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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:
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
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:
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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
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
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.
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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
[10:34] 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
How do you know if it's the right time to do leadership development?
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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
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
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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
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
On making art accessible
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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
Ideas are like buses
The Rice Business School advantage
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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?
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
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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
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
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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
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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
On his evolving interest on artificial intelligence
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