“When the fire chief asked for a three-year fleet study, I was able to apply concepts from my analytics class and give him everything he needed. He said, ‘I can see your MBA is paying off already.’ I really hope to keep applying what I’m learning in class and from my cohort so the fire department can be more efficient, more fiscally responsible. It doesn’t have to be done the same way it’s always been done. You can ask why. When you have the language of business behind you, you can ask the right questions and come up with the right answers.”

Shortly before Hurricane Harvey, Ruy Lozano, a 20-year veteran of the Houston Fire Department, was promoted. The former paramedic, high-rise firefighter and bilingual public information officer was appointed assistant fire chief in charge of the resource management division. That meant he oversaw the department’s infrastructure — 93 fire houses and a fleet of about 300 vehicles, including 88 fire engines, 38 ladder trucks and 100 ambulances. He was also in charge of the procurement of equipment, budgeting and strategy. During Hurricane Harvey, he had to give the chief constant updates. “I had been in the position about a month. We lost fire trucks, fire stations and equipment. There was so much damage. I thought, how do we recover? You have to have a procurement plan. It’s so important to master your business processes. I knew immediately I had to get an MBA.” 

“My goal is twofold. Professionally, I would like to become involved in hospital administration to be able to effectively apply my medical training, entrepreneurial experience and newly acquired business knowledge to improve health care in a more acute and complex setting. Personally, my aspiration is to create a nonprofit organization, one that works to improve the health and better the lives of families in resource-poor communities globally.”

After seven years, Victoria Hopkins ’20 sold her urgent care clinic, accepted an offer with the U.S. medical staff stationed outside of Seoul, South Korea and joined the inaugural cohort of the MBA@Rice program. Born in Pusan, South Korea, Victoria came to the U.S. when she was three. Before starting medical school, she returned to work as an English teacher and discovered her Korean cultural heritage. Now she has the opportunity to share this with her husband and children when they move to South Korea this fall. “The new online MBA program at Rice allows me to learn while living abroad in Asia with my family. I couldn’t do it otherwise.” Victoria earned her B.A. and M.D. at Brown University and an M.P.H. at Harvard School of Public Health. She is one of 26 students in the new online program. 

“I decided to pursue my MBA because I want to bring the knowledge and skills I attain in business school back to the fight as a strategic leader in the Army.”

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Casey Sherrod was only 12 on Sept. 11, 2001, but she remembers seeing soldiers enlist to fight in the War on Terror and feeling reassured that they would make the world safe again. “In my eyes, soldiers were real-life superheroes, and I wanted to be just like them,” she says. That’s why she joined the Army ROTC at the University of Houston, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies. A year after graduating, she deployed to Afghanistan as a platoon leader. Now a captain, Sherrod has spent the past two years as commander of the largest Army recruiting company on the West Coast. But she’s always wanted to come back home to Houston — and now she has the opportunity to study at Rice Business while still on active duty; the Army is covering her tuition. “It’s part of a program the Army offers officers in order to educate and retain their leaders. When I graduate, I will return to the operational Army as a strategic leader in either human resources, acquisitions or recruiting. My goal is to ultimately retire from the Army and return to Houston as a leader in the business community.”

“What drew me to Rice was the small, tight-knit community and the entrepreneurship program. My lifelong dream is to start my own company one day, and I knew that Rice Business could help me do that.”

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For Doug Fiefia, whose parents immigrated from Tonga in the 1970s, the diverse community at Rice Business is one of its best features. His family agrees. In fact, when he told his mother about the school’s Rice Around the World Partio, she flew to Houston from Utah — along with Fiefia’s grandmother, brother, sister, brother-in-law and nephew — to cook up authentic Tongan cuisine and perform a traditional song. “In the Tongan culture, family is everything,” Fiefia says. His Rice Business family has been supportive as well. He credits the school with helping him secure a coveted position as an intern this summer at Google’s headquarters, where he helped the Google Ads team develop a new sales strategy. It was a great opportunity for Fiefia, who hopes to work at one of the big tech firms after earning his MBA, and it came about in part because Rice Business is a member of The Consortium, a nonprofit alliance of businesses and business schools dedicated to helping minorities become a part of business education and corporate leadership. “I first met with Google at the Consortium orientation program, and through networking and successful interviews I was lucky enough to receive an offer,” he says.

“One thing I’ve learned here that I didn’t expect was the importance of soft skills, like team dynamics and communication. It’s not just what you work on, but with whom you work and how you work together.”

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The McNair Scholar at Rice Business, Adrian Trömel wants to help bring new medical technologies to market. His master’s thesis at EPFL in Switzerland — where he earned an MS in materials science — involved building bioabsorbable heart valve scaffolds. Rice Business was a logical next step. “Rice was already on my radar for its renown in the field of materials science, as was the Texas Medical Center. And it made sense to go somewhere with a reputation for outstanding entrepreneurship,” he says. The fact that his father had earned an MBA at Rice was only one factor in his choice. 

“Over just one year in the MBA program, I transitioned to a new role, developed a model that is being implemented for business analytics questions within ExxonMobil, trained business analysts for the other regions of the U.S., and just recently got a promotion. I have no doubt that the coursework and experiences at Rice contributed to both my accomplishments and promotion.”

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Phil Reiser ’19 knew since undergrad at MIT that he wanted to earn an MBA. Next, he needed to choose the right program, full time versus professional. He chose the latter because, “I wanted to have the opportunity to apply what I was learning during my coursework. Rice was the clear choice and the only one I applied to. The fact that it had a physical campus along with surging business school rankings were among my top deciders.” It also didn’t hurt that his sister was finishing up her Ph.D. in bioengineering at Rice at the time and had nothing but great things to say about the campus and culture. A left-handed pitcher and first baseman on MIT’s varsity baseball squad, Phil also majored in chemical engineering and minored in economics. The 25-year-old has been with ExxonMobil for three years. 

“Three things happened. I decided I wanted to do something else, but I wasn’t sure what. When I started looking, a lot of roles preferred an MBA, and I didn’t want that to be a reason I wasn’t considered for a job. Finally, Dean Rodriguez had been my professor at A&M. He was my mentor, encouraged me to pursue investment banking and helped me get an internship with JP Morgan, which led to a full-time job. When I heard that he was going to be the new dean, I thought maybe the time was right to think about going back to get my MBA.”

The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Adrienne Mangual grew up in Lufkin, Texas, was the first in her family to graduate from college and this spring will be the first in her immediate family to earn a graduate degree. Following a 10-year career in investment banking and a five- year career in corporate finance at an oilfield service company, she knew she wanted to do something more when she applied for the EMBA program. She left her job as assistant treasurer and started the EMBA program just before Hurricane Harvey. With a four-year-old and a one-year-old at home, she decided to spend the first year of her transition at home with her kids. The following year she cast a wide net in search for her next role with a focus outside of traditional finance roles. Adrienne is now executive director of strategy and planning for Prime Communications, the largest AT&T authorized retailer in the U.S. In her role, reporting to the CEO and founder, she leads various strategic projects for the company.

“At Rice, once you apply, you’re already considered for a scholarship. The application process is so arduous. You really put yourself out there. Rice could see my value. It meant a lot to me get the recognition and receive the Crownover Scholarship.”

When Fareen Elias was in high school she came to Rice with Management Leaders of Tomorrow (MLT). She heard a presentation about how 10 major problems in the world could be solved by energy. “I realized I wanted to help solve those problems.” So she went to Texas A&M, majored in geophysics and minored in math and economics. After five years as a support geophysicist at a subsurface imaging software company and witnessing industry joint ventures, consolidations and software developer acquisitions, Fareen became interested in how companies were bought, sold and valued. “I wondered if I could take my operational experience and move to financial services and help energy companies create value.” Working in a startup environment, much of what she learned was self-taught. “I knew there were gaps.” The MBA was her next step. She was accepted at Rice and UT, but “Rice was the dream from the beginning.” And then she got a call that she was a nominee for the Crownover Scholarship. “It was so amazing. To go from the idea of sacrificing two years of income and paying for school, to hearing that you won the scholarship — I cried tears of joy. And Mr. Crownover is amazing. He really opens himself up and gives back to the students. I’m really excited for my next two years here.”

“The Jones Partners Scholarship is an engaged scholarship. You have to reciprocate by going to events, meeting with and reaching out to partners. Attending quarterly board meetings really gives you a behind-the-scenes perspective of the school. It’s been a unique and humbling experience to have received this scholarship.”

A native Houstonian, Trey Mattson chose Penn State for undergrad, just like his dad and two older brothers. He studied finance, met his wife, Kelly, and convinced her to move back to Houston with him so he could tap a career in the oil and gas sector. His first job with Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. jump-started his career in energy investment banking and eventually private equity. After five years with TPH, Trey started to think about an MBA, like his brothers, who told him it was the best decision they’d ever made. “I wanted a pause to reevaluate.” And though he looked at “fantastic options,” such as Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, Darden and MIT, the offer of the Jones Partners Scholarship sealed the deal at Rice. Jones Partners is a front facing organization that connects the business school and the Houston business community. Many of their members are alumni. Trey’s summer internship with White Deer Energy, a private equity fund, morphed into an offer for a full-time position after graduation. He will rejoin the firm next summer as a senior associate focused solely on oil and gas investments. He’s pictured here with his wife, Kelly; golden retriever, Cooper; and Rhodesian Ridgeback, Riley.

About  Chris Staffel, Executive MBA '17

“If you would have told me years ago that I’d be building companies for natural gas pipeline infrastructure, I would have never believed you. I went to a music conservatory in Chicago for my undergraduate degree, followed by an M.F.A. in musical theater and then moved to New York to pursue musical theater … I’ve now started three companies in the midstream energy space.”

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A native of San Antonio, Chris Staffel grew up thinking she wanted to be a professional singer. After mastering regional theater and a classical tour throughout Russia and Eastern Europe she got tired of living out of a suitcase and put down roots in New York City. The daily grind of auditions drove her to producing. “I realized I enjoyed the business part of it, equally, if not more than acting.” While she was producing The Dutchman she met two businessmen who were starting a midstream company. “What’s midstream?” she retells it now, laughing. As it turns out, acting and producing isn’t far off from starting and running a company. “You have to raise the capital, hire actors, market the show, and of course … perform.” Even before moving to Houston, she sat in on some classes at Rice and was sold on earning an MBA. “It’s been excellent. I’ve learned so much … The network is incredible.” Since the sale of her company in November, she’s curious about the next global opportunities on the horizon in energy and plans to travel to various emerging markets after graduation. “I want to see where the next possibilities are.”