Jones Journal Spring 2011

Rice University

Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business

Spring 2011

Be the Brand

Bo Bothe ’05 Proves His Mettle

Not just Numbers

The Language of Accounting Speaks to Dr. Karen Nelson

When Ambiguity Makes Sense Dr. Scott Sonenshein Examines Change

Impacting Our Communities: Thought Leadership in Action

Celebrating Houston’s Diverse Community

Doreen Stoller ’91 is Dedicated to Enhancing the Hermann Park Experience

in every issue

our mission:

Rice University

Letters & News 3 Dean’s Welcome 33 Rankings and Recognition

Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business

Alumni 32 Alumni President’s Letter 34 Class Notes 36 Resources, Events, and Ways to Get Involved

Spring 2011

We excel at developing principled, innovative thought leaders in global communities.

Feature Stories 14 Celebrating Houston’s

Diverse Community

Doreen Stoller ’91 Enhances the Hermann Park Experience

by Jan Hester

18 Be the Brand

Bo Bothe ’05 Proves His Mettle

by Sarah Gajkowski-Hill

22 Not Just Numbers

The Language of Accounting Speaks to Dr. Karen Nelson

by Ann S. Boor

Cover Story 14 Celebrating Houston’s Diverse Community As Executive Director of the Hermann Park Conservancy, Doreen Stoller ’91 is dedicated to enhancing the park experience for Houston and the people who live, work and play there. by Jan Hester

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26 When Ambiguity Makes Sense Dr. Scott Sonenshein Examines Change

by Tina Borja

Jones Journal SPRING 2011 1

Dean’s Welcome

Around

the school 4 Reaping Rewards

Dean + H. Joe Nelson III Professor of Management Bill Glick

6 High School High Achievers

EXECUTIVE EDITOR + DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI AND CORPORATE RELATIONS SHAHEEN LADHANI

The Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program (REEP)

The Jones School Invests In Tomorrow’s Leaders

9 The Impact of Net Impact

Using Business Skills in Support of Social Causes While Gaining Financial Success

10 Staff Profile

Dolores Thacker, Marketing Coordinator

10 Lifelong Learning

Rice University Executive Education

11 The Paperless Professor

Price Says Goodbye to Children’s Drawings, Family Recipes, and Medical Records

12 Working the Network

Working with advisors from the Career Management Center

12 Reaching the Summit Rice Energy Finance Summit

13 Rice Business Plan Competition Kleiner Perkins awards $100,000 GreenTech Innovation Prize

SENIOR EDITOR Weezie Mackey DIRECTOR OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS LAURA HUBBARD

The Jones Journal is published semiannually for alumni and friends by the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business.

Current and back issues of the magazine are available online at issuu.com/ricemba.

Change of Address? New job?

Update the online directory with your new contact information, or send us your class notes at: JonesAlumni.com.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Evan Bertrand ‘11 Ann S. Boor Tina Borja Deanna Fuehne Sarah Gajkowski-Hill Dylan Hedrick ‘11 Jan Hester Annie Hunnel Mary Lynn Fernau Kim Morgan Julia Nguyen

Comments or Questions?

We’d love to hear your thoughts about the Jones Journal. Send an e-mail to Shaheen Ladhani, Director of Alumni and Corporate Relations, at shaheen@rice.edu.

ART DIRECTION + DESIGN Michael Skinner Mike’s Projects, Inc.

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CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Sylvester Garza Productions Tommy Lavergne Shehla Z. Shah Michael Skinner Dolores Thacker

Designing a strategy for a business school requires close examination of its past, present and future. It demands an impartial analysis of challenges and triumphs. And it involves extensive collaboration with all of its stakeholders.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in surveys, forums, and open conversations in recent years.

In 2010, the Jones Graduate School of Business unveiled a more detailed strategy with a vision toward 2020. As part of that strategy, “impacting our communities” was identified as one of four end goals. Defining what community means also becomes part of that end goal. For the Jones School, community means business leaders in Houston and around the world.

It means students, faculty and staff in McNair Hall and across the Rice campus. It means alumni like you.

The publication of the Jones Journal is a moment to celebrate the stories and accomplishments of our alumni, faculty and students. This issue of the journal incorporates the new strategy and takes a look at thought leaders who make an impact on our communities through service, work, and research. Profiles of alumni Doreen Stoller ’91 and Bo Bothe ’05 along with faculty Dr. Scott Sonenshein and Dr. Karen Nelson inform us on how their innovative work reaches so many and expands our definition of community.

Additional articles in this issue cover the success of our first cohort of REEP graduates and the investment the Jones School is making in tomorrow’s leaders by working with high school students from underserved communities.

“It is in service that you will grow the greatest.” From these words of Jesse Jones come great inspiration and a call to find ways in which we can do more with our talents, our knowledge, our brimming enthusiasm, and the skills we have learned at the Jones School. Our mission of developing principled, innovative thought leaders in global communities aligns with what we learn and research here inside the walls of McNair Hall as well as the communities we define outside these walls. Impact yours and let us know how it goes.

PRINTING Western Lithograph

Bill Glick

Dean H. Joe Nelson III Professor of Management Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business Rice University I 713-348-5928 I bill.glick@rice.edu

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Jones Journal SPRING 2011 3

Around the School

Around the School

Reaping Rewards The Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program (REEP) A native of Norfolk, Virginia, Michael Harrison ’10 came to Houston with Teach For America in 2001. He taught English and reading at Hogg Middle School for five years while earning his Masters of Education. Michael left the classroom and became an administrator at Burbank Middle School where he learned about the opportunity to earn a Rice MBA through the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program (REEP).

Harrison stood out at the investiture ceremonies last May. A member of REEP’s first graduation cohort, he was proud to host his students at the ceremony.

Tudor Fieldhouse erupted with cheers and applause when they called his name.

“I wanted to show my students that they too can achieve graduate degrees and should be able to do so as long as they remain focused on reaching their goals.”

Last summer, after a rigorous “After three years of administrative assessment and interview process, Michael Harrison ‘10 experience, I had reached a point Harrison was promoted to principal where I was looking for more of an of Marshall Middle School. academic challenge that would stretch my leadership “Marshall was considered by the district to be capacity,” Harrison says. “I thought REEP would be an academically unacceptable last year with a lot of other amazing opportunity to stretch my thinking and gain a issues to resolve, but with a hardworking and supportive different approach to education.” staff, awesome students and parents plus phenomenal support from the district, we are moving forward REEP is the education entrepreneurship program at towards achieving higher student success.”

Rice. It combines a business school education with an intensive, innovative educational entrepreneurship Shortly after he started, Harrison was met with an curriculum. The three-year-old program provides administrative vacancy in an assistant principal role at aspiring school leaders with the knowledge, skills and Marshall, and he looked to another REEP alum. “I was networks to effectively run schools that close able to make new lasting friendships with like-minded achievement gaps and propel more students, particularly people through REEP. I met Bernadette Blanco during the underserved, to complete post-secondary education.

Summer Institute, and she was assigned to my school REEP offers three individual programs: REEP MBA, REEP Business Certificate and the Summer Institute, where national leaders in education conduct a 16-day Check out more about REEP at http://reep.rice.edu leadership development program. along with Principal Michael Harrison and Marshall

Melanie Singleton ‘10

group cohort where we met monthly. She went through the same assessment process I did and when my position opened — and after many interviews with district personnel — I was able to hire Ms. Blanco as my sixth grade assistant principal, and her first day on the job was also the first day of school for students. Talk about hit the ground running!”

Harrison’s promotion was one of a handful.

Congratulations also go out to Eldridge Gilbert, ’10 MBA for Professionals, who opened a new charter school for YES Prep Public Schools in the North Forest ISD this past fall; Steven Khadam-Hir, ’11 MBA for Professionals, who was named assistant principal for his Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) school; and Khadam-Hir and classmate Jill Quinn, ’11 MBA for Professionals, who have both been selected to fasttrack as leaders in KIPP as Miles Fellows. Matt Neal, Cohort 1 certificate track, was also designated as the next school leader for Yes Prep Public School.

To know Michael Harrison’s story, is to know only a part of the REEP contribution to and impact on the Houston education community. Aside from high profile lectures open to the public — including former Chancellor of DC Public Schools Michelle Rhee, Howard Fuller, Whitney Tilson and Dr. Diane Ravitch — REEP’s

business certification recipients receive a solutionfocused curriculum that effectively balances pedagogy with business insight on leadership, finance, and entrepreneurship. Last July the second Summer Institute welcomed back many of the previous year’s faculty: Rick Hess from American Enterprise; Tom Loveless from the Brookings Institute; Don McAdams from the Center for Education Reform; Mike Feinberg and Chris Barbic, the founders of KIPP and Yes Prep; and Marguerite Roza from the Gates Foundation.

The Jones School is the only business school in Texas to offer an educational leadership curriculum and principal certification. The REEP network is made up of passionate, creative education entrepreneurs —

Dan Caesar ‘10

both students in the programs and practitioners and thought leaders who guide the dialogue. Together, they challenge each other to be catalysts for change in public schools.

Middle School at www.marshallcatmounts.org.

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Jones Journal SPRING 2011 5

Around the School

Around the School

High School

High Achievers

The Jones School Invests in Tomorrow’s Leaders

The Jones School Invests in Tomorrow’s Leaders The students at McNair Hall seem to be getting younger and younger. And with Jones School faculty assisting local

In addition, over 100 ninth graders from both Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory School of Houston and

sessions — provided free by the Jones School, courtesy of corporate and individual sponsorship — ultimately

RSBI 2010 students visit underwriter Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s U.S. commodities trading and operations office, where they met with some of the company’s top decision makers.

high school students from underserved communities, those fresh new faces will continue to fill the halls. The teens come from schools across the city for the Rice Summer Business Institute (RSBI) — the Jones School’s flagship summer program for Houston high schoolers.

business.rice.edu

YES Prep North Central have attended customized communications workshops.

focus on helping help themselves.

high

achievers

Profiles in Partnership

The content and goal of the RSBI program differs from the other two workshops. However, all of these

Since 2006, RSBI has welcomed local high school juniors and seniors for two weeks every June.

This intensive, hands-on program aims to teach students about the stock market, the energy industry, business communications, brand management and entrepreneurship, among other topics. In addition to spending time in the classroom, students get some realworld experience through field trips to corporate partners — in 2010 field trips were made to underwriter Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Gold Sponsor ConocoPhillips among others.

Last summer, almost 75 percent of the 40 RSBI students had household incomes below $40,000 and were classified as economically disadvantaged — a typical profile for RSBI attendees.

Cristo Rey Jesuit is a prep school for students from economically disadvantaged families. Its innovative educational model has the students attend longer school days and work one day per week at entry-level positions in corporations throughout Houston.

In preparation for their new school and holding down jobs in professional settings, the incoming freshmen receive computer training in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and the Internet for one week in August at the Jones School.

They also receive a week’s training at the University of Houston and the University of St. Thomas.

YES Prep Public Schools is a free, open-enrollment public school system

Cristo Rey Jesuit students come prepared for their workshop.

that serves 4,200 students across eight campuses in the Houston area. Its mission is not only to increase the number of low-income Houstonians who graduate from a four-year college prepared to compete in the global marketplace but also to commit to improving disadvantaged communities.

Their half-day program revolves around an intensive leadership communication class and a tour of Rice, the first college campus many of them have ever seen.

classroom was invaluable, and the professors helped her work through her fears. But what really did the trick was repetition and feedback.

“Because we had to do it over and over, I learned how to stand up and state my point of view and then back it up with information and research,” she said. “And that’s not just in the classroom; that’s a skill that affects every relationship you have — with friends, family, co-workers, everyone.”

Creating Leaders

“RSBI inspired us to achieve at a higher level than I was used to,” said Kierra Lee, an RSBI participant in the summer of 2008. “They treated us like adults, not high school students. I learned that my education was my responsibility. It was up to me to achieve in that environment.

I felt like I was an MBA student and everybody around me wanted to learn.

I felt so compelled to do my best.”

Doing her best meant overcoming her fear of public speaking. Kierra said the encouragement she got in the RSBI

Raising the Bar

Cristo Rey Jesuit’s Director of Communication, Susan Martin, stood outside a classroom where students, their teachers and Rice faculty were making introductions. “It’s an incredible opportunity,” she said.

“Our goal at Cristo Rey Jesuit is to raise the educational bar for these students.

By beginning their training at Rice, the tone for academic excellence is set.”

Dressed sharply in their new school uniforms, pairs of Cristo Rey Jesuit

Jones Journal SPRING 2011 7

Around the School

Around the School

The Impact of Net Impact

High School High Achievers – Continued

By Dylan Hedrick ’11 Oftentimes it seems like businesses

Why it Matters

Alumnus Mark DiBella ’10, school director of YES Prep North Central, was part of the Rice MBA for Professionals program and Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program (REEP).

He made the connection between his students and the Jones School as he walked into a YES Prep classroom.

“One of my ninth grade teachers was doing a PowerPoint presentation on the importance of solid communication.

I immediately thought of my leadership communication classes and realized that as a Jones School alumnus I had

allowing the student to contribute his or her business knowledge to the success of

within the school to minimize electricity

the organization. Through the program,

use and to reduce expenses.

students also are able to expand their

as

The chapter has also hosted a speaker

network as many non-profit boards are

social

from GE’s Energy division to speak about

filled with prominent Houston business

entrepreneurship

renewable energy and has invited a

and community leaders.

concerns. However, there has been a growing movement among business school students who desire to use their business skills in support of various social and environmental causes while gaining financial success. The Net Impact Club at the Jones Graduate School of Business allows students to do just that.

Net Impact is a national organization with over 200 student chapters and 10,000 students worldwide. The Rice chapter was created in 2007 and now has over YES Prep students tour campus and make the sign of the owl.

a unique opportunity to connect my high school students with my graduate institution.”

The day they came to campus, the students filed into the Shell Auditorium with impeccable decorum and military precision. “I cannot explain,” DiBella wrote recently to two of his former Jones School instructors, “how important this experience is to our students as they continue on their path towards college.

I am deeply grateful for your assistance in achieving our mission.”

By bringing high school students onto a college campus, by inspiring them and teaching life skills — such as how to stand up and introduce themselves — as well as learning about business and meeting business leaders, the Jones School is cultivating a diverse

Excerpts of this article are courtesy of Jessica Stark, Rice News Staff.

business.rice.edu

insights in to how a board operates while

commission lighting and HVAC systems

a profit and social and environmental

During the presentations, there was laughter and applause. Cassandra had small feet. Luis liked to go to the park with friends. Stephanie wanted to be called Alice. The students found out there was more to business than business as usual.

allows MBA students to gain valuable

Engineering & Planning to analyze electricity usage in the Jones School to

must choose between necessity to make

freshmen sat with their heads together, interviewing each other for their first project of their first day. To familiarize themselves with PowerPoint, software most had never used, the students were charged with creating a presentation about a partner, to find out what they liked and disliked, to find out about each other’s differences and similarities. They chose fonts and graphics and layouts.

And then they had to speak in front of their new classmates.

Members are working with Facilities,

community of learning and discovery as part of Rice University’s Vision for the Second Century. The Jones School’s tangible contributions provide innovative educational and cultural resources to the broader Houston population, particularly to the 9th- through 12th-graders, and fulfills its own mission of developing principled, innovative thought leaders, even while they’re still in high school. _______________________________ More information on the RSBI program can found at rsbi.rice.edu.

Cristo Rey Jesuit Prep belongs to the national Cristo Rey Network of schools. For more information, visit www.cristoreyhouston.org.

For more information about Yes Prep Public Schools, visit yesprep.org.

60 members.

Several members of the club attended Net Impact’s annual national conference held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. The conference gave members a chance to network with other

like-minded

business

school

students and to attend various speaker sessions alternative

covering energy,

responsibility,

social

topics

such

corporate

and environmental sustainability.

speaker from the Houston chapter of

This year, the chapter is working on

the Sierra Club. Other speakers about

several initiatives to help “green” the

renewable energy and energy efficiency

Jones School. The club is conducting an

are planned for later in the semester.

audit of McNair Hall to determine the

Also under the Net Impact chapter

feasibility of LEED certification for the

umbrella is the Board Fellows program

building and researching various options

which

for placing recycling bins throughout

non-profit

the school to reduce solid waste.

members. The Board Fellows program

By the Numbers

28

places

students

MBA

boards

as

% average increase in salary for Rice MBA for Executives from the time they enter the program to graduation

on

Alumni interested in sustainability topics or the “green” movement who wish to support the club, want more information, or are interested in becoming a guest speaker for Net Impact should contact the club president Dylan Hedrick at dylan.hedrick@rice.edu.

non-voting

65

% Full Time MBA Class of 2011 from outside of Houston

365

JAVA ambassadors as of December 2010

Jones Journal SPRING 2011 9

Around the School

Around the School

Staff Profile Dolores Thacker, Marketing Coordinator Dolores Thacker started with Southwestern Bell right out of high school. “They didn’t call it directory assistance back then. I was an information operator. I loved that job.

You know me, I love to talk.”

need to always know what was going on.

Not only was she meeting and interviewing prospective students, her office in Herring Hall was the center of the business school universe.

Today, after retiring from a career in banking, Dolores has accumulated fifteen years at the Jones School — six in admissions and the rest in marketing communications.

As the marketing coordinator she’s still an information operator of sorts.

“We were right across from the dean’s suite, the elevators, the stairs. I saw everyone coming and going. I knew them all.”

“People are my specialty,” she says. “I love meeting the students and interacting with them.”

The next-to-youngest in a family of six girls, Dolores has always been in the middle of things. Her years in admissions fed that

Sue Oldham, director of admissions development, agrees. “When the school population of students and staff was much smaller, Dolores was the person at the front desk. She was also the admissions representative, the school photographer, the unofficial school counselor, the mail person, and the welcome committee for students and new staff.”

Dolores made the move to marketing with the opening of McNair Hall in 2002, and, with the growth of the school and a cubicle

The Paperless Professor Price says goodbye to children’s drawings, family recipes and medical records

on the third floor, she became responsible for the publication of Facebook, among a myriad of other projects. If she’s harder to find these days that only means she might turn up when you least expect her.

“Dolores is still everywhere — doing everything and anything. You might hear her down the hallway yelling out to an alumnus, ‘Well, I haven’t seen you in a while,’” says Oldham. “She is a daily reminder that despite the new additions and upgrades, sometimes it’s the simple face-to-face that is most important.”

Lifelong Learning All alumni are invited to benefit from the multitude of continuing education and professional development opportunities offered by the Jones Graduate School of Business.

Executive Education Open Enrollment Programs Executive Education holds a number of open enrollment courses that can be taken as individual programs or as part of a certificate program. Rice MBA graduates receive a 20 percent discount on all Executive Education open enrollment courses.

Custom Programs Executive Education can also design a custom corporate program specifically for your

company’s needs. For more information about customizing a program, contact Mike Grojean, executive director of Custom Programs, at 713.348.2812.

Class Audits Based on availability, you may also come back to the Jones School and audit an elective class in the MBA program. It can be a class that you didn’t get an opportunity to take during your time here, or it may be that you need a refresher on a class you took some years ago.

Either way, please take a look and maybe we can help! Unofficial audits cost $100; official audits can be taken for $315.

For more information please visit: business.rice.edu/Alumni_Lifelong_Learning. aspx.

Houston restaurateur, entrepreneur and alumnus Michael Cordúa ‘08, owner and executive chef of six Houston-area restaurants, welcomed students from the

business.rice.edu Executive Education Emerging Leaders program for a cooking seminar that discussed the key ingredients for a good business.

Assistant Professor Richard Price has taken to ridding his house of paper.

No more file cabinets and drawers stuffed with closing papers and bill statements. Children’s artwork and birthday cards, too. Everything that can fit in his scanner is digitized, tagged, and stored in a self-made database that can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

Meanwhile, he’s preserving an everchanging family history — and without the usual clutter that goes with it.

Whether for personal or business reasons, Price says it’s the way of the future.

How did you get started on this project?

About a year and a half ago, I wanted to get rid of clutter in my house. So, I bought a scanner and started converting everything we wanted to keep into digital files. I created a simple database that made it easy to search for those documents. The idea is turning massive amounts of information usable by making it accessible. I now have scanned more than 1,400 documents.

That’s about four gigabytes. I also have, easily, a terabyte worth of photos, music, and videos.

Your children’s drawings have also been digitized. What else?

Yes, all PDFs. Report cards, too. Initially, my wife worried about throwing stuff away, but not anymore. We have recipes from years ago, invitations, letters, and Christmas and birthday cards.

Tax papers, medical records, and utility

bills. I went back to California to visit last summer. Since I had scanned my former church’s old photo directory, I was able to greet everyone by name.

Richard A. Price III - Assistant Professor of Accounting since 2005 - Teaches financial accounting - Research interests: market efficiency, accounting conservatism, financial reporting, corporate governance, and investor behavior - PhD in Business Administration - Stanford University - MA in Statistics - Stanford University - MAcc and BA in Accounting - Brigham Young University

What was the inspiration for the undertaking?

Well, I generally try to use as little paper as possible. I’m conscious of recycling, and I care about the environment, but I really don’t like clutter. I suppose the real motivation was my desire to preserve my family’s history. I have five kids from ages 11 to 1, so you can imagine how many drawings they bring home in any given week. The drawings tell stories about who they are and about our family.

Not only are they being stored, but I can share their artwork and writing immediately with the grandparents, for instance.

Has this idea spilled over into work, perhaps your research?

Certainly. My work involves collecting and sharing lots of data. One of my current research projects focuses on junk emails that urge investors to buy stocks. Did investors react to it?

They did, so we built a database to collect data related to the project. I’m also working on cataloging information for a colleague — who has a one-of-a-kind collection decades-old confidential correspondence from high level individuals related to controversial accounting issues. Both databases are sharable, accessible, and allow multiple users simultaneously. I can see changes as they happen. It’s extremely useful,

because in academia, success is based on the ability to get new ideas and new sources of data to test these ideas.

Will we become a paperless society?

I believe eventually. It seems we’re already moving away from paper. It just makes so much sense. From a business perspective, we can completely eliminate distribution and waste. Google offers online books, and libraries are also making available manuscripts and the like. We just have to re-educate people.

We’ll save money, trees, and time — and add some space in the house.

Jones Journal SPRING 2011 11

Around the School

Around the School

Working the Network

The World’s Richest and Largest Collegiate Business Plan Competition to award new $100,000 Kleiner Perkins GreenTech Innovation Prize

by Deanna M. Fuehne, Executive Director Career Management Center In the third quarter of 2010, Jones School Career Management Center (CMC) advisors worked with over 140 alumni. Unlike other professional degrees such as law or medicine, a business degree from a top tier institution opens a multitude of career paths and getting that first job at graduation is only the first step of the journey. The challenge arises from continually refreshing the professional development skills necessary to successfully navigate opportunities.

Consider making 2011 the year to get more involved in your industry or function area of expertise. Engage with the Jones School on the CMC International Student Advisory Board or Employment Trends Committee.

If you worked with the CMC (still referred to by some alumni as the CPC) while in the program, you may have heard us discuss the importance of networking. Networking is one of those silly professional development terms that career advisors throw around but few can define and even fewer can do well.

Over three years, approximately 85 percent of the full time graduating class report receiving their offers from “school facilitated activities.” On-campus recruiting drives approximately a quarter of those offers. The other offers are the result of student engagement with all that Rice has to offer. Simply put, networking.

Networking, once you’re in the midst of a crossroads, is much more stressful than continually engaging with people you like and with whom you have mutual interests.

Personally, I prefer fewer-but-deeper relationships over attending every professional association event in town.

I invite you to engage with Rice and the Jones School. From thoroughly committed faculty, to devoted career advisors, and supportive students and alumni, the Rice community and its multitude of professional development opportunities are always available to you.

In the 11th year of the Rice Business Plan Competition, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the premier Silicon Valley venture capital firm, has joined the world’s richest and largest competition of its kind by offering a new $100,000 KPCB Prize for GreenTech Innovation. The prize will go to the team deemed to have the best, most commercially-viable business plan for a new renewable energy or other green technology.

To kick off the new prize, Kleiner Perkins’ Partner John Doerr will speak at the Finalist Reception on Friday, April 15, at the Jones School’s Shell Auditorium.

The Goose Society of Texas, a group of angel investors led by Jack Gill and Rod Canion, will award a grand prize of $150,000 investment. The grand prize will go to the winner among the 42 teams hailing from the best graduate schools in the world.

The competition kicks off Thursday, April 14, with the elevator pitch competition, giving teams 60 seconds to pitch their business to investors, and concludes with the announcement of winners at the awards banquet on Saturday, April 16, at the InterContinental Hotel, Houston.

Other top sponsors supporting the competition again this year are Administaff, the Greater Houston Partnership, DFJ Mercury, FORTUNE magazine, NASA Johnson Space Center, NASDAQ and the Kauffman Foundation.

Rice Business Plan Competition April 14-16, 2011 $1 Million + in prizes with six investment prizes of $100,000 or more 42 teams from the best graduate schools in the world will compete for prizes Teams announced March 14, 2011

Reaching the Summit

By Evan Bertrand ’11 In October, the JGSB hosted its second annual Rice Energy Finance Summit (REFS),

bringing

together

thought

leaders from the energy and finance

stay current and gain insight as well as

and a host of volunteers gained first-

a limited budget, the coordination

student-run events. Most of the speakers

and I as well as many other student

meet other professionals. For Radostina

hand experience utilizing many of the

effort exercised the broad scope of

this

multi-billion

volunteers were privileged to meet with

knowledge taught in business school.

dollar corporations such as Chevron,

the industries’ leaders and gain first-

Schlumberger, Marathon Oil, and FMC

hand insight.

Boneva ’11 and me, REFS provided the

skill sets taught in the MBA program.

opportunity to coordinate a complex

Whether thinking strategically about

event and learn from it.

which line-up of keynote speakers

industries to discuss pressing issues

As with many events at the Jones

with which they are currently faced.

School, REFS was coordinated by

For attendees, REFS was a chance to

current MBA students with assistance from staff and faculty. Radost and I

business.rice.edu

would provide the message and depth we were seeking, determining optimum pricing for admission, or evaluating the most effective marketing ideas given

In addition to the practical experience, REFS gave us the time to not only meet but work with high-level management from both industries, most of whom actively recruit at Jones. In many ways, this is the most advantageous aspect of

year

came

from

Technologies. As an employee straight out of business school, it may take years before having the opportunity to work closely with top-level management from companies this size, but Radost

The

Jones

School

offers

many

opportunities like this for its students, and this characteristic of the program truly enhances the Rice MBA experience and quality of our education.

Jones Journal SPRING 2011 13

Celebrating Houston’s Diverse Community Doreen Stoller ’91 is Dedicated to Enhancing the Hermann Park Experience

By Jan Hester

Before

Before

business.rice.edu

After

After

A giant mound of dirt sits along the bayou in Hermann Park, full of junk, debris and invasive plant species that threaten the native habitat. Left behind after the bayou was dredged, the trashy mountain was slated for removal in the park’s master plan. But none of the agencies with projects scheduled in the park had the budget — or interest — required to remove the mess. “ For five years I worked with the various teams to get pieces included in each project,” commented Stoller, executive director of the Hermann Park Conservancy. “I’m happy to report that the pile is currently being removed. I jokingly told one of the managers from Harris County Flood Control District that I was going to put ‘she moved a mountain’ on my headstone.”

Jones Journal SPRING 2011 15

Doreen Stoller is patient, tenacious and committed — qualities she hopes

young people will cultivate early in their careers. “No

matter how many people tell you ‘no,’ it’s never over until you say ‘no’.”

A Passion for Community In college Stoller developed an interest in city planning. On a visit home she walked through Hermann Park and was struck by two things: the city’s diversity and its lack of public green spaces that engender community and enhance quality of life.

Presented to the City of Houston by George Hermann in 1914, the park had fallen into in a state of disrepair by the 1980s. A group of citizens responded by forming Friends of Hermann Park — now Hermann Park Conservancy — to encourage the development of more attractive, usable green space and to promote the restoration of the 445-acre park to its original beauty.

Stoller’s extensive business background includes a stint in strategic planning for Landmark Graphics. “The company was young and small, and there was energy and excitement around doing new things.”

But with the dot-com boom, high tech lost its luster. “I suddenly realized I wanted to do something more meaningful.”

business.rice.edu

Her timing was fortuitous. Having volunteered for numerous small non-profits, she felt called to serve the community full time just as the Hermann Park Conservancy was looking for an “unusual person” to serve as their executive director.

Stoller finds many similarities between non-profit and the private sector.

“Both require strategy, clear goals and financial controls. The biggest difference is that we rely on community engagement to get our job done.” The conservancy has over 2,000 volunteers, including the board and advisory board, donating 20,000 hours per year.

She also emphasizes the guidance provided by the park’s master plan, established in 1995 by government and community leaders to restore and enhance one of Houston’s most historically significant parks. “The work going on in the park truly reflects the community’s diversity — from small children pulling weeds with their families to institutional foundations that support the quality of life here in Houston.”

Stoller is also quick to point out that her husband, Dan Piette, has been a tremendous asset to her and to the park.

“He graciously attends a steady stream of events, bikes to the park with me to inspect projects, and whenever we travel he photographs examples of signage, surfaces under outdoor dining areas, food kiosks, etc. He also has been known to bartend and serve hot chocolate at conservancy events.”

Stewardship with Integrity While at Landmark, Stoller stunned her colleagues by requesting a sales rotation.

“I wanted to understand how the process worked. I learned that people expect honesty and that the best sales people keep their promises. I have carried that lesson with me ever since.”

The conservancy staff is committed to honoring their donors’ intent and informing them how their contributions benefit the park. “We think about that with every program we undertake and seek the best leverage for every gift.”

To ensure improvements are sustainable,

the organization includes funding for maintenance in every project budget.

Stoller wants the park to be a place for families to make memories. “I hope when people spend a day in the park they will have a variety of experiences, from the stately reflection pool to the Japanese garden to the natural wilderness area on the other side of the bayou.”

As part of her commitment to urban revitalization, Stoller serves on the board of the City Parks Alliance, a national organization dedicated to reframing the way we think about urban parks. “There is a proven economic development benefit.

Real estate values go up when city parks are clean and safe. There is an environmental benefit associated with planting trees and less crime when the community comes together. And it’s healthy for children to play outside.”

She also serves on the board of Inprint, Inc., a literary arts organization dedicated to connecting readers and writers. “We bring different voices from around the world to Houston. I see that as a companion effort to my work in the park – engaging a diverse community around the love of the written word.”

The Jones School

Looking to the Future

After studying art history at Yale and the Institute of Fine Arts, Stoller decided against a career in the field and entered the world of international business. “I realized I needed to know how the business world worked. Rice was the only MBA program I applied for.” She was drawn to the Jones School for its intellectual vigor and the fact that the faculty consisted of both academics and business leaders teaching from personal experience.

Park projects involve coordination among various state and local government agencies, and one of Stoller’s biggest challenges is working with team members to ensure that the park’s interests are represented.

“It’s difficult because each has a different timeline, but agencies are willing to collaborate if given the opportunity and encouragement.”

Stoller credits David Ross (finance) and Ed Williams (entrepreneurship) for helping her synthesize the process of gathering information, extracting the relevant parts, and ultimately making a sound decision.

“Bennett Yim’s pricing class, Will Uecker’s course in cost accounting and Randy Batsell’s market research class provided me with underlying concepts that I’ve used in every job I’ve had.”

Stoller currently serves on the board of Jones Partners and the Alumni Association.

She points out for the record that, with the recent graduation of her nephew, Jared Roe ‘10, there are now two generations of JGS alumni in her family.

Plans are well underway for Hermann Park’s 2014 centennial, and Stoller and her team envision a year-long celebration of community. “We plan to stage a variety of events that will appeal to our diverse population and challenge people to look at the park in a different way.”

Stoller is proud of the conservancy’s accomplishments and sees a bright future for one of Houston’s most beloved civic spaces. “It’s been a true honor for me to bring together a diverse group of people who are committed to making the park a better place. Volunteers can be proud of the difference they’re making, and it’s encouraging to see that disparate governmental groups can achieve amazing things when they coordinate their efforts.

Houston truly is a city that enables good ideas to become reality.”

Jones Journal SPRING 2011 17

Be the Brand

To Bo Bothe — founding partner, president and CEO of BrandExtract — branding is a conversation. It’s the strategic personification of a company.

Bo Bothe ’05 Proves His Mettle

By Sarah Gajkowski-Hill Since his first jobs mowing lawns and working in his father’s warehouse at 10-years-old, Bothe has known he wanted to run his own business. He learned from the best — his father — and had every intention of running it the same way his father ran his successful carpeting business: through hard work, strong relationships and personal balance.

“My father used to say, if you’re not growing, you’re going.” And the aphorism, Bothe notes, applies to more than work.

Growing the Business Named one of Houston’s Fast 100 last fall, BrandExtract is a five-year-old, integrated brand communications firm poised to grow exponentially under Bothe’s watchful eye. Of the many rules to running a burgeoning business, two that serve him well were learned from his father: create long, profitable relationships with your clients and take care of your employees.

This philosophy reaps immense rewards. The large firms loyal to BrandExtract have grown — therefore, BrandExtract has grown. The staying power of these

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companies is crucial to the success of businesses that provide a service. As is the team delivering the service.

Feeling personally responsible to both client and employee inspires Bothe and his founding partner, Jonathan Fisher. “We see our jobs as bringing passion to the office every day without fail. If the boss is grumpy, everyone is grumpy.” Working with clients each day, Bothe understands that commitment is vital, but he also knows it’s essential to teach his employees how to be fired up about a client.

“We’re constantly innovating to keep everyone excited, interested and happy. We do pro bono work, field trips to museums, the food bank, Habitat for Humanity.”

And the BrandExtract team responds with warmth, humor and creative thinking. “It’s all about communications,” Bothe says. “And imagination.

There is a transformational element to what we do.

We help people grow.”

Turns out clients’ companies aren’t the only ones growing.

And it’s personal to him.

So much so that he’s building a business and reputation on it.

Jones Journal SPRING 2011 19

Measuring Success In May 2009 Bothe was tapped as one of the Houston Business Journal’s 40 under 40, an award identifying young leaders who excelled in their industries, were respected business leaders and showed dynamic leadership in their community.

Just over a year later, he was honored with the Rice MBA Recent Alumni Service Award presented to an individual who has advanced the Jones School by contribution of talent and time in service to the school.

He carries the accolades with humility. But the message is hard to miss. Bothe measures his success by continuing to work hard and give back.

A football player, basketball player and high jumper at Strake Jesuit High School in Houston, Bothe credits that Jesuit education as a major influence on his life personally and professionally. “I graduated with a very strong sense of my abilities and potential.” When he set off for Texas Tech, he thought he wanted to get into advertising, but on the drive to Lubbock his father paged through the course catalog and came upon Design Communications. “It’s in the art building,” he told his son. And that was that.

After earning the degree, Bothe launched his career in earnest — first at Michael Strickland Design Group, then CMA Design doing mostly packaging design. By the time he became creative partner at Savage, he had a clearer idea of how he wanted to run his dream firm, and he knew an MBA would help.

Bothe treated his Executive MBA as a growth opportunity. He knew he needed the language to

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articulate concerns with CEOs who were interested in marketing their business, so in a way, an MBA assured him the proverbial seat at the table.

In another way, he simply saw it as the logical next step in his journey. But when he started his graduate studies at Rice, something shifted.

“My MBA experience at Rice has provided me with the tools and opportunities I needed to successfully build my business.” But there was

sorts, a composition of purpose written by Bothe as a call to action: - Make things more valuable.

Remember to be a storyteller.

- Be creative in everything you do.

Notice the little things. Help.

-­­ Everything and everyone has a story,

understand it. Have fun.

- Embrace change but make sure it’s relevant. Build.

- Design is a profession and a craft,

understand both. Live well.

When asked the one thing he learned in business school that he’ll never forget? “No excuses,” he says.

“We all had jobs and families and busy lives. Just get it done — that was the approach.”

His can-do attitude carries over to all aspects of his life, as business owner, parent, coach and Jones School alumnus. As a member of the JGSAA board and JGSEO, Bothe donates his time and talent around McNair Hall in a variety of ways, including as a volunteer for admissions, an alumni mentor to

- Be good and do good things. Grow.

Being and doing good are important to Bothe and BrandExtract. The firm’s pro bono work stands as a shining example of its good form, most notably for Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory School of Houston, a Catholic high school that combines personal responsibility, academic rigor, and a corporate work-study program to empower students of all faiths from economically challenged families.

Referred by his high school alma mater, Cristo Rey approached BrandExtract about taking them on as a client. The firm’s effort included developing the Cristo Rey brand position, the tagline “Houston’s Future at Work,” logo, school crest and tie, elevator pitch, mission statement, as well as marketing and fundraising materials. more. “Education changed the way I lived my life,” Bothe said. Whether reading books for pleasure about the founding fathers or researching the National Park System, Bothe has seen the biggest change in his personal agenda.

Transparency 101 The BrandExtract offices are a maze of sliding glass walls, doors and windows, open work stations and personal mementos on display for a playful, blatantly transparent environment. Etched in a conference room glass door reads a mission of

“Cristo Rey’s brand is about transformation of self, spirit and community,” Bothe says. “Not only does the school serve as a leader to its students and in the community, but it also teaches its students the skills they need to become leaders themselves and make smart life decisions.”

No Excuses Known as one of the lead conversationalists at BrandExtract, Bothe’s dialogue runs the gamut, from making the creative tangible to being an artist, from running a business to being a father of four.

current students, and a judge for the Rice Business Plan Competition.

The lead conversationalist talks the talk and walks the walk, but he’s humble in the midst of his successes and contributions, maintaining that his greatest life lessons come from family — his mother, a two-time cancer survivor; his father, who taught him everything he knows; and his wife, Heather, who never sweats the big stuff. Bothe’s inner compass has led him well beyond the conversation to the call to action on his conference room door: help, have fun, build, live well, grow.

Jones Journal SPRING 2011 21

Elegant. Engaging. Exciting.

Ask people to describe financial reports, and chances are most of them will not come up with these words.

But, to Karen Nelson these adjectives are on target and she sprinkles them liberally and passionately while talking about all things accounting. Nelson is an unabashed, self-proclaimed accounting nerd and she couldn’t be happier about it.

On the topic of financial statements, Nelson will have you pondering the nuances of how the statements fit together and the thought and intuition behind each one.

The whole process of communicating what’s going on in a company, both through the information that’s presented and left out, is something that Nelson finds intellectually stimulating. “It’s not just black and white in terms of what decisions are being made and communicated by managers,” said Nelson. “You have to consider how their decisions influence the way investors and others view the company.”

As much as numbers alone can paint a clear picture, Nelson recently began thinking more about the words that go along with them.

Who would have thought that number crunchers care about prose? In some of her current research, she is using tools from computational linguistics to analyze textual disclosures in financial reports to determine how much of the complex information can be read and understood by average investors.

“Intelligent people who are not accountants should be able to understand this information,” said Nelson.

“If they can’t, maybe it’s a problem with our accounting and our disclosures and not an issue on the receiving end.

Of course, regulators, corporations, and accounting firms have tried to improve the readability of accounting disclosures over the years but this is not an easy task.”

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Not [+] Just Numbers The Language of Accounting Speaks to Dr. Karen Nelson

By Ann S. Boor

Teachable Moments

Nelson’s passion for accounting took root in her pre-academia career as a staff accountant at Deloitte & Touche. Because her clients were primarily in the financial services sector, they faced uniquely complicated issues that required Nelson to gain an in-depth understanding of the industry accounting standards. As she delved into learning about what the accounting standards were saying — and not saying at the same time — it became clearer to her that her larger interest was really in researching how financial information is used as a tool for communicating with various stakeholders.

Nelson built on her interest while earning a PhD in accounting from the University of Michigan and on the faculty at Stanford University. With the opportunity that Rice offered her, she has not only continued her passion for teaching and research at the Jones School, but she has also taken on a leadership role in the accounting group.

Jones Journal SPRING 2011 23

In recent years, Nelson has been actively involved in the development of the accounting PhD program set to launch in fall 2011.

“Working with PhD students creates a different type of environment,” said Nelson. “This will take us to the next level in terms of the impact we will be able to have as a school on academic thought and research.”

The program also will help address the projected shortfall in accounting faculty over the coming years.

Several sources, including the American Accounting Association, have been studying the supply of graduating PhDs in accounting and projected that potentially only half the demand for new accounting faculty positions will be met nationally. The Jones School’s accounting PhD program will contribute to the pipeline of future accounting professors, and Nelson can’t wait to work with them. “There’s something very exciting about working closely with students who are interested in investing five years of life so they can become the next generation of educators and thought leaders in their field.”

Corridor Conversation

While the plan to launch the PhD program is attracting the attention of top quality students, it has already led to recruiting renowned professors who share Nelson’s zest for teaching and research. The hallways are filled with faculty members talking about accounting trends and hot issues. Nelson loves it. “We have a really active, involved set of people roaming the halls and you get to talk with these amazing people and exchange ideas.”

For instance, when the Chair of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, Robert Herz, surprised the financial community by announcing his early retirement last August, the buzz in the hallway was palpable. Everyone was already engaged in a lively debate about the correct measurement basis for financial instruments, but when Herz made his announcement, the questions turned to how this might shift the current trajectory of standard setting.

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Nelson and two of her Jones School colleagues, Steve Crawford and K. Ramesh, are interested in honing in on the shake-up announcement and looking at how it affected financial institutions. She credits the Jones School environment for stimulating such collaborations. “My views on thought leadership tend to revolve around bringing together a group of individuals who can bounce ideas off of each other and through their collaborations all benefit.”

Sum Greater Than Parts

Nelson is also involved in the conversations around the potential re-launch of the Master of Accounting program at Rice. She believes the master’s program is a natural place to look to expand offerings in the business school because so many of the graduates of the original program have achieved tremendous professional success. Nelson views the master’s program as an opportunity to produce the type of professionals that accounting firms and corporations would be very interested in hiring because they would be exactly what this economic and ethical environment calls for.

“We have a mentoring tradition at Rice that can help students become professionals who are critical thinkers and oriented towards the big picture rather than accountants who do things by rote and out of the book,” said Nelson.

With new programs, colleagues, students and cuttingedge research, Nelson sees an exciting path ahead for the accounting group. “We’ve assembled a group of people who are working together to advance thought in our field. Sharing this passion just increases our energy.”

Karen K. Nelson is Professor of Accounting and Accounting Area Coordinator at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University.

She graduated summa cum laude with a BS in accounting from the University of Colorado and earned her PhD in accounting from the University of Michigan. Her scholarly research has focused on financial disclosure and securities regulation, earnings quality and earnings management, and economic consequences of accounting choice.

Jones Journal SPRING 2011 25

When Ambiguity Makes Sense Dr. Scott Sonenshein Examines Change

by Tina Borja

Making Sense of Sensemaking

While conducting field work in South Africa’s rural villages as a graduate student, Scott Sonenshein, Assistant Professor of Management at the Jones School, lived in a mud hut.

He was following an organization’s efforts to install solar panels on the roofs of the mud huts in order to improve the standard of living for children and their struggling families—all in an environmentally sustainable way.

Sonenshein approaches his research on social change, as well as his other work in organizational change and business ethics, from a sensemaking perspective.

As Sonenshein explains it, “Whenever we experience a shock — the death of a loved one, the loss of a job or even as a society, the current financial crisis — there are lots of ways to interpret it.”

“Sleeping in a mud hut without any modern creature comforts was a very formative experience for me,” Sonenshein says. But more importantly, it prompted two questions that would become fundamental to his research: If it is possible to raise that standard of living across the board in a developing country in a way that’s both environmentally friendly and sustainable, who is making it happen and exactly how are they doing it?

This is sensemaking — the process by which people give meaning to an experience. “Basically, we construct meaning so we can understand and explain otherwise ambiguous events,” Sonenshein says. “Social change provides an ideal context to study sensemaking as social issues are often not only of great importance but also rife with ambiguities.”

Sonenshein’s experience in South Africa and the questions it raised gave him not only insight into the profound impact change agents could have on society and organizations, but also opened the door to a rich academic career that continues to examine our perceptions of, responses to, and tools needed to advance change.

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Because it is common to face these ambiguities — too many potential solutions, unclear roles, conflicting demands — with apprehension or dread, one of the lessons Sonenshein takes into the classroom is the perspective that ambiguity and opportunity come hand in hand. According to Sonenshein, “The best part is, when there’s ambiguity in the environment, the opportunity to shape how other people interpret events by way of issue crafting exists — and this is when and how people can affect positive change.”

Jones Journal SPRING 2011 27

Agents of Change

Sonenshein’s study of change agents and their presentations of opportunities for change have taken him to multiple sectors of the business world — from not-for-profit to retail sales to financial and manufacturing industries.

“Issue crafting involves using different types of language to ‘sell’ an issue to other organizational members, helping to provide more relevance and legitimacy to social issues.”

Given the difficulty of making change happen, Sonenshein is particularly interested in how individuals build their capacity to implement change.

A Sensemaker Is Born

“My research now looks at ways change agents are able to psychologically strengthen themselves so they can continue working to make change happen despite challenges such as ambiguity, lack of legitimacy and resistance. The work change agents do is difficult and admirable. Quite frankly, it’s a hard job that most of us just hope someone else is doing.”

Of the most difficult types of change to implement, environmental initiatives are at the top of the list.

Currently, Sonenshein is engaged in several research projects studying the different psychological profiles of environmentalists. While he finds that, given the ambiguity and magnitude of their task, most environmentalists doubt the impact they can make, he also finds that many are remarkably resilient in overcoming these barriers.

These so-called ‘fortified environmentalists’ use their introspective knowledge of the self as a psychological asset to fuel their continued push for change.

Sonenshein started his studies in the area of business ethics, where he created his own major as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia.

“Business ethics was not a very popular topic when I was first interested in it,” said Sonenshein. “People considered it an oxymoron.”

To achieve this goal, he enlisted an interdisciplinary team of faculty advisors in economics, philosophy and business to create his major. In hindsight, he now recognizes that these efforts engaged him in a hands-on experience in making change happen. “Creating your own major in academia can be a delicate and very political undertaking.

However, the small step of creating my own major carved the path for others to follow a similar path.”

The field of business ethics as a scholarly discipline has grown considerably in the last decade, with a diverse array of scholars — economists, psychologists, philosophers,

religious studies scholars — increasingly trying to understand and explain ethical behavior. It was his interdisciplinary focus on business ethics that led him to South Africa, thus broadening his interests to include social change and eventually sensemaking.

While living in a mud hut in South Africa was extremely significant to guiding his thinking, even more influential was his time spent with organizations that were making a remarkable impact on society. “At the same time I was learning so much, I got my first real glimpse at how much we still have to learn. Change, especially social change, is quite complicated and approaching it from only one perspective often leads to an impoverished understanding.”

Scott Sonenshein is Assistant Professor of Management at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University.

He graduated with a BA in Business Ethics from the University of Virginia. He earned his MPhil in Management Studies at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and his PhD in Management and Organizations from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. His scholarly research has focused on sensemaking, social change, organizational change and business ethics. In 2008, Sonenshein was named a finalist in the Aspen Institute Faculty Pioneer Award, which celebrates MBA faculty who have demonstrated leadership and risk-taking in integrating social and environmental issues into academic research, educational programs and business practice.

Since joining the Jones School faculty in 2007, Sonenshein has continued his interdisciplinary focus in his research and now brings it into the classroom — persistently asking questions of academic, social and practical significance and using methods to find the answers that span from capturing and dissecting employees’ narratives to lab experiments.

“Asking questions only leads to more questions — you become more ignorant the more questions you ask,” Sonenshein says. “There’s still a lot more I have to learn.”

As someone who has spent many hours in the field studying change agents working to make a difference, Sonenshein has accumulated important lessons for how to implement change effectively — something he both writes about in scholarly publications and teaches his students through hands-on exercises at the Jones School.

One of his key lessons for students? “Many change implementations fail because people try to fulfill a vision without first offering a convincing argument of how the status quo became unacceptable or broken.

Without this, you will run into individuals who are complacent yet stubbornly stuck in their ways.”

The good news is Sonenshein has also learned that people will embrace change when they truly understand its significance — something his work on issue crafting has shown.

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Jones Journal SPRING 2011 29

Class Notes Giving

giving to jones The Jones Partners is a committed group of business leaders working to open doors and build ties between the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business and the Houston business community.

Central to its mission, the Jones School relies on the continued collaboration and support of companies and their professionals.

The Jones Partners supports the school’s initiatives and encourages you to join in this effort to educate and develop global business leaders.

Log on to business.rice.edu/jones partners.aspx to find out more.

Sponsorship Opportunities Corporate Investors at the level of Patron and above can direct their donations to a variety of sponsorship opportunities. Whether the goal of your investment is to develop future talent, increase the skills and knowledge of your employees, network with leadership in the Houston business community, access Jones School faculty and research, or to link your company’s name to one of the premier business schools in the country, you can target your investment to meet these needs.

Partial listing of annual and long-term sponsorship opportunities: Scholarships

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Consistent Collaboration A diversified global manufacturer of electrical components and tools, Cooper Industries has manufacturing facilities in 23 countries and employs more than 25,000 people throughout the world. As lead sponsors for the Career Management Center’s highly successful Career Rodeo for the last three years, Cooper enjoys a robust relationship with the Jones School.

“Cooper is also on our Employment Trends Committee,” said Yolander Albert, associate director, employer relations

The Jones Corporate Investors Program provides corporations with many ways to become involved with the Jones School, tailoring each contribution to be the most productive and mutually rewarding for both the school and the investor. For more information business.rice.edu/Corporate_Investors.

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Getting to know Jones Fund Co-Chairs Will Robertson ’05 and Henry Tsang ’80 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Why did you decide to get your MBA?

What is the best business decision you ever made?

WR: I decided to get my MBA for three simple reasons: refine my judgment, make some friends and think about my future plans.

HT: While I did very well as a chemical engineering undergraduate, I increasingly realized that I had diverse interests and they tended to be more commercial than technical.

After taking a few business courses during my junior and senior years, it became obvious to me that I would get an MBA.

Jones Fund

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Faculty Research

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Jones Partners

Why Rice?

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at the Jones School. “They provide us with recruiting best practices and are consistently involved — recruiting, volunteering with our professional development series, and hosting us for student treks, which includes a presentation and tour of their brand new training facility. The Cooper visit is always educational for the students.”

Alumna Erin Reed ’08 is manager, global university relations at Cooper and keeps up with the Jones School as the representative on the Employment Trends Committee as well as participating in NAWMBA and BBSA events. “Rice MBA students are highly valued at Cooper Industries,” Reed said. “They bring a unique skill set; particularly in the areas of communication, analytical skills, and leadership. These skills are exactly what we look for as we develop future leaders at our company.”

Rice Summer Business Institute (for high school students from challenged schools)

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Career Management Center recruitment events

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Diversity Weekends (women, minorities)

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Student Managed Investment Portfolio

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Student Clubs (Energy, Finance, National Association of Women MBAs, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Real Estate, Net Impact – community outreach, Consulting, Asian, Hispanic and other clubs)

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Rice MBA Student Participation in Inter-Collegiate Competitions

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Rice MBA Student Participation in Social Entrepreneurship Projects, including the Global Health initiative in developing countries and domestic projects

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Annual Rice Energy-Finance Summit

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Annual Health Care Symposium

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Selected speaker events and conferences

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Undesignated funds will be credited to the Dean’s Discretionary Fund to support urgent current needs

WR: First, as a private university with an excellent reputation, the prospects for the Rice MBA program to achieve top standings are good. With the right investments from our stakeholders, I believe the Rice MBA program has no limits. Second, Houston is one of the top five cities in the U.S. and a leader in energy, health care and international trade. During school, I was able to take time to meet and interview with key business and civic people around the state of Texas. Finally, the educational content is more or less the same as other MBA programs. Therefore, it is the who and how that make a difference. Rice’s professors are friendly in their demeanor and authoritative in the subject matter.

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What was your first job? What, if anything, did you learn from it?

HT: I worked a couple of summers for a handbag factory in Hong Kong when I was in high school. I learned to work with people quite different from me and not to behave like a cocky elitist school spoiled brat.

WR: I am a work in progress. Time will tell.

HT: My investment in the furniture business that I now help run has got to be my best business decision. It generated a very high IRR over a very long period of time for the small investment that I put in.

Will Robertson ‘05 Henry Tsang ‘80

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Why do you support the Jones Fund?

WR: It is a vital element for our stakeholders to assist the Rice MBA program with all elements needed for success: scholarships, career management services, faculty recruiting and international travel. I’m most interested in continuing to attract and build upon the international-orientation of the Jones School.

When my children enter the workforce in 20 years, the world will be even more interwoven.

HT: I had a great time at the Jones School and truly enjoyed the intimate setting and the excellent teaching and have been very grateful for the financial help given to me then.

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Why are scholarships important to a business school?

WR: A business school’s primary product is the people with whom it populates the world.

Attracting the best people helps perpetuate the mission. Attracting the best people, but who may not be able to afford the opportunity, serves a deeper mission (and one that harks back to one of Rice University’s founding tenets).

HT: Hopefully more people like me can get this wonderful education to help kick start their careers.

Will Robertson is principal of the fund and managing director — midstream and power of Quintana Energy Partners, L.P., where he is responsible for investments. He earned a B.A. in Plan II and a B.B.A. in business honors and finance at the University of Texas at Austin.

Previously, Will served as an associate with The CapStreet Group LLC and in the investment banking division of Merrill Lynch.

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After 28 years in investment banking — including at Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns — Henry Tsang found his second career as an entrepreneur at Jigs Limited, a furniture factory in Shenzhen. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Tsang came to the U.S. to attend college. He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Houston before coming to the Jones School.

The Jones Fund is an annual fund that provides unrestricted revenue to support scholarships, program enhancement, and other operation expenses. More than 70 percent of the contributions raised through the Jones Fund directly fund scholarships and recruitment efforts for top MBA candidates.

Jones Journal SPRING 2011 31

Class Notes

alumni

Jones Graduate Student Alumni Association (JGSAA) 2010-11 Officers and Board Members PRESIDENT Ted Dimitry ‘02 Account Executive Hays Companies of Texas

Dear Fellow Jones School Alumni: I hope 2011 has started well for you! As always, there is a lot happening at the Jones School. We have seen several enhanced program offerings for alumni and it is great to see alumni engagement growing as a result. There has been a significant increase in alumni auditing classes at the Jones School, greater attendance at Homecoming and other events, and more alumni taking advantage of professional development opportunities through the school. Alumni donations are also at an all-time high. On behalf of the school I thank you for this support.

We have seen continuous recognition for the Jones School in the rankings — as alumni you should be proud of your alma mater for these achievements.

The faculty and administration are working hard to increase the future value of your degree, and your support and engagement with the school certainly contributes to this. Whether you are mentoring a student, helping in admissions efforts, recruiting Rice MBA talent or giving financially, it truly makes a difference.

Please continue to spread the good word about the Jones School and all that it offers. This viral endorsement helps to build our brand and to continue this upward trajectory.

If you have thoughts or feedback that you would like to share, please feel free to contact me or my fellow board members. Our information is available on the dedicated Jones School Alumni website: www.JonesAlumni.com.

As my term as president of the Jones Graduate School Alumni Association draws to a close, I’d like to thank my fellow board members for all of their time and effort this year. They are persistently looking out for the best interests of the alumni community and the future of the school.

Please keep an eye out for the upcoming events and engagement opportunities.

Bring your families to the annual Cinco de Mayo event on Saturday, May 7.

In addition, take advantage of the alumni resources that the school is offering — be it professional development events, job postings, networking and more.

Best wishes for the year ahead – stay in touch!

Yours sincerely,

PRESIDENT ELECT Carolyn Galfione ‘97 Financial Advisor Linscomb and Williams Board Members Bo Bothe ‘05 President & Chief Creative Officer BrandExtract

Phillip Brown ‘08 Manager Hewlett-Packard Company David Case ‘05 Vice President JP Morgan Chase Francisco Castro ‘02 CEO Aliant Capital S.A. de C.V. Michael Chevalier-White ‘89 Managing Director Morgan Keegan Mark Courtney ‘94 Director CIMA Energy, LTD Julie Davidson ‘04 Director Cogent Compensation Partners, Inc. Jay Hawthorn ‘05 Vice President Barclays Capital Jack Ledford ‘02 Project Manager KBR, Inc. Mike McLaughlin ‘07 Principal Analyst El Paso Corp.

Pierce Owens ‘98 first Vice President CB Richard Ellis

Kim-Kay Randt ‘07 Director, Pricing for Branded Central ConocoPhillips Doreen Stoller ‘91 Executive Director Hermann Park Conservancy Kathryn Young ‘04 Vice President, Operations Sirius Solutions

business.rice.edu

Jones School Professors Rank No. 6 in Princeton Review National Rankings he Princeton Review lists Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business No. 6 for “Best Professors.”

The rankings appear in the Review’s “The Best 300 Business Schools: 2011 Edition,” which hit bookstores in October 2010.

For the 2011 edition, Princeton Review collected the opinions of more than 19,000 students at the best AACSB-accredited MBA programs in the world. The rankings on the “Best Professors” category were based primarily on the “Professors Interesting” and “Professors Accessible” ratings.

“We are pleased to recommend the Jones Graduate School of Business to readers of our book and users of our site, www.PrincetonReview.com, as one of the best institutions they could attend to earn an MBA,” said Robert Franek, Princeton Review senior vice president of publishing.

“We chose the 300 business schools in this book based on our high opinion of their academic programs and offerings, as well as our review of institutional data we collect from the schools.”

Rankings No.

No.

Describing the Jones Graduate School of Business as “prestigious, rigorous and wellrounded,” the Princeton Review said, “Rice University’s MBA program combines a challenging core curriculum with ‘cuttingedge’ elective coursework and practical projects. You’ll hit the ground running at Rice, where the comprehensive core provides a ‘balance of qualitative and quantitative’ material, designed to ‘expose you to a little bit of everything.’

No.

10 19 21

Faculty research in top-tier journals BusinessWeek (2010)

Overall Executive MBA Wall Street Journal (2010)

No.

Graduate entrepreneurship (U.S.) The Princeton Review/ Entrepreneur Magazine (2010)

No.

No.

6

Overall MBA Full-Time program (U.S.) Financial Times (2010 and 2011)

25 34

Overall for the MBA Full-Time program (U.S.) Economist (2010)

Best Graduate Schools – Schools of Business, US News (2012)

Jones School Named National Model MBA Entrepreneurship Program he Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business received the 2011 National Model MBA Entrepreneurship Program Award at the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) National conference.

The purpose of the USASBE awards is to identify, recognize, celebrate and publicize excellence in entrepreneurship education in all forms and at all levels. Awards cite exemplary programs that reflect innovation,

quality, comprehensiveness, sustainability, transferability, depth of support and impact.

The award to Rice recognizes the quality of the depth and breadth of the Rice MBA entrepreneurship programs, both curricular and noncurricular, including the activities of the Rice Alliance that involve the Rice MBA students, according to Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship.

Dustin Olson ‘06 Marketing Manager LyondellBasell Industries

Priscilla Plumb ‘01 Chief Marketing Officer UHY Advisors

Ted Dimitry ’02 President, Jones Graduate School Alumni Association

Rankings and Recognition

Awards & Promotions Four faculty received teaching awards selected by students and alumni: Prashant Kale (Full-time MBA), Utpal Dholakia (MBA for Professionals evening), Al Napier (MBA for Executives) and James Weston (Alumni).

Three faculty received research awards selected by their peers: Ajay Kalra and Anthea Zhang (co-recipients of the award for tenured faculty) and Scott Sonenshein (untenured faculty).

Promoted: Brian Rountree was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.

Jones Journal SPRING 2011 33

Class Notes Class Notes

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class notes 1980s 2000s - Keith Anderson ’83, the Chief Investment Officer of Soros Fund Management and member of Rice University Board of Trustees, was featured in an article in the Wall Street Journal on 6/26/2010 entitled “By Avoiding the Camera’s Glare, Soros’s Money Man Stays Flexible” highlighting his achievements with Soros Fund Management - James Barry ’84, was ranked 29th on September 1, 2010 on Registered Rep’s “Top 100 Wirehouse Advisors in America 2010.”

- Subha Barry ’85 is the Chief Diversity Officer at Freddie Mac. She also serves on the Jones School Council of Overseers and the Rice Board of Trustees.

- Jon Albee ’08 became Project Controller at Dockwise LLC. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Minna Ling ’04 (nee Kim) and her husband Dennis proudly announce the birth of their son, Ethan Ling, born on October 31, 2010.

- Mike Albertson ’06 is the Senior Geophysicist at Northstar Offshore Energy Partners, LLC. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- David Diamonon ’04 and his wife Olga are pleased to announce the birth of their first child, George Samaniego Diamonon, on February 7, 2011.

He weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces and measured 20.5”. We came back from Moscow for the delivery but will return to Russia once we have the little tyke’s U.S. passport and Russian visa. If we don’t cross paths with Jones School classmates while we’re in town, we’d love for them to visit us in Moscow. Since 2007, David has been managing finance, accounting, and administration for Transolutions CIS, a wholly-owned company of Chicagobased Amsted Rail.

- Ted Dimitry ’02 and wife Susan announce the birth of their twins Ben and Lauren on January 20, 2011.

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- Gerhard Golden ’05 and his wife Mareli are proud to announce the birth of their first child, Lana, on February 5, 2011. She weighed in at 7 pounds 1 ounce and measured 20”.

Mommy and baby are doing fine.

1990s

- Razlan Mohamed ’90 is Chief Executive Officer of Malaysian Rating Corporation Berhad (MARC), a domestic credit rating agency in Malaysia since 2007. He is also an independent nonexecutive Director of HSBC Amanah Malaysia, the Islamic Banking subsidiary of HSBC Bank Malaysia.

- Tori Gattis ’93 won the Management Innovation eXchange (MIX) M-Prize for his ‘Bossless Organization’ concept featured in The McKinsey Quarterly.

- Pierce Owens ’98 was promoted to First Vice President at CB Richard Ellis.

- Jorge F. Marquez ’98 is now working for Pemex Gas y Petroquimica Basica in charge of Procurement and Contract Management - After nearly ten years working in business development for international law firms, Lori Black ’99 has joined fellow classmate David Warren as a legal recruiter with Warren Recruiting.

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- Ross Pearo ’00 recently accepted the position of Vice President, Strategic Marketing for The College Network, an Indianapolis, IN-based educational services company. In this newly-created role, he will be focusing on crafting the business plans and directing the implementation of new business initiatives. Ross, Lisa, Alex, and Sophie will be relocating to Indianapolis from Ithaca, NY this summer. He would like to hear from former classmates at rosspearo@gmail.com or by connecting through LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/ in/pearo.

- Kirby Brendsel ’03 graduated from Deloitte & Touche’s exclusive Energy & Resources Management Development Program last June, and was promoted to Senior Manager in Deloitte Consulting. His recent efforts have included serving as the Chief of Staff and Chief of Operations for Deloitte’s Federal Energy and Federal Sustainability practices (in addition to client service work in those areas). He and his family bought a home in Oakton, Virginia and continue to enjoy all the area has to offer (except the traffic).

Pictured with his wife Teri and daughter Anna at a recent beach vacation.

- Sean Self ’06, President of Nimbic Systems, secured 1.3 million is funding for his Stafford-based company responsible for developing the first product called the Air Barrier System, which shields surgical sites from bacteria present in the operating room by creating a localized clean-air field directly adjacent to and surrounding incision sites.

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- Bo Bothe ’05 won an Alumni Service award for his contributions to the Jones School.

- Aaron Almarax ’10 is Senior Relationship Manager for the Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon).

- Dean Alexander ’10 wrote an article for the December 7, 2010 issue of the Fairfield Bay News entitled “Resolving Tax Issues.”

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- Monica and Burdette Huffman ’06 welcomed their first child, Brand, in December 2009. Burdette is currently Regional Director of Development for Weingarten Realty. Monica, Burdette, and Brand reside in Houston.

- Matt Kovich ’10 and wife Wendy welcomed twins Camryn and Cole on September 1, 2010.

- Clinton Clark ’09 and his wife are proud to announce the birth of Avery Grace Clark on November 28, 2010.

Big brother, Jackson, is very proud.

- J.R. Batek ’10 and his wife Becky proudly announce the birth of their son John (“Jack”) Richard Batek V. J.R. has a big smile on his face largely because Becky did all the work.

- Gene Brieck ’10 married Jocelyn Ansley ’11 on June 25, 2010 at the Rice Memorial Chapel with reception following at the Cohen House Faculty Club.

Alumni Spotlight: Todd Coady ‘82 Turning to Jones School family — for the family business Todd Coady ‘82 and his brother Shawn have taken their grandfather’s 71-year-old propane business to the next level. In late 2010, Hicksgas merged with NGL Supply to form a new company, Silverthorne Energy Partners LP. Todd, who is co-president of the retail propane division, shares his story: a long-time entrepreneur running the family business and

occasionally, leaning on Jones School professors for their expertise.

How Did You and Your Brother Acquire the Family Business?

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- Priscilla Plumb ’01 is Chief Marketing Officer at UHY Advisors.

- Neha Agarwal ’10 is Director of Human Relations at CAN Metals Ltd.

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- Jenson Elias Collins was born on November 30, 2010 at 6:10 pm.

He weighed 6 pounds, 9.5 ounces and was 18.75”. He is a happy, healthy baby and very much loved by his parents, Moni (Nejati) Collins ’04 and Jason Collins. They live in Houston.

- Kyle Johnston ’04 joined Globalstar, Inc. as Assistant General Counsel. Globalstar is a publicly-traded satellite communications company headquartered in Covington, La. He was recognized as a top “40 Under 40” in the New Orleans area by Gambit Weekly for 2010 and also welcomed daughter Josephine Clarke Johnston born on September 5, 2010, pictured with big brother Milo.

2010s

When I received my undergraduate degree from Cornell, I went straight to the Jones School, because I knew I didn’t want to be an engineer forever, and I was always interested in business. My grandfather founded Hicksgas in 1940. However, taking over the company

only became a point of discussion when he was killed in an auto accident. During this difficult time, the family grappled with making sure my grandfather’s business would be taken care of. Since we took over management in 1989, Hicksgas has changed dramatically. We’ve completed 25 acquisitions. In order to continue growing, it made sense to merge with another company.

So, You Looked to the Jones School During the Merger?

Actually, I have turned to Jones School professors throughout my career. As a student, I worked for Randy Batsell. Cliff Atherton was my running partner.

When I went into consulting, I’d call Cliff, or Randy, just to run my decisions by them. When we were ready to take the family business to the next step in its growth,

Cliff Atherton, Professor in the Practice of Entrepreneurship, now offers a “Topics in Family Business Management” course and encourages alumni to register for the class as an audit. Go to business.rice.edu/Alumni_Lifelong_Learning.aspx for details.

I turned to the Jones School again. There are many qualified investment banks out there, but when you’re taking a huge step such as ours, it’s great to have someone like Cliff, whom we know well and trust.

Do You Consider Yourself an Entrepreneur?

Yes, I am an entrepreneur, and I am proud of that fact, but the distinction is not important. What’s important about being an entrepreneur is the fact that my brother and I run a family business to make it better — to make it grow. On a day-to-day basis, we focus on offering good products, our responsibility to our customers, and to our employees who trust us with their livelihood. As a consultant, I was advising companies on how to manage their business. But, as an entrepreneur, I have to take my advice and make the tough decisions which can impact the company significantly. Despite all the challenges, owning a business is very rewarding, especially seeing growth – in the company and in our employees.

Jones Journal SPRING 2011 35

Class Notes Alumni

alumni Resources

Visit JonesAlumni.com to learn more about the opportunities and resources for alumni.

Alumni Events 2010 Alumni Career Panel

Corporate Partnership Event

Amanda Spielman ’99

Steve Bradshaw, Rice ’70 / Luciano Reyes ’05

August 27, 2010 Alumni Career Services

Lifelong support for alumni throughout their careers;

February 7, 2011

Networking Opportunities Jones Graduate School Entrepreneurs Organization (JGSEO): The JGSEO provides the

confidential access to job postings and other online

systems, processes and social networks to bring together and support Jones alumni with real

resources, as well as avenues to recruit top caliber

world entrepreneurial experiences. Details are available at JGSEO.JonesAlumni.com.

students at the Jones School.

MBA Council of Houston (MBACH): The Jones School is a member institution of the MBA Council

therefore all alumni are invited to council programming events. These events provide a great opportunity to network with other MBAs in the area from member institutions that include HBS, Wharton, MIT,

Lifelong Learning

Discounts on Executive Education Open Enrollment

Texas, Tulane, Kellogg and others.

Wharton-Rice MBA Alumni Network: The Jones School is proud to collaborate with the Wharton Club

programs; custom programs for your corporation;

class audit opportunities; lecture series events;

of Houston. The Wharton-Rice MBA Alumni Network is designed to assist MBAs who are seeking

‘Alumni College’ weekend featuring a Jones School

employment opportunities and career advancement. All member schools of the MBA Council of Houston

faculty lectures on hot topics.

are invited to attend these meetings. Details available at WhartonRice.JonesAlumni.com.

Rice Business Network (RBN): Connect with fellow Rice alumni for a monthly networking lunch.

This is a great way to share business referrals and career opportunities while broadening your network

Online Networking Resources

See JonesAlumni.com for directions to join these

online networks: Jones Alumni Directory; official

JGSB groups on LinkedIn and Facebook.

JGSB Alumni Reunion Dinner

with the Rice alumni in the Houston area.

Jones Alumni Real Estate Club: A club for Jones alumni who are interested in building their network

October 15, 2010

in the real estate community via quarterly happy hours and other events.

Save the Date!

Cinco de Mayo 2011

Saturday, May 7 Bring the family and come back to Rice to reconnect with old friends and faculty. Lots of food, drink and family entertainment provided. RSVP for

Brian Harry ’99 / Sean Ferguson ’01 – Assistant Dean

the event at JonesAlumni.com.

Scott Sitton ’00 / Stuart Smith ’00

Alumni Get Involved Share your professional and life experiences with future business leaders in a variety of ways.

Alumni Mentoring Program Mentor a second-year Rice MBA student who is seeking first-hand information about prospective careers from professionals.

Through the mentoring program, alumni: • Cultivate a deeper connection with the JGSB and our students

Jones Alumni Volunteers for Admission (JAVA) The Jones School is actively seeking ambassadors from around the world to represent the school in attracting top-tier candidates to the Rice MBA program.

JAVA ambassadors may:

• Share professional and life experiences with future alumni and business leaders

• Interview prospective students

• Provide guidance in an ongoing relationship

• Counsel admitted students during the decision-making process

business.rice.edu

• Represent Rice at recruiting events

Alumni-Student Lunches The Alumni-Student Lunch Series is an opportunity for current students to meet with alumni. Lunches provide students an informal setting to gain insight into professional areas of interest and to engage the alumni in current happenings at the Jones School.

For more information about alumni involvement opportunities, visit JonesAlumni.com.

Moises Jaimes ’10 / Bill Arnold – Faculty Bryan Emerson ’96 / Duane Windsor – Faculty / Priscilla Plumb ’01 / Bruce Coe / Laura Emerson

For more event photos, go to the Jones School’s official Facebook page, business.rice.edu/facebook

Jones Journal SPRING 2011 37

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