Owl Have You Know

Owl Have You Know

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Owl Have You Know episodes

  • Half of the World Population Does Not Have Access to Clean Cooking feat. Dymphna van der Lans ’02

    Rice grads end up all over the world, and Dymphna van der Lans is no exception. Dymphna has worked and lived in China, India, and Kenya and engaged with island nations in the Caribbean and the Indian and Pacific Oceans to support their transition away from polluting diesel fuels to renewable sources of energy. 


    Dymphna brings more than 25 years of experience managing and leading global development, energy, and climate initiatives in the nonprofit and private sectors. She is currently the chief executive officer of the Clean Cooking Alliance, and recently led international corporate engagement with the World Wildlife Fund’s Climate & Energy team.


    She sits down with host Scott Gale ’19 to unpack her impressive career, her experience working internationally, developing an early appreciation for the Chinese language and culture, and her passion for the energy transition and climate initiatives.


    Episode Guide:

    00:56 Dymphna's Early Life and Education

    04:55 Dymphna's Journey to China

    14:24 Career Path and Mentorship

    16:38 Focus on Renewables and Alternative Energy

    18:42 Dymphna's Role in the Clinton Climate Initiative

    20:24 Journey to Working with a Former U.S. President

    20:49 The Future of Energy: Opportunities and Challenges

    20:49 The Importance of Diverse Energy Solutions

    22:01 The Role of Renewable Energy in Corporate Operations

    23:28 Addressing Energy Challenges in Island Nations

    25:08 The Mission of the Clean Cooking Alliance

    27:53 The Future of Clean Cooking and Energy Systems

    29:31 Predictions for China's Role in Global Energy

    31:12 Advice for Prospective Rice Business Students

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



    Episode Quotes:


    26:01: My organization [Clean Cooking Alliance], we're about 50 people. We work with a whole bunch of different partners to make sure that countries in the Global South are thinking about how they're transitioning to access to clean cooking. We're already providing these solutions to help them continue to grow. We work with the governments directly. We work with, sort of, adjacent ecosystems to help them think about what it means to have access to clean cooking and how you think about clean cooking projects. It's fantastic work. It gets ignored all too often because for people, it doesn't feel like an energy issue. It's a household issue. It mostly impacts women. So, it often gets overlooked. And my job is to make sure it doesn't and it gets funding.


    On being comfortable with  different cultures and working in different countries

    10:02: I've just realized that I enjoy figuring stuff out and finding myself in new places, just like trying to really quickly understand how the system works, how people work, and how I operate most effectively and efficiently in a different context that is not my own. And I'm very comfortable doing that.


    Finding power in peer mentoring conversations

    15:43: I found the real true power and honesty to be in those peer mentoring conversations. And when you do those, be explicit about it; this is not just like a friend or friends talking about something over a coffee. It is actually a fundamental question that you're wanting other people to filter back to you or mirror back to you that maybe hindering you in your projection or your ability to execute or balancing your life as a mother has always been a big question for me as well. And for a long time, I was raising my daughter by myself. So those conversations are so important. And I would encourage anybody to seek those out and be really thoughtful about them, ask good questions, and really listen and reflect back on what that means for you and in a position of leadership.


    On Dymphna’s Rice experience

    13:24: There's a thing about trusting your instincts and your gut, and my ability to sense what's happening in a room and in the system. Like I had the language to apply that to different situations that I didn't have before. I always had the feeling that I was understanding it, but I never had the language to actually articulate what I was seeing or even articulate a vision for how to work through things.

    Show Links: 

    • Transcript


    Guest Profile:

    • Dymphna van der Lans - UN Foundation//Chief Executive Officer Clean Cooking Alliance 
    • Dymphna van der Lans | unfoundation.org 
    33 min
  • Understanding Healthcare Through a Different Lens feat. Keri Sprung ’22

    Keri Sprung ’22 is the vice president for education and director of the Women’s Center at the Texas Heart Institute. She provides strategic direction to the physicians and scientists leading innovative research, education, and clinical programs at the Institute in partnership with regional, national, and international collaborators.


    During her studies at Rice, she served as the class representative, co-chair of the Rice Business Association for Executives, and a Rice Business Board Fellow for Children At Risk, a non-profit that serves as a catalyst for change to improve the quality of life for children through strategic research, and advocacy. Upon graduating from Rice Business, she was honored with the M.A. “Mike” Wright Award, the top leadership award. 


    Host Maya Pomroy catches up with her friend and fellow ’22 alum in this episode. Listen as they chat about their unforgettable Executive MBA cohort days, Keri’s passion for healthcare and innovation, and the importance of finding good mentors. 


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


    Episode Quotes:


    Cultivating growth with the Rice executive program

    19:25 - One of the shining parts of the Rice Program executive program is the leadership component, the leadership track. And I didn't even realize how committed Rice was to making sure this leadership and personal growth component was interlaced into really the entire journey of the 22 months. And so I grew as a leader. Not just from the material we were learning, but I think the interactions with our cohort and with our deans and professors. For me, I work in a medical community, and most of the leaders I'm around are doctors and scientists. So, it was really helpful for me to step out of the healthcare setting and to be around everybody who was a leader going into this program already but working on the different areas of their leadership. And it was really nice to learn from one another.

    What’s next for Keri?

    29:38 - I wanted to make sure that I didn't just graduate and go back to my old ways. And so I've been mindful that I didn't expect to do this, but I started to engage with a startup nonprofit. One of the things I wanted to do was work with startups because I have a 360-degree view of innovation in medicine.


    The need for trust in Cohorts

    24:11 - The reality of business is that you're not doing this alone. Once you get to this level, you're not going to be a good leader if you can't motivate and work with different teams and disciplines.

    Embracing pivoting 

    5:28 - I realized that I embraced pivoting before pivoting was a trend post-COVID. So I decided to pivot, take my one exit from medicine, and go try to do some work in the real estate industry.




    Show Links:

    • Transcript


    Guest Profile:

    • Keri Sprung - Texas Heart Institute
    • Keri Sprung - Rice Business
    • Keri Sprung - Rice Business, Student Feature
    • Keri Sprung - LinkedIn
    37 min
  • I Started My Business Because I Made a Huge Mistake feat. Wendy Fong EMBA ’13

    Many of us have probably had that moment – where you quit one job because you found your “dream” job. But that second place wasn’t everything you thought it would be. So what comes after that? Wendy Fong decided to start her own company to fulfill her search, and to help others with theirs.


    Wendy is a business coach and talent optimizer, with a passion for building dream teams and developing their leaders. She is the founder and principal of Chief Gigs, which offers leadership and team development, organizational consulting, and search. Chief Gigs helps businesses and the people within them achieve optimum performance and thrive in a dynamic and diverse world.


    She chats with host Maya Pomroy ’22 about her pivot from the corporate world to entrepreneurship, the ongoing strength of the Rice network, building great teams, her passion for fighting human trafficking and her dream of one day opening a nonprofit in Cambodia.


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


    Episode Quotes:


    Embracing diversity and self-awareness for optimal performance 

    [10:27] Maya: What's something that often goes overlooked when it comes to optimizing team performance that you have found?

    [10:34] Wendy: Interestingly enough, people's biases are so strong even though they don't know it. People tend to hire others who are like them. And so, sometimes I found entire teams all centered around one quadrant. So, you can plot people based on your answers into the world of work. And everybody is in the same quadrant with the same strength, but also the same, you know-

    [11:04] Maya: Weaknesses. Yeah.

    [11:04] Wendy: ...caution areas, right? And so, I think the most important thing is for people to be self-aware, so they can say, "Okay, I know this other person might not be the person when I interviewed them we just are BFFs right away, and we hit it off, and maybe the conversation was a little awkward. But the reason that is, is because they are the opposite for me." And...

    [11:31] Maya: Different perspectives.

    [11:32] Wendy: Exactly, and I need that. And for leaders to understand, if you need that, you have to be able to work with different people with different work styles.

    When Wendy realized that her true passion is helping people
    02:27 - After having been in operations for so long, I learned that my true passion was people instead of operations. But it was all so intertwined when you have a big job that you don't realize. And so after that, I tried to make my way to helping people as much as I could.


    How do you know if it's the right time to do leadership development?

    15:46 - Before you start seeing performance issues, right before you start seeing the cracks, is when you should really be engaging and building. Unfortunately, the issue with a lot of organizations is that they don't invest enough money into training and development. They don't invest enough money into HR departments.



    Show Links: 

    • Chief Gigs
    • Craft The Life
    • Vahalla Investiment Group (VIG)
    • United Against Human Trafficking
    • Transcript

    Guest Profile:

    • Wendy Fong LinkedIn
    32 min
  • A Commitment to Community Brought Our Provost to Rice feat. Amy Dittmar

    From the president to the provost, a lot of people are working behind the scenes to make sure our university runs smoothly. As the Howard R. Hughes Provost of Rice University, Amy Dittmar oversees Rice’s academic enterprise, including direct reporting relationships for the deans of eight schools, the dean of undergraduates, the dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies and other key leaders. 


    With a focus on expanding opportunities for a growing student body and increasing faculty, Amy runs several capital projects to support the university’s research and educational mission. She is also a professor of finance at Rice Business and a professor of economics at the School of Social Sciences.


    Amy joined host Scott Gale ’19 for a live event in McNair Hall to discuss her path to the higher ranks of academia, her vision for Rice’s future, continuing to foster the community Rice is known for, and how we can adapt and embrace new technologies.


    Owl Have You Know is a production of REpisode Quotes:ice Business and is produced by University FM.


    Episode Quotes:


    Advice for prospective students looking into a career in research

    25:14: [Scott] What kind of advice do you give to a prospective student that's thinking about kind of a research career? What does one look for as they sort of self-select into that kind of experience? 


    25:28: [Amy] I think you have to be pretty independently motivated. It is one of these things that you have to kind of have that self-drive. Though there's a lot of team science out there, it is often something you're doing harshly on your own. So, I think you have to kind of think about that, but I think that if you're someone who likes to deeply think about a problem for long periods of time, it's incredibly rewarding. There's other ways you can do it and have a more applied aspect to it as well. So, I think that's one piece, and it's a long road.

    How Amy’s perspective and experience shape her views on key issues circling around academia?

    13:28:  To me, it's really important that I'm at a place that has excellence across the board. That it's not one school that's really wonderful, and then everybody else is kind of living in the shadow. Rice has a commitment to excellence across all the disciplines and that was important to me.


    On planning for Rice’s future

    21:15: Rice is just an amazing institution. So, I think being able to educate and impact more individuals is part of the mission. But to continue to do that, how Rice is. So, we're not looking to be thousands and thousands and thousands more. So, that's one piece. And the other is around excellence across the board. But I think there's some pockets that are just amazing excellence when it comes to especially research. And so, thinking about how we can enhance that even further. So, how we can take and build connections between schools.

    Show Links: 

    • Transcript

    Guest Profile:

    • Amy Dittmar - Provost - Rice University | LinkedIn 
    • Office of Provost | Rice University 
    43 min
  • The Intersection of Art and Business feat. Alison Weaver and Former Dean Peter Rodriguez

    McNair Hall is home to an impressive collection of public art. With 19 installations that have been an intentional element of the building renovations since 2018, Rice is proud of the diverse permanent collection, which represents artists of a number of different ages, countries, genders and backgrounds. 


    The new art helps communicate our philosophy that a good piece of art forces you to think, engage and have an opinion. So today, we sit down with Alison Weaver and former dean Peter Rodriguez to discuss this exciting and important collection. 


    Alison Weaver was founding executive director of Rice University’s Moody Center for the Arts. Prior to her appointment at Rice, she was the director of affiliates for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. At the Guggenheim, Weaver led its programs and operations in Berlin, Bilbao, Venice, and Las Vegas, while managing its departments of exhibition management, registration, art services, and library/archives in New York. 


    Peter Rodriguez was dean of Rice Business for almost 10 years. He doubled MBA enrollment, grew the tenure-track faculty by more than 35%, introduced the first online graduate degree at Rice, launched the undergraduate business major, renovated McNair Hall and helped the Rice Business community survive Hurricane Harvey and grow stronger during COVID. 


    Alison and Peter discuss how the initiative started, the overarching theme for the collection, dive into the significance of the pieces you see in the halls and outside the building, and the symbiotic relationship between business and art.


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


    Episode Quotes:


    We are living in a world without boundaries

    17:38 [Alison Weaver] This idea, that instead of thinking about things as siloed and maybe individually—let's say, fields of expertise staying in their lane—I think the real question is: What can we learn from each other, and what exciting sparks are generated when those fields collide? So when you think about artists and the creative problem-solving that they do, and many are research-driven in their practice, they are looking deeply into questions that concern them. And those could be questions of the environment. They could be questions of, in the case of the artist Beverly Pepper, she's interested in big pharma. How is the pharmaceutical industry affecting our culture and our public health? These are questions that aren't just purely aesthetics. And I think that what I hope putting art into spaces can do is really open up those fields of inquiry for unexpected exploration.


    Art is beyond museums

    23:43 [Alison Weaver] The artwork that meets people where they are—where they're studying, living, and working—is quite different. We do exhibitions at the Moody, and of course, I love it when people come to see them, but they come and go, so you have a snapshot in time, but not that durational relationship, and that's special.


    On creating a platform for the intersection of art and ideas

    06:55 [Peter Rodriguez] If you think about where organizations create value, it's through the creative process. You have to find solutions to complex problems to create value in the world. And that's less about being cloistered away and, you know, sharpening your pencil and green eyeshade on doing work than it is about trying to work together. And opening your mind to things that haven't been done before and ways of proceeding. And so that's what we want our students to think about: how do they open their minds and use their very best of all that they know to make change happen and to make progress in the directions we want? So whether it's medicine, the energy transition, or tech, creativity is at the heart of everything businesses need to do. And we needed a way to live that a bit more than we were living it at the time.


    On making art accessible

    30:55 [Alison Weaver] One of the interesting things about public art is that there is no barrier if it's in your everyday world. And so, the work behind us is here all the time. Whether people are taking classes or studying in the building, they will pass by it. They might spend time looking at it and might not. I think the best way to—I wouldn't say explain, but to make accessible—any art, but certainly contemporary art, is to make it familiar and accessible, like public art. So we start there by just putting it where people already are.



    Show Links: 

    • Rice Business Public Art Collection
    • Mission | Moody Center for The Arts
    • Rice Public Art | Moody Center for The Arts
    • Transcript

    Guest Profile:

    • Alison Weaver
    • Peter Rodriguez | Rice Business 
    40 min
  • You Get Out What You Put In feat. Jan Goetgeluk ‘10 and Jesús Patiño ‘10

    The Rice Energy Finance Summit (REFS) is an annual student-led conference promoting forward-looking discussions on the most relevant energy finance, investment and strategy topics affecting the global energy industry. And founders Jan Goetgeluk and Jesús Patiño say it's just another example of what you can do with the support and resources found within the Rice community & network. 

    Jan is originally from Belgium, where he earned a bachelor’s and master’s in mechanical engineering from Ghent University, and came to Houston in 2007 as a project engineer for Katoen Natie, a Belgian petrochemical logistics conglomerate. Jan is the founder and CEO of Virtuix and the developer of the Virtuix Omni, the first virtual reality interface to move freely and naturally in video games and virtual worlds. 


    Jesús has over 15 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. He began his career in the oil field with M-I SWACO in his home country of Mexico before expanding into deepwater drilling assignments in the US Gulf of Mexico, Equatorial Guinea, and Ghana. Jesús is a strategy and business development consultant at AerMill Solutions. He previously worked at Oceaneering International as a commercial manager for intervention services. 


    They join host Scott Gale ‘19 to discuss how they first met at Rice international student orientation many years ago, how Hurricane Ike affected the first year of the conference (as well as their friendship), and the importance of swinging big.


    Episode Quotes:


    A reflection on rich experiences during and after Rice

    16:40 [Jan] It's such an incredible rich experience being at Rice Business School. It's a unique time in your life, and for me, it's still today the best time of my life. [Jesus] And that goes definitely to the program and also for the alumni life, right? Once you're an alum, there's always something interesting going on. And being outside Houston, it's harder to remain involved, but attending the events outside Houston and trying to be part of it. You always get more than what you put in.


    Ideas are like buses 

    18:39 [Jan] If you want to organize a conference and make it a big success, it's just a matter of doing it. A lot of people have a lot of ideas in life. And I always say that ideas are like buses. There's another one every five minutes. You have to do it, and you have to execute and make it happen.


    The Rice Business School advantage

    13:05 [Jesus] Every time I speak with a student, nowadays, I always tell them that there's only two years in their lives where they are going to be able to start an email saying, "I am a Rice MBA student that wants to speak with you." And that line is powerful because it really resonates with people; you get their attention, and that's a door opener that you shouldn't let go.



    Show Links:

    • Transcript


    Guest Profile:

    • Jan Goetgeluk LinkedIn Profile
    • Jesús Patiño’s Professional Profile on Rice University


    Other links:

    • About the Rice Energy Finance Summit 
    • Virtuix
    40 min
  • Wealth Management Is All About Relationships feat. Crystal Maxwell '03

    Crystal Maxwell was born in Texas but raised in Saudi Arabia as an "oil brat." Both her parents worked for Aramco. Exploring different cultures developed her global perspective that helps shape her investment recommendations even today. 


    She moved back to the U.S. for college and earned her bachelor’s degree in hotel restaurant management from the University of Houston but pivoted to wealth management with the help of an MBA from Rice.


    Crystal sits down with host Scott Gale ’19, and shares her journey: growing up amongst the expat community in Saudi Arabia,  an early career in hospitality and a Rice MBA that led to a 20-year career as a wealth advisor with UBS financial services. We’ll hear her advice for aspiring wealth managers and her passion for the Houston Rodeo. 


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


    Episode Quotes:


    Why is wealth management all about relationships?

    14:42 - Wealth management is all about the relationships and you're building relationships with your clients. You're trying to make their lives better. You're helping them in all aspects of anything that has to do with money, and you're not going to be able to do that alone. You need the relationships. I've relied on people from my Rice network, but also within my firm, to bring the right expertise, synthesize the right information, and be able to deliver that to my clients.

    A characteristic you need for a career in financial services

    17:53 - You have to have empathy [in financial services]. This job is about helping people reach their goals, helping people be able to pay for college for their kids, retire, and go on vacation all at the same time. And then, on the flip side, or further down the road, it's people wanting to make an impact with their assets.


    Learning more through business school

    13:30 - I know in lots of industries, the amount of information that comes out is quite a bit, but in finance in particular, You've got so much information that comes out every single day, and if you want to be an expert in any one sector, not even stock, but a sector, you could read an analysis all day long. You could really spend all of your time doing that, which nobody can do. As a financial advisor, I can't spend my entire day just reading about different companies. As much as I enjoy that, I've got to synthesize all that information and then know how to apply it and how it's going to affect my clients.



    Show Links: 

    • Houston Rodeo
    • Aramco
    • Transcript

    Guest Profile:

    • Crystal Maxwell LinkedIn
    • Crystal Maxwell - UBS Advisors
    25 min
  • The Sky Is Not the Limit feat. Rawand Rasheed

    Rawand grew up watching his father's passion for engineering. Despite avoiding the field at first, Rawand developed a similar passion for the craft.


    Rawand is a Ph.D. candidate at the Rice University George R. Brown School of Engineering and has more than five years of experience at NASA, first as a graduate research fellow, then as a life support systems engineer. He shares his journey and the technology he helped create that puts fires out in space and will reduce air conditioning costs on Earth. 


    He sits down with host Maya Pomroy to talk about his experience of transitioning from engineer to entrepreneur, his company, Helix Earth Technologies, and how the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Napier Rice Launch Challenge ignited a new fire within him.


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



    Episode Quotes:

    Solving problems not only in space but also on earth

    12:17 - I found out there's a whole bunch of different problems that we could solve on Earth. And one of them being that we could help solve air conditioning energy use problems. So, in human environments, especially in a place like Houston, 70% of the energy used in the air conditioning cycle is devoted to just pulling the humidity out of the air, not cooling the temperature. And so we found out that we could actually solve this problem with our filters and reduce the energy cost by more than 50%. I started pursuing this research and eventually was able to get involved with the innovation fellowship program at Liu Idea Lab for Entrepreneurship.


    How Rice helped Rawand pursue entrepreneurship

    15:08 - I've always been interested in entrepreneurship, so I've always had that vision to go and spin out and do my own thing, but it never became real until maybe a year and a half ago. A lot of it is because of Rice.


    What’s the most essential part of a pitch?

    20:43 - The most essential piece of a pitch there's a couple things. So the first thing is that you want to be very clear. You know, what is the problem that you're trying to tackle, and why does it matter? So for us, it's air conditioning; we want to save the planet, and that's a great thing to do, but also have to make it clear: why does it matter? And so, when you look at the amount of money that people spend on companies and just individuals or corporations, how much they spend on air conditioning energy costs, it's enormous. And so, when you put a $200 billion price tag in front of people's faces, that catches attention.The emissions that come with that are also enormous. So, you want to be very clear as to why the problem is big, why it needs to be solved, and why should people care? That's the biggest part of the pitch for me.


    On what he learned from his start-up competition experience

    15:52 - I was used to presenting things from a scientific perspective, where it's like, Okay, here are all the things we've done. (16:04) In the business planning competition, you have to throw all that out. You have to tell people a good story. You don't have to necessarily have all of the answers, which is one thing that was a little bit difficult for me. You have to have a good plan for how you're going to actually achieve the things that you set out to achieve.



    Show Links: 

    • Helix Earth Technologies 
    • Transcript

    Guest Profile:

    • Rawand Rasheed | LinkedIn 
    28 min
  • How Two Years at Rice Alliance Became 22 feat. Brad Burke

    For our final episode of season 3, we wanted to bring you one last conversation from this year’s Alumni Reunion.


    Brad Burke is the managing director of Rice Alliance, Rice Business’ flagship entrepreneurship initiative launched in 2000. Brad has led Rice Alliance since 2001, helping the Rice Business Plan Competition become the world’s largest and richest student startup competition. Since Rice Alliance’s inception, more than 2,950 tech startups have participated in its programs. 


    In the Rice Alliance space in McNair Hall, host Maya Pomroy ’22 chats with Brad about his journey to Houston, his illustrious career spanning 22 years at Rice, and some of the most memorable competition winners that have stuck with him over all these years. 


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


    Episode Quotes:


    On Houston's Energy transition

    28:00 - So, we launched a Clean Energy Accelerator two years ago, and we're about to start evaluating the applicants for the third cohort of the Clean Energy Accelerator. And part of the reason is we're attracting startups from all over the U.S. and outside the U.S. to come through the accelerator. We want to help them be more successful, but we also want to show them what's going on in Houston…[28:36] We also want to show the investors in Houston really promising clean energy technologies. And so, it gives investors in Houston an early look at some of these promising technologies. So, Houston has the ability, and we've been the energy capital of the world. We have the ability to be the energy transition capital of the world because we have the knowledge, the expertise, the resources and almost every major energy investor.


    How the Rice Business Plan Competition sparks new angel investments in Houston

    24:53 - This competition has mobilized a number of individuals who weren't doing angel investments before. And now they're doing not just investment in the business plan competition; they're investing in companies from Houston as well.


    On the impact of the Rice Alliance and Rice Business Plan Competition

    16:25 - It's amazing, you have the opportunity to mentor these amazing, bright, enthusiastic young founders, who are generally first-time founders. And then you have the opportunity to see this innovation benefit society, come to the world. And so, you can see a real impact in what you do.



    Show Links: 

    • Rice Alliance
    • Rice Business Plan Competition 
    • OwlSpark Startup Accelerator | Rice Alliance
    • BlueLaunch Small Business Accelerator | Rice Alliance
    • Transcript


    Guest Profile:

    • Brad Burke | Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University
    • Brad Burke - LinkedIn
    • Brad Burke | Princeton Innovation
    30 min
  • Cooperation in the U.S. - Mexico Border Region feat. Daniel Gutierrez ‘14

    Born and raised in Mexico, Daniel Gutierrez knew from an early age he wanted to build a career in economics. 


    In 2009, Daniel and his wife moved to San Antonio to join the North American Development Bank as a senior analysis and structuring specialist. North American Development Bank is a binational financial institution, established by the governments of the U.S. and Mexico, that supports the development of infrastructure in the areas of potable water, wastewater treatment and solid waste, as well as projects aimed at improving air quality, conserving water, reducing energy consumption and developing renewable energy sources for communities located in the U.S.- Mexico border region.


    While in this role, Daniel decided to pursue his MBA and joined the Professional MBA program at Rice Business in 2012. Since graduating, Daniel has remained with North American Development Bank, and is currently the associate director of asset management. 


    He joins host Maya Pomroy this episode to discuss growing up in Mexico in the 80s during inflation, NAFTA, how going to Rice Business’ Diversity Preview Weekend changes his life's path, receiving an Owl Award for best Capstone project for Ovarcome, a Houston-based ovarian cancer nonprofit founded by another Rice Business alum, and the lessons he learned during his time at Rice. 


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



    Episode Quotes:



    How Mexican leaders can prepare for the future

    13:16 - To build the next generation of leaders in Mexico, they have to think about where they want to develop their MBA studies or studies of where they can learn leadership, all the skills the MBA program grants, and critical thinking ability. All those skills will be needed in the next years—in the next 20, 30 years, the border region between Mexico and the US is going to become very dynamic. It's probably going to be one of the greatest times to be involved in an MBA program and to use those knowledge to make great things happen in Mexican businesses.


    15:40 - The importance of teamwork definitely was something that I recognized from what was taught to me at Rice. And I still consider teamwork as one of the important elements of my daily working life.



    On his evolving interest on artificial intelligence

    21:41 - I'm excited about all that kind of wave of artificial intelligence coming up and bringing every debate.
    Copyright issues, schools that are worried that students will use that technology to present their essays, stuff like that. But the real discussion is how are we going to train the next generation to use or leverage this technology. For the betterment of human beings, for the betterment of humanity.



    Show Links:

    • North American Development Bank
    • Ovarcome
    • Transcript


    Guest Profile:

    • Daniel’s LinkedIn
    25 min

About Owl Have You Know

From the publisher's feed

Owl Have You Know is Rice Business’ podcast created to share the experiences of alumni, faculty, students and other members of our business community – real stories of belonging, failing, rebounding and, ultimately, succeeding. During meaningful conversations, we dive deep into how each guest has built success through troubles and triumphs before, during and after they set foot in McNair Hall.

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