Meet The Rice Jones MBA Class Of 2026

Healthcare, Energy, Entrepreneurship.

It’d be hard to find three better fields to build a lucrative career. And Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business excels in all three

Take healthcare, where Rice Business is just a mile from the world’s largest medical complex – the Texas Medical Center. Picture 120,000 employees and 10-million patient encounters – daily case studies on the best practices in patient care. For Rice MBAs, that means being close to the action – and exposed to the biggest innovations in the field. More than that, this access translates to hands-on projects, partnerships, mentorships, and internships – opportunities that give Rice MBAs an edge in landing the best healthcare jobs.

The Healthcare specialization at Rice Business offers over two dozen courses, covering everything from insurance to customer experience to analytics. It boasts faculty like Prashant Kale, once ranked among the world’s Top 10 professors by Bloomberg Businessweek, and Tolga Tezcan, who earned the National Science Foundation’s Career Award for his research. That doesn’t include the adjunct practitioners that Rice Business draws in areas from cancer treatment to private equity. Such expertise and opportunities made the Rice MBA hard to resist for healthcare-oriented first-years like Michael Hart.

“Since my career in the Army involved healthcare, I was drawn to Rice Business because of the number of classes focused on the healthcare industry. These classes give me the opportunity to align my Army experience with the business side of healthcare. Houston also offers many business-related opportunities in health, as it is home to the world-renowned Texas Medical Center.”

THE ENERGY CAPITAL OF THE WORLD

Location also enhances the value of the Rice Business Energy specialization. Think 26 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the Houston metro – third-highest in the United States.  And many of those firms include energy royalty: ExxonMobil, Chevron, Phillips 66, ConocoPhillips, NRG Energy, and Halliburton. As a whole, Houston is home 3,700 energy companies, including over a third of all publicly-traded energy and gas companies according to the Greater Houston Partnership. In terms of pipelines, the region controls nearly 60% of natural gas and 33% of oil capacity. Even more, energy is responsible for employing nearly a quarter million people around Houston.

However, oil and gas are just part of the equation. Houston also boasts nearly 200 solar, wind, and battery storage firms. That doesn’t count 21 research and development centers and over 30 incubators and accelerators geared towards energy innovation and new ventures. Based on Rice University research, Texas ranks 1st for wind and solar energy production in the United States. In other words, Houston is the total package in energy. It offers employers, talent, and infrastructure across every step of the financing, generation, transportation, and maintenance phases. That doesn’t count Houston being home to the Port of Houston, one of North America’s busiest points for global trade, and NASA, which has long driven innovation in the energy field.

Not surprisingly, Rice Business has maintained deep ties with the energy sector. Each year, the school hosts its Rice Energy Finance Summit, which has drawn luminaries like Baker Hughes CEO Lorenzo Simonelli and Continental Resources CEO Doug Lawler. It also underwrites an Energy Case Competition that doles out $27,500 to winning teams annually. Among the coursework in the Rice Business Energy specialization, you’ll find topics like the Geopolitics of Energy, Energy Transition Investing, Capital Themes in Climate Tech, and Mobility and Energy Transition Dynamics.

Before pursuing her MBA at Rice Business last fall, Pasang Lhamo worked as a sustainability consultant focused on decarbonization strategies. She was drawn to how energy was integrated into the program beyond the specialization. “I sought to immerse myself in this field to understand the energy system on a global scale and learn from real-world applications. Being in the energy capital of the world, with one of the highest concentrations of energy professionals, I found that many core classes — including finance, accounting, economics and marketing — naturally incorporated cases from the energy sector.”

ENTREPRENEURIAL HUB

When it comes to Entrepreneurship, the Rice MBA consistently ranks among the world’s best, including #1 by The Princeton Review. In research conducted by Poets&Quants for the 2023-2024 school year, the Rice MBA ranked #1 in funding, giving out nearly $2-million dollars in funding – or nearly $13,000 per student. Long known as its personalized MBA experience with a 6:1 student-to-faculty ratio, Rice Business also provided a 4.3:1 ratio of startup mentors-to-students – 2nd-best in the world. Overall, Rice entrepreneurs average 50.7 hours with their mentors, again 2nd-most globally. Make no mistake: entrepreneurship is white-hot popular at Rice. 90.8% of Rice MBA students are involved with a startup in 2023-2024 – and that number was 91.8% among faculty. And Rice MBAs didn’t just gravitate to starting and supporting fledgling ventures. The program ranked 6th globally for placing students in private equity and venture capital from 2019-2023.

Such resources appealed to first-years like Giovanna Hughes, a Philosophy major and McKinsey alum, who wanted to move from a “fast-paced” and “learn-as-you-go” style to something more “targeted” and “close-knit.”

Veni Elizabeth Peter, an Engineering and Computer Science who became an entrepreneur working in healthcare, echoes Hughes’ sentiments. “I was just 24 years old when I became a CEO in healthcare, which was an extremely rewarding, albeit intimidating, experience,” she writes. “Having someone to show you the ropes is rarely an option in this space when you are the founder. “[The Texas Medical Center] and Rice Business have so many fearless and seasoned founders and CEOs, and I still remember the excitement that set in when I initially realized I’d have the opportunity to learn from them.”

LIVING THE LILIE LIFE

The Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship – popularly known as the Lilie Lab – is another resource for Rice MBA entrepreneurs. Covering 5,000 square feet, the Lilie Lab sponsors a Launchpad for mentorship and funding and a Change Maker Summit to tackle the biggest global issues through entrepreneurship. It also provides competitions, speakers, a venture fund and seven clubs that address areas like digital solutions, female founders, and product design. On top of that, Lilie produces 36 startup-focused courses covering finance, strategy, user experience, intellectual property, and product management.

Kyle Zarosky, a ’25 grad, points to Professor Al Danto’s Enterprise Acquisition as the best course he took at the Lilie Lab. “[Danto] made the process of buying a business straightforward and actionable. The course broke down everything from finding and valuing a company to structuring deals and identifying potential risks. The class was especially valuable as it provided a clear, practical framework for all students, whether they were interested in starting their own business or gaining a better understanding of the mergers and acquisitions process for investment banking.”

Veni Elizabeth Peter ranks the Lilie Lab among her best experiences in the Rice MBA so far. “The culture at the lab is incredibly supportive and cheerful. Any idea has potential at the Lilie Lab and everybody is willing to help you realize the dream you have. Whether you are a seasoned entrepreneur or just toying with the idea of starting a venture, Lilie Lab is the place you need.”

FROM SPACE OPERATIONS TO ARCTIC RESEARCH

Rice Business can also tap into the larger university’s resources. That starts with the Rice Alliance, which brings together university students, faculty, alumni, and supporters to turn ideas and research into solutions and ventures. One resource is the OwlSpark Accelerator, which has spun out over 100 ventures that have raised over $116 million dollars over the past 12 years. Another is the Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) – considered the largest competition of its kind. Over the past 25 years, RBPC startups have raised nearly $7 billion dollars, including $816 million dollars in the past year alone. In fact, five firms have gone on to become IPOs with a collective $5.2 billion dollar evaluation at time of sale. As a whole, the competition has attracted teams from 200 universities, including 41 American states and 22 countries. In April, the RBPC doled out over $1.8 dollars in prizes, led by 1st place finisher Intero Biosystems from the University of Michigan, which collected a $150,000 grand prize along with another $750,000 in prizes.

In the long-term, Madhulika Annam hopes to achieve similar success. As a first-year, Annam takes pride in the personal growth she has achieved since joining the Class of 2026. “I now have two entrepreneurial ideas that I’m deeply passionate about and fully immersed in developing. This organic shift in perspective in understanding the significance of strategy, product differentiation, marketing, and financial planning has been incredibly rewarding. The process of piecing these elements together to build and sustain a startup has been both challenging and enriching. More importantly, this journey has changed me as a person. I’ve learned to embrace trying new things, getting comfortable with failure, and seeing it as a stepping stone to growth.”

Before arriving in Houston, Annam worked as a senior mission operations manager at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) – India’s answer to NASA. She also spent 13 months on a research base in Antarctica, earning the nickname “Polar Woman.” Linda Clarke, a Houston native, already holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering. Clarke’s classmate, John McClure Jr., holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and last worked as a researcher at the University of Cambridge. At the same time, the class includes Michael Hart, who already holds a Master’s in Public Service Administration and served as a captain the U.S. Army’s Aeromedical Evacuation unit.

“I earned the Sikorsky Rescue Award — an award given by the Sikorsky Aircraft Company — for flying a lifesaving mission while piloting a Black Hawk,” he tells P&Q. “This honor encapsulates many accomplishments from my time in the service, which also included a deployment to Afghanistan and a rotation to South Korea, by acknowledging the real-life impact of my work.”

‘A LAPTOP, A DREAM, AND A NAPKIN’

Pasang Lhamo made an impact at JPMorgan Chase’s Portfolio Analytics Group, where she helped to usher in the inclusion of ESG metrics in client reports. She carried that experience over to Sia Partners, where she launched the firm’s ESG business development practice.

“It was exciting to connect with others and find meaningful ways to collaborate, creating new opportunities for the company. I had the pleasure of presenting on ESG to the entire Sia Partners U.S. team, which enabled me to build connections across various verticals, including fintech and banking. This experience helped us discover new collaboration opportunities and explore how the ESG framework could be effectively leveraged.”

Veni Elizabeth Peter also possesses a penchant for starting things – ventures to be exact. She entered business school after launching three startups – two of which are still operating. “I remember starting my journey with a laptop, a dream, and a paper napkin on which I had a skeleton of my idea. I had resigned my day job at Amazon and decided to go through with the startup dream. Very few people thought I was doing the right thing. I never imagined that I would eventually launch two more startups, grow them into large teams, make an impact, and be able to talk about them with such pride — let alone end up here at Rice and share my story.”

Next Page: An interview with Dean Peter Rodriguez

Page 3: A profile of 11 members of the MBA Class of 2026

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