Meet the Rice Jones MBA Class of 2018

Stephen Sibley

Rice University, Jones Graduate School of Business

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: I am an avid sports fan who loves practical jokes and spending time with people.

Hometown: Houston, TX

Fun Fact About Yourself: Two years ago, I would have bet my life savings (which really wouldn’t have been much) that I would never return to business school…. it’s funny how things work out.

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business – BBA, Finance

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation: Apache Corporation – Production Coordinator; Cadence Bank – Analyst, Associate, Assistant Vice President of Commercial Real Estate

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far:  The biggest accomplishment in my career so far was working with Paul Murphy, the Chairman of Cadence Bank, on a presentation that he delivered to the Houston Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

 Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants? My advice for future business school applicants is to make sure to get to know the admissions and recruiting staff at the various schools that you may be considering. First, it allows them to match a face with the name, and gives them a perspective of who is behind the application. It is much easier to reject a paper application than it is to reject a person. I would also recommend that future applicants look closely for any deadlines that may be associated with potential scholarship opportunities at a school, and try to plan accordingly. Any scholarship help that you can get is one less thing to worry about over the next two years, and beyond.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA?  I chose Rice because it felt like home.  When visiting the campus, I could tell that it was a very familial environment driven in part by the small class size (~100 full-time students per year).  This was particularly important to me as I feel like I excel when working with a smaller group of people that I know well.

 Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? At this point, my dream job is to start and grow a commercial real estate investment and development fund.  Having worked in real estate finance for the last few years, I have discovered that I really enjoy the real estate business. The commercial real estate world is very relationship-oriented, which I find appealing. I also like the prospect of being able to create a positive impact on the physical world around us, while also generating a profit for shareholders. I would love to know that a building which I develop would serve people functionally long past my lifetime.

 What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program?  I hope that upon graduation, my business school peers would say, “Stephen is a good friend that positively impacted my life; I hope to get to work with him again in the future.”  My goal is to always positively influence those around me, and I think the biggest endorsement that I could get would be for people to want to continue working with me.