Born and raised in Mexico, Daniel Gutierrez knew from an early age he wanted to build a career in economics. 

In 2009, Daniel and his wife moved to San Antonio to join the North American Development Bank as a senior analysis and structuring specialist. North American Development Bank is a binational financial institution, established by the governments of the U.S. and Mexico, that supports the development of infrastructure in the areas of potable water, wastewater treatment and solid waste, as well as projects aimed at improving air quality, conserving water, reducing energy consumption and developing renewable energy sources for communities located in the U.S.- Mexico border region.

While in this role, Daniel decided to pursue his MBA and joined the Professional MBA program at Rice Business in 2012. Since graduating, Daniel has remained with North American Development Bank, and is currently the associate director of asset management. 

He joins host Maya Pomroy this episode to discuss growing up in Mexico in the 80s during inflation, NAFTA, how going to Rice Business’ Diversity Preview Weekend changes his life's path, receiving an Owl Award for best Capstone project for Ovarcome, a Houston-based ovarian cancer nonprofit founded by another Rice Business alum, and the lessons he learned during his time at Rice. 

Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

How Mexican leaders can prepare for the future

13:16 - To build the next generation of leaders in Mexico, they have to think about where they want to develop their MBA studies or studies of where they can learn leadership, all the skills the MBA program grants, and critical thinking ability. All those skills will be needed in the next years—in the next 20, 30 years, the border region between Mexico and the US is going to become very dynamic. It's probably going to be one of the greatest times to be involved in an MBA program and to use those knowledge to make great things happen in Mexican businesses.

15:40 - The importance of teamwork definitely was something that I recognized from what was taught to me at Rice. And I still consider teamwork as one of the important elements of my daily working life.

On his evolving interest on artificial intelligence

21:41 - I'm excited about all that kind of wave of artificial intelligence coming up and bringing every debate.
Copyright issues, schools that are worried that students will use that technology to present their essays, stuff like that. But the real discussion is how are we going to train the next generation to use or leverage this technology. For the betterment of human beings, for the betterment of humanity.

Show Links:

• North American Development Bank
• Ovarcome
• Transcript

Guest Profile:

• Daniel’s LinkedIn