Don Porr

Don Porr is an owner/partner at Diamond Fiberglass, an industrial fiberglass tank and vessel manufacturer in Victoria, TX, which he and his business partner purchased in 2003 through an equity raise and SBA loan.  Since the purchase, Diamond has grown revenues by over 800% by expanding product lines, improving quality & customer service, and streamlining production processes.  In his years as a business owner and CEO, he has experienced a breadth of challenges and successes typical of an entrepreneur, and some challenges not-so-typical, including a complete loss of the business to a fire in 2017 and the subsequent recovery.

Prior to Diamond, Don worked for M.W. Kellogg (now KBR-Halliburton), FMC Technologies, Network International and British Petroleum. He has been an advisor on several Victoria, Texas community boards, including St. Joseph High School Committees and Victoria County Sheriff’s Office Advisory Board.

Don earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Tulsa University (’92) and a Rice MBA (’97).  An early member of Rice’s Jones Graduate School Entrepreneurs’ Organization, he now participates as a member of JGSEO’s successor, the Rice Alumni Entrepreneurs and Innovators group.  Through this alumni organization, Don is a 12-year member of a CEO Roundtable, advising other members and CEOs on startups, failures, business acquisitions and business harvests. Additionally, Don is a guest lecturer and instructor in entrepreneurship at Rice Business where he currently teaches both enterprise acquisition and enterprise acquisition e-lab courses for 2nd-year MBA students.  When not working, Don enjoys entrepreneurship advising and investing, broadening his world perspective by traveling with his wife and family, cycling with friends and tinkering on classic vehicles.