One of the hardest things about adapting to the coronavirus pandemic is that you can never stop adapting. Guidelines change daily as new information emerges, new hotspots appear and expert advice evolves. As the new school year gets underway at Rice Business, we’ve been taking it day by day. But as part of this new normal, we’ve all become more adaptable — and we’ve come up with creative ways to achieve our educational goals. 

After aligning with Rice University on timelines and guidelines, we submitted a reopening plan to the Crisis Management Team, and the approval included permission to run a few programs before the official Aug. 24 reopening date. In early August, new and returning students and professors sent us their preferences for in-person or remote learning, and we were able to accommodate 99.7% of students with some rotations. The degree program teams then hosted eight virtual student town halls to share safety protocols and answer questions. Finally it was go time.  

On Aug. 24, to keep everyone physically distant, we began our dual-delivery fall courses, using new classroom technology that allows those streaming in from home and from a secondary classroom to be as much a part of the discussion as the students actually in the classroom with the professor. 
 

Safety is our first priority. Everyone who comes to campus — including students, staff, faculty and visitors — is required to wear a face covering and expected to stay at least six feet from other people, indoors and outdoors. There are no more than 25 students in any classroom (see above for the dual delivery and second classroom set up) at any time, and larger gatherings are limited to no more than 50 people. 

We’ve been lucky so far to avoid outbreaks like those that have hampered the return to campus at other schools. Part of the reason for that has been rigorous testing. Everyone who came to campus this fall was tested first, and Rice continues administer 1,000 PCR tests per day. Also known as molecular tests, these are the FDA gold-standard tests with the highest sensitivity (true positive rate) and specificity (true negative rate) for detecting an active coronavirus infection. As of mid-September, Rice had conducted nearly 19,000 tests with only 16 positive results — a positivity rate of less than 0.1 percent. (Testing results are updated regularly at coronavirus.rice.edu.) 

Adjusting to the new normal has required some sacrifices, of course. In keeping with the CDC’s recommendation to avoid nonessential travel and Rice’s guidance against domestic and international travel, Rice Business made the tough decision to cancel all school-sponsored travel, such as career treks (Week on Wall Street, Seattle, Silicon Valley) and the travel component of global courses through the end of 2020. This included canceling the travel portion of the Global Field Experiences and Global Offsite Electives, although those courses are continuing as scheduled through a virtual platform. The semester exchange program was not canceled for students who had already received nominations. 

All of these changes were the result of careful consideration (shout out to the Reopening Committee) and based on public health expertise with the goal of keeping everyone in our community healthy while preserving a rich and rewarding educational experience for students. In the big picture of this pandemic, they are the small sacrifices we can make to keep each other safe. 

“This year has presented profound, serious and unique challenges to the way we work and to our health and safety. Our faculty, staff and students have wrestled with too many challenges and yet have shown impressive and unflagging resolve to best them,” says Dean Peter Rodriguez. “Remember that we’re in this together. The resilience and commitments I have seen from our community over the last few months makes me confident that together we will see it through and advance our school to new heights.” 
 

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Want a boss who keeps things interesting? Don’t work for a CEO named Jim, Bob, or Bill
Sept. 9, 2020
“This is consistent with findings from psychological research that successful professionals who have uncommon names tend to view themselves as more special, unique, interesting and creative,” write the [Rice Business] researchers.
 

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What Is Cancel Culture?
July 27, 2020
“An individual act of canceling is psychological rejection. When it is communicated through social media and joined in by other individuals who feel the same way or are looking for an ‘outrage fix,’ canceling spreads like a contagion, amplifying the harm to the canceled entity,” writes Rice Business Professor Utpal Dholakia.
 

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Debt Shakeout to Make Biggest Tech Firms, Retailers Even Bigger
June 9, 2020
Overall, the market share held by the top players has increased in more than 75% of U.S. industries during the past two decades, according to a 2018 paper by Rice Business Professor Gustavo Grullon and fellow researchers.
 

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Economy shows fragile seeds of recovery sparked by stimulus, reopening
June 5, 2020
“I think (a recovery) could be choppy,” said Peter Rodriguez, an economist and dean of the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. “We have a long way to go to get out of this.”

Read more of what Rice Business professors have to say in the media.

As the Practice of Accounting Evolves, So Does the Rice MAcc Coursework

Since its ancient inception, accounting has been about collecting information, and then analyzing and distilling it into reports used for decision making. While that remains accounting’s function in society today, the amount of information available to be analyzed by accountants and auditors has exploded over the past 20 years. As a result, new accountants and auditors need to be adept in using “big data.” 

The Rice MAcc continually revises its curriculum to ensure we provide our students a state-of-the-art education. We are excited to announce that, starting with this 2020-2021 academic year, we have introduced a sequence of data analytics courses to our curriculum: Data Analytics for Accountants I, Data Analytics for Accountants II, and Auditing: A Data Analytics Approach. These three courses equip our students with the quantitative education needed for our data-driven business environment. As a Rice MAcc student, you will learn to understand how data are structured, methodologies for cleaning and merging data, and advanced tools for analyzing and visualizing data. You’ll also develop computer coding capabilities to extract, organize, and analyze various types of structured and unstructured financial data.

You can review all the Rice MAcc coursework on our MAcc Curriculum page.  

Our Program Is Now STEM Designated

Along with the new data analytics courses, we are proud to announce that the Rice MAcc program is now STEM designated. The STEM designation signals the quantitative orientation of our program.

Despite the quantitative aspects of the Rice MAcc, we appreciate that the profession of accounting is still very much a profession that involves working closely with others. The Rice MAcc puts an emphasis on developing students’ “soft skills” and professionalism. As a Rice MAcc student, you’ll hone your written and oral communication skills throughout your courses.

If our Master of Accounting sounds like something you’d like to be a part of, please reach out to us to learn more!  

MAcc Home Page

Our Program Is Now STEM Designated

Along with the new data analytics courses, we are proud to announce that the Rice MAcc program is now STEM designated. The STEM designation signals the quantitative orientation of our program.

Despite the quantitative aspects of the Rice MAcc, we appreciate that the profession of accounting is still very much a profession that involves working closely with others. The Rice MAcc puts an emphasis on developing students’ “soft skills” and professionalism. As a Rice MAcc student, you’ll hone your written and oral communication skills throughout your courses.

If our Master of Accounting sounds like something you’d like to be a part of, please reach out to us to learn more!  

MAcc Home Page

Rice Alliance, the globally recognized initiative within the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, will expand its programs to help startup enterprises with the launch of the Clean Energy Accelerator.

The accelerator will be a hands-on, 12-week program to support early stage energy startups from around the world, all of which will have access to the Rice Alliance network of energy corporations, investors and advisers. Rice Alliance will leverage existing relationships with energy corporations and investors, as well as its experiences from the Rice Business Plan Competition, energy tech venture forums and the Rice University OwlSpark accelerator.

The alliance, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, supports entrepreneurship education, technology commercialization and the launch of technology companies. Since its inception, Rice Alliance has connected with more than 2,675 startups that have raised $21.5 billion in funding.

With a community entrepreneurs and investors, the accelerator is a commitment to expand that impact and continue supporting society’s transition to clean energy.

Joined by the Greater Houston Partnership, Mayor Sylvester Turner, Rice University President David Leebron and Wells Fargo, the accelerator’s launch announcement closed the 18th annual Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum, which was held virtually this year. The forum brought together more than 1,300 participants, including representatives from major energy investment firms and corporations.

“Houston is our home, and we are strong believers in our city,” said Brad Burke, managing director of the alliance. “It is here that some of the greatest minds in energy are innovating. New technologies, many driven by startup companies, have enabled the U.S. to become energy self-sufficient for the first time in history, but global energy needs are growing and changing. We need to apply that same entrepreneurial spirit and technology innovation to meet these challenges.”

Wells Fargo, a long-time Rice Alliance partner, provided lead funding to launch the program. In 2015, the alliance became a founding channel partner of the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2), a $50 million collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy’s national renewable energy lab..

“The Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator is poised to increase the quality and quantity of clean-tech startups in the area, which benefits Houston but also has the potential to benefit the greater global economy,” said Jenny Flores, head of small business growth philanthropy at Wells Fargo. “At Wells Fargo, we believe that climate change continues to be one of the most urgent environmental and social issues of our time.”

The energy accelerator will support, champion, and align with the momentum and efforts happening in Houston to further the energy transition: “Houston truly is the hub of the global energy industry, and it is here where the next generation of energy leaders will create and scale innovations that will change the world,” said Bob Harvey, President and CEO at the Greater Houston Partnership. “Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship has long served as a catalyst for positioning Houston as a leading center of technology entrepreneurship. The new Clean Energy Accelerator will build on that legacy and align with the work already taking place in Houston’s robust energy innovation ecosystem.”

The accelerator will support Houston’s recently-released Climate Action Plan, a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make Houston carbon neutral by 2050. The plan is “a science-based, community-driven greenhouse gas emissions reduction strategy” as well as the goal of “being a leader in the global energy transition,” according to the site.

Turner said one of the plan’s goals is to create 50 “Energy 2.0” companies by 2025. “It’s a very ambitious goal, and it’s one the City of Houston, as a municipality, cannot do alone,” he said.

“Today’s announcement of the Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator is a great example of what we have been seeking to build in Houston, an innovation ecosystem that can develop creative solutions to address our toughest challenges.”

A rendering of the Ion, the former Sears building in Midtown that is being transformed into an innovation center. Credit: Rice University.

The accelerator will be based in the Ion, the innovation and startup hub that will be the centerpiece of the innovation district Rice University is developing in Houston’s midtown area.

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“I am proud and grateful that this initiative fully aligns with Rice University’s strategic plan, the Vision for the Second Century,” said Rice President David Leebron. “We have committed that Rice University will engage with and empower the City of Houston as an exemplary 21st-century metropolis. As one of our leading industries, the energy industry is an essential and foundational part of our Houston story.”

Among the community supporters for the new accelerator are a host of Houston’s energy industry leaders including BP, Chevron Technology Ventures, Equinor, ExxonMobil, NRG, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, Shell Ventures, Sunnova, Total, Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. and Halliburton Labs. Other community supporters include Houston Exponential, the Center for Houston’s Future and Greentown Labs.

Applications for startups will open in early 2021. For information visit RiceCleanEnergy.org.

Daniela Flores ’20

On April 18, 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and country-wide shutdown, Daniela and Jose Delgado ’19 got engaged at the Houston Arboretum after three years of dating. Although they began dating before Rice Business, they both cherish the many memories they formed in the McNair halls, partios, after partios, and class trips along their classmates. Daniela and Jose are looking forward to this new stage in their relationship and their wedding in 2021 (here's hoping the pandemic will be over by then). 

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Kait (Riley) Nichols ’20

Kait married Wes Nichols this summer and Kait recently began a new position as a Tax Associate I at Weaver and Tidwell in Fort Worth.

Alex Lee ’19

Alex relocated from his hometown of Houston halfway across the world to Hong Kong in January to be with his fiancée Kara, and to begin a new role as Technical Program Manager at Telstra International (a global connectivity company). The couple happily tied the knot on June 27th, 2020 and are longing for the day when they can finally travel for their honeymoon.

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Daniel Barvin ’18

Kai William Barvin was born on May 15, 2020.

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Mijin Han ’17

Norma Torres Mendoza ’20 and Mijin Han, along with a couple of friends, took the time during quarantine to begin a podcast for first-generation college students. “How to College: First Gen” was created in an effort to democratize education and information. As first-gens that have experienced the process of going to and through college, Norma and Mijin are delighted to be able to share some of the insight and lessons learned along the way. Many of their guests will come from Rice University. Check out howtocollegefirstgen.org for more information.

Nicol Voutsinas ’11

Nicol and Michael Voutsinas welcome twin boys, Theodore and Dimitri Voutsinas, joining big sisters Evie (4.5) and Allie (2.5). 

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Tanay Shah ’04

Tanay took on a leadership role, leading the M&A Strategy practice for Deloitte Consulting. The group is focused on helping clients with portfolio strategy, finding pathways to growth and value creation through M&A, and diligence.

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Hugo Vrsalovic ’04

Hugo Vrsalovic started “Life Is Wonderful: Empowering People Through Self Awareness,” working as a public speaker at middle schools, high schools, universities, corporations and recovery centers on recovery, addiction and life. Visit “Life Is Wonderful” on YouTube or check out the website: www.Lifeiswonderful.love.

Asma Ishaq ’02

In March 2020, Asma was appointed chairperson of the Trust Transparency Center's new collagen trade association, the Collagen Stewardship Alliance. On July 13, she was named NutraChampion 2020 for her lifetime achievement in the natural products industry and the collagen/hyaluronic acid (HA) market. And on July 23, The Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO) and American Express announced that Asma’s company, Modere, has been ranked No. 3 on the WPO’s annual list of the 50 Fastest Growing Women-Owned/Led Companies because of its 1500% growth in revenues from 2015-2019.

Brian Engleman ’98

This year has brought some changes in Brian’s professional life. He became co-fund manager at the San Diego Angel Conference and started as an advisor to Rehinged.AI, primarily working on strategy and business development. Many of you know he recently remarried, and Nora and Brian (and Brian’s three new step-kids) are safe, healthy and happy in San Diego. Special hello to the Flex MBA Class of 1998 and the JGS classes of 1997 & 1998.
 

MBA students from all over the world donned Zoom-appropriate business attire this summer to deliver their business pitches virtually for the first time ever in the history of the Rice Business Plan Competition. 

The competition, the world’s richest and largest graduate-level student startup competition, turned 20 this year during extraordinary times. Postponed from April because of the coronavirus pandemic, the competition went online in June, when up-and-coming entrepreneurs vied in virtual rooms for coveted prize money to invest in their growing businesses, taking home over $1.3 million in investment, cash and in-kind prizes. 

Over the last 20 years, startups that competed in the RBPC have raised more than $2.3 billion in funding, including several in Houston. The competition’s platinum anniversary is a reminder that Rice Business has played a critical role in the development of Houston’s startup culture over the past two decades. Another reminder came when Rice’s graduate entrepreneurship program was rated No. 1 in the U.S. by the Princeton Review this year.

“Rice has been ahead of the curve,” says Harvin Moore, the head of Houston Exponential, a nonprofit that helps accelerate the growth of Houston’s technology innovation ecosystem. “We’re really seeing a blossoming of startups now.” 

Building a Foundation

Years before the rest of the world began to recognize Houston as an important innovation hub, especially in medicine and energy, Rice dedicated vast resources to building an ecosystem for nurturing startups and their founders, Moore says. 

In fact, Rice Business was one of the first graduate programs to offer entrepreneurial studies as a curriculum. Founded in 1978 under the direction of the late economist Edward E. Williams, and expanded with the help of entrepreneurship professor Al Napier, by 2009 the Rice Business entrepreneurship program was ranked No. 5 in the U.S. by the Princeton Review. 

Rice’s OwlSpark Accelerator, founded in 2012, and the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie), created three years after that, have added even more support for Houston-based entrepreneurs. 

For Rice students, the Lilie Lab is a one-stop shop for entrepreneurship. It develops and runs graduate and undergraduate courses, workshops, lunch and learn sessions, an incubator space and a mentor network. When it launched five years ago, Rice Business offered only a handful of entrepreneurship classes. Now, graduate students can choose from Lilie’s 20-plus experiential entrepreneurship classes, and undergrads from eight. The Lilie team also created the Rice Alumni Entrepreneurs and Innovators Network, which holds events for alums across the country. Through Lilie’s E-labs, future entrepreneurs can launch a venture or work alongside industry professionals to explore venture creation, venture capital, and acquisitions and mergers.  

For our alumni, we wanted to create a place where they could go for resources, to mix, and to make valuable connections. 

 

Professor Yael Hochberg, head of the Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative

“If you’re on campus and you ask someone, ‘What is entrepreneurship at Rice?’ they’ll point to Lilie,” says Yael Hochberg, the Ralph S. O’Connor Professor in Entrepreneurship and head of the Rice University Entrepreneurship Initiative. “And for our alumni, we wanted to create a place where they could go for resources, to mix, and to make valuable connections.”

Now, the university is seeing the fruits of its labor — and so is the surrounding community. With only a few dozen startups in 2005, Houston is home to more than 1,000 today. At the same time, startup development organizations have jumped from only a handful seven years ago to more than 32 in 2020. 

Venture capital into the city has also ballooned. From 2016 to 2019, the amount of capital invested in Houston startups more than doubled, rising to $599 million from $269 million, according to Pitchbook. In January, Houston saw its first ever unicorn company, or privately held startup with a value of over $1 billion: Fintech company HighRadius. Moore says it’s only a matter of time before the city sees a second unicorn emerge from the Texas Medical Center and its TMCx Accelerator. 

Startups in Houston will also benefit from targeted programming and invaluable connections forged at the Ion, the Rice-led collaborative hub for entrepreneurs, incubators, accelerators, corporations and the academic community when it opens on the site of Houston’s former Sears Department Store. The Ion is envisioned as the connective glue that binds the city’s startup community, taking it to a new level. 

When it comes to entrepreneurship and innovation, “the future looks really good for Houston,” says Brad Burke, director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship (often called just “Rice Alliance”). 

It’s a future that might not have been possible without the solid foundation laid by the university. “Rice has really been critical to Houston joining the big leagues,” says Moore.

Planting the Seed

One of Rice’s key efforts to support entrepreneurs has been the Rice Alliance, a collaboration between Rice Business, the School of Engineering and the School of Natural Sciences. The seed that grew into the alliance was planted in the late 1990s, when Steven Currall, then an associate professor of management and psychology at Rice, read in Fortune magazine about how Stanford helped to create Silicon Valley. Currall, who is now the president of the University of South Florida, was inspired to create the Rice Alliance along with colleagues from across Rice, and in the last 20 years, more than 2,500 companies have participated in over 220 Rice Alliance programs, raising more than $8.1 billion in early-stage capital. 

“Rice Alliance and its business plan competition bring in hundreds of people from Texas and the region who are not affiliated with the university but really want to be close to our students,” says Rice Business Dean Peter Rodriguez. “Those programs, along with the courses and programs delivered by Lilie Lab and our summer accelerator program, OwlSpark, have been great tools for us to make a big impact on the entrepreneurial ecosystem, even while we’re not a very big school.” 

The Rice Business Plan Competition, originally called the Southwest Business Plan Competition, was born in 2001, based on an idea from Houston venture capital investor Dennis Murphree. It was small at first, with only nine teams competing for $10,000. “I said, we need to make this thing bigger,” says Burke, who’s been director of the Rice Alliance since 2001.

As the business plan competition has grown, it has been a catalyst for the formation of several Houston-based angel investor groups, including the GOOSE Society of Texas, founded by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Jack Gill and Compaq co-founder Rod Canion. Now known as GOOSE Capital, it’s given out more than $20 million in awards at the competition. 

Led by Rice alum Robert Winter, a dozen judges from the competition also formed the OWL Investment Group, while several women judges started nCourage Entrepreneurs Investment Group. The Artemis Fund, founded by three Houston women, gives an investment prize to a team that includes a woman. Investors’ support has also extended beyond the competition to other Rice and Houston startups.

“RBPC has always been a place to meet and see deals and get funding,” says Andrew Clark, former CEO of The Houston Angel Network and a founder and managing member of the Texas Halo Fund.

Recent data show that 22% of Rice MBA alums have started companies since the school was founded in 1974, and 76% are in business today with revenues over $1.5 billion. 2010 RBPC runner-up Rebellion Photonics, headed up by Allison Sawyer and Robert Kester, went on to raise nearly $20 million in funding. Last year the company had a successful exit when it was acquired by Honeywell.

This year, a Georgia State University team came in first of the 42 competitors: Aurign, which uses blockchain technology to create music publishing contracts in real time. The team took home $375,000, with the potential for more from the angel investors who judged the competition. Other startups placed for creative, potentially life-changing innovations relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic, including remote work solutions and diagnostic tools for chronic and infectious diseases. 

The Rice Alliance also shifted its May Energy Tech Venture Day online, with 45 companies pitching to more than 1,400 investors — a larger online audience than they’ve had in person in past years, according to Burke. “There are unforeseen benefits to going virtual,” he says.

Making personal connections in the same room is ideal, he adds, but even after the pandemic subsides, there will still be a place for virtual events. “We’ll probably continue with a hybrid version,” he says.

Supporting Entrepreneurs

When Al Danto, now part of the Lilie Lab team as a lecturer in entrepreneurship, came to study at Rice Business in the 1990s, he remembers just a handful of entrepreneurship classes were available, compared to nearly two dozen today. But even back then, the university’s support for entrepreneurs was significant, thanks to the efforts of Al Napier and Ed Williams. 

“Rice was always a place where you could come up with an idea and you had the support and the resources around,” he says. “The Rice Alliance and the business competition formalized that.”

Danto and classmate Heather Kopecky developed a business plan for an international nurse recruiting company during their time at Rice, and with the school’s guidance, obtained funding for their venture from Memorial Hermann and St. Luke’s before graduation. In 2008, they sold their startup to one of the largest international healthcare staffing companies.

A successful entrepreneurial ecosystem, according to Danto, depends on a number of factors: collaboration, technology, support, room to grow, accelerators and incubators, education, capital and talent. “The Rice Alliance was the first formal attempt to pull all of that together,” he says, “and to form a real community. Houston has really adopted a startup mindset and built on that.” 

The Next Step

Houston faced a turning point in 2018 when Amazon passed over the city as a potential site for its second headquarters, while Austin and Dallas made the cut.

“It stung,” says Moore. “People started asking what went wrong and what can we do. There were lots of innovative people and companies, but we weren’t creating a lot of startups.” What’s more, little venture capital money was flowing into the city.

It was around that time that city leaders began to formulate a big idea: to create a major entrepreneurship hub in Houston that would unite everyone involved, attract more capital, and catapult the city into the big leagues in the start-up world. 

With an eye on Rice-owned land in Midtown, “Rice raised its hand and said, we think we can do that,” says Moore.

For a strong start-up culture, entrepreneurs must meet each other, experiment and fail, and bump into mentors and investors, says Moore. The Ion will make that possible. The 300,000-square foot structure, which is being developed by the Rice Management Company, will support businesses at all stages of the innovation lifecycle and sit at the core of a new 16-acre Innovation District, which will include housing and retail. 

“Starting up is messy, and you really need a place to figure it all out,” says Danto. The Ion will do that, complementing other recently opened coworking spaces and entrepreneurship hubs including The Cannon in West Houston and Houston Exponential.

Before the pandemic hit, the Ion was slated to open in January 2021. Now, much of its programming has started up virtually, including career readiness webinars for college students and work with startups in the Ion’s Smart and Resilient Cities Accelerator, a program focused on implementing new civic technologies.

“Houston has had several false starts in supporting an innovation ecosystem,” says Jan Odegard, interim executive director of the Ion. “What’s different now is that we’ve been quite honest about what’s in our DNA, what do we excel in,” which includes innovation in medicine, energy and technology. 

Christine Galib, senior director of accelerator programs at the Ion, envisions the center thriving in 2021, with entrepreneurs, academics and investors all colliding. A student might chat up an entrepreneur at the coffee bar, and a professor run a boot camp before guiding students in a prototyping lab. A startup owner could take an XR class down the hall from a robotics lab where a venture capitalist observes the action.

“There’s this pipeline happening in real time,” Galib says.

Burke believes the Ion’s opening will be a defining moment for the city, helping Houston become one of the top three centers of entrepreneurship in the U.S. 

Danto agrees, and expects Rice to continue helping drive Houston’s startup culture. “Rice has always been at the epicenter,” he says. “Houston is a vibrant place where people want to be now. We’re going to attract talent here. Houston can really emerge as a leader.”

Deborah Lynn Blumberg is a Houston-based freelance writer specializing in health and wellness and business and finance. 

Update: A previous version of this article erroneously stated that the Princeton Review had named Rice the top undergraduate school for entrepreneurship in 2020. Rice’s graduate entrepreneurship program was ranked No. 1; the top undergraduate entrepreneurship program was at the University of Houston.

Regardless of when you attended or where you are in your journey, the Rice Business family is there for you. We have regular touch points and live communication with our dean, professors and class instructors — and that goes for alumni as well. Many of these professors and alumni have extraordinary academic pedigrees and do very important work, but they pick up every time you call and respond to every email.

Jennifer Dinh, MBA@Rice ’21

As a pharmaceutical sales manager specializing in oncology, Jennifer Dinh is inspired every day by the talented doctors she works with — but she fears that her job will become obsolete within the next decade. She got into pharmaceutical sales right out of college, and has seen the number of jobs like hers dwindle over the past 15 years. The problem, she says, is that the industry is built on a dated sales and marketing model. “In the 1980s and 1990s, with so many new medications coming to market, doctors relied on pharmaceutical sales reps to give them the latest information about breakthrough therapies,” she explains. “Today, doctors have so many other ways to keep up with the latest drug discoveries and advances. From online publications to connecting with thought leaders easily and electronically, there’s less reliance on sales reps to bridge that information gap.” 

Around the time she realized her current career was on its way out, she welcomed a daughter — and started reflecting on her life in a whole new way. “I always tell my daughter to dream big and be whatever you want to be,” she says. That message rekindled her own longtime interest in sport management and inspired her to pursue her dream job: head of business operations for an NBA team. “Very few women occupy that position, and there’s a perspective that’s missing in most NBA front offices. I believe that adding different perspectives and backgrounds at a leadership level allows for growth, and I would love to be that agent of change and growth,” she says. 

Dinh grew up in Houston, the daughter of refugees who found a home here, but now lives in Portland, Oregon. So when she decided that an MBA would help her on her path, Rice Business was her top choice, and the MBA@Rice program was the best fit. Her connections through the MBA program helped her get an internship with the Golden State Warriors this summer, which she did virtually because of the pandemic, gaining experience in everything from operations to marketing to sales. And she found that her experience in the evolving pharmaceutical industry translates surprisingly well to the NBA. 

“The challenge they have is similar to my current industry,” she says. “Customers are consuming information and experiences so differently than they did in the 1990s. Today, fans can get a really great sports experience on TV and find all the highlights online. So finding an unmet need to fill in fan engagement has been one of their greatest challenges. And my experience in seeking out those needs, along with my formal training in finance and operations from Rice Business, will make me a strong asset in helping them adapt.” 

There’s a lot of technology that is missing in developing countries, in veterinary medicine and in human medicine. My experience in both areas could help create a bridge to support those people. Being at Rice gives me the support to do those things.

 

Chidi Igweh, MBA@Rice ’22 

Animals were Chidi Igweh’s first love. Growing up on his family’s livestock farm in Nigeria, he’d help his father care for the animals — and he gave them names. “For me, they were all pets,” he says. “The chickens were pets; the goats were pets. For my brothers they probably were the product, but for me, it was personal. The animals were part of us and needed to be taken care of.” 

In the 1990s, however, tragedy struck: Newcastle disease, a deadly poultry virus, spread across Africa. There was no treatment. Farmers could only watch helplessly as their livelihood was destroyed. Entire farms were wiped out, including Igweh’s. The senseless loss inspired him to become a veterinarian, which he did, eventually opening his own practice in Lagos along with a dog-breeding business. Four years later, however, he suffered another loss: One of his dogs got cancer, but because of limited diagnostic and treatment options, he once again found himself powerless to help her. “She died, and that kind of broke me,” he said. “I decided to study engineering and help create diagnostic kits for developing countries. In the U.S., you have diagnostic, treatment and management tools in veterinary care. The drugs are available here, and staff that understand oncology. Those things hadn’t made it to Nigeria.” 

He came to the U.S. and earned a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Bridgeport, then took a job at Johnson & Johnson, where he delivers strategic advice about the company’s medical devices to healthcare practitioners. But he realized that to really make a difference in medicine — human or veterinary — he’d need a sophisticated understanding of the business side. “I started to realize there are ways to manage healthcare apart from the technical side. There are options like investment: finding out who has a great idea and needs funding for it,” he says. “As an investment banker, for example, I could identify a medical device that could solve a problem, and I could have influence enough to direct funds to support that business and maybe help developing countries in the long term.” 

He decided to pursue his MBA at Rice Business partly because of the school’s deep ties to the healthcare industry. And because he lives and works in Newark, New Jersey, he chose the MBA@Rice program. The surprise for him has been how connected he feels to his classmates and professors, even though the program is virtual. “I feel like this program is teaching me about life — I wasn’t expecting that,” he says. “Strategic communication or even managerial economics — those things affect your life, your personal life, as well. You can use them in every part of your life.” 

This new path could lead him to investment banking with a focus on medical technology — or perhaps enable him to start his own business one day. “I think if I were to own my own business, it would be animal-care related,” he says. “It could be creating a diagnostic center for animals using the latest equipment — basically helping vets use modern equipment, especially in cancer detection. I’d want to focus on the animals, and focus on disease prevention, to solve problems before they happen."