Congratulations to Rice Business Dean Peter Rodriguez on his appointment as president of Wake Forest University. The announcement highlights his leadership in expanding Rice Business, including launching the Virani Undergraduate School of Business, growing MBA enrollment and introducing Rice’s first online graduate degree.
A Master of Accounting (MAcc) degree from Rice Business opens door to a wide range of career opportunities, from in-demand roles at accounting firms to corporate accounting, finance and advisory roles across industries. Here’s where it can take you.
Helen Huneycutt
When people think about accounting careers, they often picture one path. In reality, a Master of Accounting (MAcc) degree can open the door to a wide range of career opportunities.
A MAcc prepares you for in-demand roles at accounting firms, but it doesn’t stop there. Graduates also move into corporate accounting, finance and advisory roles across industries. What ties those paths together is a skill set employers constantly need: the ability to analyze information, communicate clearly and make sound business decisions.
At Rice Business, the MAcc is designed to get you started with clarity and confidence. It’s a focused, practical path that equips you with the technical skills employers need now, along with the perspective to navigate what comes next.
Start Strong in a High-Demand Field
Accounting remains one of the most reliable entry points into business because every organization depends on strong financial decision-making. Companies — both in Houston and in hubs across the country — need professionals who can interpret data, evaluate risk and help leaders understand what’s actually happening behind the numbers.
Many Rice MAcc students secure full-time offers before graduation, often with leading employers who recruit here specifically because our graduates pair technical expertise with sound judgment and strong communication skills.
The Big Four and Beyond
For many, public accounting is the first stop after earning a MAcc. Rice MAcc alumni regularly begin their careers at Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC. Known as the “Big Four,” these and other large public accounting firms offer roles in audit and tax and are widely recognized for structured training, clear promotion paths and strong long-term career mobility.
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The Rice MAcc curriculum prepares students for in-demand roles.
But the value of accounting expertise extends well beyond public accounting. Organizations around the world rely on financial integrity, meaning your expertise travels across virtually every sector. Rice Business graduates pivot into:
Corporate finance and financial planning and analysis: Helping organizations evaluate performance, budgets, forecasts and growth opportunities.
Consulting and advisory roles: Applying accounting and business knowledge to complex client problems.
Investment banking: Using financial analysis and technical accuracy in transaction-focused roles.
Nonprofits and startups: Building the financial systems and reporting processes that help organizations grow responsibly.
The value of a MAcc extends well beyond your first job title.
Students graduate with technical accounting expertise, but also with skills that tend to compound over time: analytical thinking, problem-solving, communication and business judgment.
Those skills can create flexibility throughout your career. Many professionals who begin in accounting later move into leadership positions across finance, operations, consulting and entrepreneurship because they understand how organizations function at a foundational level.
Hear about the experience firsthand from Will Eldridge ’17:
Prepare for the CPA
For many students, the MAcc is also a smart path toward becoming a certified public accountant. The CPA credential remains one of the most recognized and respected certifications in business. It can expand career opportunities and strengthen long-term earning potential.
Through Rice’s rigorous accounting curriculum and career preparation resources, students build a strong foundation for CPA Exam preparation, licensure planning and early-career success.
At Rice, I could become CPA eligible in just one year without having been an accounting major in my undergrad.
Chloe Kinnebrew
Rice MAcc Alumna
Why Rice Business?
Career outcomes are shaped by more than coursework alone.
The Rice MAcc intentionally keeps cohorts small, allowing students to build close relationships with faculty, classmates and career advisors. Before classes begin, students complete career preparation coursework. Once on campus, they receive individualized guidance on goals, recruiting and professional growth.
Location also matters. Houston is home to one of the country’s most diverse business economies, with strong employer demand across energy, healthcare, consulting, finance, real estate and technology.
That gives students direct access to companies actively hiring accounting talent.
Hear Candis Damtse’s Favorite Things About Rice Business:
Where Could a MAcc Take You?
A Master of Accounting will give you a highly transferable skill set, strong professional footing and access to opportunities across industries.
At Rice Business, our goal is to help students leave with more than technical knowledge alone. Through close faculty support, strong employer relationships and hands-on career preparation, students leave ready to contribute immediately and prepared to keep growing as their careers evolve.
A Master of Accounting (MAcc) degree from Rice Business opens door to a wide range of career opportunities, from in-demand roles at accounting firms to corporate accounting, finance and advisory roles across industries. Here’s where it can take you.
Interested in pursuing a career in audit or tax? The Rice Master of Accounting consistently places students in both fields, allowing them to explore opportunities and build their network along the way.
New research shows how competition galvanizes identity and emotion to drive supporters and critics apart.
Based on research by Anastasiya Zavyalova (Rice Business), Conor Callahan (University of Illinois Chicago), Timothy D. Hubbard (Dublin City University), and J. Daniel Zyung (Southern Methodist University)
Key takeaways:
Competitions can intensify online polarization by activating how people identify with, or against, an organization.
Supporters are more likely to engage online after their teams’ victories than losses, while opponents are more likely to engage online after a rival’s loss than victory.
Polarized constituents do not evaluate organizational performance objectively; instead their reactions are identity-based.
There’s a familiar pattern to how people react after their favorite team loses a big game, or after their most hated rival wins. They close the laptop. They switch the phone to “do not disturb.” They mute the group chat. In the immediate aftermath, the outcome is too painful to argue about online. The internet, for now, can wait.
There’s an inverse pattern after a favorite team wins, or a hated rival loses. People log on right away. They post in the comments. They celebrate the winner, put down the loser or do some messy combination of both. For this group, the night is just getting started.
Whichever side of the competition these groups identify with, their behavior follows a pattern that new research helps explain. A 2025 study in the Journal of Management co-authored by Anastasiya Zavyalova of Rice Business finds that competitive outcomes can sharpen the line between “us” and “them,” pushing supporters and opponents toward different, but predictable, forms of online engagement.
To study that dynamic, Zavyalova and her colleagues looked for an environment where rivalries run deep, identities are public, and competitions are declared on a regular schedule. They found it in NCAA Division I college football.
What 401 football games revealed
The 2013-14 college football season gave Zavyalova and her colleagues an unusual research opportunity. For the first time, ESPN.com required commenters to link their ESPN accounts to their Facebook profiles, making it possible to see which teams commenters publicly supported. The researchers also actively looked for users who displayed opposition on their Facebook pages or joined specific anti-team Facebook groups, such as “Not being a Buckeye.”
Using that data, the researchers tracked online comments across games involving teams in the nation’s top 25 college football rivalries. Then they asked a simple question: When the final whistle blew, who rushed to comment, and who went silent?
The pattern was clear. People were more likely to engage online when the outcome affirmed their identity. For fans, that meant victory. After a team won, its supporters were nearly 9% more likely to comment online than they were after a loss.
For opponents, that meant reveling in a rival’s loss. Opponents were nearly 7% more likely to comment after a team they opposed lost than after the same team won.
The details of a game mattered, too, but mostly for fans. Unexpected outcomes made supporters more likely to post, especially after unexpected victories. Close games produced a similar pattern. For opponents, the basic meaning of the result mattered more: did the rival lose, or not?
The psychology behind who posts and who doesn’t
“The stakes of understanding online polarization are genuinely high,” says Zavyalova, an associate professor of strategic management. “Brands, universities, political parties, sports franchises — any organization with a public presence — are navigating an increasingly polarized audience.”
Whether it’s Texas/Oklahoma or Apple/Android, it’s easy to understand why fans engage with teams and organizations they love. Harder to explain is why those same people may spend just as much energy engaging with rivals they can’t stand.
Researchers call the first relationship “identification” — what it looks like for a fan of the Houston Astros to cheer when the team wins. The second they call “disidentification” — what it looks like for someone who hates the Astros to cheer when they lose.
“An increase in comments can come from very different places. If you only look at the volume, you can misread what the audience is actually telling you.”
These attachments shape when and how someone shows up in comment sections and on social media. People engage when the outcome gives them a feeling they want to extend: pride in a team’s victory or satisfaction in a rival’s defeat. But when a competitive outcome threatens an identity they want to protect, screens tend to go dark.
This second instinct is the surprising one. “The surprising part is that anger doesn’t drive online behavior in the way we assume,” Zavyalova says. “While a painful loss may send some people online to vent, more often, it does the opposite. The impulse is to disappear for a bit rather than fight.”
What online engagement can hide
Although the study focuses on college football, its implications extend to any organization with visible supporters, critics and rivals. In polarized environments, people do not always respond as neutral observers. They respond through identity: what an event says about the organization they support, the rival they oppose and, by extension, themselves.
Consider how these identities clash in the corporate arena. When Ford edged out Tesla for a major Electric Vehicle of the Year award in 2021, or when Blue Origin and SpaceX raced to build a lunar lander, the resulting spikes in online engagement were not purely objective evaluations of the companies’ technological feats. Instead, they were driven by polarized constituents reacting to competitive outcomes.
Some brands actively leverage this dynamic. The researchers cite a former chief marketing officer of Wendy’s, who observed that whenever the fast-food chain “directly called out” competitors online, constituent involvement soared and people engaged “like crazy.” This doesn’t necessarily mean everyone who engaged was a big fan a Wendy’s — maybe they just enjoyed seeing a brand they dislike be humbled online.
“Managers need to be careful about treating online engagement as a simple measure of support,” Zavyalova says. “An increase in comments can come from very different places. If you only look at the volume, you can misread what the audience is actually telling you.”
For today’s executives, the lesson is clear: high-stakes corporate competitions evoke identity-affirming reactions that closely mirror the polarized divides of a college football rivalry.
Many companies treat safety training as a compliance requirement. But new research shows that making safety a strategic priority can actually create value for employees, customers and shareholders.
A new SEC proposal would let companies report semiannually instead of quarterly. Four scholars make the case for letting companies choose their reporting cadence, and for protecting safeguards.
Rice MBAs receive unmatched entrepreneurial support, beginning with a curriculum that teaches collaboration and innovation and amplified by a community dedicated to giving back. Considering launching? Here are a few tips Rice Business entrepreneurs have shared on our podcast, Owl Have You Know.
Helen Huneycutt
Rice Business has been ranked the No. 1 Graduate Entrepreneurship Program for the seven years in a row, and that’s not by chance. Entrepreneurship has deep roots at Rice, beginning with a curriculum that teaches collaboration and innovation and amplified by a community dedicated to giving back.
Whether you’re sitting on an idea, in the process of raising funds or just piecing together plans for a future venture, here are a few tips Rice Business entrepreneurs have shared on our podcast, Owl Have You Know.
1. Just dive in.
“Entrepreneurship’s in the Rice DNA,” says Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship Al Danto ’00. “We always provide a practical framework, but the reality is that you have to get out there and do it. A lot of institutions aren’t gonna give you the free will and support to do that.”
Lilie Lab team members Hesam Panahi, Yael Hochberg, Kyle Judah and Sophie Randolph.
“I hear many of the same ideas over and over again. And I try to find a way to map that idea to a problem that needs to be solved and to a personal interest or curiosity within the founder,” says Hesam Panahi, director of strategic initiatives and programs at the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie). “Having that interest and curiosity is what’s going to drive you when you encounter obstacles.”
Tune in to a conversation with Panahi and two alumni entrepreneurs, Taylor Anne Adams ’23 and Delaney Berman ’22.
3. Test your idea through programs.
“If you come to Rice and want to get into entrepreneurship, there are so many programs, like OwlSpark or BlueLaunch,” says Brad Burke, former director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship. “You can use these to work on your company and decide, “Is this something that really has legs and that I want to stay with?’”
“I can’t take someone without the entrepreneurial drive and turn them into an entrepreneur. But I can take someone who has that drive, and I can give them the tools and frameworks that will help them be successful as an entrepreneur,” shares Yael Hochberg, head of Rice entrepreneurship initiatives at Lilie.
“Entrepreneurship is the evaluation of the market and its underlying needs,” says Adrian Trömel ’18, chief innovation officer and interim vice president for innovation at Rice University.
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Adrian Trömel ’18 and his father, Klaus Trömel ’85.
“It’s the evaluation of business models, the ‘product or solution structures,’ and the underlying risk factors that will help you realize: ‘Hey, I can actually create something new that the world hasn’t seen here before.’”
“Think about how you deliver something to customers in a way they actually want it, and how you build trust with them,” says Allison Knight ’10, who co-founded Rebellion Photonics at age 24 and founded Alaris Mail after receiving her MBA at Rice.
Hear Knight share her experience as a woman founder in a predominantly male industry and why she believes blue collar work is the next frontier for AI exploration.
7. Build with people who support you.
“The greatest asset that Rice Business has given me is the community,” says founder Joanna Nathan ’19. She launched Prana Thoracic, a healthcare startup dedicated to finding solutions for the detection and intervention of early-stage lung cancer, in honor of her son who passed away at the age of four from an undiagnosed health problem. “Leaning into that community, leaning into your class, and building your network is really important. Everybody is there to collaborate and help you.”
Finding support is especially crucial for entrepreneurs who are entering a new field, shares Turner Hoff ’13, who pivoted to food technology from real estate finance after receiving his MBA.
“If you have an idea which industry you want to be involved in, do everything you can to immerse yourself in that community,” says Hoff. “I’ve found that people genuinely enjoy being helpful to others.”
“They always say that you’ve got to grind through the trenches, but that doesn’t really mean anything until you're actually in the trenches,” shares Scott Deans ’22.
“You have to assess where you are and you have to be prepared for what's ahead. And as the founder, you have to be the one that is leading — whether you’re driving inspiration or whether you’re the one that has to say, ‘This is going to fail, and we need to stop.’”
Hear how the Rice MBA helped Becky Jackson '25 make the leap into entrepreneurship.
9. Take risks and fail forward.
“I had a great professor at Rice tell me the definition of profit is the reward a company deserves for taking risks,” says Dan Tinker ’04. “So tell your team, ‘I want you to think bigger than you’re currently thinking, push yourselves out of your comfort zone and don't be afraid to take risks. If something fails, I need you to fail forward. Try things, learn and get better.’”
Winners of the 2026 Veterans Business Battle, founded by Tatz and Bates.
“I think a lot of people get pigeonholed into thinking that they have to be a consultant or an investment banker because they think about the safety net, but there are a gazillion ways to make money out there,” says Mike Tatz ’14. “I think you’ve got to do what makes you happy.”
“It should be about the journey, not necessarily the mountaintop moment,” agrees Corban Bates ’15. “If you're not going to enjoy that journey, then I certainly wouldn't get involved because it's just not worth it.”
Rice MBAs receive unmatched entrepreneurial support — from entrepreneurship labs taught by leading professors and practitioners to opportunities like the Rice Business Plan Competition, the world’s largest and richest pitch competition for graduate-led startups.
Learn more about how Rice Business can help you launch your idea, and hear more inspirational stories on the Owl Have You Know podcast.
Are MBAs good for changing careers? Learn what to look for in an MBA program, including comparing program ROI for career changers pivoting to new industries.
At Rice Business, career development is a community endeavor. Here’s how our Alumni in Residence program is helping our MBA students on their career journey.
Peter Rodriguez, dean of Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business and the Virani Undergraduate School of Business since 2016, today was named the 15th president of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He will begin his new role July 1.
Chris Stipes
Peter Rodriguez, dean of Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business and the Virani Undergraduate School of Business since 2016, today was named the 15th president of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He will begin his new role July 1.
During nearly a decade at Rice, Rodriguez led a period of significant growth and transformation for Rice Business, expanding enrollment, increasing faculty hiring and launching new academic programs while elevating the school’s national and global reputation.
Under Rodriguez’s leadership, MBA enrollment doubled, tenure-track faculty grew by more than 40% and Rice launched its first online graduate degree program. He also introduced a hybrid MBA program, oversaw the renovation of McNair Hall, helped break ground on a new state-of-the-art business school facility scheduled for completion this fall and welcomed the Virani School as the home for Rice’s undergraduate business programs.
Rodriguez also expanded entrepreneurship initiatives, integrated global field experiences into the MBA curriculum and developed a relationship with the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management.
“Peter Rodriguez has been a transformative leader for Rice Business and our university,” Rice President Reginald DesRoches said. “Under his ambitious, steady guidance, the school significantly expanded its size and national and global reputation, launched innovative new programs, strengthened entrepreneurship and experiential learning opportunities and created pathways for many more students to access a world-class business education. We are deeply grateful for Peter’s vision, energy and inspiring commitment to excellence, and while we will miss him at Rice, we know Wake Forest University will benefit tremendously from his leadership and wisdom.”
An economist and professor of strategic management, Rodriguez was named dean of the year by Poets&Quants in 2025. He guided Rice Business through several major challenges during his tenure, including hurricanes, freezes, floods and the COVID-19 pandemic, while fostering a culture centered on being attentive, responsive and kind.
“We are deeply grateful for Peter’s steady, thoughtful and ambitious leadership at Rice Business,” said Robert T. Ladd ’78, chairman of the Rice Board of Trustees and a former chairman of the Council of Overseers for the Jones Graduate School of Business. “He has laid a strong foundation for the future of the school, its students, faculty and staff and the important role it plays for Houston, the state and the broader world. On behalf of the board of trustees, we wish Peter and Kathleen all the best and know he will make a great impact as the president of Wake Forest.”
Rodriguez has also played an active leadership role beyond the university. He currently serves on the Houston Branch board of directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, where he contributes insights on regional economic conditions. He has also served on the boards of Good Reason Houston, Strake Jesuit College Preparatory and Texas 2036.
“Rice Business has been an incredibly meaningful part of my life for 10 years, and I am deeply grateful for the talented faculty, staff, students, alumni, board of advisors members and partners I worked with every day,” Rodriguez said. “The school is larger, stronger and more visible than it was a decade ago, a reflection not only of the business school community but of Rice University’s extraordinary culture of excellence and collaboration. I am excited to carry those lessons with me to Wake Forest, a university I have long admired for its commitment to students, scholarship and meaningful engagement with the world.”
“We are proud of Peter and excited for his new opportunity to lead a top private university, though we will certainly miss his ambitious yet deeply thoughtful and inclusive leadership at Rice Business,” said Amy Dittmar, the Howard R. Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
Rice will launch an international search for the next dean of Rice Business this summer. Dittmar has appointed Jeff Fleming, the Fayez Sarofim Vanguard Professor of Finance and director of the doctoral program, as interim dean. Fleming has been part of the Rice faculty for more than 30 years and has served in multiple senior leadership roles at Rice Business, including associate dean, senior associate dean and deputy dean.
Rodriguez’s final day at Rice will be June 5. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Texas A&M University and earned both his master’s degree and doctorate in economics from Princeton University.
A Houston venture capital analysis co-authored by Rice Business Executive MBA candidate Stephanie Schmidt highlights the city's growing innovation ecosystem, arguing that stronger startup formation is key to building on recent successes like Fervo Energy's IPO.
The Board of Trustees of Wake Forest University announced the appointment of Peter Rodriguez as the University’s 15th President. A distinguished economist and transformative academic leader, Rodriguez currently serves as the dean of Rice University’s School of Business. He will begin his presidency at Wake Forest on July 1, 2026.
Congratulations to Rice Business professor Diana Jue-Rajasingh on being named to Poets&Quants’ 2026 40-Under-40 list, recognizing her innovative teaching and research that help students think critically and lead through uncertainty.
Avery Ruxer Franklin
In Diana Jue-Rajasingh’s classroom at Rice University, students debate difficult organizational dilemmas with no easy answers. They examine business decisions through human, cultural and ethical lenses. They talk about uncertainty, trade-offs and leadership under pressure. Somewhere in the middle of those conversations, students often realize they are learning something larger than strategy itself: how to think critically and make decisions when the outcome is unclear.
“Diana has a remarkable ability to challenge students while also making them feel genuinely supported,” said Peter Rodriguez, the Houston Endowment Dean of Rice Business. “She brings energy, empathy and intellectual rigor into every interaction. This recognition speaks not only to her scholarship and teaching but to the lasting impact she has on the people around her.”
Since joining Rice Business, Jue-Rajasingh has become known for a teaching style both that is both interactive and intensely practical. In her MBA strategy courses, students are pushed beyond simply applying frameworks toward making and defending decisions under uncertainty. Her classes often revolve around structured debate, live cases and real-world simulations where students must articulate assumptions, weigh trade-offs and think through consequences in real time.
A signature assignment even asks students to apply strategy frameworks to consequential decisions in their own lives — from career pivots to industry transitions — reinforcing her belief that strategy is not just a business tool but a broader way of thinking.
Students in the Jones Graduate School of Business and the Virani Undergraduate School of Business describe Jue-Rajasingh’s classroom as an environment where every voice matters, where difficult conversations are encouraged and where curiosity is rewarded.
“Diana is the kind of professor who makes you feel like the material matters because to her, it does. She asks hard questions, she doesn’t let you off the hook with a vague answer, and somehow, she does all of that while making you feel supported rather than put on the spot,” MBA student Bukky Odumosu said. “I’ve caught myself using the way she thinks through problems in real conversations, long after class has ended.”
Colleagues similarly point to her generosity as a mentor and her ability to help students develop confidence in their own thinking.
“Diana represents the very best of modern business education and Rice Business — an accomplished researcher and a thoughtful mentor. Her real-world experience gives her teaching extraordinary depth and relevance,” said Laszlo Tihanyi, the William Alexander Kirkland Professor of Strategic Management and area coordinator for strategy and environment.
Before earning her doctorate from the University of Michigan, Jue-Rajasingh co-founded a social enterprise focused on improving the distribution of life-enhancing technologies in rural India. Through that work, she helped address challenges surrounding the adoption of clean energy products, agricultural technologies and household innovations in low-income communities.
Rather than focusing solely on how large corporations compete, Jue-Rajasingh studies how new ventures and emerging industries gain legitimacy in environments where institutional infrastructure is limited and entrepreneurs often face significant barriers. Her research spans emerging markets in India and Africa and examines innovations ranging from smoke-reducing cookstoves and biodegradable sanitary products to recycling platforms and community-based entrepreneurship. Jue-Rajasingh’s contributions have earned her recognition as a Forbes “30 Under 30” social entrepreneur and as an Echoing Green Fellow.
Her work has appeared in leading academic journals, including Organization Science and Strategic Management Journal. It has also been recognized by organizations including the Strategy Research Foundation, Kauffman Foundation and Responsible Research in Business and Management.
“This recognition reflects the kind of transformational teaching happening across Rice Business,” Rodriguez said. “Our students are learning from faculty who are not only outstanding scholars but extraordinary mentors and educators. Diana embodies that spirit completely.”
A Houston venture capital analysis co-authored by Rice Business Executive MBA candidate Stephanie Schmidt highlights the city's growing innovation ecosystem, arguing that stronger startup formation is key to building on recent successes like Fervo Energy's IPO.
A study co-authored by Rice Business professor Tommy Pan Fang examines the growing challenges tied to AI data centers, including rising concerns over electricity, water use and noise pollution, as cities weigh economic benefits against environmental and community impacts.
David shares how the Rice MBA helped him pivot into consulting and how AI is reshaping the industry.
Owl Have You Know
Following an upbringing as an expat in Jakarta, Indonesia, today’s guest is applying his unique worldview to the management consulting industry and helping clients solve complex business challenges with digital solutions.
David Aldrich, a Rice Business alum from the Professional MBA Class of 2015, serves on the Rice Business Alumni Association Board and is a practice lead at EPAM Systems, a management consulting firm where he focuses on energy and AI.
David joins co-host Brian Jackson ’21 to discuss his journey of growing up abroad and how the Rice MBA helped him pivot into consulting. They also explore how AI is reshaping the consulting industry and how Rice Business became not just his alma mater, but a lifelong community and support system.
[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.
Today’s episode features David Aldrich, a Rice Business alum from the Professional MBA class of 2015. David serves on the Rice Business Alumni Association Board and is a practice lead at EPAM Systems, a management consulting firm where David focuses on energy. David’s path is anything but linear. He studied philosophy, started his career in sales and marketing at Houston startups, and then used his MBA to pivot into consulting.
Today, David has worked across industries, from energy to consumer sectors, helping organizations think more clearly about growth, operations, and strategy.
David also brings a unique perspective shaped by growing up abroad and spending time in international environments before building his career in Houston. In this conversation, we talk about that journey, what it really takes to be good at consulting, and some of the lessons David has learned from working with clients across different sectors.
We also get into how AI is showing up in his work today and where it’s actually creating value versus just hype. Well, David, first, I just want to thank you for joining me.
[01:16]David Aldrich: No, absolutely. It’s my pleasure, Brian. Really looking forward to it. Huge fan of the show.
[01:21]Brian Jackson: You’re one of the board members where I’ve gotten to, one, I met you, and we became fast friends, and then we were able to now serve on the Alumni Association Board together. When we first met, it was a Rice alumni event. I think it was the wine event, and we quickly realized that we have actually a lot in common.
One, we both have partners who are dentists. Your wife, Jasmine, is a dentist. My partner, Trace. Second, we both lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, and we attended Jakarta Intercultural School. And if I say Naga, Naga, Naga, you’re going to say...
[01:52]David Aldrich: Oi, Oi, Oi.
[01:55]Brian Jackson: So, the one question I always seem to get is, you know, looking back, how was growing up as an expat and becoming a third culture kid, how has it shaped who you are today?
[02:07]David Aldrich: I think it’s been probably the most impactful on my life. And when I think about growing up, from like zero to 18, those years in Indonesia and Jakarta are responsible for a lot of my worldview and a lot of my trajectory. I’m really thankful for that time I got to spend as an expat in Jakarta, and there’s a couple things that I think were really incredible.
One, just the age of being there when I was nine to about 15, right? Going from elementary school through middle school in Jakarta. And the second piece was what you mentioned, being an international school where, you know, Americans only made up about, I think, 30% of the demographic population of the school when I was there, from like 1992 to 1998. You were, kind of, a minority in this big mix of international students.
So, your friends were British kids, they were Korean kids, they were Filipino kids, they were Singaporean, they were from South Africa, they were from, you know, Qatar, they were from Australia. They were from all over the world. And getting exposed to just completely different cultures, completely different backgrounds, experiences, even mindsets, right, and how people think and play and collaborate and work together, really opened my eyes as to what’s possible, what’s out there, and, kind of, shaped a lot of my decisions from when I was even looking at where to go to school right after coming back to Houston for high school. It just completely shaped the way I thought about what I should do with myself and with my life.
[03:41]Brian Jackson: And so, when you came back to Houston, and then you’re thinking about college, because, what, you were freshman year, so, you know, sophomore, junior. How did you decide Colgate? Like, this is the right fit for you?
[03:52]David Aldrich: Well, the first decision I made was I wasn’t going to go anywhere in Texas after spending four years at Stratford High School. Shout out Stratford High School, SHS, is an amazing school, go Spartans. But I just saw a lot of my friends were going to, you know, UT, or Texas Tech, or A&M, or other private schools in Texas.
And I didn’t want to go to a school where I knew, you know, 20 or 30 people that I just spent the past four years with. I wanted to go somewhere where I didn’t really know anybody, and I wanted to go someplace that I hadn’t really been before and experience a different part of the United States.
And so, when I was applying to schools, I found out about Colgate, and which was about as far northeast as you could possibly go, in like the middle of nowhere, central New York. But I was also looking at schools in California. I was looking at schools on the East Coast. I was looking at schools, kind of, everywhere except Texas.
[04:45]Brian Jackson: And so, you were saying, you know, picking a place where there weren’t going to be Texans or high school classmates, it’s like you wanted to challenge your way of thinking and be challenged of who you are and continually learn. Is that why you fell into philosophy?
[05:01]David Aldrich: The reason I picked philosophy, I think a little bit of that, but also I wanted to be an attorney when I was in high school. So, I was a debate kid. One of the things that I did was debate, and I really wanted to go into law. And I thought, "Okay, what should best prepare me for a legal career and going to law school? Let’s study philosophy, and let’s study classical studies." So, I was taking a lot of Latin classes, classical studies classes, and philosophy classes while I was at Colgate.
[05:31]Brian Jackson: So, I mean, you wrapped up college and then somehow you end up in Houston. What brought you down to Houston?
[05:37]David Aldrich: So, my family had actually already left. So, when I was in college, my parents moved to Colorado, and then after that, they moved to South Africa. So, I wasn’t going back to where they were living at the moment.
By the time I got to senior year in college, I had decided I no longer wanted to be an attorney, so I wasn’t going to go to law school. So, now I was graduating, and I had a philosophy degree, and I decided I did not want to go to law school. So, I did what anyone does with a philosophy degree that does not go to law school. And I think that’s, you go into sales, right?
So, I found some opportunities in Houston for, kind of, sales-related roles, and I had grandparents that still lived in Houston, and so that was, kind of, my support network when I first got out of college and came back down to Houston.
[06:25]Brian Jackson: So, you’re working in sales roles, you inevitably get into the startup world, right? What were you working on, and what was that experience like?
[06:34]David Aldrich: Yeah. So, I was really fortunate. I knew I wanted to get into the digital space because this was back in, you know, 2010. Facebook had become a thing during, I think, when I was in college. And so, I saw the future of, you know, a lot of jobs were going to be in this digital space and world.
And so, at the time, it didn’t seem like there was a giant startup culture in Houston, but there was a pretty interesting startup company, tech company based out of Houston called FlightAware, which was a flight-tracking company, bootstrap startup. And I actually saw a position for, I think the title at the time was like Aviation Marketing Specialist. But that was a fancy word of saying, like, you’re going to be working in sales for our company.
I saw this job posting on Craigslist, if you can believe, I was, like, looking at Craigslist job postings back in, like, 2010, and I saw this opportunity. So, I started working there, and my job was basically to help them monetize the website. I mean, the company was essentially all software engineers and developers and a very small kind of commercial team, which was run by the COO, and I was reporting, kind of, directly into him, helping monetize all the advertising space we had on the website.
Also sell some of the other data products that FlightAware created, some other, kind of, bespoke products they offered into the aviation industry, but mostly around monetizing the site. So, that’s how I, kind of, got my start, like cold calling media planners who, like, worked for, you know, advertising agencies in New York and San Francisco and Detroit and Chicago, trying to convince them to place their advertising dollars for their clients on our website, flightaware.com.
[08:12]Brian Jackson: So, what did this whole period teach you? And I mean, you’ve carried it on to a management consulting career, what did, you know, working in a bootstrap startup, what has that translated into what you’re doing now?
[08:22]David Aldrich: Well, that time at FlightAware, and then also the time I spent at Rigzone and more of these kind of sales-focused positions, really taught me how to talk to people, develop relationships with people, find what’s going to be valuable for them long term, find solutions that are going to be win-win for both of us.
That, kind of, interacting with people on a daily basis and finding a common ground and where you can both provide value and wins together is something that I still do on a daily basis in consulting, right? So, I think a lot of that early time period, in, kind of, more, you know, cold-calling sales mode, prepared me for, you know, consulting later on, because consulting is also an interesting industry.
When you start, your focus is delivering, right? Your focus is, someone is telling you what to do on a project, and you’ve just got to deliver very well for, you know, your project lead and the client. As you progress in your career through consulting, now it becomes, it’s sales again, right? You’re responsible for managing relationships with clients, identifying opportunities that can add value to them, and, you know, you can deliver for, thereby selling your professional services. And it’s really back into mostly a sales job of trying to either respond to RFPs or, you know, finding opportunities and pitching them to clients.
[09:42]Brian Jackson: So, your MBA, what part did it play? Did it help you pivot into consulting, or was it a part of the grand pivot?
[09:49]David Aldrich: I mean, it was singularly responsible for how I was able to change my career from sales-focused roles into consulting, because at that time, in 2012, when I was applying to Rice to start in 2013, I mean, I had been in sales at that point for five to six years of, like, straight kind of sales-focused roles. And honestly, I was getting a little bit bored of the work that I was doing.
It was great, I was having fun, but it was having the exact same conversations. You could only sell advertising space for so long and talk about the size of, like, a banner that, you know, in a package or whatever, before you’re just selling the exact same thing again and again and again. And the conversations do get old.
While I was at Rigzone, I, kind of, got to do two things that opened my eyes up to what consulting could be. So, we implemented a new ad-serving system, which sounds really boring and awful, but it was an interesting change of pace for me, doing a kind of technology implementation project. We acquired another company and then had to come up with a new pricing catalog, sales strategy, had to roll that out to all these new salespeople that got, kind of, added to our company.
So, a lot of working on new process, working with people, training, transformation, so that was really exciting, too. And I realized I’d like to do more of these types of things versus continue to just sell the same thing again and again and again. But I knew that it would be very difficult for me to start just applying from where I was as, you know, a sales manager at an energy technology company, to go into a consulting shop. You really needed an MBA to do that. And so, Rice was the perfect avenue for me to make that pivot, to get my MBA, but then also position myself for consulting.
[11:36]Brian Jackson: Yeah, so the three letters definitely help in applying, but I’m curious, like, what specifically at Rice helped you actually prepare for the transition itself?
[11:46]David Aldrich: I mean, the whole reason I chose Rice was because I couldn’t make the economics work to quit my day job, right, and go and be a full-time student. I was married at the time, I had one kid, we had another kid coming on the way. So, I was like, "We can’t shut down this current revenue stream, we’re going to keep this going." So, I was looking for professional programs, and at the time, I think the two best programs that were available in Houston were, in my opinion, were, like, University of Texas’ program and Rice’s MBA.
And then when you compare those two options, it was like no question, Rice was the superior program in my mind, one, because you actually got to take classes on campus. You had access to the same classes that full-time students took as a, you know, evening professional student if you could make the schedule work. So, I took classes that were like full-time classes because I was able to come down during lunch on a Tuesday and a Thursday and make it work with my work schedule and take advantage of those classes.
I think, also, being able to take advantage of the clubs, right? The consulting club that does tremendous work at Rice University to prepare students for, you know, summer internships with consulting companies, but also for the case interviews and preparing for, you know, consulting interviews are pretty intense. Maybe they’re not as bad as private equity or some iBanking interviews, but they’re definitely not typically fun experiences to go through unless you’ve really, really prepped hard and know how to execute in them. And Rice does a great job of that.
So, having access to all those tools, all the professors, all the space, the people, the student population as a professional student at, kind of, Rice Business was the game-changer for me.
[13:33]Brian Jackson: Yeah, no, I mean that access is so important. I think being involved in the student clubs, you’re absolutely right, that’s a differentiator. If you were to give advice to a first-year MBA who wants to break into consulting, what would you tell them?
[13:48]David Aldrich: I think my advice to students that want to go into consulting is you need to get really good at the AI piece, right? Study right now and get proficient with tools like Anthropic, tools like, you know, ChatGPT’s Codex, tools like, you know, Gemini’s Nano Banana, and, like, PaperBanana, the new one that they just announced. You have to be proficient in this space and be certified in this space, too. Like, Claude just announced a certification program. You can go get certified as, like, an Anthropic Claude architect. It’s free. You can do it.
Like, these are things that I think you need to have on your resume to position yourself for value, regardless of what strategy you take. If you want to go into strategy consulting or Big Four or technology, having those new skills on how to create agent capabilities for clients is going to be the table stakes to separating yourself from, I think, other people who are also looking to go into consulting.
[14:45]Brian Jackson: Yeah, that’s great advice. I’m going to transition a little here to talk about EPAM.
[14:50]David Aldrich: Sure.
[14:50]Brian Jackson: So, you’ve been at EPAM now for over six years, and like all of my friends in management consulting, I don’t really know what that means or what you do. So, what is it that you actually do on a day-to-day? What’s your focus?
[15:05]David Aldrich: Well, it’s changed a little bit. I started in 2019 as a senior manager. I’ve been working my way up to a principal, and then I just recently stepped into a managing principal role, and I run our energy management consulting practice.
So, a lot of my day-to-day is both talking to clients, but then also managing our pool of consultants and positioning them for projects and making sure that they’re being successful in the opportunities that they’re pitching to clients and the work that they’re delivering for clients as well.
What does that actually look like in reality? I think the best way to explain it, maybe to give you an idea, right? So, a year ago, we were working with an oil field services client, and the CEO was talking about how they wanted to expand what they’re doing in the digital space. Like, they have discrete software products, and they wanted to create transversal use cases so they could do something and solve problems for clients by leveraging the power of multiple pieces of their, kind of, software applications that are currently discrete and not integrated and, kind of, for very different purposes.
So, from there, we went, "Okay, let us help you organize those workshops to go find out what these transversal use cases are. So, that was phase one. Let’s bring everyone from across this global company into one room for a couple of days, people who are product managers for their different, discrete software solutions that this company owns, and let’s put them in the same room. Many of these people hadn’t even met each other or weren’t aware of the capabilities of some of the other, you know, software products this company produces. Let’s align on use cases. We found some, we had some great ideas. Okay, now let’s help you go validate that."
So, then we did basically a market assessment where we created mockups and UI designs for what this new software product could do. We validated that with the company’s own customers, like we worked with their commercial teams to set up time with their users and customers today.
We also went out and found people through our own network that were potential customers for our client. We validated it with, like, kind of, a market scan and looked at what other competing products are out there that could potentially compete with this new solution in the space. We did, kind of, pricing assessments, so we looked at, kind of, market size, what is even the total addressable market? Like, how much revenue could you hope to generate with a product like this? How would you price it?
How much is actually serviceable and addressable? Like, how much more revenue could you capture in year one versus year five? And then we presented that all back to, kind of, the leadership and said, "Okay, we think there really is something here. Here’s how we would price it, here’s how we would build it. Customers say they do want it, and they want these features."
And then we got to go build, like, the beta version of that product for them, which we highlighted at their annual meeting. And now we’re, like, in the process of making it real for customers. So, kind of full-cycle consulting, but also EPAM's focus is very much on product design, software engineering, going to make something real in the digital world, whether that's an application, whether that's a platform, whether that's a mobile app. That's, kind of, the space that we play in.
[18:05]Brian Jackson: Yeah, so from inception on that example you gave to, you know, final product, that’s a long time. It’s a two-year, three-year project?
[18:16]David Aldrich: So, this project, we’re about 12 months in from when we, kind of, first started the initial workshops. Taking this back to AI, what we’re able to do now in terms of mockup designs and potential solutions for customers, like, I no longer need a UX/UI design team to create a mockup of something that we want to deliver for a client. I can do that on my own with Claude Code or Codex and do something pretty good just using the new AI tools.
Now, I still definitely need the UI/UX teams to make this thing real, but of course, they’re also using AI-native, kind of, software engineering tools as well to speed this process up.
[18:53]Brian Jackson: How receptive are your clients when you bring in AI to projects? I mean, how, I guess, one, the question really is, like, how well do they understand it, and how much do they trust the output?
[19:05]David Aldrich: So, it’s becoming much more commonplace. Like every proposal that I’m seeing now, or even requests for proposals for clients, they’re asking us, how would you deliver this? Especially if it’s a software-related project where we’re building something digital, they’re asking us, how would you use AI to accelerate this work?
The energy industry, where I’m working, is, I think, a little bit slower to adopt versus, you know, the technology industry. Even the financial services insurance industry, consumer retail, for sure, is adopting this much quicker. But we’re seeing that our clients already, that they’re using their own development teams, are using, like, GitHub Copilot, or they’re implementing Claude Code, or they’re using the AI-powered kind of tools within Databricks.
They’re using the tools out there themselves, and they’re expecting their consulting partners and implementation partners to also use those same tools and speed up the velocity. Now, I will say, you can’t just give people access to these tools and be like, "Yay, it’s all going to work. It’s going to be great." There is definite governance that needs to be set up so you can train these agents and large language models on, you know, your own code libraries, your coding standards, the languages you use, you know, your CI/CD pipeline, how you deploy code, how you write test cases, how you test the code.
But you can have agents do like 90, 95% of that work. But it does need to be set up, and it does need strong governance to make sure what you’re building is actually what you want to build, right? And it’s secured from cybersecurity threats. You’re not adding new technical debt. You’re not mixing, kind of, languages that you shouldn’t be using. You’re building it for scale, and you’re following your organization’s, kind of, standards for how you build software.
[20:52]Brian Jackson: So, if I’m an energy executive who’s not an AI adopter, what am I missing?
[20:58]David Aldrich: You’re missing potentially so much productivity from your teams. Like, I’m thinking about anyone who’s still working in spreadsheets, anyone who’s still manually creating kind of PowerPoints, anyone who’s still, you know, manually creating the day-to-day things that all companies run on is missing out if you’re not asking your employees to become proficient and start adopting AI software.
Now, at the same time, there’s an interesting question that’s going on right now, which is, "Okay, we all know what the cost of large language models and tokens and agents, we all know what that costs right now, but we also have never known a technology company to, kind of, keep prices the same for the next five, 10 years. Like, everyone knows, and you’ve already seen that from like ChatGPT to Claude, like, there’s the free version now, there’s the premium version, now there’s like the max version that you pay for." It’s not going to stay this price. It’s going to get more expensive. Energy is going to become more expensive, right, to power all of this.
There is a question of how much do you completely start re-architecting your workflows to rely on agents if there’s some projections that show the cost for support, like the cost per ticket resolution, is projected to be, by, this is, someone was posting this on LinkedIn the other day, as projected to be $3 in 2030 by using agents. And $3 per ticket resolution is pretty close to what we pay for humans in offshore managed services locations to resolve tickets.
So, at what point is it going to become more expensive than actual humans? Again, I don’t think you should stop AI adoption because of that potential, but I think it’s important to understand that there’s things that you can do right now to enhance productivity by using these tool sets. There’s other things that require, I think, a little bit more due diligence, and is it the right decision to completely re-architect the way we work with agents? Because what’s good for Anthropic and how they code might not be the best thing for your company long term.
[23:07]Brian Jackson: Yeah, that’s so interesting. So, I guess having stepped into a new leadership role in energy, how has that position changed your perspective of the work that you’re doing and how the team operates and interacts with clients?
[23:22]David Aldrich: I will say that I am extremely fortunate at EPAM to be working for Clark Varner, who’s also a Jones School alumni. He was a Rice MBA. I’ve been working with him for over 10 years now.
So, he was at North Highland, which was the first firm I started working for after Rice, after I got my MBA. And then he’s at EPAM, where I’m working right now. And so, when I started as a senior manager here at EPAM, he led our energy, kind of, consulting practice here in Houston. And then he basically took on a new role, a new leadership role, and he now leads our entire energy business unit because, obviously, we do a lot more than just consulting, we do software engineering, we do product development, we do product design. We have, you know, account management professionals who run and manage specific energy accounts for us.
And so, Clark looks after all of that work. I say all this to give context that I’m not doing this by myself. There’s a team of people that I have grown up with, both at my time in North Highland and now at EPAM, that are also in really senior leadership roles that I work closely with every single day.
So, when you ask, how does it change my perspective on managing a team and being in a leadership position, I think the perspective doesn’t change that much is that, number one, is you’ve got to look out for your people, right? People need to be in an environment where they feel safe, where they feel supported, where they feel they can come with questions, with concerns, where they can go get guidance that’s, you know, judgment-free. That’s what I’m hoping to provide and give everyone that space where they can thrive and do their best work and really enjoy, as much as possible, the day-in and day-out work that they’re doing for clients and for EPAM.
[25:04]Brian Jackson: That’s great. I mean, that psychological safety of being able to, kind of, check your ego at the door and just say, "Hey, I have no idea. How would you do this?" tends to create some of the best responses, I feel like, and actually creates opportunity to solve things. So, I mean, I’m sure you’ve seen good consultants, and you’ve seen bad consultants. What separates a good consultant?
[25:26]David Aldrich: Yeah, I think a good consultant is not afraid to ask questions, to push clients, and, kind of, challenge thinking. I think there’s an art to being able to do that without offending and pissing clients off, and understanding when you have the opportunity to, kind of, push hard to get clients thinking in a different way.
I think the other key part is being able to be hungry for any opportunity and not scared to learn any new topic, right? Because the nature of consulting is that you’re being thrown into a bunch of different businesses, and no matter how much you’ve worked in a specific industry or at, like, businesses, there’s always going to be something new that they’re doing, whether it’s from a technology that they’re using, a process that they’re following, the nomenclature that they’re using.
So, you always got to be hungry and excited to learn more, and never, kind of, turned off and scared about having to, you know, master a new subject where you know nothing about it. So, always being hungry to learn quickly and adapt. And I think always coming with potential solutions versus constant questions.
So, questions are great when you’re trying to understand what’s the context, but we need to move very quickly to offering a point of view on what you need to be doing. And so, I always tell new consultants that are starting, "What are the best behaviors you can develop?" When you spot an opportunity, you know, for where you can add value or we can add value for our client, don’t just come to your manager or your principal or the project lead or client lead and say, "Hey, I think there’s an opportunity here." It’s, "Hey, I think there’s an opportunity here, and here’s how we propose we go solve it. And here’s the approach that I think we should take, and here’s how I would think we... This is the team size I think we would need to do it, and here’s the timeline." Like, come with a fully baked plan. That’s the behavior that we love to see from a great consultant.
[27:08]Brian Jackson: Yeah. Has there been a time where you’ve brought forth a fully baked plan, and the instant reaction was no? Like, "David, no. This doesn’t make sense."
[27:17]David Aldrich: All the time, yes. That definitely does happen. It’s something you also have to get used to is rejection, right? There’s no way in consulting that when you spot an opportunity and a way to add value, that you’re going to have, you know, 100% batting average. It’s just not going to happen.
You’re going to pitch a bunch of things, and you might think it is, of course, the best solution out there. You would be crazy if you picked any other vendor or any other SI or consultancy to go do this work. And, of course, that happens all the time, they pick someone else. So, you just have to be comfortable, right, and rejection, not take it personal, and you keep going, right? Look for the next opportunity.
[27:56]Brian Jackson: With EPAM's operations being global, you know, how has the conflict in Ukraine impacted you in your work?
[28:04]David Aldrich: Yeah, that continuing conflict has been the biggest shock our company has ever experienced in its 30-year history. So, for people that may not be aware, EPAM is 30 years old. We’re about 65,000 people. We started as a company that was providing technology solutions mainly from Europe, in locations like Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, because we had highly skilled software development professionals that were based there that were still really cost-competitive with other kind of offshore delivery centers around the world that other consulting companies were using.
And we found the talent there was really second to none, and again, the economics made a lot of sense to our clients. And so, we, kind of, built our company around these delivery centers in Eastern Europe. And so, by the time we got to 2022, we were a, you know, 55,000-60,000-person company, and we had 30,000 people in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.
And then the conflict started, and we immediately, of course, shut down all of the work that we were doing with companies in Russia. And then we made the decision very quickly to say, "Okay, if you want to work for EPAM, you cannot be in Russia, you have to leave Russia." And, of course, we had many employees that wanted to also leave conflict zones in Ukraine. And we also had people who wanted to leave Belarus as well.
And so, during 2022, 2023, EPAM was relocating like 5,000, 6,000 employees and their families, like, constantly. So, there was a mass move of people across the globe to get people into environments where they felt safe and were able to thrive, and their families were able to thrive.
And it’s still happening today, right? I think people tune out the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, but that’s still an active war that’s happening. And we still have 9,000 professionals operating in Lviv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, all across Ukraine, delivering every day for our clients. And it’s amazing the resiliency of some of my colleagues that are, you know, again, like going through ballistic missile drills, warning sirens on a frequent basis, having to deal with power outages, gas outages constantly.
I mean, they’re real heroes, right, of EPAM, and still coming to work with fantastic, positive attitudes, ready to excite, delight customers, go build something new, continuing to learn. So, it’s one of the reasons I’m really proud to work at EPAM, is not only how our company has responded, but just the culture and the community we have built around our colleagues and what we do for our clients every day.
[30:42]Brian Jackson: I think of it, and, you know, you were saying they still show up, they’re excited to be there and deliver product, like, one, how almost, like, empowering that is to your own spirit, to sit there with folks and to be like, "Okay, if they can do it, I can do it. We’re going to do it as a team." And then secondary, I think of, is it hard, though, to be on team calls and have your, you know, colleagues and friends in areas that are dangerous and have danger around them? You know, how do you, kind of, manage those feelings?
[31:13]David Aldrich: I’ll tell you, it’s not easy. I’ll be extremely frank. I was doing a project, this was back in 2022, one of our developers on our team, his name’s Andre, fantastic guy. He was based in Kharkiv, and if you don’t know where that is, it’s, kind of, on the eastern side of Ukraine, very close to the border with Russia.
And so, during the start of the invasion, Russia was coming really close into Kharkiv, they were throwing shells, they were throwing mortars into the city. EPAM was doing its best to try to evacuate as many people as we could, like, basically sending buses into the city. But you couldn’t safely go walk around the city.
And so, where his apartment block was, he could not get to where the buses were picking people up. And, you know, he has a small family, he had two small daughters. So, their first solution was to go sleep in the, kind of, subway stations, right, to protect them from mortar fire, shell fire. But it was middle of winter, it’s freezing down there, so people were getting sick, that’s not a solution. So, they went back to their apartment.
The train station wasn’t running on schedule, so that was also not an option. Because I was trying to brainstorm this through, like, you know, "Andre, we’ve got to get you, we’ve got to get you out of here. We’ve got to get you safe. What can we do?" He was saying, "No, we can’t use the train station. There’s like 10,000 people there just waiting for the next train. It’s not safe."
He was finally able to get a car rental with a friend, but there was not enough space in the car for both him, his wife, and his two kids, just his wife and his kids. So, he puts his wife and kids in the car, he sends them towards Zaporizhzhia, which was safe at the time, and he walks out of the city, like 20, 25 kilometers, until he gets to a point where it’s safe enough for him to be picked up.
And so, each day I was asking, like, "Andre, are you going to be safe? Are you going to be okay? What’s going on?" That, you know, takes a mental toll on you because you’re just worried sick for these people that you come to know and work with on a daily basis. So yeah, it’s mentally taxing, but you just got to remember that that mental struggle from my end is nothing compared to, you know, what my colleagues are going through. And it just makes you super thankful to be working with amazing people and in a community that, kind of, EPAM created, community and culture that EPAM created.
[33:27]Brian Jackson: It’s great to be on a team and to support a team like that, David. I’m going to pivot a little, because I know some of the stuff you do outside of work, but I’m curious if there’s something outside of work that’s made you better at your job.
[33:39]David Aldrich: I think being involved with kids’ school sports stuff gives you a lot of, let’s say, a lot of patience. It teaches you patience in ways that you weren’t expecting, that you can take to clients.
But I’ll also say, I’ll be very honest, I tell everyone on our team, like, "Listen, there’s a reason you get paid time off. You should take it, and you shouldn’t be working during that time." I’m always a bad example. I do tend to, like, check my phone and check my computer when I’m supposed to be off. But I tell people, "Please don’t follow my awful example. You should take time off."
And I think that is really important. I purposely try to take the time off that I’m given by, you know, EPAM each year and go travel, go experience something completely different, and share it with my kids as well, right? And I think that has always refreshed me, made me excited to come back to work.
Traveling and being someplace new, foreign, uncomfortable, it sparks, again, that creative thinking. It gets your brain moving, and it creates ideas that, I’m often coming back to work excited and thinking about something new I want to try after being on vacation, and especially being on vacation in someplace completely random and new that I’d never been before.
Now, I’m not saying I don’t like to also just go somewhere like a beach resort pool where someone can just bring me, you know, margaritas or piña coladas, I enjoy that, too, but I think you need to balance both.
[35:06]Brian Jackson: I tend to be on that type of vacation. One other thing that you do, you stay really involved with Rice, especially Rice Business. At what point did you shift from Rice just being your school to really, I think, becoming your community?
[35:21]David Aldrich: You know, I think my grandfather, you know, he taught me that. And it was something that Shawn Sullivan, the CEO at FlightAware, who is a big Colgate supporter, told me as well, that, like, "Listen, if you enjoyed your experience at your alma mater, you should give back. You should always give back as much as you can." And the experience that I had both at Colgate and at Rice was life-changing for me, career-changing in terms of my MBA. And so, I’ve always wanted to give back financially as much as I can and support students who also want to go to that school, right? Be a class ambassador for Rice, try to keep my class involved and aware of what’s going on at school, try to bring them back to campus, promote reunion, and try to get a big turnout as much as possible.
And then now, you know, finding new ways to serve the alumni community and do more to encourage alumni to come back, engage, and participate with Rice. We can continue to grow, I think, this amazing alumni network that we have, which is now like 10,000 people who’ve matriculated and graduated through the Rice Business MBA program.
[36:24]Brian Jackson: Yeah, and one of the things, I mean, the Alumni Association Board is all about how do we reengage and get people to stay in touch and connected to Rice Business. One of the things we’ve been working on together was the alumni breakfast series. I’d love you to just talk about it and share why we thought that that was a value add and a new connection point for alumni.
[36:46]David Aldrich: Yeah, absolutely. So, it’s one of the things that I have been super excited about since joining the board, is this new series. We realized that getting to events on campus can be difficult, given the size of Houston and the sprawl and the fact that we have people coming from, if they want to come to events, they’ve got to be coming from Katy, West Houston, they’re coming from Sugar Land, Richmond, Southwest Houston, they’re coming from, you know, Spring, The Woodlands, they’re coming from Humble, Atascocita, they're coming from everywhere.
And it’s not easy sometimes to leave work at like 4:30 just so you can be on campus at 6:00 for an event that starts. And so, we thought about what programming options can we offer so that we’re not only having programming that is available to alumni and students after work, but before work, right? Or during the early morning part of work.
So, you can come in, you can have breakfast, you can have coffee, you can engage with Rice and then make it back to work. And then everyone’s busy after work as well with, you know, family activities, et cetera, so we can leave that open. So, we wanted to be able to provide both options to our alumni and students, and even the broader Houston community, to come and engage in whichever way works best for you.
If it works best for you to come and participate in a really interesting panel after work’s done and stop by the campus after, then great. If it’s better for you to come during the morning and break bread and have coffee with alumni and colleagues and friends, then let’s do that as well and make that available to our alumni community.
[38:17]Brian Jackson: That’s great, and that was absolutely the purpose.
David, this has been such a unique episode, and I really have appreciated your time, and we get to draw on some of these shared commonalities we have. And I’ve always really enjoyed your service on the board and working together, so thank you.
[38:34]David Aldrich: No, thank you so much. It’s been my pleasure. I love the work that you’re doing on this podcast. I think it’s extremely valuable to not only our alumni, but just Houston in general, and students and everyone, kind of, to see the trajectories and career paths that are available to them and some of the amazing work that our alumni are doing, both here in Houston and Texas across the globe.
I think you’re doing a fantastic job. I’m so happy to be on here. I feel honored to be invited to the Owl Have You Know podcast, and I hope it’s not the last time we have a conversation like this.
[39:04]Brian Jackson: No, no, it won’t be. Well, thanks again, David.
[39:07]David Aldrich: No, thank you, Brian.
[39:14]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 podcast. We'd love to hear what you think. The hosts of Owl Have You Know are myself, Brian Jackson, and Maya Pomroy.
Emma and Jacob trace their unlikely path from Citibank trading desks to startup life and share how Tierra Climate is helping reshape the energy industry.
The latest graduates from Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business were awarded their Master of Business Administration degrees on May 8 at Tudor Fieldhouse in front of a crowd of loved ones, faculty, staff and students.
Avery Ruxer Franklin
The latest graduates from Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business were awarded their Master of Business Administration degrees on May 8 at Tudor Fieldhouse in front of a crowd of loved ones, faculty, staff and students.
“Today marks the graduation of Rice Business’ 49th graduating class,” said George Andrews, associate dean of degree programs. “We honor the countless hours and team meetings, cases, presentations, papers and exams, the hard work, dedication and discipline required to earn this degree.”
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Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business graduates were awarded their Master of Business Administration degrees May 8 at Tudor Fieldhouse.
When President Reginald DesRoches stepped to the lectern to confer the degrees, he made sure to take a moment to recognize that earning a degree often includes support from family and friends. He asked the graduates to rise and applaud their families as well as turn to their classmates for a last thank you.
Rice Business provides more than just the knowledge to master finance, strategy and operations — through their classwork and community, graduates have honed leadership skills such as resilience, collaboration, adaptability and ethical judgment.
“You’ve been shaped by a program that values not just what you know but how you lead — thoughtfully, ethically and with a clear sense of purpose,” DesRoches said. “You work through real world challenges, engage with Houston’s dynamic business ecosystem and learn what it means to lead in the global, fast-moving economy.
“Stay curious, be courageous, say yes to the hard things. That’s where growth happens.”
The MBA graduates join a global Rice alumni community of more than 68,000 leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs who are ready to support fellow Owls, DesRoches said.
Nicole Pellegrino, assistant dean of academic programs and student experience, honored students who took on extra challenges during their time in McNair Hall, including graduates who led the signature student-run initiatives, competitions and programs like the Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition conference, the Rice Energy Finance Summit, the Women in Leadership Conference, the Veterans Business Battle, the Rice Business Energy Case Competition, the Rice Business Healthcare Conference and Rice Business Board Fellows. These leaders wore a graduation stole commemorating their leadership of these programs.
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The MBA graduates join a global Rice alumni community of more than 68,000 leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs.
Every Rice MBA commencement includes the M.A. Wright Awards, named for Mike Wright, former chairman of Cameron Iron Works and the first chairman of the Rice Business Board of Advisers. This prestigious award is determined based on nominations from members of the graduating class for the student who best models “leadership, exemplary service and significant contributions to the Jones Graduate School of Business.”
2026 M.A. Wright Awards
Full-time MBA: Caroline Metts
MBA for executives: Mohamed Elsayed
MBA for professionals (evening): Rishi Sohoni
MBA for professionals (weekend): Moises Mendoza
MBA@Rice: David McCampbell
Hybrid MBA: Julija Dobrila
Each year, the students also get a chance to honor faculty who made a difference in their learning experience. Each of the six programs select a recipient for a teaching excellence award — these awards are especially meaningful to faculty because they are selected by their own graduating students, said James Weston, senior associate dean of degree programs.
2026 Teaching Excellence Awards
Full-time MBA: Brian Akins
MBA for executives: James Hackett
MBA for professionals (evening): Petrus Ferreira
MBA for professionals (weekend): Prashant Kale
MBA@Rice: Maura Claire Harford
Hybrid MBA: Bruce Carlin
A final teaching award is chosen by alumni who graduated two and five years ago.
2026 Alumni Teaching Excellence Award: Al Danto
Rice Business Dean Peter Rodriguez took the podium to introduce the keynote speaker, alumnus and CEO of NRG Energy Robert Gaudette (’01).
“Robert’s connection to Rice Business has remained strong for more than a decade,” Rodriguez said. “He has returned to campus innumerable times as a speaker, mentor, a thought partner and a friend for many students. Colleagues describe him as a people-first leader who listens, sets clear direction, brings teams together and leaves them with accountability and respect. For our graduates, Robert is a powerful example of the kind of leadership we hope a Rice Business education inspires: principle, practical, resilient and ready to meet consequential challenges.”
Gaudette shared his career journey and lessons he learned along the way. Careers are rarely as logical and linear as they look at the start, he said.
“We like to think that progress unfolds in a predictable sequence, school, job, promotion, next job, next promotion. The reality is that careers are more about the detours — the next one we take might not be the obvious one. It’s said that life can only be understood by looking backwards.”
Gaudette landed at NRG through a merger and an acquisition and was eventually asked to lead part of the retail business — a curveball for him and his professional experience, Gaudette said. The challenge provided a new perspective.
“We’re not just managing assets, we’re not just trading supply,” he said. “What we do every day has real impact on the real lives of the people we serve and the well-being of our communities. Without that outlook, without that perspective, I likely wouldn’t be speaking to you right now (as CEO). So, when your carefully crafted career plan takes an unexpected turn, don’t be too quick to dismiss the role. The role that looks like a detour may be the one that gives you the perspective you’ll need the most later on.”
View the entire May 2026 graduation ceremony below and learn more about Rice Business programs. Share your photos from the event using the tag #RiceGrad26.
A Houston venture capital analysis co-authored by Rice Business Executive MBA candidate Stephanie Schmidt highlights the city's growing innovation ecosystem, arguing that stronger startup formation is key to building on recent successes like Fervo Energy's IPO.
