<7 selected for Rice alumni board; president and president-elect announced>

 

 

<Seven alumni have been selected to serve on the Association of Rice Alumni (ARA) Board of Directors: Estevan Delgado ’13; Carol Der Garry ’83, ’85; Sten Gustafson ’89; Milinda McNeely ’79; Priya Prasad ’08; Shawn E. Simmons 99; and Mike Yuen ’89. They began their three-year terms July 1, when Bryan Guido Hassin ’01, ’02 became president of the ARA and Monique Shankle ’86 became president-elect.> 

 

Hassin
Bryan Hassin

Hassin is an energy technology entrepreneur and global startup leader. He is co-founder and CEO of

Third Derivative, a joint venture between Rocky Mountain Institute and New Energy Nexus that finds,

funds, hones and scales the most promising climate technologies around the world. Previously he has

led several global startups including Smart OES, Poken, R7 Solutions, and Antmachine. He received his

Master of Business Administration degree with honors and leadership distinction from IMD Business

School in Lausanne, Switzerland. He has a master’s in computer science and undergraduate degrees in

computer science and electrical and computer engineering from Rice, where he played football for the

Owls. He is married to Katie Barrett (Lovett ’04), with whom he co-chaired Rice’s Centennial

Homecoming and Reunion committee.

ShankleShankle is a legal consultant in the energy industry and has worked for various corporations

including Texaco, Enron, Technip, and Chevron. She graduated from Rice with a bachelor’s degree in

political science and earned a Master of Education degree from Texas Southern University and a Juris

Doctor degree from the University of Houston. She has volunteered with the Rice Alumni Volunteers for

Admissions and served as a member of Rice University Business and Professional Women, including on

its nominations committee. She may be active with the Association of Rice University Black Alumni and

is a co-chair for the category of 1986 Reunion Giving Committee. Additionally, Shankle has dedicated

her time to many local organizations in various capacities over the years.

DelgadoDelgado has a bachelor’s degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from Rice. After

graduating, he worked as a health care quality and risk analyst for Legacy Community Health before

serving as the senior project coordinator and research assistant on a Patient-Centered Outcomes

Research Institute award focused on patient decision-making regarding artificial organs at Baylor

College of Medicine’s Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy. He earned a master’s degree from

the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, during which time he

worked with Texas Court Appointed Special Advocates’ public policy and legislative advocacy division

during the 85th session of the Texas Legislature and interned in Washington, D.C., with then- U.S. Rep.

Gene Green of Texas.

Der GerryDer Garry holds a bachelor’s degree in managerial studies and psychology, a Master of

Business and Public Management degree, and a Master of Accounting degree from Rice. She is a

certified public accountant, licensed in Texas and California, and has 35 years of professional

experience. She lives in Arlington, Virginia, and is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Forensic

Risk Alliance (FRA), a global consulting firm that performs multijurisdictional corruption and fraud

investigations as well as forensic accounting, eDiscovery, litigation support, and compliance consulting

services. Prior to FRA, she was an associate director at the Public Company Accounting Oversight

Board’s Division of Enforcement and Investigations in D.C.

GustafsonGustafson is a natural resources industry executive and founder of Parliament Energy Capital

LLC, as well as a former investment banker and corporate and securities attorney based in Houston. He

earned his bachelor’s degree in 1989 from Rice — where he met his wife and former ARA board

member Sofia Adrogué ’88 — and his law degree in 1992 from the University of Houston. Gustafson has

three children, the youngest of whom, Stefan, served as the Rice baseball batboy for seven years. His

daughter Schuyler is a student in Rice’s Class of 2022. In addition to serving on the Rice University

Athletics Committee, Gustafson also serves on the boards of the RBI Club, the Owl Club, the Rice

Center for Career Development, and the Rice Initiative for the Study of Economics, and served on the

Rice University Initiative for Students Cabinet.

McNeelyMcNeely is head legal counsel at MGM Studios. At Rice, she serves on the School of Social

Sciences Advisory Board and is on the Annual Fund Reunion Giving Committee. She earned a

bachelor’s degree in political science from Rice in 1979 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Texas

at Austin in 1982. McNeely has one son, Avery “AC” Christopher Plum ’22, a member of Lovett College

studying in the School of Humanities who pitches for the Rice baseball team. A Rice Associate, McNeely

is a member of Rice Family Fellows and the Parents Leadership Council.

PrasadPrasad is counsel at Exxon Mobil Corp., primarily focused on advising on intellectual property

matters. She earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Rice and a law degree from the

University of Houston. From 2014-19, she served on the board of directors for Rice Engineering Alumni

and was president of the group from 2017-18. In 2018, she was awarded the young alumni Builders

Award in recognition of her volunteer service to Rice. 

Simmons Simmons is the environmental and permitting manager for the Gulf Coast Growth Venture for

Exxon Mobil Chemicals. Previously she was the water, waste, and state regulatory manager for the

Central Safety, Security, Health, and Environment Organization of Exxon Mobil. She has led global

teams as a supervisor responsible for environmental and regulatory issues in Africa, Asia-Pacific,

Australia, and Europe. From 2007-12, she worked and lived in Lagos, Nigeria, with her family. She has a

bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Oklahoma, a master’s in

environmental engineering from Rice, and a Ph.D. in environmental toxicology from Texas Southern

University. She has worked for Exxon Mobil for 20 years. 

 

Yuen received his Master’s in Business Administration degree from the Stanford Graduate School of

Business in addition to a master’s degree from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree from Rice

(Jones ’89). He retired as a partner at SPO Partners & Co., an investment group that managed over $8

billion in the capital, where he led the firm’s investments in wireless towers, offshore drilling contractors

and oil and gas producers. Earlier in his career, he worked at McKinsey & Company. Yuen has served on

the Stanford Graduate School of Business Management Board, the Harvard University China Advisory

Board, and the University of California, San Francisco Foundation Investment Committee. He currently

serves on the advisory board of Rice’s School of Humanities, the Menlo School Board of Trustees and

the Making Waves Foundation Board of Directors. He and his wife, Dr. Sandra Tsai (Brown College ’91),

are the parents of three boys.