Facilities’ Price balances work, school to earn Jones School MBA

BY LINDSEY FIELDER
Rice News staff

Rather than working at commencement this year, Russell Price was participating in the ceremony. After two years of hard work, the assistant vice president for facilities received his MBA.

Going through the 22-month Executive MBA (EMBA) program at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice, Price had to balance the duties of his job in Facilities, Engineering and Planning (FE&P) with the rigorous coursework. “It was definitely a challenge,” he said. “But that’s part of the EMBA program. Everybody works and has to keep up with the workload at the same time.”

Price would read on his lunch break and study after work until about 11 each night. Every other weekend he spent Friday and Saturday in the classroom. Weekly study-group meetings met in Price’s office on campus. Every moment of time outside of his position at Rice was spent on his schoolwork.

“I have a very understanding wife,” he said. “I believe in lifelong learning and continuing education, so she knew I wanted to do this to improve my skills for me and my department [at Rice].”

A self-proclaimed “late bloomer,” Price received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston in 2001. His daughter received her master’s degree from George Washington University the week after Price walked at commencement this year.

Price was going through Rice’s EMBA program at the same time his son was studying for his MBA at Stanford University.

“We even studied together when I went to California for a visit,” Price said. “Studying with my son in the library at Stanford was a really neat experience.”

Being an executive at Rice was a major factor in his decision to pursue the EMBA program. “[Former dean of the Jones School] Gil Whitaker kept encouraging me, and he didn’t give up on me,” Price said. “The timing was finally right, and I received a scholarship, so I couldn’t turn the opportunity down.”

Price said the staff at Rice — particularly in FE&P — was incredibly supportive. “Not one day went by that I didn’t get encouragement from people in my own department or around campus,” he said. “They knew what I was going through, and they worked to make it easier for me.”