Class Notes

1977

Lyman Paden ‘77
Lyman’s twins are college sophomores — his daughter at Reed College (Portland, Oregon) and his son at St. John’s College (Annapolis, Maryland). Because he lives a block from the Rice campus, that option was too close. Now they’re as far apart from their parents and each other as they could arrange. Lyman continues practicing law at Baker Botts and is still involved with the Boy Scouts even though his son has aged out. He completed his second Philmont trek last summer.

1984

Michael Kane ‘84
Michael has been in Los Angeles for 34 years and co-founded Caltius Capital Management in 1997. He has been married to his wife, Cindy, for 34 years. She was earning a master’s in epidemiology at UT School of Public Health after he graduated from Rice. They have a 29-year-old son and 26-year-old daughter. He has been active in Lilie and OwlSpark in order to help Rice grads with startups and has endowed a need-based scholarship in undergraduate econ.

1987

Mary Bourne-Marth ‘87
On Jan. 1, Mary and her husband lost their Hill Country dream home and two dear kitties to a house fire. Thanks to the efforts of four fire departments and at least 10 trucks, her neighbors and friends among them, the fire did not reach their guest house or barn and horses. She is living in their guest house for the next year while they rebuild. Words cannot express her gratitude at the outpouring of support she has received from friends, family, neighbors and the wonderful Rice Business alumni relations folks who sent a really nice care package. Their son, Carl, was visiting them from his Ph.D. studies in Berkeley and was their rock, remaining calm and supportive. Mary’s words of advice: 1) Check your appliance power connections — the cause of their fire was determined to be a crimped dishwasher power cord. 2) Get a fire and waterproof safe and put all of your vehicle titles, marriage and birth certificates, passports and important papers in it. 3) Don’t believe others when they say nothing is salvageable. Mary was able to recover most of her jewelry, the guitar she has played and carried all over the world with her since she was 16, their wedding album and her son’s baby album. Where there is hope and determination, a silver lining can be found. Anyone who has graduated from Rice Business knows the value of perseverance and positivity. Much love and gratitude to everyone who has helped her through this difficult start to 2023.

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1992

Tarig Anani ‘92
Tarig is happy to report that he moved to Dallas, Texas, and joined the McCathern Law Firm as a partner and head of their corporate department.

1993

Cathy Pereira ‘93
After a long, fruitful career in accounting both in Big 4 and industry, Cathy has changed focus and is now practicing enterprise risk management (ERM). She has been working for Mastercard in Europe for the last eight years, first as the regional controller and now as the risk program lead for the region. The COVID pandemic has been useful in terms of opening up possibilities to work in different locations and has resulted in Cathy and her family being able to move back to Madrid where she started her career 30 years ago. She would love to connect with classmates from the Class of 1993!

1997

Mark Williamson ‘97
After sourcing a Florida firm that produces green hydrogen via its own patented photobiocatalytic system, Mark is the clean energy partner at Techas Capital in Dallas.

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2003

Jeff Lanier ‘03
Jeff recently had his first book, “For the Minds and Wills of Men,” published in October 2022. The novel is a historical art mystery set in 1950s New York: a story of art, love, Cold War fear, suspicion and betrayal.

With post-World War II New York, 1950s avant-garde art world and the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings as background, the novel tells the story of abstract expressionism and mid-century American politics through the thrilling search for a stolen Jackson Pollock. The novel has recently won two Royal Dragonfly awards for first place historical fiction and first place new novel.

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2008

Colin Caughran ‘08
Colin and his wife, Lisa, dipped their toes into the entrepreneurship world, becoming small business owners after acquiring a strength and powerlifting gym, Stronger Faster Strength & Conditioning Gym, at the end of 2022. The facility is located in the Rice Military area off Washington Avenue and offers six group strength classes daily.

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Alejandro Cestero ‘08
Alejandro recently began a new role as general counsel at Virtuoso Ltd., the leading global network of agencies specializing in luxury and experiential travel, with more than 23,000 advisers. The company partners with over 2,200 of the world’s best companies and organizations ranging from hotels to cruise lines, airlines, tour operators, tourism authorities/governmental ministries, and many more. With headquarters in Fort Worth and offices across the U.S. and globally on six continents, he will be working remotely from Houston and plans to visit the headquarters at least once a month. Alejandro looks forward to seeing everyone soon.

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2011

Dylan Hedrick ‘11
With no opposition in the citywide election May 6, Dylan will soon begin his third and final term as city councilman for the city of Garland, Texas. It has been his absolute honor and privilege to serve the citizens of Garland over the past four years.

In his final two-year term, he is looking forward to continuing the implementation of the 2019 Bond Program, improving the condition of the streets and alleys, and building up the city through economic development initiatives.

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2013

Anthony Bilotto ‘13
Anthony is leading the product transformation for Wells Fargo Technology Infrastructure.

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Wendy Fong ‘13
Wendy has combined forces with Shelly Nixon as partners at talent and strategy consulting firm Chief Gigs. They work across industries from engineering to health care to help organizations solve people- and team-related challenges.

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Sara Hesson Wagner ‘13
Sara and her husband, Erik, recently launched a social marketplace for wine, called Sommly. Sommly has been featured in the Austin Business Journal, graduated from Texas Venture Labs’ accelerator and is a current participant in the Golden Ticket incubation program with The Capital Factory. The marketplace launched in October and has seen great traction between organic traffic and sales, as well as promotions and partnerships ranging from the State Fair of Texas, to Antonelli’s Cheese, to podcasts and catering events.

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2014

Laura Messier ‘14 and Ben Messier ‘15
The Messier clan is still living in Colorado, and they have moved to a new family home in Cherry Hills Village. Ben helped take his company, Vitesse Energy (NYSE: VTS), public and is now director of investor relations. Laura is now in new ventures business development at BPX (BP), where she is focused on energy transition.

2017

Margaret Schneider ‘17
Margaret presented best practices in three sessions on customer retention at CrowdStrike’s Sales Kick Off in Las Vegas.

2019

Sina Yilu ‘19
Congratulations to Sina, who welcomed his second daughter on Jan. 20!

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2021

Alex Bower ‘21
Alex recently accepted a new role with IBM as an associate partner. He works in IBM’s consulting business, supporting the federal health care account.

Ben Clemenceau ‘21
At the end of 2022, Ben received an early promotion to manager within Accenture’s strategy consulting practice.

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Robert Godinez ‘21
Robert was promoted to project execution manager. He works for Carbon America and leads some of the first carbon capture and sequestration projects in the United States.

Amr Radwan ‘21
After a journey toward improved mental and physical health, Amr will be opening Core360, a coreformer-based strength-building fitness studio a few blocks from campus at 2015 Southwest Freeway across from the Porsche dealership on Shepherd. The expected opening date is May 1, 2023.

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Casey Sherrod ‘21
Casey and her spouse, Amanda, recently founded Determined to Rise Animal Foundation (DTRAF), a 501(c)3 nonprofit for animals with a focus on the rescue and rehabilitation of abandoned, neglected, abused and injured animals. Their mission is to educate the community on proper pet care and reduce the population of animals in the shelter. They have fostered hundreds of animals throughout the past decade and are finally at a point where they can help at a larger scale. DTRAF is currently based out of Mokena, Illinois, but they network and assist with the well-being of animals nationwide.

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2022

Justin Chang ‘22
Congratulations to Justin and Joanna Wu ‘14, who were engaged in October 2022 and will marry in April 2023. Their wedding will take place in west Houston.

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Aaliyah Gibbons ‘22
Aaliyah is grateful for her wonderful experience at Rice Business. She has learned so much about the business world beyond what she could imagine, which has made her view ideas and plans from different perspectives. Since graduating last year, she has been promoted to assistant vice president at her job. She is very grateful for the professors, the education and her cohort for making her experience amazing!

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Brett Harmeling ‘22
Brett is launching Verijet, a carbon-neutral, private aviation company in Texas that he hopes will disrupt how people travel by unlocking the fourth wave of high-speed travel.

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Elizabeth Walton ‘22
Elizabeth started a new job as development associate with Kairoi Residential, where she’ll be focused on the design and construction of Waterline, a 1,022- foot-tall mixed-use tower in downtown Austin.

Chris White ‘22
Chris and his wife, Britton ‘14, who are both Rice alumni, purchased a business toward the end of last year. They took ownership of Social Pack Dogs, a dog day care and boarding facility located in Carrollton, Texas, on Jan. 1 of this year.

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Federico Zamar ‘22
Three months after graduation, Federico achieved his career goals by transitioning from engineering to corporate business, relocating from an oil service company in Midland, Texas, to an operator in Houston.