In this Real Humans: MBA Students, we head to Houston to meet some new members of the MBA Class of 2027 at Rice University Jones Graduate School of Business (Rice Business).
Rice Business’s MBA Class of 2027 is a tight-knit cohort of purposeful career-switchers anchored by Houston’s opportunity and a collaborative culture. Licensed architect Leighton Douglass arrived intent on translating design rigor into real estate development and is already tapped into the Real Estate Association and Rice’s mentor-rich alumni network. Former Baker Hughes supply-chain pro Taylor Smith chose Rice for its Southern-rooted community, diversity, and #1 graduate entrepreneurship ecosystem as she explores HR, strategy, and scaling a career coaching side hustle. Then, Chevron wells engineer and Rice alum Ivan Tapia returned to campus to parlay field and planning experience into consulting, PE, or ETA, driven by two-way mentorship and deep ties to the energy sector. We also meet Lotanna Ohazuruike, who brings a rare blend of PhD-level petroleum engineering and Bain consulting to pursue strategy, finance, and operations at scale. Deal-tested M&A operator Michael Miller is leveraging Rice’s investment-banking pipeline to pivot into energy IB, while Division I swimming grit powers his team-first approach. And, finally, attorney Michael Stallworth, fresh from media/tech law, is pairing legal insight with an MBA toolkit to move into strategy and business development in entertainment and tech.
Get to know these new Rice Business MBAs and their advice for admissions in the following pages.
