Owl Have You Know

After navigating a challenging endometriosis diagnosis, multiple surgeries, and a complex healthcare system, Andria “Monique” Pourkarimi ’25 decided to tackle a gap she experienced firsthand. While pursuing an online MBA at Rice, an idea born in the classroom grew into Dr. Clara, LLC — a women’s health startup focused on closing the communication gap between patients and providers.

Just a year earlier, Monique founded Pourkarimi & Associates, LLC, a financial consulting and independent insurance brokerage firm that helps clients navigate complex financial decisions and insurance needs. 

In this episode, Monique joins co-host Brian Jackson ’21 to share how her health journey inspires her work with Dr. Clara, why financial and insurance literacy are so important, and what led her career from the aisles of Costco to entrepreneurship and a Rice MBA.

Episode Guide:

00:00 Introduction to Monique Pourkarimi

01:23 Balancing Business and MBA

09:08 The Inspiration Behind Dr. Clara

10:46 Challenges and Advocacy in Women's Health

19:19 Future Plans and Reflections

22:29 The Importance of Financial Education

27:43 Pursuing Public Policy for Healthcare Reform

30:51 Concluding Thoughts

Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

Where did Monique get her entrepreneurship spirit?

07:45: I think entrepreneurship runs in my blood. So my uncle has a logistics company that is here in the US and transports in Mexico as well. My grandmother, she works with him and his business, and, my mom has her own insurance brokerage as well, specializing in Medicare. So independent of my pursuits, my grandmother and my mom are the ones who raised me. So here it was three generations of strong Mexican women who were, you know, just under one roof. And I think that is kind of what shaped me in terms of  the woman that I am today and that entrepreneurial spirit.

Success is about impact, not numbers

27:25: I think for me, success is counting how many people am I able to help at the end of the day, right? And it's not a number of just benchmarks of, oh, okay, I have a quota of helping 500,000 people. No, it's not about that at the end of the day. And do I confidently know that I have been able to help make a positive impact in this world? I do not want to leave it as I am starting these businesses because I am doing them for myself, or even with awards that I received through Rice. I think success is: what is my legacy? And if I were to die today, you know, what would people think about me? I think success is: what is my legacy? And if I were to die today, what would people think about me? Did I make a positive impact in people's life? That, to me, is success.

The moment Monique said yes to Rice

05:21: For me, I was thinking, wow, there is so much potential—especially with an MBA. There is so much potential I have in growing my businesses. And, as you said, Brian, being connected with the other students—I joke that Rice did all the background checks for us because I love my cohort. The people at Rice, the alumni—we are one big Happy Owl family. I had a lot of people who believed in me and were willing to help and point me in the right direction.

Show Links: 

• Transcript

Guest Profiles:

• 2025 Best & Brightest Online MBA: Andria Monique Pourkarimi, Rice University (Jones) | Poets & Quants
• Andria Monique Pourkarimi | LinkedIn

During their time at Rice Business, Mike Tatz ’14 and Corban Bates ’15 saw an opportunity to connect veterans with capital and the network needed to start a business. As veterans themselves, they understood how important it is to have the right connections and platform to pitch an idea. With that, the Veterans Business Battle was born. 

But Mike and Corban’s story starts long before Rice. The two first met as students at West Point and followed similar paths — from Division I athletics to Army service to financial services, and eventually entrepreneurship. After launching the Veterans Business Battle and earning their MBAs at Rice, Mike went on to found a CBD company for athletes, and Corban began overseeing direct investments into private companies — now serving as the chief financial officer for one of those investments. 

Mike and Corban join co-host Maya Pomroy ’22 to chat about how their time at West Point shaped them, what brought them to Rice Business and the impact the Veterans Business Battle has had over the past decade. 

Episode Guide:

00:00 Meet Mike and Corban

03:01 Life at West Point: Challenges and Lessons

08:38 Transitioning From Military to Business School

12:57 Creating the Veterans Business Battle

20:18 The First Prize and Investor Opportunities

22:15 The Journey and Impact of the Competition

24:01 Career Transitions and Personal Growth

25:29 Mike’s Venture Into the Sports Industry

27:57 Corban's Path to Artisan Bakery

33:43 Final Thoughts and Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

The conversation that led Corban from Army to business school

09:55: [Corban Bates] Mike’s been a huge blessing in my life, ’cause business school wasn’t really even on my radar. It’s just kind of going up and down the aisles of the career conference, and there were probably 20 schools there, but I didn’t talk to any of ’em. It wasn’t on my radar, and I talked to Mike. I just ran into him and it’s like, “Hey, how have you been?” Like, you know, all for Rice. He was there recruiting for Rice — Rice had a booth — and he starts telling me about it. And he was just about to start this internship at Goldman Sachs, and he had this amazing first year at Rice, and it just sets you up…[10:24] Yeah, I just ran towards it and was extremely fortunate to get in, and Mike completely changed the course of my career. If I hadn’t run into him, then things would be very different.

On unapologetically pursuing what lights you up

34:29: [Mike Tatz] I think a lot of people, even at business school, they get very pigeonholed into thinking that they have to be a consultant or an investment banker because they think about the financial support that it is going to give them or the safety net. There is a gazillion ways to make money out there. I think you have got to be happy. You have got to be happy. And you can be, but you have got to take that leap. You have got to have a plan. And then once you figure out what it is, you go, baby. You go as hard as you can, and you make everybody else think that you are crazy for how hard you are working at whatever you are doing. If you do that, I think good things are going to happen.

Why veterans and business school are a perfect match

17:09: [Corban Bates] Rice came up with this concept of really bringing on more veterans to their business school. I think it’s a great match of veterans being very far along in their leadership development and people management development by the time they’re in their late twenties, but being behind on the business concepts. And then you pair, you know, the rest of the civilians who are advanced in their business concepts but are probably lacking on the leadership front — probably haven’t led that much in their twenties. And so it’s this great pairing where both sides can learn from each other.

The business network gap veterans face

13:35: [Mike Tatz] I don’t think veterans need any special treatment, nor should they expect — or do we expect — any special treatment. But what I do think is the case is that, going back to that last example — let’s say I do want to start a business. I'm starting a business. There are a lot of steps to it, but one of those steps that is crucial is capital. And so my network, being in the military, is Army sergeants, Army majors, privates — whatever it may be, right? They're not the Goldman Sachs folks. They’re not the people looking to make investments into companies. They’re not the people with the means to not only provide financial capital, but mentorship capital and experience capital that you would need as somebody being in the military, coming out and trying — and wanting — to start your own business.

Show Links: 

• Transcript
  
  

Guest Profiles:

• Mike Tatz | LinkedIn
• Corban Bates | LinkedIn
• Veterans Business Battle

Like the discovery of penicillin, it started with an unexpected moment in the lab.

Charlie Childs and Madeline Eiken didn’t set out to revolutionize drug testing — but a surprise breakthrough led them to create the world’s first lab-grown human intestine and win the 2025 Rice Business Plan Competition's grand prize. Their startup, Intero Biosystems, could dramatically reduce clinical trial costs, improve drug safety and advance personalized medicine.

Host Maya Pomroy ’22  talks with Charlie and Madeline about the moment that sparked it all, their experience winning the 2025 Rice Business Plan Competition, and what’s next for their fast-growing startup. 

Episode Guide:

00:59 Meet the Founders: Madeline and Charlie

01:49 Their Groundbreaking Innovation of a Lab-Grown Human Intestine

03:24 The Journey From Lab to Startup

07:06 The Accidental Discovery

11:49 Competing in the Rice Business Plan Competition

15:52 The Pitch and the Competition Experience

19:14 Support and Success at Rice

23:37 Future Plans and Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

Charlie on the lab-grown intestines breakthrough

04:43 [Charlie Childs]: I think, every day, like, as we develop this model, we are just more and more amazed how amazing, like, nature is and how smart science is. So, what we can do is we take these stem cells, which, like you said, can turn to anything in the body, and then we simulate human development. So, every day we give them… we literally call it Gatorade. Like, the cells live in this red liquid, and it truly is Gatorade. It has, like, glucose and proteins and other things that the cells need to live just like our bodies do. And each day, we give them different proteins that leads them down human developmental time until they turn into the miniature intestines. So, it's actually a lot more simple than you would think. And our breakthrough figured out that a single protein that we switched in this process caused this beautiful thing to form. So, the cells, we joke about this every day, like, the cells just know what to do and we just need to, like, push them in the right direction and they will figure out what to do.

From lab partners to startup co-founders 

04:06 [Madeline Eiken]: We just know that we work really well together. We know that we have really complementary skill sets. So my background is in engineering, and, while Charlie is a biologist, and so the way that we approach problems is quite different from each other, but we have this, like, really shared interest in commercializing that technology.

How does the Rice Business Plan competition stand out in comparison to some others?

18:12 [Charlie Childs]: It was like a whole other beast, and people kept warning us, like, leading up to it. They were like, “This is fun, but wait till you get to Rice.” It was just like the breadth of not only the startups, but also the judges and all the people from Rice. It was the investors — like, we were just blown away at how much support and interest there was. And I mean, our first pitch was crazy. Like, people were audibly like gasping and cheering, and it was just such a fun group to pitch to. And we just made so many wonderful connections, and I truly, truly, like, this is like launching us into another realm that we didn’t even think we were gonna be able to be in. Both from, like, connections and investors, and just support — we're so thankful.

What’s next for Intero Biosystems?

24:05 [Madeline Eiken]: We're really excited to be really laser-focused on de-risking the company and meeting our milestones with this fundraise. We were really lucky to basically double what we were hoping to raise. So that was really awesome and exciting for us. And because of that extra cushion that we have, we think we can push a lot faster on some of our milestones that we had been thinking about for seed rounds and even Series A. So, right now we're really focusing on onlining our manufacturing and figuring out how we're gonna make the organoids really reproducibly so we can get them into the hands of customers as quickly as we can. So, now the fun part of running the company is what we get to do.

Show Links: 

• Transcript
  
  

Guest Profiles:

• Charlie Childs | LinkedIn
• Madeline Eiken | LinkedIn
• Intero Biosystems

As the first figure skater to play Elsa in Disney On Ice’s Frozen and now a pioneer in the private security industry, Becky Jackson knows a thing or two about creating something from scratch. 

Before earning an MBA at Rice and becoming an entrepreneur, Becky had an illustrious figure skating career with Team USA and Disney. Now, she’s revolutionizing the way private security contractors reach clients with her company ONGUARD. 

Becky joins co-host Brian Jackson ’21 to chat about her journey — from discovering her passion for skating at age 7 and traveling the world with Disney on Ice to founding a business that works with local law enforcement and veterans to make private security more accessible.  

 

Episode Guide:

00:00 Introduction to Becky Jackson

02:05 Early Life and Figure Skating Journey

04:03 Professional Career With Disney on Ice

08:56 Transition to Business and Consulting

11:57 Pursuing an MBA at Rice University

14:07 Founding ONGUARD

16:34 ONGUARD’s Mission and Future

22:35 Connection With Veterans and Pitch Competitions

23:54 Reflections on Entrepreneurship and Teamwork

30:10 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

Lessons from being a solo founder

24:49: Being a solo founder, I've learned the importance of a team, and how essential it is to have a really strong team with you. And so I think, in that respect, the experience with Disney always was—so incredibly grateful to be surrounded by artists and engineers who really love and, you know, are really committed to their work. And so that's been an important lesson for me: that you can't just go it alone. You can't just brute-force your way into starting a company. You really need to listen to experts. You need to know when to bring in the right people. And so, I think it's been a tougher journey for that, just kind of starting this off solo. But I quickly learned—and, you know, being at Rice helped me learn that too—is that, no, you need to learn to delegate, and you need to really tap into the network and the world around you.

You’re never too old to go chase a dream

27:32: You can really use the skills, but more importantly, the network to do anything that you, you know, really want to do. And something that I'm passionate about is that during my time at Rice, we had the slogan, “Rice Business, You Belong Here.” And that means, you know, can mean so much to everyone. It can mean something different. But for me, I always took the chance to think about it in terms of age, and that you're never too old to go chase a dream, or you're not too advanced in your career to start something new. And I think that's an important message that I always tell prospective students.

How Becky found consulting after skating

09:19: One thing I knew for sure is I wanted to work in some kind of, you know, dynamic environment. I had come from tour that was one city after the next, and it was traveling and meeting new people and new challenges every week. And so that's—that's where I landed in the world of consulting. I thought, oh, great—like traveling every week, new challenges, a lot of ambiguity. And so I thought that—that that's the thing for me.

Show Links: 

• Transcript

Guest Profiles:

• Becky Jackson | LinkedIn
• ONGUARD

Retail executive Ramon Marquez can point to virtually every store in a shopping mall and explain how he helped that brand grow. 

With a passion for retail dating back to his childhood, he’s built a career as a leader in merchandising, product management and retail operations for major retailers like JCPenney, Abercrombie & Fitch, Old Navy, and is now shaping the future of Kmart and Sears. 

As a newly minted MBA graduate, Ramon gained not only a degree from Rice, but also a meaningful board appointment with Panama-based company, Effluz. After working with Effluz on his Global Field Experience, Ramon remained close with the company, which was founded by Taylin Luzcando and specializes in premature baby clothing and accessories. 

Ramon and Taylin join co-host Brian Jackson ’21 to chat about Ramon’s career journey from his grandfather’s general store in Mexico to the C-suite of some of the biggest global retailers, as well as why he decided to pursue an MBA at Rice and how he’s made an impact at Effluz. Founder Taylin also shares the personal origins of Effluz and why entrepreneurs should jump at the chance to partner with Rice’s Global Field Experience program. 

Episode Guide:

01:41 Ramon's Early Career and Rise in Retail

06:05 Leadership and Adaptability in Retail

07:41 Pursuing an MBA at Rice Business

10:52 Joining the Board of a Panamanian Startup

13:34 Insights on Retail and Future Plans

21:03 Personal Life and Community Involvement

26:10 Meet Taylin Luzcando, founder of Effluz

31:11 Taylin’s Experience with Rice’s Global Field Experience Program

Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

How one class changed Ramon’s path

19:14: [Ramon Marquez] Towards the end of the MBA... and one of the very last classes I took was Life of Meaning. It’s an entrepreneurship lab. And what that class does is that it takes a look at where you want to be and how you fill the gap. And we did a lot of frameworks that helped me map out what is next. So, there were a lot of great things that came out of it. One was that I really didn’t have a plan in writing or a roadmap to where I want to land. In the class, part of the frameworks will get you back to, like, what are you passionate about? What is it that you wanted to do when you were a kid? What are the things that you don’t want to be left undone? And it helped me realize that, you know, there’s an entrepreneurial side of me that I have never explored.

Why Ramon says passion for your job matter

14:37: [Ramon Marquez] I encourage everyone, whatever you do, position yourself in a place where you love it, that you’re so intrigued and so inquisitive and so passionate. And a lot of people come to me and say, you know, “How do you get your job?” And I say, “Well, you have to be interested and passionate about retail. If you’re not, don’t get my job, because then it’s too much pressure. It’s too hectic. It’s too fast. It’s too vulnerable. It’s too difficult right now. Retail is really difficult.” But if you think about the fact that, you know, merchants have been around for thousands of years and commerce has existed from the beginning of time, retail’s not going to go away. It’s just the way that we will get to know what it’s like. And for that, I don’t have the answer, in case you were wondering.

Show Links: 

• Transcript
  
  

Guest Profiles:

• Ramon Marquez | LinkedIn
• Taylin Luzcando | LinkedIn
• Effluz
  
  

Despite entering college as a pre-med major, Corey Layne Crouch ’13 found her calling in the classroom after working as a teacher’s aide for a kindergarten class. Switching majors, she set out on a path to transform the education system from within. 

Corey’s entrepreneurial mindset in her work as a high school English teacher and school principal led her to Rice’s Professional MBA program. Now, she’s the chief program officer for AI for Education — an organization providing AI literacy training to educators and championing responsible use of AI in the education ecosystem. 

In this episode, Corey joins host Maya Pomroy ’22 to chat about her pivots from pre-med to English to her current role as an educational tech executive — as well as her time at Rice Business, the importance of supporting AI literacy and the innovative ways she’s influenced the education system. 

Episode Guide:

00:00 Introduction to Corey Layne Crouch

02:15 From Pre-Med to Kindergarten Teacher

05:21 Teach for America and Moving to Houston

08:23 Becoming a Principal and Pursuing an MBA

17:04 Transition to EdTech and AI in Education

25:07 Challenges and Misconceptions of AI in Schools

30:26 Future of Education with AI

38:22 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

On building AI literacy through tool-agnostic workshops

[30:26] Maya Pomroy: So, tell me some of the work that you do — because AI for Education is really tackling one of the, I mean, this is one of the biggest shifts in modern learning.

[31:41] Corey Layne Crouch: So we provide workshops and thing that we do, as well as that we're tool agnostic. We do have opinions about tools and where, you know, what's safe and what's fit for purpose, and what we think isn't quite yet, and how to integrate it in that way. ’Cause the technology is going to continue to evolve, but we really believe a foundation of which is rooted in durable skills, right, of critical thinking, and evaluation and understanding the best tool for a job and how to be community oriented. That is the work that we do. And, of course, we teach people how to use the tools and drive towards outcomes with them while we're laying that foundation as well.

How Houston’s education scene inspired Corey's bold, equitable innovation

07:16: Houston is such a great city, as you know, to be a young professional in and, and to start your career, let alone having the opportunity to be a part of the thriving, innovative education landscape there. I really think that it helped me think much bigger about what it meant to be an education and what was possible with innovation, and really moving the needle toward equity and supporting communities that historically, you know, weren't being serviced in the way that they deserved.

Why entrepreneurship skills is essential for an AI-driven world

32:46: I really believe that students need entrepreneurial skills, and not necessarily because every student is going to go off and start their own business per se, but at the root of it, entrepreneurial skills is about, you know, understanding what you're trying to drive to, or what's the job to be done, seeing what's the diagnosis, what are the challenges, or, you know, opportunities to do better, and then understanding the resources that you have, and moving forward with strategy, as if it's a puzzle piece and, you know, it's strategy, but it's also about just seeing that opportunity and having the confidence and the belief in your own critical thinking, your own resourcefulness, and your ability to collaborate and build relationship with others in order to solve a problem or drive something forward.

Show Links: 

• Transcript
  
  

Guest Profiles:

• Corey Layne Crouch | AI for Education
• Corey on LinkedIn

As a seasoned entrepreneur, investor and mentor, Ben Mayberry ’76 has seen a lot of change in the Houston business sector over the last 50 years.

Beginning his career in the technology sector, Ben went on to co-found companies like BSG and Winston Sage, and has been deeply involved in the Rice Business community through mentorship and recruiting. Ben has also served as the president of the Rice Alumni Association and has been a judge in the Rice Business Plan Competition for two decades. 

Ben joins Owl Have You Know co-host Brian Jackson ‘21 to discuss his incredible career journey, commitment to Rice, involvement in the Houston Angel Network, approach to mentoring entrepreneurs, and the many lessons he’s learned over the course of his 50-year career. 

Episode Guide:

00:00 Introduction to Ben Mayberry

01:07 Early Career and Entrepreneurial Spirit

02:42 Building and Managing Teams

05:46 Mentorship and Advice

07:36 Winston Sage Partners and Business Ethics

09:43 Houston Angel Network

14:33 Rice Business School Involvement

22:32 Life Lessons and Final Thoughts

Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

Why Ben thinks Houston is the easiest place to do business

26:29: There's not one pivot point in my career I can point to, other than deciding to work for myself at some point. Then the decision points along the way that I've made. And, fortunately, I never made a decision that was so devastating that it, you know, shut me down. The most fun job I think I had of all was when we decided to open our other offices at BSG, and I was in charge of opening our remote offices. I just learned a lot about how you do business around the country. I learned how to negotiate with New Yorkers, people in Atlanta, Dallas, et cetera. The most important thing I've found is Houston is the easiest place to do business. 
28:08: In Houston, people are generally welcoming to people that come from somewhere else because it's been a melting pot for so long.

Why meeting in person matters for entrepreneurs

28:52: If you want to get together with other entrepreneurs and bounce ideas off of them, or even build teamwork within your group, I think two things. Number one, within a company, it's important to have functions where you get together occasionally. We used to have quarterly meetings where we'd bring everybody into a central location, and it's not inexpensive. And once a quarter, we're also bringing the leadership from various places and having a strategy session all together. And certainly, you can do it by Zoom, but there's nothing like getting together, going out, and having a few drinks that night or dinner or whatever. Now, for someone like you, who—you're in Houston and nobody else is—you need to make a list of people you're going to have lunch with every day. Don't have lunch in your office. Go out three or four times a week and have lunch with somebody that's different and new.

Why listening matters for entrepreneurs seeking success

07:23: Each entrepreneur is, especially if they're in a startup, unique. They have some traits in common. They're generally stubborn. They don't listen as well as they should, and so you have to figure out if they're willing to listen at all. If not, you move on. If they're willing to listen, then you're able to give them advice, and it's based on—do they like—and a CEO doesn't have it all. They may be technical, they may be good at sales, they may be good at marketing, but they're rarely good at all of those. So you've got to figure out where their weakness is and attack that, and help them understand that's really where they need help.

Show Links: 

• Transcript
  
  

Guest Profiles:

• Ben Mayberry | Rice Business

With a Ph.D. in computational and applied mathematics from Rice, Summer Husband ’02 has been at the forefront of AI and data innovation for years. From transforming how the U.S. Navy uses machine learning to now leading data products and applied intelligence at Worley, her career bridges complex tech and real-world impact.

Following her workshop, Unleashing Your Inner Cyborg, at this year’s Women in Leadership Conference, Summer joined Owl Have You Know co-host Brian Jackson ’21 to discuss the evolution of AI, the power of pairing machine learning with human judgment, and the ethical guardrails she believes are essential in today’s data-driven world.

Episode Guide:

00:12 Meet Summer Husband: AI and Data Expert

01:00 Women in Leadership Conference Insights

01:52 Ethics and Rapid Advancements in AI

04:01 Upskilling and AI Deployment in Business

04:53 AI as a Sales Response Generator

06:47 Summer's Career Journey and AI Evolution

13:05 AI's Impact on Human Roles and Ethics

16:20 Future of AI and Human Intuition

22:59 Empowering Women in Tech and Leadership

26:06 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

The power of being surrounded by empowered women

22:32: It's really powerful for women to be around other very capable and talented women. I didn't realize what an impact that had. I've loved all the organizations that I've worked for. My first job, there was only one other woman on the technical side. I didn't think that impacted me. But my next organization had a lot of women in executive leadership, and I suddenly started to feel like taking a more senior role was a possibility. 

23:04: I never would've connected those dots, but I really appreciate Rice opening up the opportunity for women to hear from other women. 

23:26: It's just a little different when it's mostly women in the room, and you feel safe to ask some questions that you just don't feel safe to ask in some other spaces. That's just kind of the way that goes. So, I appreciate the opportunity.

On navigating AI ethics without a roadmap

The technology is just changing really quickly, which makes this a very exciting space to be in, but it makes it really challenging around ethics. One of the other, I think, challenges in this space is, because it's fairly new, it's changing rapidly, so the technology is changing rapidly. The legal landscape is changing really rapidly, also. So, some of the partners that we tend to go to for playbooks in these spaces don't have a fully baked playbook in this space. A lot of organizations are needing to define and figure out their approach to ethics and AI together. So, at Worley, we're approaching that with a pretty comprehensive approach that includes our AI experts, of course, our legal experts. We want to ensure that we've got our operations involved in that. They're the ones that are, boots on the ground and are going to be using these tools. We've had to cast a pretty wide net, but we've had to do a lot of discovering and shaping for ourselves.

The challenge of deploying AI thoughtfully

03:05: There definitely are some roadblocks in keeping pace. And the risk and the ethical concerns is one of those. But I would say, also, having the right skill set in your workforce and upskilling your workforce — that's a challenge. There's a real opportunity for people who know their business very well and do the work to learn how to deploy AI in their field, in their area. It's that combination of skills. I think there are a lot of very smart people doing very smart things to build really amazing technology. What I think a lot of businesses have challenges with and where we face a bit of a roadblock is, how do you deploy those tools well in a breadth of different businesses?

Show Links: 

• Transcript

Guest Profiles:

• Summer Husband | Rice University

What’s worse than failing in your career? For Michelle Lewis ’05, it’s not trying at all.

That fearless mindset propelled her from a fine arts degree to a global career as a C-suite leader, board director, and private equity principal. Over the years, Michelle has helped drive $10 billion in acquisitions across 30 countries and guided companies through complex strategic transitions in the energy and industrial sectors.

At the Women in Leadership Conference, she sat down with Owl Have You Know co-host Brian Jackson ’21 to talk about her journey — from the arts to executive leadership, why soft skills matter more than you think, and how failing fast and smart can shape a resilient career.

Michelle also shares one of her favorite tips as a self-proclaimed uber-organizer, and what it’s like balancing board service, entrepreneurship and motherhood.

Episode Guide:

00:10 Meet Michelle Lewis

00:55 Insights from the Women in Leadership Conference

01:42 The Role of Luck and Hard Work in Career Success

05:15 Mentorship and Leadership

06:42 Pathway to Board Membership

11:23 From Fine Arts to Private Equity

22:06 The Importance of Soft Skills

26:07 Tips for Balancing Career and Family

28:25 Final Thoughts and Takeaways

Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

Failing is learning not losing

17:25: I've never been afraid to just try something new. I mean, because what can happen, right? You can fail. And what happens when you fail? You learn. You learn more than when you're successful. You know, I sell all the veggies, and great, I got, you know, some points in my pocket, but if I don't sell them, I have to try a new way the next day. Right? Yeah. So, I mean, there are a lot of my mentors who I attribute that to, like there's another woman. Same thing in executive recruiting. All you do is just, like, pick up the phone and ask someone—it's an opportunity. Maybe they're interested, maybe they're not. Like, worst case, they say, "No thanks," right? But a lot of people are afraid to pick up the phone. I mean, you can meet some fascinating people. So, I've just always thought, like, there's no downside to trying. The downside is if I don't try. Not if I fail.

What led Michelle to where she is today

02:05: I think I've been in a fortunate position to, wherever I am, to be working really hard and trying to do a good job and be a good person, and, and then, through that, have found that other people have come to me and said, "I see something in you that maybe you don't even see in yourself, and we think you can do X," which might be completely different to what I was doing at the time. And, and that's typically been the case throughout my entire career. So, the majority of my career, I was just going along to get along, and then someone else came along and said, "We're going to move you over here"—either a different industry, a different city, a different function. All really through someone else's vision.

How mentorship shaped Michelle's approach to leadership

06:00: One of the things I think that I learned, and that I do as well, is just conversations where I'm asking a lot of questions, not necessarily telling them what the answers are, and it's the same thing in a board and advisory role, right? I'm not there to tell the CEO what to do. I mean, if I'm telling the CEO what to do, we don't need that CEO. I'm there to ask questions. So, it's the same thing that my mentors did for me: asking questions that may highlight there are different ways, different paths, different answers for me to consider. That's the same thing that I'm doing when I'm in an advisory role or a board role.

Show Links: 

• Transcript
  
  

Guest Profiles:

• Michelle Lewis on LinkedIn

In this special live episode of Owl Have You Know, James Weston, the senior associate dean for degree programs and Harmon Whittington Professor of Finance, reflects on his 25 years at Rice Business.

Join James and host Maya Pomroy ’22 as they explore his journey from the Federal Reserve to Rice Business, the evolution of the school over the past two and a half decades, and his vision for the future of the university. They also dive deep into his groundbreaking research on racial disparities in auto loan pricing — a study that uncovered significant biases against minority borrowers. 

Plus, get the inside scoop on his experience running a bar in Rice Village.

Episode Guide:

01:20 James Weston's Career Journey

04:25 Early Career and Mentorship

08:56 Teaching Philosophy and Student Relationships

13:52 Research on Auto Loans and Discrimination

18:58 Linking Mortgage and Experian Data

20:14 Evidence of Discrimination in Auto Lending

22:48 Challenges in Passing Auto Lending Regulations

24:00 The Realities of Owning and Operating a Bar

30:24 Transition to Administration at Rice Business

33:47 Reflections on a Diverse Career

Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

How James pursues scientific rigor

34:50: [James Weston] I sort of view the thing that ties together all my papers as a foundational social scientist trying to measure things that are hard to measure. And so when I see things that I think have a lot of social import or a research question that I think has either a practical application or some large social question that I think needs answering, the fun for me is trying to figure out how to measure it and trying to come up with a clever way of identifying the research question in a way that's unambiguous and in a way that we can solidify and say, like, that's the answer. And I know it with as near scientific certainty as I can — you know, the existence of the Higgs boson particle.

35:19: [Maya Pomroy] We can't get into that right now. Yeah. 

35:33: [James Weston] But, but you know, but I'm saying, like, to treat it like a scientist.

35:36: [Maya Pomroy] Yes.

35:37: [James Weston] And study it like it's a real causal question. Yeah. And you attack it with the scientific method, and you attack it with the scrutiny and the scientific rigor that they use across campus.

On pushing for transparency in auto lending

23:20: My hope is that the Senate Banking Committee continues to take action on it, and we see more—just something similar to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, where auto dealers just have to report. They have a spreadsheet, and you just have to send it to the Fed the way every bank does with every mortgage application. And hopefully that transparency attenuates the discrimination the way it largely did in home mortgages. It took time. It was a 10-year process. It'll probably take that long on auto lending. And we're not the only voice in this choir. There's lots of other people now that are sort of jumping on the bandwagon.

How James views his new job role

30:48: Moving into administration means, in my mind at least, it means I'm not working anymore. In the sense that I'm not executing the primary missions of the school, which are teaching and scholarship. And so I'm not teaching as much anymore, and I'm not doing as much scholarship anymore, which means I'd better be doing something to collect the paycheck. And the way I genuinely view it is that now I'm trying to enable the rest of my faculty to do better teaching and better scholarship. My role is as a service leader, which is how I view this job—as a tour of service, not a career pivot. I didn't take this job to then become dean someplace, to then become provost someplace, to then become Supreme Commander of University somewhere. But, like, it was someone else's turn to do this very important role, which is to coordinate all the programs, get the teaching schedules done, make sure I'm protecting junior faculty and their teaching loads, make sure I'm putting the right people into the right classes, making sure we're keeping track of it.

Show Links: 

• Transcript
• The Hidden Inequality in Auto-Lending | Rice Business Wisdom

Guest Profiles:

• James Weston | Rice University