Learning to Lead Anywhere feat. Chris Stillwell ’24

[00:00]Brian Jackson: Welcome to Owl Have You Know, a podcast from Rice Business. This episode is part of our Pivot Series, where guests share stories of transformation in their lives and careers.

Today, we're joined by Chris Stillwell, a Rice Business Full-Time MBA graduate from the class of 2024, who's taken a unique path from military intelligence to the world of finance. In the military, Chris built a foundation in leadership, discipline, and decision-making under pressure. He later transitioned to consulting, including time in Dubai, working on M&A Integration and Strategy. That experience led him to Rice Business, where he pursued an MBA to sharpen his financial skills and pivot into investment banking.

In this episode, we cover Chris's military experience, why he chose Rice, how the program supported a major career shift, and his advice for veterans and professionals considering a career transition through an MBA.

Hey, Chris, it's great to have you join me on Owl Have You Know.

[01:00]Chris Stillwell: Thanks for having me, Brian. I appreciate it. Appreciate being here.

[01:03]Brian Jackson: You've had one of the more fascinating career arcs that I think I've covered, from military intelligence to strategy consulting in Dubai and now investment banking at Bank of America. I mean, I heard military intelligence, and of course, I'm thinking of all the Hollywood movies. You know? It's really dramatic. Everything seems so cinematic, right? And has to happen quickly, and it's life-or-death decisions. But I guess from your experience, there's got to be a gap in these portrayals and, like, the real substance of military intelligence work.

[01:37]Chris Stillwell: 100%. I think that it sounds a lot sexier than it really is. Like, there's a lot of military movies out there. One of my jobs with the Army I commanded a drone unit. And I don't know if you've ever heard of the movie Eye in the Sky. I remember watching that, it was like, with Helen Mirren, it's all about drones.

I remember watching that and was like, "This is not how any of this works. This is, like, the complete antithesis of how we operate and how things are actually done." I just remember, like, getting out of that movie just being, like, frustrated. So, it's not as cool as some of the movies portray. Like, we can't identify people's faces from a drone 5,000 feet in the sky, but we could certainly do some other cool things, for sure.

[02:15]Brian Jackson: But you spent more than five years, right, in the Army, and you were in roles in Texas and New York. You know, could you tell me a bit about those roles?

[02:23]Chris Stillwell: So, I did four years active duty, and I did one year in the Reserves in, in New York for a bit. And when I was in active duty, I was stationed here in Texas at Fort Hood up in Killeen. Actually, lived in Austin, used to commute up there. As an intelligence officer, you know, I was primarily responsible for advising infantry or tank units on, you know, what the enemy course of action would be.

And I would have, like, a team of analysts that would assist me and, kind of, be like the red hat, we would call it, for the operations team, so that we can develop a plan to ultimately, like, defeat that enemy, whether it was in a training scenario or in a, you know, more forward-deployed scenario. I spent nine months in the Middle East as well, bouncing around a couple countries. But yeah, mostly you do intelligence advising attached to those units. Then I had one year where I was, you know, command that your own unit as well.

[03:10]Brian Jackson: So, I mean, all this is teamwork, and it seems to be situations where you're under pressure. Like, as a leader and as someone now who approaches teamwork, has this shaped, kind of, how you work across functions?

[03:21]Chris Stillwell: Absolutely. I think, you know, the military is a unique experience for a lot of people, especially those going to be an officer after school. Whether you go to West Point or ROTC, you're a 22-year-old kid, and then you're like, "Hey, here's a bunch of people you're now in charge of, you know, their lives and their responsibilities. Go after it." You know? And it's, there's no, like, manual, pretty much, of how to be a good leader. I mean, there's plenty of books written about it, but you really do have to learn.

And, you know, learn from not only your peers, but learn from people who are more senior than you as well. And, you know, as an intelligence officer, too, it's, kind of, a lot of pressures on you as well, is when you're trying to make the right call and give the right advice to your senior leaders, because bad advice or bad calls can really affect how you're operating.

[04:05]Brian Jackson: I know you probably can't talk much in specifics about it, but I'm sure you're, kind of, on pins and needles until the operation's over and you know that the intelligence was actionable and accurate.

[04:14]Chris Stillwell: Yeah. And you're also doing work during the operation as well. You're assessing, like, how much of the, let's say, enemy forces that have been you know, attrited. So, how much is remaining? You're also assessing what if there could be, like, a counterattack, let's say, or any kind of additional things that the enemy could do.

And then you're also organizing and helping any kind of collection efforts, making sure that you're looking in the right places to see where these additional enemy, like, attacks could come from, and then making sure that you're sending that information upwards and downwards. And I think that's maybe a good segue into, back to your original question, is, you know, how being a military officer helped me be, kind of, in my current role, and even at Rice, was, in the military, you are a leader, but you learn how to be a good follower as well. And I think what you do with that is that you are able to have great teamwork.

You're able, like, in my current job now, I have an analyst underneath me, but I have people like VPs and MDs above me, and I can understand what their intent is and what we need to get accomplished in our day-to-day job, but also articulate to the, you know, people below me, "Hey, this is the intent and this is how we do it." So, it's, kind of, been very helpful in those soft skills.

[05:19]Brian Jackson: Definitely. So, that would be one of the, I guess, mindsets that you took from the Army. Is there maybe a habit that you developed that you still lean on today?

[05:25]Chris Stillwell: From the military? I would say definitely getting things done is maybe the wrong way to say it, but, like, you know, or maybe getting a decision made. I mean, the worst thing you can do in the military is be indecisive. You got to make sure that you make decisions under pressure. And even today, like, I see it sometimes, you know, to my detriment or to my benefit.