Nick Ferris

University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business

“Relentlessly optimistic builder turning a life-altering spinal cord injury into innovation, community, and impact.”

Hometown: Austin, TX

Fun Fact About Yourself: I partnered with NFL defensive end, DeMarcus Lawrence, for a specially designed adaptive workout at Adaptive Training Foundation, where he completed the entire session alongside me in a wheelchair.

Undergraduate School and Major: The University of Texas at Austin, BS in Petroleum Engineering

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Senior Operations Engineer at Pioneer Natural Resources

What makes Austin such a great place to earn an MBA? Austin is a city powered by innovation, humility, and heart. It is a place where founders sit next to students, where the health tech and biotech ecosystems are booming, and where community actually means something. For someone rebuilding and reinventing their life after injury, this environment creates an unmatched platform for growth, collaboration, and purpose driven leadership.

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of Texas McCombs’ MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? The Texas McCombs mission of “human centered, future focused” education is what drew me here. The emphasis on real-world impact directly aligned with my goals to make the world a better place for people with spinal cord injuries. McCombs was the one program where my values, my past, and my future truly converged.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Texas McCombs (and why)? Board Fellows. After my injury, the nonprofit world helped rebuild my life. Now I want to serve on the other side of that impact. Board Fellows gives me the chance to take lived experience, business development, and a service mindset and apply them to organizations creating real change for people with disabilities.

When you think of the University of Texas, what word comes to mind? Why? Belonging.
At McCombs, people rally around each other. Whether in classrooms, athletics, or moments of personal challenge, there is a shared pride and support system that makes you feel part of something bigger than yourself.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: As a water operations engineer, I designed and executed a multi-million-dollar infrastructure strategy for a 50+ mile pipeline network, identifying bottlenecks with field operations and partnering with land, reservoir, budgeting, drilling, and completions teams. Together, we increased pipeline capacity by 130% and reuse capacity by 92% to keep well development on schedule and protect revenue. At the same time, we implemented a real-time pressure monitoring system and automated valve control across the produced water system. This increased reuse utilization by 17% and strategically reduced disposal volumes in areas in active development, saving $24.6M in annual disposal costs and avoiding ~$50M in drilling exposure.

Looking ahead two years, what would make your MBA experience at McCombs successful? Success means leaving McCombs having built something that genuinely helps the disability community. Whether through my NoHandicap venture, adaptive technology partnerships, or nonprofit leadership, I want to graduate knowing I transformed both my career path and the opportunities available to people following a similar journey. If I leave with deeper relationships, a stronger sense of purpose, and momentum toward meaningful innovation, I will have succeeded.

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