needed to happen, and just resource prioritization was the key factor.

[22:56]Brian Jackson: On LinkedIn, I had seen that you had shared a post about resiliency, right? And there’s snow storm moments of, “Am I prepared? Will my pipes burst? Will the power go out?” I mean, snow in Houston, who knows? Anything's possible, right? So, I think with that, like, I'd love to know, what is your snow storm moment where you've had to adapt and build flexibility into your plans?

[23:20]Tanu Grewal: Yeah, absolutely. I think when COVID hit, that was one big one, right? So, we were actually getting ready to go to a conference and we didn't know what was going to happen and how fast it was going to happen. And then, literally, everything came to a standstill and people started knocking on our doors for product, right? Because cleaning products, think about it — wipes, bleach. It was crazy.

So, I think that was a really snowstorm moment. Like, we could have just gotten paralyzed because there was a lot happening in people's lives, and personally. And then there were retailers who we’re not doing business with who were knocking on our doors.

And I think, how we, as a company, went through that whole experience is really, I think, just so eye-opening. So, first of all, I think we, of course, everybody was working from home, but the leadership really did a great job of, you know, making sure that we were having touch points every single day in the beginning with people, asking them about, like, their families. “Do you need anything?” And the company was actually doing things to help people. You know, “Hey, if you don't have this or that.” And in Mexico, actually, because we are bigger, they were really helping people get treatment and things like that as well. That cascaded down, and everybody felt comfortable. So, that was priority number one. And it was a master class on how to do that.

And then, on the other hand, you know, we were able to really prioritize U.S. business because this was a moment of massive inflection, potentially, right? So, we actually focused certain plants near the borders because that's where our products are all made in Mexico to really just focus on U.S. demand. And we were able to get trucks rolling. We were able to supply product in Mexico. They did a lot for their employees. They were actually going and picking up factory workers from their homes in special created vans and buses and helping them, sort of, remain social distanced. I haven't said that word in a long time now. But really, just get disinfected and all of that.

And so, we were able to, like I said, we were able to build relationships with certain buyers who remembered us, right? So, consumers who didn't have product-tried us. So, again, I just think that was a master class in how you handle an emergency, is you take care of your people, number one. Always start there. And then number two is you get really nimble, right? You pivot and you figure out how to get it done because that always pays out in the end.

[25:52]Brian Jackson: That's fantastic. And yeah, I agree, in those moments, right, we're all in a challenge. It's where you, kind of, learn what you're made of. It seems like your leadership and you being on the team really was a benefit. I'd like to, kind of, pivot. So, talking about your MBA from Rice Business, I want to know, how was your experience? And how did it shape your career trajectory?

[26:14]Tanu Grewal: Absolutely. I think Rice was such a great choice because it was a small school. And coming in, international students always have to have two levels of change. One is coming back to grad school and you get into that study mode. But the other one is just the cultural factor of it, right? It's just really, I had never seen people, like, walk into a classroom, sit in front of the professor and eat while he's teaching. Like, that was just mind boggling to me. That would never happen in India. So, I think the first time that happened, I was like, “Oh, my god.” But just again, it's just a cultural, sort of, evolution that's happening.

And then, you know, the way people would participate openly. And I think, maybe in India, it's just this mindset of, “I'm going to wait till I have something really, really smart to say, and, I'm going to wait for that perfect opportunity.” And in the meantime, five people have said exactly what you wanted to say. They've said, “Oh, building on so and so blah, blah, blah.” So, you have to quickly learn those things because, you know, in a very different environment. Networking, I mean, that doesn't come very easily.

So, again, it was a lot of change. But I think, Rice, your cohort, they're so supportive, the professors were really great. Everybody was really awesome. And then I had a little bit of a hiccup because I realized I was on the wrong kind of visa where I couldn't do an internship in the U.S. And that was the whole point of doing an MBA, was because I couldn't put some known names on my resume. It's like branding myself, right?

And so, it was like, “Oh, my god, a nonprofit was my only option.” I was like, “That's not going to work.” So, that's when, again, through some Rice connections, I got connected with somebody in Coke. They used to have a bigger presence here than in Houston. They got me in touch with somebody in Delhi, and my internship happened.

And then, I started job-searching. Somebody gave me the advice to load up my courses in the fall, because spring is when you're looking for jobs. And it happened the other way around. Like, all the things were happening in the fall. And I was traveling the country. And at one point, I really thought, I said, “You know, I'm going to get a job and I'm going to flunk a class, like, something is going to happen.”

But thankfully, it was good. But I was done. I had three credits left in the spring semester, like, three. I took an international law class that was on Wednesday at 12:00. And then I went to every Partio, every lecture, anywhere in Rice University. Like, really, because I had my job offer. I had my credits done. And I really took advantage of everything that Rice had to offer.

But I think it was a great school. You know, since I've come back to Houston, I have recruited from Rice, just the quality of students, just top notch, really just a great, fantastic experience. It sets you up for a very different kind of career, which I think, now, it's getting up in the rankings as well. It's getting the recognition that I think, you know, it deserves.

[29:14]Brian Jackson: And it only gets better, right? Like, being an alumni, I think there's constantly opportunities to stay connected, to continue networking, to talk to professors, to ask challenging questions to folks who can give you good advice.

[29:29]Tanu Grewal: Absolutely. And yeah, I feel really passionate also because of my own international experience. And it's really hard for international students. So, I'm always going onto campus and talking, always happy to talk to anybody who's going through, sort of, like, this life-altering experience. It's just a passion point for me. I derive a lot of joy out of doing that. Really, it makes you feel good, no?

[29:54]Brian Jackson: Yeah. And it's servant leadership, right? Like, we all want to contribute and we want to participate, but also, continue to help other folks because we've been helped ourselves.

[30:03]Tanu Grewal: 100%. Pay it forward, right? What is it, Spider Man? With great power comes great responsibility. Whatever little power I have.

[30:13]Brian Jackson: But I think your background, too, is so unique and being a multicultural person and having to be a chameleon of some sort and adjust to Michigan, to Houston, to India, to Italy, like, all of those parts are really valuable experience that, if you can impart that to another student who's sitting in class and thinking, “God, none of this makes sense. Why are folks talking,” you know, it's really powerful.

So, right now, where you're sitting and, kind of, this cross-cultural experience you had, when you draw on that and you're trying to connect a product to a new market, but also internally, when you're working with teams of different cultural backgrounds, what are you finding is influencing your leadership and your collaboration style?

[31:03]Tanu Grewal: Yeah. To me, you know, and there's so much conversation about diversity, but I think true diversity is from your lived experiences. You can be, you know, whatever demographic, but even within that, your lived experiences can really make you a very diverse person because you have a certain way of looking at the world that your neighbor doesn't, right?

And so, that to me is diversity, because you can then look at the same problem and think about solving it very differently. And I have seen it in action, Brian, in every continent. And it always, always amazes me how five people looking at the same slide can interpret it so differently because how they've grown up, what they've, you know, what experiences have shaped their lives.

So, I'm a big believer of that, you know, getting people with different experiences. And even… actually, I'll tell you, even within a company, if you bring in people from different functions, you'll see that they will give you a point of view that's very different. And it's not often done. When I worked in a Fortune 100, you, kind of, stuck in your little silo. But when you work in a smaller startup and you have a supply chain person in the marketing meeting, they're going to look at different things and they're going to be like, “Hey, have you thought of this? And what about that?”

And so, I, kind of, uncovered that earlier on in my career with AlEn. And subsequently, we always do that. Actually, we have another word. We call them syner-teams, synergistic teams, combined,make syner-teams. And so, we actually bring people from different functions and give them, like, a limited amount of time and a specific challenge to work on. I'm just really, I think I learn a lot. And I get to see how people contribute to the same challenge, but in a very different way.

[32:50]Brian Jackson: Well, and I think you've hit it, like, that diversity of thought and background is so valuable. And, kind of, what drew me to Rice was the value of your classmates, right? And the diversity of their backgrounds, we had second-career folks. We had pivoters. We had folks, kind of, more on the tail end of their careers coming back. And you sit in a classroom and you have Socratic seminar and you're all talking and working through a point, that's the value, right?

[33:17]Tanu Grewal: That's the value, exactly. Exactly. And haven't you had a moment where you're like, “Where did that come from? Like, I would have never, in a million years, thought about that.”

[33:27]Brian Jackson: Yeah, but those are the best moments, right? Like, you want to be balanced in, why do I think this? And why is this normal or not? And I feel like having that in the room just makes you more intelligent.

[33:39]Tanu Grewal: Absolutely. Absolutely.

[33:42]Brian Jackson: Even now, it's like, you volunteer, you're in the community, you're on the International Student Advisory Board, the South Asian Women's Professional Network. I think you've drawn on your background, your experiences, but what drives this commitment to fostering these communities?

[33:59]Tanu Grewal: Honestly, I really think I've been extremely fortunate in a lot of things. You know, I grew up in India as a girl. My dad was, like, a feminist, like way ahead of his time. I mean, just, the man was... I mean, we lost him a couple of years ago. But I mean, I always think about, am I going to be able to do that for my child, right? Be that progressive and all of that? And then, getting the opportunity to come here, go to Rice, work in all the fabulous companies I have lived in all these different countries.

I mean, sometimes, when I sit and think about it, I'm like, “Man, I have got to be thankful for all this,” and then I have to give back, right? I have to help other people, because that's just what you do. And I really derive a lot of joy from giving back and from helping other people. And I always tell people, you know, you can learn from my mistakes so you can go ahead and not make them. You're going to make your own, but at least you don't have to make the ones that I made, you know. And I think that is how, iteratively, with every sort of batch and generation, we get better as humans. And so, I think that is a really essential thing to do as a human being. 

[35:06]Brian Jackson: And to be open to making mistakes, but also to be open to learn from other people.

[35:11]Tanu Grewal: 100%. And that's the other thing, right? Like, I always feel like, when I go and teach a class at Rice, for example, just the questions I get asked, I learn so much from that, always. I come back energized. I love going on campus. I just feel this energy. There's something about the campus, right? Like, when you go there, you're like, “Wow, it's so good.” But yeah, I think just, I always come back with something from that encounter as well.

[35:36]Brian Jackson: That's fantastic. I think we're inspired by people, too, right? And I look in my past and I think the folks that I've learned from and they've been a great inspiration. Who has inspired you?

[35:47]Tanu Grewal: Oh, I think I just mentioned, right? My dad, he was a really big inspiration in my life. But then I think so was my mother. And my mother, in a way, because, you know, she grew up as a traditional housewife in India, and then she lost my dad when, I think, I'm trying to think how old she was, in her 60s, let's just say roughly, right? And she was a very strong woman, growing up. And then when he passed away, I realized that she did not even know how to take money out of an ATM. That's how sheltered she had been.

And it was just there was no other way but for her to learn all these things. And so, long story short, I mean, the woman jets around on her own, manages her finances, I think may even know more about banking than I do. The other day, she asked me a question, I'm like, “What is that?” And she goes, “Just ask your banker for that number.”

Just that resilience, like, in your 60s to be able to transform your life, oh, man, I hope I have that, because that is staggering. Like, I mean, just from one day where everything is taken care of outside the home, you have no idea what's happening, to now actually actively managing your money portfolio, your real estate, your everything and going around traveling, I mean, that is just amazing, you know. So, I hope I have some of those genes.

[37:08]Brian Jackson: It's transformative. Incredibly challenging, too. So, wonderful inspiration to draw from. I’ll wrap it up here, but want to ask, you've had this career that's taken you across incredible brands. You're at an opportunity now where you're working with a fantastic company and you're somewhat pivoting into the U.S. market. For your career, where are you headed?

[37:32]Tanu Grewal: We're just getting started at AlEn. And we have a big, big aspiration to be a billion dollars here. And in order to do that, we're going to have to build a lot of things. You know, in the past few years, if I had to summarize, I'd say I built brands but then I also built teams and I also built enterprise capabilities, like innovation. 

And I think, now, from here to get to that, you know, billion dollars, it's such an inflection point. There's so many things that need to be created. Brands need to be taken to a different level. We may acquire new brands. We're working on such really cool innovation. I'm really, really excited.

One of the things that I didn't mention is that a primary consumer is a multicultural consumer. And that consumer is the biggest growth population in the United States for the next decade, right? I mean, 50% of the growth in the population is going to come from Hispanic consumers. And Hispanic consumers form households at an early age, have children, buy homes, all of these things that CPG loves, right? Because that's when consumption happens. And so, it's a very valuable consumer as well. So, I think that trend, also, is something that's in our favor. So, really continuing to understand that consumer, talk to them, sort of, build that longer-term loyalty. Lots to do. Lots to do, Brian.

[38:56]Brian Jackson: The work is just beginning.

[38:58]Tanu Grewal: The work is just beginning. We've just scratched the surface.

[38:58]Brian Jackson: Well, fantastic. I have sincerely enjoyed talking with you today. And thank you so much for joining us on Owl Have You Know. I'm very much looking forward to seeing you at an alumni event or on campus, but staying in touch.

[39:17]Tanu Grewal: Yeah. Thank you. I really enjoyed the conversation as well.

[39:23]Brian Jackson: 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, Brian Jackson, and Maya Pomroy.

[00:00]Maya Pomroy: Welcome to a special episode of Owl Have You Know. I'm your host, Maya Pomroy, Rice Business Class of 2022. Today, we're celebrating the life and legacy of a dear friend and leader in the Rice Business community, Scott Gale, Class of 2019. Scott left an indelible mark on this podcast and everyone fortunate enough to know him.

Scott wasn't just my co-host on Owl Have You Know. He's the reason I joined the team. With his characteristic generosity and vision, he encouraged me to blend my background in broadcast journalism with my passion for Rice Business. That's who he was, a deeply caring friend who saw potential in others and inspired them to shine.

Scott's impact reached far beyond this podcast. At Rice, he graduated Beta Gamma Sigma, received the Jones Citizen Award, and co-founded the Jones Student Association for Executives. He served on the Rice Business Alumni Board, always strengthening the community he so cherished.

Professionally, Scott founded Halliburton Labs in Houston, where he championed clean energy innovation. His work reflected a deep commitment to purpose and progress. But Scott was never just about work. Scott was about people. Whether captivating audiences with his voice or devoting himself to his family and community, he brought joy and connection to every moment.

In September, we lost Scott after his courageous battle with cancer. Even in his hardest moments, he lived with resilience, grace, and a determination to make the most of every single day. His legacy reminds us of what it means to live fully and with intention.

Today, we celebrate Scott by revisiting some of his highlights on this podcast and sharing reflections from those who knew and loved him. Let's begin with some of Scott's unforgettable moments behind the mic.

[02:41]Scott Gale: Welcome to the Owl Have You Know Podcast. I'm your host, Scott Gale. I'm here with Chuck Yates, Rice Undergrad ‘91, Rice Business School ‘94.

[02:51]Chuck Yates: Now, did I get selected because I didn't pay my parking tickets and this is, like, my penance to the university?

[02:58]Scott Gale: Cat’s out of the bag, Chuck.

[02:59]Chuck Yates: All right.

[03:00]Scott Gale: I've come here with a collection.

[03:02]Chuck Yates: There we go. There we go.

[03:03]Scott Gale: It's a privilege to be here, kind of, on your home turf.

[03:07]Chuck Yates: Your home turf, though.

[03:08]Scott Gale: Yeah, we're at home.

[03:10]Chuck Yates: This is the home field. For those of you who don't know, Scott and I both have podcasts published by Digital Wildcatters, and this is the Digital Wildcatters Podcasting Studio.

[03:19]Scott Gale: This is it. I encourage you guys to check it out. We'll talk a bit about Chuck Yates Needs A Job Podcast. I want to hear a bit more about the origin story around that. But I wanted to, kind of, just start a little bit chronologically and go back, because the Yates family has a lot of connectivity with Rice University. Can you share a little bit about, kind of, some of that family history?

[03:38]Chuck Yates: Yeah. So, I'm Charles Wilbur Yates, III, Charles Wilbur Yates, Sr. So, my grandfather was class of ‘30, ‘31, ‘32, somewhere in there. I should probably know the date. So, he went to Rice. Great aunt went to Rice in the late ‘30s. I don't think she got a degree, or early ‘40s somewhere, that she attended classes. Then, you had mom and dad both graduate from Rice in the early to mid-60s. You had Uncle Terry graduate from Rice in the late ‘60s. Then, you had me, brother Jay, brother Kenny, all graduate from Rice in the ‘90s.

[04:21]Scott Gale: So, when you were graduating high school and deciding to go to college, was it even a conversation or was it…

[04:27]Chuck Yates: I didn't have a choice. Didn't have a choice. So, this was, kind of, funny. I decided sophomore year in high school that I was gonna go to Harvard, and went and announced that to my parents. Scared the hell out of my mom. She's like, “Oh, my God, my poor little baby from Richmond, Texas is going to go off to the East Coast, is going to become a rebel rouser, liberal, marry Amy Carter, and start protesting and all this.” Dad says, “Don't worry, I got this.” And dad said, “You know, Harvard's a really good school, Chuck. If you go there, I'll even pay for you to go there, but you got to go visit. You can't just show up on campus.” I go, “Okay, dad, I'll go next summer.” And dad goes, “Nah, why don't you go over Christmas break?” Mom says, to this day, the hardest thing she ever did when parenting me, they let me get on a plane to go to Boston, Massachusetts in the dead of winter. And it was 73 degrees in Houston, Texas. I didn't take a coat. I didn't know any better. I mean, I was just like, “It's 73 degrees in Houston, why do I need a coat?”

I got up there and I had, like, one pair of jeans. Everything else I packed was shorts. And my mom knew this. And so, anyway, I got there and, kind of, walked around campus, you know, in my T-shirt. And I think I went and bought a jacket or something. So, I'm freezing to death. Needless to say, I didn't get into Harvard, but I've changed the story, so that, at the end of the tour, I walked into the admissions office and asked Harvard to tear up my application. That's a much better story, right?

[05:58]Scott Gale: I like it. I like it. That’s some great parenting approach by your parents as well. That's fantastic.

[06:04]Chuck Yates: Typical dad.

[06:07]Maya Pomroy: With his deep signature voice and talent for meaningful conversation, Scott interviewed top leaders across industries. One standout moment was his live interview with Rice University's provost, Amy Dittmar.

[06:26]Scott Gale: Wanted to explore a little bit, just, sort of, how do you see the future of Rice and the, sort of, the coming steps, how the strategy is unfolding? I think all of us that are close to the university appreciate that things are meaningfully different today than they were five years from now and wanted to just, kind of, explore, when everything goes according to plan, it never does, but when things go according to plan, what will be different about Rice? What will be the same on, sort of, a, kind of, a pick a horizon, five years, ten years?

[06:54]Amy Dittmar: Yeah, five to ten, that's what we both would talk about. I mean, I think that the first thing, I mean, as I've gone around and met people and I did, kind of, developed, started those relationships I just mentioned, one of the things I asked people was, “What do you love about Rice, i.e., what do you want me to not screw up, in some senses, with the change?” And so, a lot of that was around the care of the students and the commitment to the students, either the graduate students or the undergrads. There is just this incredibly deep… you know, you've got a connection with the faculty that you don't see in a lot of places. So, I don't think that… that won't change, I mean. So, you know, are we going to grow? Yes. But we can't grow so much that we can't keep that commitment, you know. And when I say we're going to grow, you know, undergrad’s already been in a phased in growth. Many of our graduate programs are growing. Rice is just… it's an amazing institution. So, I think being able to educate and impact more individuals is part of the mission.

[07:46]Maya Pomroy: Let's hear a few more clips from Scott's interviews, one with Rice Business’ Houston Endowed Professor of Management, Daan van Knippenberg, and another from a live event with Ruth Reitmeier, director of coaching at Rice Business, and Brent Smith, senior associate dean for executive education and associate professor of management and psychology at Rice Business.

[08:15]Scott Gale: Talk a bit about those circumstances to extract the value of diverse teams.

[08:19]Daan van Knippenberg: Yeah.

[08:20]Scott Gale: I mean, I'm assuming it's some things like psychological safety or trust. What are, sort of, the more statistically significant sort of…

[08:29]Daan van Knippenberg: No. You're assuming correctly. So, it starts with understanding that diversity, from this perspective, is a resource. It's an informational resource. So, if you have a more diverse team, you have more diversity perspectives, information, knowledge.

[08:44]Scott Gale: A potential for….

[08:45]Daan van Knippenberg: It's potential, exactly. So… but having the resource is not the same as using the resource effectively. So, what we're talking about is, what is necessary to use the resource effectively? And how do you use it? It’s knowledge, right?

[08:59]Scott Gale: And maybe the opposite as well. Like, what, sort of, suppresses, kind of, what are those?

[09:00]Daan van Knippenberg: Yeah, exactly. And what we know is, to use that resource effectively, what does it mean to use resources effectively? It means open-minded exchange, discussion, and integration of those diverse perspectives. I need to say, so, you know, “You know stuff that I don't know. So, educate me.”

[09:19]Scott Gale: Sure, a willingness to listen and open.

[09:22]Daan van Knippenberg: Yeah, a willingness to listen, a willingness to ask questions, to understand, to recognize that there's stuff you don't know, and for instance, in this example, also willingness in your side to invest in bringing me up to speed, to explain to me. “You tell me something. I don't get it.” You're willing to invest in explaining it, etc.

So… and that is, as you say, psychological safety, but it also starts with what we call mental models of what you're doing. It starts with understanding that this is the process you need to benefit from diversity.

[09:58]Scott Gale: So, one of the goals here is to demystify leadership a little bit. And so, I want to just, sort of, cannonball in and, kind of, ask the question, like, as you've, kind of, on ramps to this journey and as you're, kind of, traveling down this highway, what have you changed your mind about leadership along the way? Some orthodoxy or some approach or process.

[10:21]Brent Smith: I don't know if I would say that this is changing my mind. I would say that what has been reaffirmed consistently over time about leadership is that the belief that there might be some kind of magic bullet, you know, that really can solve the problem of leadership, it's, kind of, unrealistic. I think those who have been in my class, probably, have heard me, you know, belabor the point that leadership is something that is just, unfortunately, quite contextual. And without an understanding of context, it's really difficult to understand leadership. 

[10:48]Scott Gale: I want to, sort of, talk about this, how people are integrating leadership coaching into, kind of, their day-to-day. Like, what are some tips or advice or things to bring leadership coaching into, kind of, a tangible “I show up at work tomorrow, I can, kind of, go do these kinds of things?” I want to get it, like, tactical.

[11:07]Ruth Reitmeier: I like it. I mean, I think leadership coaching is built on several things, right, like, empathy and human connection, authenticity, vulnerability, intellectual humility. Like, if you can embody a coach-like approach as a leader and bring those things to work, you're going to inspire people. You're going to connect with people. Show me that you are a human that I can go to work and be fully human also.

[11:33]Maya Pomroy: Before Scott took up the host mantle, he was a guest on Owl Have You Know. He chatted with then host, Christine Dobbyn, about his impressive career journey and how his time at Rice shaped him.

[11:50]Christine Dobbyn: You grew up in Washington State, got a chemical engineering degree at Brigham Young University. What initially brought you to Texas?

[11:58]Scott Gale: Kind of, dumb luck. I really lucked into getting into oil and gas and getting into the state. I had never stepped foot in the state of Texas until I moved here with my first job. You know, I was a Pacific Northwest kid. I was a canvas paper maker, was our mascot, small paper mill town. And for me, kind of, growing up, you’re either a lumberjack or you were an engineer at the mill. And it was just, kind of, the people that were in my life that seemed to be doing well and seemed to, kind of, know what was going on were associated with the mill. And so, I just had it in my head at a young age that getting a chemical engineering degree would be a good idea. I didn't know, really, what that would entail.

So, made my way to Brigham Young. And my first experience with engineering was out at a plant in West Virginia, where I discovered that chemical engineering is, really, you're just a glorified plumber. And it was clear to me that I… and no disrespect to the engineers out there, but for me, personally, it was something that I couldn't, kind of, wrap my head around doing that kind of work. And so, that internship was really valuable for me.

And so, I went searching for, kind of, business-related jobs with an engineering degree and Dow Chemical had this program. They call it the commercial development program where they take engineering undergrads and they put them through six months of, I joke, bootcamp for sales. And they turn you into a B2B chemical salesperson.

But one of the things you commit to in doing that program is geographic flexibility. That they can send you to anywhere in the U.S. in any one of their business lines. And that seemed like a good idea to me. And so, I showed up, did that program. And they said, “Okay, we just, kind of, launched this oil and gas facing business. We're going to move you to Houston. And your first customer is going to be Schlumberger.” And that was, to me, having learned that, you know, obviously, that's not how you say it, but that they had not… you know, they'd done some market research and other things, but our engagement with the oil and gas sector, at the time, as a business was something nascent.

And so, I moved to Houston and started calling on oil field services companies and really fell in love with, kind of, the concept of hydraulic fracturing and that that technology could bring energy independence to the U.S. And it was just a really fascinating thing. And so, I started to chase that, and that's what I was solving for. And my role, previous to this one, was I was managing Halliburton's global hydraulic fracturing strategy. And so, for me, that was something that I had set my sights on a number of years ago.

That's a long way to say that's ultimately how I got to Texas, is, I just lucked into oil and gas. I, sort of, signed up for this lottery. They trained me to sell chemicals to large organizations, and they parachuted me into Houston. And that's, kind of, where I've been ever since.

[15:01]Christine Dobbyn: You were part of the Rice MBA for Executives Class of 2019, just a class ahead of me. How did that experience help you move into the position you're in today? First of all, by, you know, having the degree, having that on paper, but also just what you were able to gain from the program and how you're able to put that in action today in your day-to-day work?

[15:25]Scott Gale: One of the big draws for me in going to Rice was their entrepreneurship program, sort of, broadly, if I can, sort of, generalize that. That's, maybe, not a fair way to characterize it, but Rice is very passionate about entrepreneurship, not only at the business school but in other parts of the university. And it was something that was just of interest to me. It was, sort of, this elusive thing for me, being a guy that had spent a bunch of time in large corporates. I'd launched products and done other things, but the idea of entrepreneurship was just really fascinating to me. And I had taken some entrepreneurship classes in undergrad and other things. And so, when I got into Rice, I was very much actively trying to plug into the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

[16:09]Christine Dobbyn: Is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners about our conversation today?

[16:14]Scott Gale: I would just say, there are so many opportunities out there, lots of different things to be done. I'm just a big fan of being mission-driven. There's a lot of things that are happening in this world that need improvement and need change and just be a force for good and use your powers for good, so to speak. And so, that's something that I would just express. People should be… should think about their purpose and what they're trying to accomplish and the legacy that they want to leave behind, and whatever form that takes.

[16:58]Maya Pomroy: Let's honor Scott's advice by striving to live with purpose and to be a force for good in our own lives. And finally, let's hear from a few of the people in the Rice Business community who knew and loved him.

[17:16]Adrienne Mangual: I was lucky enough to be put in the same Rice Executive MBA Class of 2019 as Scott. Scott immediately stood out, not just because of his memorable voice, but because of his wisdom, curiosity, kindness, and leadership. When Scott first told me about his initial diagnosis and prognosis over coffee, I went home and wrote down all the thoughts that he had shared about how he was choosing to face this, how he would focus on his family and leave an echo. I was so inspired by his spirit. I feel incredibly fortunate to have known Scott, and I know I'm not the only one.

[17:53]Bethany Andell: I have so many great memories of Scott and spending time with him and working with him on the Rice Alumni Association Board, but I think what really stands out to me is how much he really cared about who I was and remembered everything that I told him. Every time I'd see him, he would check in on my family, my business, everything that was going on. He was so thoughtful all the time and really took the time to listen to me. And he just showed he cared all the time. Just a true servant leader and a man of people.

[18:24]Brian Jackson: Scott Gale was a true force of nature, an inspiring leader, a devoted volunteer, and someone who made everyone around him better. As a fellow member of the Rice Business Alumni Association Board and co-host of Owl Have You Know, Scott brought incredible energy and passion to everything he touched. He built a legacy of service, always leading by example, and inspiring others to step up and get back. His influence will continue to ripple through the Rice Business community and beyond. Scott's impact was profound and his memory will forever remind us of the power of dedication and heart.

[18:58]David Holmes: The opportunity I had to get to know Scott has challenged me to be a better and more compassionate person, father, and friend. He was so intellectually inquisitive, incredibly engaging, and at his core, supportive and caring. There are many memories I think of when reflecting on Scott, but one that stands out was talking about family and his focus on maintaining a driven work life, or better yet, life-work balance, to ensure there was always time for those you love, which are his wife and kids. I've taken that to center myself when times are either busy or challenging. And this is a testament to his ability to connect and care. He is greatly missed.

[19:35]Keri Sprung: Scott Gale was an undeniably inspiring leader. His seemingly insatiable curiosity and creativity made him a human force multiplier. He shared his talents liberally to challenge conventional wisdom and was fearless, yet graceful, in his approach to advancing innovation. I will forever admire him for his bravery and resolve and for unselfishly and widely sharing his far too short time on this earth.

[20:01]Patra Isaac: I served with Scott for several years on the Rice Business Alumni Board. And I was immediately wowed by his exceptional radio voice. I loved the curious spirit he embodied and always appreciated how easy it was to have conversations with him. Scott was truly an amazing gift to the Houston business community and beyond, and to our board. His energy and spirit will be greatly missed. And I am personally grateful to have crossed paths with him.

[20:31]Kate Hallaway: The time I spent with Scott always felt very rewarding. He was always intellectually engaging and very welcoming when we were conversing. As part of our alumni board Secret Santa, which we called Secret Sammy, he sent me a book called The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson. Reading the book expanded my horizons about the biomedical field and gave me a new appreciation for the work that was done to develop the COVID-19 vaccines. The book will always be a reminder of Scott's intellect and his ability to share it with others. He will be greatly missed.

[21:04]Sean Marshall: Scott Gale was an amazing human being. His impact will forever be felt here in Houston and, more broadly, across the energy space and in every space that he touched. We connected over entrepreneurship, Rice, startups, energy, and just general shared passion. And that's really what was so great about Scott. When he found something, he put all of his passions into it. And it really shone through. And it could be felt by everyone that got involved with him. I’ll forever cherish the moments and the memories that we have together and definitely miss him. And his impact will come with me and all of the things and the places that I continue to focus on that we had such a shared interest in. Scott, we miss you, we love you, and thank you for everything.

[21:55]Alaina Schuhsler: I first met Scott when he came to my office. He was a current EMBA student at the time and he told me that he was ready to make a donation to the business school. As I'm sure you can imagine, this is a very rare gesture from a current student. It was also just so incredibly generous and showed Scott's sincerity and his huge heart. Little did I know that that first meeting with Scott would turn into a very long conversation about our upbringings, our families, and about our shared values.

Over the years, Scott became a good friend to me, a trusted advisor, and somebody that I just valued working with, more than words can say. Scott's kindness, optimism, and his drive to make the world better touched everybody around him. We will always miss Scott. I will always miss Scott. And I hope that we can all honor his legacy by embracing the same generosity that he shared with us.

[22:53]Maya: Thank you to Adrienne Mangual, Bethany Andell, Brian Jackson, David Holmes, Keri Sprung, Patra Isaac, Kate Hallaway, Sean Marshall, and Alaina Schuhsler for sharing your memories of Scott with us.

And now, let's hear from Dean Peter Rodriguez, who reflects on Scott's remarkable contributions to the Rice Business community.

[23:23]Peter Rodriguez: Every time I think about Scott Gale, I smile and I am deeply grateful to have known him. It's really rare to find people like that that leave a lasting impact on your life, a truly lasting and significant impact, but I think Scott did for me and everyone he touched. It almost sounds miraculous, but I think it's true.

It's even rarer to find a student who not only brings a lot to the program, but leaves so much for so many others, and many others that never got a chance to meet him or that he would never meet. Scott made a real positive difference. He's in a very small handful set of people who made a really positive difference as students here that endures. He helped us with the MBA at Rice. He lent his amazing, beautiful, powerful voice to the right causes, and did so really genuinely and effortlessly.

From the outside, all the way to the core, Scott was a wonderful, very good man, a great friend. And I miss him dearly and will remember him fondly for the rest of my life.

[24:29]Maya: As we close this tribute, I'm moved by the love and the admiration shared. Scott had a unique gift for inspiring and connecting with others, leaving us better for having known him. Through his leadership, storytelling, and zest for life, Scott reminds me of what truly matters — living in the moment, uplifting all those who knew him, and chasing the things that light us up inside. His encouragement and belief in others were gifts I'll carry with me — always.

They say it's not the length of the life but the depth of the life that matters. Scott lived deeply. And while we'll miss his voice, wisdom, and humor every day, his spirit will continue to echo in the lives he touched and the legacy he leaves behind.

Scott would always close with a single powerful word that reflected his optimism and his resilience. So, in his honor, we'll echo him by saying, and those of you that know the word, say it with me: Onward!

[00:00]Maya Pomroy: Welcome to Owl Have You Know, a podcast from Rice Business. This episode is part of our Flight Path Series, where guests share their career journeys, the stories of the Rice connections that got them where they are.

Andrea Edmundson Bryan never expected to find herself leading a firm focused on developing critical infrastructure for the country. The native Houstonian and English major started her career as a Fulbright Fellow, teaching English in Malaysia. Now, the Chief Administrative Officer at Race Rock Infrastructure and the Rice Business Alumni Board member shares her story of how transformational mentors and Rice Business lead her to finding her true passion of leading and preparing our nation for the future in transportation, telecommunications, and energy.

Welcome to Owl Have You Know. I'm your host, Maya Pomroy. Our guest today is Professional MBA from the Class of 2020, Andrea Edmundson Bryan.

Andrea, thank you for joining us today.

[01:00]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Thank you so much. Happy to be here.

[01:02]Maya Pomroy: So, you were part of that 2020 cohort that never got to walk across the stage.

[01:08]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: We walked. We were just a year later, but we walked later. Yes.

[01:12]Maya Pomroy: Okay, you started at Rice in 2018. Oh, the glory days.

[01:17]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yes, exactly.

[01:19]Maya Pomroy: And you are currently the Chief Administrative Officer at Race Rock Infrastructure, which is a leader in the critical infrastructure industry and energy industries. And you've been doing that for quite some time. What drew you to that line of work?

[01:36]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Well, it’s funny that you asked that, because if you'd asked me that 10 years ago, I would have never said that I would be here. Just by a series of events and, kind of, the path that I went down, I think I really give credit to the individual that I've been working for for the last 10 years, my boss, Donnie Young.

And we started off in oil and gas. I started working with him in 2014. We had a path for five years at a previous company there. And he ultimately sold that business. And when he exited that business, I left with him, which was in between my first and second year at Rice. And we looked around and, kind of, figured out what we wanted to do next. And highway infrastructure, steel manufacturing fell into our lap in November of 2020. And so, that was the first acquisition that we had. And we have just built…we spent the last four years building that business. And so, being in this field is not something that either one of us, I think, sought out, but are thrilled to be in it. It's a great business in the state of Texas and in the United States as a whole, especially right now. So, it’s a great business and the Race Rock is doing extremely well. So, very, very happy and fortunate.

[02:38]Maya Pomroy: Well, we'll talk about Race Rock in just a little bit, but I want to talk about your upbringing and your childhood. So, you were born and raised right here in Houston, Texas.

[02:46]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yeah, born and raised Houstonian, very proud Texan. I think I'm a seventh or eighth-generation Texan from family lineage. Yeah, I went to St. Agnes for high school. I went to TCU for undergrad.

[02:58]Maya Pomroy: You were an English major.

[02:59]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: English major, yes, which is, kind of, a unique track. I love telling people this. I'm the middle of three children. My dad's a physician here in Houston and my mom is a nonprofit. And my dad said, “Look, you can go anywhere you want to go. We will support you to do that. But you have one stipulation. You have to have a degree in liberal arts from an undergrad.” And so, my brother, sister, and I all did that, kind of, a different track. You know, you hear a lot of people say you need to go in accounting, finance.

[03:22]Maya Pomroy: Yeah. I'm curious about why. I mean, he's a physician. I was thinking you were going to say, “You gotta be a doctor.”

[03:28]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: No, he said liberal arts and, kind of, really embodied this philosophy that you go to undergrad, you know, college to really learn how to think critically and analyze and read and write, and then go out and get a job, figure out what you really like and specialize. And so, all three of us have done that.

And for a long time, people were like, “An English major, what are you going to do with that? Like, where are you going to end up? You don't want to teach long term or go get a Ph.D.” But it has served me so well, because I think it really did set us up, all three of us and myself, specifically, to think critically and be able to analyze. And I think that, kind of, plays into your original question of how I ended up in infrastructure. You just, kind of, take a path and you learn as you go and think through problems. And, you know, people… early on in my career, a mentor of mine told me, numbers are easy. People are always your problem when it comes to business. I think that translates anywhere. And so, very grateful for the path and having that English undergrad degree.

And then, of course, as you can imagine, going to Rice, it was a feat for me to get through, you know, the rigorous coursework at Rice Business, but I'm so grateful for it. And I think that that English foundation really helped me, kind of, struggle through it efficiently and, ultimately, very successfully.

[04:36]Maya Pomroy: So, you went to TCU.

[04:38]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: I did, go frogs, yes.

[04:39]Maya Pomroy: Yes. Up in Fort Worth. Wonderful town as well. Not knocking Houston, but Fort Worth is really, really thriving. What made you choose TCU?

[04:47]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Well, it's funny, you know. I really wanted to go to that big university in Austin, but they wouldn't take me. So, TCU, kind of, fell into my lap, but I tell people all the time that I wish my college experience on everyone. I had the best four years in Fort Worth at TCU — socially, academically, culturally, in every area. And it was the best fit. And I, to this day, stay actively involved. I serve on the Board of the Honors College there, go to football games, the whole nine yards. And obviously, having an office and manufacturing facility for Race Rock in Fort Worth is fun. And my husband and I have a house there that we maintain. So, lots of connections to Fort Worth that we hold really special to us.

[05:28]Maya Pomroy: And your husband is also Texan through and through, correct?

[05:32]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yes, he is, yeah. Those roots are very, very deep. A seventh, eighth-generation Texan as well. A lot of Texas pride, I think, in the family, for sure.

[05:41]Maya Pomroy: Well, and so, tell me about the Bryan Museum in Galveston, because that is your family's museum.

[05:47]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yes, my father-in-law's collection of, you know, basically, the settlement of the West. So, lots of Texas history. And it's a huge collection. I'm biased, but it's phenomenal museum and building and structure. And all the items in the collection are fantastic and phenomenal.

So, we stay involved on a family level, but then on a personal level, you know, being such a proud Texan, it's a fun thing to do and be a part of and support. And our history in the state is rich. I have so much of it. As someone, I spent a year abroad teaching English in Malaysia right after undergrad at TCU. And I was telling someone the other day that there were 50 of us that went from the U.S. to go teach and I was the only Texan in the group.

[06:29]Maya Pomroy: Really?

 

[06:29]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: And when people asked, you know, where we were from, down to the last person, everyone would say, “Oh, we're from the States.” And I'm the only person that, when asked, every time…

[06:37]Maya Pomroy: “I'm from Texas.”

[06:38]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: “I am from Texas. I am from Texas.” So, you know, bigger, brighter, louder, all the things, but lean into that really hard. And so, the museum has been something really fun to watch. We're about to celebrate the 10-year anniversary in 2025. So, it opened in 2015. Great for all ages, children, all the way up to adults. And there's everything for every need, from an artistic standpoint, you know — documents, saddles, spurs, guns, maps, paintings, videos, dioramas. I mean, the whole thing. It's so interactive and it's phenomenally done. My father-in-law has a huge niche and ability to see things and create these stories. So, it's a beautiful, beautiful collection in a gorgeous building down in Galveston. Yeah.

[07:20]Maya Pomroy: I love that. So, you had mentioned that, after you graduated from TCU as an English major, you went to Malaysia to teach English. So, how old were you? Were you 22 when you decided to do that?

[07:30]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yeah, I was 22. Yeah. I went and taught English in Malaysia under the Fulbright scholarship. So, I went through the State Department. And I vividly remember applying for that and thinking going home the day I applied and just weeping in the shower, being like, “What have I done? Like, if I am so fortunate enough to receive this, like, you don't turn this down.” And I have no idea where Malaysia is, really, on a map. Like, I will know no one. I'm terrified. And it was a profound moment for me that I've, like, “Okay, this is a big deal. Like, you're adulting, really. Like, you're going to graduate college and potentially go somewhere.”

[08:05]Maya Pomroy: To the opposite side of the planet.

[08:08]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Literally, like, that's what I would tell my students, like, “Here's a globe. Here's Houston. Go to the other side. And that's Malaysia, you know, 24 hours to get there.” But spent a year, was fortunate enough to be given a spot, and spent a year teaching high school English in a very, very rural town, about an hour north of Singapore. So, I was in the Southern part of Malaysia and traveled all over Southeast Asia, got down to Australia. It was an adventure of a lifetime. And I think really, kind of, again, foundational roots on, you know, pick yourself up by your bootstraps and figure things out and think through problems. And how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. And so, after, you know, 10 months, looking back, it was a transformative year in my life that I will forever be grateful for.

[08:51]Maya Pomroy: So, tell me some of the most profound things that you learned from that experience. I know that it's really hard to condense something like that, but if you were to write a book and there was a chapter about this experience that you had. And how many total scholars were invited to go?

[09:10]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Fifty. So, the program I had initially applied, because there were only 15 spots and about, historically, 30 applicants. So, I was like, “Oh, the odds are in my favor here.” Like, you know, it's one of the smaller kind of cohorts. And the year I was granted a spot, the Malaysian government infused a lot more money into the program. And so, our program went from 15 to 50. So, we were, kind of, a guinea pig year in that capacity.

But there were challenges. And so, there were days, for sure, I would be lying, if I said there weren't days being like, “Can I do this? Like, I'm a girl from Texas that never had…” I had never… I traveled to Mexico with my family, but I had never been to anywhere in Asia. I had never been anywhere in Europe. I'm thinking, “Can I really do this?” And you're a lot stronger than you think you are, I think, is my biggest takeaway from my experience in Malaysia. And I hold on to that, you know, when I have challenges at work or at Rice and school. Like, I can do this. We can do hard things, right? And so, I think that would probably be, for sure, my biggest, takeaway — you're a lot stronger than you think you are.

[10:12]Maya Pomroy: Well, and I think that that's a common thread through lots of Rice grads, because I think, taking this leap to go pursue an MBA is something that, it's a choice, right? It's a choice that you make and you have to really believe in yourself, even when it's the most, you know, challenging thing to do and you're like, “Oh, my gosh. Am I smart enough? Am I strong enough? Do I have the time to do this? Am I going to sound like a fool if I speak up in class,” and all of those things.

[10:39]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: All of those things. It's so true. And it's not just at, you know, at Rice. It’s out when you get out into the real world. Like, all of those things constantly are presenting themselves in business and day-to-day life.

[10:48]Maya Pomroy: So, once you got back from Malaysia, was that your, sort of, move into Race Rock?

[10:54]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yeah. So, a little bit of a stint in which I came home from Malaysia at the end of 2012, worked for a small company in 2013, and then, in 2014, my resume landed on my current boss's desk, Donnie, and he hired me.

[11:07]Maya Pomroy: Who's a mentor to you?

[11:08]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yeah, for sure. Having… yeah, having worked for someone, for the same person, for 10 years now. And I had no idea what I wanted to do. And I think this is something that you hear a lot from college graduates, you know. Now, I still, when I'm talking to people or trying to be a mentor myself, and they say, “I have no idea what I want to do,” and I say, “Don't wait for the perfect job. Just go get a job.”

[11:30]Maya Pomroy: Perfect job doesn't exist.

[11:31]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: It doesn't exist. Like, I'm still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, right?

[11:35]Maya Pomroy: Aren't we all?

[11:36]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Aren't we all? And so, Donnie hired me as his assistant, and I said, “Look, I don't know if I want to do this for my whole life. I don't think I do. It’s like I do know I want to go back and get my MBA at some point.” I knew that in 2014. I knew I wanted to do that. But I said, I want to learn business and I want to learn oil and gas because I'm here in Houston, I want to stay in Texas. So, show me what we can do with this. And full credit where credit's due, he did that. He took me under his wing and let me see and be a part of everything at the business, from top to bottom.

[12:08]Maya Pomroy: How big was the company in 2014?

[12:09]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: We were about 500 employees. We ultimately ended up being about 500 employees. We did a series of acquisitions. So, we weren't 500 when I started. We were an international company. And the onus, really, to get me to Rice, ultimately, was I was sitting in board meetings. I mean, Donnie was letting me sit in board meetings and I have a seat at the table.

[12:31]Maya Pomroy: What trust!

[12:31]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: And I can't read a financial statement. I'm like, “Oh, I can't… I have no idea. Like, I can hear what they're saying and I can, kind of, comprehend, but I can't read these. I can't articulate the right questions or anything.” And so, it was, you know, through that experience and that exposure that he was allowing me to have that I ultimately went to him and said, “Hey, that MBA thing, it's time. Like, I want to go do it now.” And he was fully supportive of that in every way possible.

So, it's been just such a phenomenal ride with Donnie at Hoover and then leaving and then, you know, really starting Race Rock, which, in its origin, was a family office, and starting a family office. What does that look like? And what does that take? And it was, kind of, a new adventure. And then finding out what sector we were going to be in and doing a number of acquisitions to grow and build a business, it's been fantastic. I've learned so much that I feel like a lot of people at my, kind of, my age or point in their careers maybe haven't had that type of exposure or experience from top to bottom, because I've seen it all and I've done it all. It's been great. Fantastic.

[13:30]Maya Pomroy: Well, so that's fascinating that it was a family office. And so, tell me the roots of how that grew.

[13:35]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yeah, I mean, it was Donnie and myself in an office. We just, you know, how does this work? And, you know, I guess we need some computers and some printers and, you know, Wi-Fi. I mean, it really started off so basic and then, kind of, really developing into, do we go, kind of, private equity? Do we start a fund? Do we raise money? We’ve talked about doing a SPAC. What does that look like? What industry do we want to be in? Back in oil and gas, something totally different. Hoover was a rental container manufacturing business.

[14:03]Maya Pomroy: So, let's back up. So, we didn't talk about Hoover, yet. So, tell me about Hoover.

[14:06]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yeah, it was a rental container manufacturing business. So, those, kind of, in basic terms, those stainless steel IVC tote tanks that you see out on rigs or stacked on the back of 18-wheelers, that was the bread and butter of that business. So, it was a rental business in manufacturing.

So, again, if someone had asked me at TCU, “Hey, you think you're going to go into oil and gas manufacturing,” I would have said, “No, don't think so. What? Yeah, I don't think so.” And so, Hoover was a fantastic business. And I learned a lot about, you know, oil and gas and how that works. But again, working so closely with Donnie, I was really getting to know, like, what goes on in an office and how does that really happen? What does it take to make that run and, you know, employees and the challenges and what people want and what they fear, all those things.

[14:50]Maya Pomroy: So, that was the beginning with Hoover.

[14:52]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: That was the very beginning. Yeah, that was Hoover. And then, Hoover was ultimately sold to private equity. So, I got to see a process run. And then, acquisitions were done after that sale. So, I saw, you know, acquisitions happen. So, there, I had seen so many things and been a part of so many things, integration efforts, that I knew a lot more than I thought I did about what it takes to make a business, kind of, hum and what goes into that on a day-to-day basis.

And then, you know, from Hoover, when Donnie ultimately stepped away from that business and I, kind of, sat there and I was like, “Well, this has been a really fun ride, Donnie. Like, thank you for the five years.” And he was like, “Oh, no, you're coming, too.” I was like, “Oh, okay. We're going.” I was in between my first and second year at Rice. So, it was such an interesting time for me having… you know, I was in the throes of business school and really figuring out, what do I like about this? What am I drawn to? And then, kind of, a full other shift in a professional sense on, what is that next step going to look like? And so, yeah, to your point, a lot of trust that we were going to land… I knew that Donnie would land with his two feet on the ground. There was no doubt about that. Yeah. And I knew that it would be a new challenge for me to, kind of, what's going to be next? And so, setting up a family office was, kind of, the first step and what that looked like. And it was, you know, everything from the bottom up.

And that had always, kind of, been my mentality, the idea of being above no task and I'm not afraid to ask questions or understand why we're doing something. And so, that really played well into building that office and then ultimately building a team. And then Donnie found a business that he wanted to go after. And so, again, having that, you know, previous exposure to mergers and acquisitions at Hoover, we started doing that at Race Rock and acquired structural and steel products in November of 2020. And Race Rock, the genesis took on what it is today. And the business has just grown exponentially.

[16:47]Maya Pomroy: Thrived, yeah.

[16:47]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yeah, it's thrived. We moved offices. The team, now in Houston, there's eight of us here in the Houston office. And we've got almost 500 employees across the organization, across the United States. So, through a series of additional acquisitions, we've just continued to build and grow out Race Rock.

[17:04]Maya Pomroy: So, tell me about Rice. And first of all, what did your husband say when you're like, “I'm going to go get this MBA?”

[17:10]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: He was like, “Of course, you are.” You know, he was so supportive. And we were together at that time, but yeah, to throw another, kind of, life situation that happened, we got engaged while I was at Rice. So, we got married, you know, right after supposed to be graduation. We got married in May of 2020.

[17:31]Maya Pomroy: May of 2020? Oh, my gosh, you got a wedding?

[17:34]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yeah, I know.

[17:35]Maya Pomroy: That's amazing.

[17:37]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yeah, it's funny. There was something, you know, to it. We'd gotten engaged and I was like, “Okay, we're going to get… I'm going to graduate and I'm going to get married two weeks later, because why not? Let's just do everything all at one time.”

[17:47]Maya Pomroy: Well, you learned that you're stronger than you think, right?

[17:51]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Exactly, exactly.

[17:51]Maya Pomroy: I'm stronger than I think I am. And you are.

[17:55]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: And a crazy person for wanting to do all of that. But then, when the world, kind of, shut down in March and it looked like this may be a little bit longer than a-couple-of-week thing, I was like, “You know what? There's just something in my gut telling me, don't cancel this and try to adjust it. Just keep it.” And so, we went from 300 people to 12, just family, and kept the date. And it was magical and perfect and everything I could have ever wanted and hoped for in a wedding. So, I was thrilled. I wanted to get married. I didn't want to have a wedding. So, we did that. And, you know, I had front-loaded all my second-year courses because I was like, “Oh, we're going to have a graduation and a wedding. I'm going to be trying to be planning. So, let me try and get the slate pretty much clean by March so that I can really, you know, focus on the wedding.”

[18:41]Maya Pomroy: And then you got March.

[18:42]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: And then March came. And when everyone went online, I just, kind of, stayed home. Like, I didn't really have to do that transition as much as most of my other classmates that had not front-loaded as heavy as I had. Maybe that's why my overall experience was, I just paused it everywhere. Like, I didn't have to transition to online classes, which I know was just a weird time for everybody, right? But Rice, overall, was fantastic. And lots of things, as I've highlighted, kind of, happened in my two years there. You know, like, pivoting, leaving companies, starting new ones, getting engaged, getting married. And then also just everything about Rice. While you're in school, all of those things happen, too.

[19:22]Maya Pomroy: So, tell me about your cohort. So, that was 20… so, you started in 2018 to 2020. Because I know some folks from that cohort.

[19:29]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Oh, you do?

[19:29]Maya Pomroy: I was a little bit later, but, yeah, I started in 2020 when…

[19:32]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Okay, when I was ushering out, you were coming in.

[19:34]Maya Pomroy: Well, it was around… it was around COVID time, maybe a little bit before, was when I applied and got the great news, and then COVID happened. I'm like, “What? Wait?”

[19:43]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: “What is this going to look like? Yeah, I'm not sure.”

[19:47]Maya Pomroy: Yeah.

[19:48]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: I mean, phenomenal. I mean, I'm just I was, kind of, like a kid in a candy store, just, like, seeing and hearing all these people and talking to all these, you know, like-minded but super smart, talented people from all different walks of life, all different backgrounds, just a diverse class all the way around and have made lifelong… two of my best girlfriends to this day, I met and made at Rice Business. Was in one of their weddings. Yeah, I mean, it's just like all of those things. So, just like my TCU experience, I, kind of, wish that on everyone else, that when they think about doing an MBA program, that they have the experience I had at Rice, which was phenomenal. It was great. Everything about it, from professors, faculty, atmosphere, culture, social, everything about it was awesome. And I continue to show that to people in my, kind of, involvement with Rice since graduation that I feel really passionate and strongly about and giving back, and I'm always the first person if someone reaches out and say, “Hey, I have somebody that's thinking about, you know, MBA,” I'm like, “Let me talk to him. I'll talk to him. Let me talk to him.” Even better, if they say they want to go to Rice, I'm like, “Oh, this is an easy one.” I'm always, kind of, singing, you know, Rice's praises and wanting people to consider it for sure, if they're considering getting an MBA.

[21:06]Maya Pomroy: Well, your favorite classes, your favorite professors, you got to choose. Sorry.

[21:09]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: I mean, so many. I think Lansford… and this may shock people in financial accounting, but that was my first, you know, they let you lead off with that. And it's probably one of my hardest classes, that English undergrad. You know, I think I took a basic math class at TCU. I didn't have to take anything other than that. And so, it really, kind of, kicked into gear what I was doing and helped me…

[21:32]Maya Pomroy: Well, you were sitting in that boardroom with those financial statements. So, you're like, “Ahh…”

[21:35]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yeah, it’s like, “This makes sense now.” And he was phenomenal and just, you know, a great teacher. But there were so many. And I found myself, you know, getting involved in things on campus, Board Fellows, which was a phenomenal experience. I continue…

[21:49]Maya Pomroy: Who are you with?

[21:51]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: The landing was the nonprofit that I was with. So, kind of, a safe house for women in sex trafficking here in Houston. And brought a lot of board governance to that experience since I'd had it at Hoover, right? So, they were thrilled to, kind of, have that brought to the table. And then served on the exec team for Board Fellows because I felt so passionately about it. I think my mom's nonprofit background really, kind of, came out through me in that experience.

[22:15]Maya Pomroy: Ignited that, yeah.

[22:15]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yeah. And then, you know, that weaves into the involvement that we have at the Bryan Museum now still to this day. So, it, kind of… there's so many, kind of, flows through my journey and my path that resonate and have stops, you know, at Rice. There are tidbits.

[22:29]Maya Pomroy: They all connect.

[22:29]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: They all connect, yeah.

[22:30]Maya Pomroy: Well, so, Board Fellows, for those that don't know, who might be considering Rice, one of the phenomenal opportunities is the Board Fellows program. So, could you tell us about that?

[22:39]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yeah. So, they put current MBA students on nonprofit boards. And so, it's, kind of, this symbiotic relationship of getting an MBA student some exposure to, you know, kind of, a board environment, some, obviously, smaller nonprofits to larger ones. So, those atmospheres are different for each type of nonprofit organization. And then the nonprofit, the organization gets an MBA on their board, which is phenomenal.

[23:06]Maya Pomroy: Win-win.

[23:06]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: The, you know, bringing your… it's a win-win. It's the best type of program or something that a Rice student can get involved in, but also, like, giving back to the community here in Houston. It's just, I love it so much. It was a great experience. And I'm a big supporter of it and actually have, kind of, connected the Bryan Museum to getting a board fellow on their board. Now, you know, after 10 years, the board has really, kind of, taken shape. And so, yeah, if you're a nonprofit here in Houston wanting a Rice MBA board, you know, member for a year, you should definitely reach out to Rice and get your name in the mix to be part of Board Fellows. It's a great idea.

[23:42]Maya Pomroy: I had a couple of close friends that did Board Fellows as well. And it was life-changing for them. It was just such a great opportunity to really be engaged in the Houston nonprofit scene. And there's so many different organizations. You were saying sex trafficking. There's also the Center for Houston's Future. I mean, it was so many different ones that really benefit and the student benefits, too. And I'm not sure that many schools have that kind of opportunity.

[24:11]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: It's highly sought after. You know, it's very competitive at Rice. You have to apply and do all of the…

[24:16]Maya Pomroy: It’s competitive.

[24:17]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: It's very competitive. But there's a level of importance with that, too. And I think getting individuals at Rice, you know, more aware and involved in nonprofits here in Houston, which are, to your point, there's thousands of organizations that exist here and do great work. And so, you know, connecting the Rice MBA students to that, I think, is phenomenal.

[24:36]Maya Pomroy: So, speaking of great work, let's talk about your great work that you're working on now. So, there's definitely big shifts in energy and technology right now. And you're, sort of, at the forefront of that with Race Rock. So, tell me about the kind of work that you're doing now and what you're the most looking forward to and how your company is going to continue to grow.

[25:00]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: I mean, there's so many, you know, big and exciting things going on. I think in, you know, in the highway infrastructure space and the arena that we play in, you know, steel manufacturing and galvanizing, there's just, there's always room for improvement, right? Everyone drives down the street. Everyone drives on highways. And you see the structures that hold the signs on freeways.

[25:20]Maya Pomroy: Nobody thinks about that, though. I was talking to one of my kids the other day and we were talking about property taxes and federal tax, like, those are these things everybody takes for granted. You know, you don't think about where they're just there.

[25:34]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yeah, they're just there until… and they're there until you need them, right? And the guardrails along the highway that protect you if you get into an accident. We really pride ourselves on, you know, providing safe passage for people in power. That's our, kind of, motto and what we hold on to. And I think that it's true in the energy transition space and there's a lot of people moving around all the time, especially, you know, here in Texas, with the amount of highways and freeways that we have. So, it's exciting work. It's great work. You know, the manufacturing industry is strong and it is the backbone of so many parts of this country and the people that we [crosstalk 26:09].

[26:09]Maya Pomroy: Coming back, right?

[26:10]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Coming back, we hope, yeah. In a lot of ways, we, you know, we've felt like it's never gone away because the business has done so well, but yeah, it’s coming back and we have operations in Ohio and in Connecticut. And those areas are, you know, equally as important and critical to the infrastructure of our country. So, it's great. And we're looking forward to everything that, you know, we have in store for 2025. The business is booming. There's lots of work to be done. Lots of utility structures, large poles. If you go check out our website, our Instagram, you'll see all the huge structures that we make and produce and provide safe passage for people in power across the United States.

[26:51]Maya Pomroy: Yes, which, you know, in Houston, most recently, has been hit by quite a bit of, you know, weather-related traumatic and weather-related events. And so, I'm assuming that that's something that Race Rock also participates in. And it's really vital and you don't realize how vital and crucial it is until it's not there.

[27:11]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Until it's not there and you need it, yeah, exactly. So, you know, creating these structures and all that it takes to do that and the teams that we've created and individuals.

[27:20]Maya Pomroy: And to withstand-

[27:22]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yes.

[27:22]Maya Pomroy: .. the types of storms. I mean, that’s really what it's about. It's not man-made. It’s, you know…

[27:29]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Correct, correct. And the landscape has changed, right? Like, it has... we've seen it just in Houston this summer with Beryl, and, you know, these small births of storms that can do so much damage, right? So, creating the infrastructure that we need to maintain that and move forward is critical.

[27:46]Maya Pomroy: So, if you had a piece of advice for someone that's listening that is considering Rice Business as an opportunity but isn't quite 100% sure, because you said, you know, if somebody wants to talk about going and getting their MBA, “Yes, come talk to me.” So, what would you say to them?

[28:05]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Well, there's never a perfect time. That's always the first thing that, kind of, comes out when I'm talking to somebody. They'll say, “Oh, I don't know if right now is the right time or in a year from now, or I'm considering.” No, there's never a right time. So, just go for it. You just do it now. Apply. There's no harm or foul in applying, and moving forward. And I also, you know, from my own personal experience, people ask me, like, why, why go get an MBA? Like, there's a lot of argument of, like, is that really necessary, you know?

[28:33]Maya Pomroy: I've had that, too.

[28:34]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yeah. And to me, I think it's, kind of, multifaceted. But going through something hard and challenging like that, it's always a good thing to, kind of, learn something new and challenge yourself and do something difficult and come out at the other end of that. I think that's important on a human level, on giving yourself purpose and challenging yourself and constantly learning. I fully believe in, kind of, doing that and cultivating yourself as an individual at all times.

[28:58]Maya Pomroy: An investment in thyself.

[29:59]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: In yourself. And then, also, for me, kind of, the big factors, I always wanted that tool in my toolkit. So, I can't tell you what's going to happen tomorrow, I can't tell you what's going to happen next year, what my life's going to look like, what pivots or tracks will happen, but I will always have this in my toolkit, an MBA from Rice that will always be mine. And I think it taught me so many things that I can always, in some way, shape, or form, lean on when I need it at some point — professionally, personally, all the things. And so, if you're thinking about it, my advice to you is go do it, apply. And if you get into Rice, the answer is easy. Go to Rice. You're going to have a fantastic experience and you're going to have so many doors open for you.

[29:45]Maya Pomroy: Go do it.

[29:46]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: That's right, go do it.

[29:47]Maya Pomroy: Well, Andrea, it has been so much fun to talk with you and such a pleasure to learn just a little bit, a little part of your story.

[29:54]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: Yes. Thank you.

[29:55]Maya Pomroy: And thank you for taking the time to talk with us. So very grateful for everything that you do for Rice. And we're going to keep up with you. And who knows? Like you said, nobody knows what's going to happen tomorrow. Maybe you'll be back for a pivot story.

[30:08]Andrea Edmundson Bryan: There you go. Never know. So, nice meeting you and talking to you. Thanks for taking the time.

[30:14]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 Scott Gale.