Change Agent

When Rainier (Ray) Ventura, MBA ’07, graduated with a BS degree from Georgia Tech in computer engineering, he did what many graduates do—he changed career directions. As an undergrad, Ray had worked every other semester at NASA Johnson Space Center to pay for his tuition. While he valued the experience of working on projects that included space shuttle communications hardware, he wanted something more.

Ray applied for, and was accepted, into the University of Minnesota Law School in 2003. With the Carlson School of Management in such close proximity, it seemed only natural to get an MBA as well. In 2007, Ray received his JD emphasizing in corporate law and an MBA from the Carlson School.

“Everything felt like it clicked into place,” Ventura says. “I had started to become really interested in venture capital and entrepreneurship during law school and the Carlson School was offering students a chance to get real life experience in the Ventures Enterprise. I became more and more interested in the venture capital aspect of entrepreneurship. It was exciting working with people that had passion, energy and ideas.”

“Ventures Enterprise drove home for me the value of taking risks, and how common it is for new ventures to fail. It’s something I learned was normal,” he says. “Out here, I see how the corporate world is fearful of failure.” Ray advocates championing for change, something he calls the “Google” model. “There’s no one way to be successful. Ideas can turn up from anywhere. You need to be open, conscious, and ready to seize opportunities as they come along.”

Today Ray is an intellectual property attorney for IBM. “I’m still pursuing a lot of the same entrepreneurial initiatives, but on the legal side working closely with the people behind the ideas—IBM’s inventors,” he adds. “IBM has a huge patent portfolio that generates considerable licensing revenue and it depends on IP attorneys to identify those ideas likely to have the biggest impact on the market. It fits squarely with what I learned at Carlson and the Ventures Enterprise. These are the ideas that ultimately serve as the catalyst for change, so in a way I feel like I’m playing a part in reshaping the future.”