Business Gurus
- Joel Ferguson - CEO, consultant, and entrepreneur
extrodinaire. Last semester he taught UNIV 313: Entrepreneurial Leadership,
which continues to be one of the most well-received courses at Rice.
"Joel
serves is a senior advisor to private company leaders, specializing in
helping emerging companies--privately-owned organizations with up to
$25 Million in revenues. Joel has over 25 years of business experience, having served as CEO and CFO of Cordúa Restaurants, an award-winning
independent restaurant chain (creators of Churrascos, Américas,
Amazón Grill and Artísta); as Managing Partner of the Houston office
of Pannell Kerr Forster Worldwide, an international CPA
and consulting firm; and as founder and owner of two
consulting firms. Joel is a graduate of
Rice University and its Jones Graduate School of Management, with degrees in Economics, Management, and Accounting."
- Karl Maier - Distinguished consultant and
entrepreneur from the Houston area and president of the Rice Business Network.
"Karl works for DRDA, a CPA and Business Consulting firm specializing
in smaller mid-market companies. He provides operational financial consulting services to companies in
turnarounds, rapid growth and profit improvement situations. Karl
has a diverse background including the following experiences:
* Entrepreneur: He founded two
software companies,
* CFO: Karl served as the CFO for an
industrial distribution company for five
years,
* Banking: Karl worked for major financial institutions
in operational and internal consulting roles for six
years, and
* Analysis: Karl started his career in the
consulting group with Ernst & Whinney (now Ernst
& Young).
Karl received his Bachelors degree in
Economics from Rice University. He also received an MBA from Rice
in 1985. He is a CPA (licensed in Texas). Karl's community
activities include serving as the President of the Rice Business
Network, a member of the Turnaround Management Association and a volunteer for West U Express Soccer. Some of the
services Karl commonly provides to his clients include providing Comprehensive Business Assessments to quickly identify
hidden profits and action items to achieve these profits. He
develops Business Models to inexpensively evaluate the intended and
unintended impact of product, personnel and business decisions.
Karl designs specialized Management Information Systems to support effective business decisions and
increase profits."
- Bryan Emerson
- Local Houston venture capitalist with achievements that are
international in scope. He has extensive experience in both high-tech and low-tech industries, and is
currently the president of Starlight Capital, Inc.
"Mr. Emerson is the President of Starlight Capital, Inc. In addition to his Series 7, 24, 27, and 63 licenses,
he was elected to a current 3 year term on the NASD District VI committee,
serves on the national NASD technology committee and has made himself available
for arbitration cases. He is highly attentive to protecting the interests of his
clients, their investors, and the Starlight representatives.
His business experience includes extensive financial, marketing and
project management experience in a variety of international high- and
low-technology industries, with multi-national companies, entrepreneurial
ventures, and as an accredited investor. An indicative endeavor was the personal
investment and management of a roll up of five small telecommunications
companies into a global firm which grew to $150 mm, during which time, Mr. Emerson lived in Mexico City
for 2 years and worked all over Latin America for ten, developing a customer
base of embassies, corporations, and individuals. He is fluent in Spanish and
has grammatical and conversational skills in French, Portuguese and
Japanese.
Mr. Emerson's community
involvement includes active roles in expanding educational, investment, and
business development opportunities in Houston, particularly in board and
advisory positions at Rice University, University of Houston, Houston
Achievement Place, and Aegis Capital Group
Mr. Emerson received his B.A.
with Honors in Spanish and Economics from Hamilton College in New York and his
M.B.A. from the Jones School of Administration at Rice University."