Answers

Material

• Brazos Solar Works path: Project Engineer on ERCOT interconnection for 9 projects (2022-24), then Senior PM leading 3 projects / 520 MW with a team of 4 This is the spine of the resume he's holding. Walking the jump from engineer to developer shows him where your scope grew.
• Pecan Bayou (3-2 abatement loss, 14 meetings, $212M close) and Cypress Draw ($340K write-off, ~$6M avoided) These are the two resume lines he will most want to dig into later. Plant them briefly as hooks rather than telling them in full.
• Winter Storm Uri: your Lone Star Grid internship analyzing outage data, plus your family in Alief without power for four days This connects your background to your Nigeria solar-plus-storage goal without reciting Essay A, which he hasn't read.

The angle

Martin only has your resume, so this answer sets which stories he probes. You want him to see someone who moved from load flows to winning over a county, and who is now heading toward financing distributed storage for manufacturers like your uncle's in Aba. He has closed ERCOT deals through contested abatements and learned most from landowner negotiations, so name Pecan Bayou and Cypress Draw plainly and let him pull on them.

Talking points

1. Start at Georgia Tech Industrial Engineering and the Summer 2021 Uri outage analysis at Lone Star Grid. Link it in one line to your own house in Alief going dark.
2. Project Engineer years: ERCOT queues for 9 projects, the Python deadline tracker, onboarding 2 engineers (leave the Luis story as a hook only).
3. Senior PM shift: 3 projects, 520 MW, team of 4. Name Pecan Bayou's failed vote and Cypress Draw's walk-away in one breath each, and stop there.
4. Outside work, briefly: lead tutor at Third Ward Homework House (11 of 14 passed) and the Women in Engineering lunches (5 to 31 regulars).
5. Close on the Aba workshop's diesel spend, why that sends you to Stanford now, and one specific link such as Startup Garage or Stanford Seed.

Avoid: Don't tell the full Pecan Bayou story here. In 2-3 minutes it will crowd out everything else, and he'll ask for it anyway. Also, he is a project-finance investor: don't say you 'closed' the $212M financing unless you can explain exactly what your role in it was.

Material

• Essay A closing: Brazos taught you development but not how to raise capital, price risk in naira or build a company from nothing It names the exact skill gaps the degree has to close, so your reason is concrete.
• Pecan Bayou $212M financial close (Aug 2026) It shows you've worked next to financing but from the developer side, which is where the gap shows.
• Your uncle's plastics workshop in Aba: 22 employees, nearly a third of revenue spent on diesel It turns the MBA from self-improvement into a means to a specific values-based end.

The angle

Your reason is not 'grow as a leader.' You can take a project from land control to close in ERCOT, but you've never raised equity, priced currency risk or built a company. Show that the MBA fills those three named gaps between what Brazos taught you and the Nigeria business. Martin closes deals for a living, so precision about what you can and can't do yet will land better than ambition.

Talking points

1. Start briefly from reliable power: your father fixing generators in Alief during Uri, then your uncle's diesel bill in Aba
2. Name what Brazos gave you: 3 projects, 520 MW, Pecan Bayou to $212M close
3. Name the three gaps plainly: raising capital, pricing naira risk, building from zero
4. Say why on-the-job learning won't close them: what is your role on the Pecan Bayou financing, and what did you not see?
5. Tie each gap to how you'd close it at school, without listing courses yet

To think about

What exactly did you do, and not do, on the $212M close? Did you sit in on lender or tax equity discussions? Martin will ask.

Avoid: Retelling Essay A in full. He hasn't read it. Use the Uri story as a two-line setup, not the answer. Don't claim finance experience you didn't own.

Material

• Essay B: battery costs have fallen enough to make your uncle's case a business rather than a charity It's an external change that makes the timing real.
• Promotion to Senior PM in Jan 2025 and the full Pecan Bayou recovery through Aug 2026 close You've finished one full development cycle as the lead, so you've learned what Brazos teaches.
• Cypress Draw walk-away: $340K written off, about $6M avoided It shows you already make capital-risk calls and have reached the edge of your current toolkit.

The angle

Give two clocks: your own, since you've now taken a project from a failed vote to financial close as the lead, and the market's, since storage costs have changed the economics for small Nigerian manufacturers. Martin invests in storage, so he'll test the cost claim. Be ready to say what changed in the numbers and when.

Talking points

1. Two years ago: Project Engineer running ERCOT studies, not yet owning a project end to end
2. What changed: Pecan Bayou from the 3-2 vote in March 2025 to the $212M close in August 2026, with you leading
3. The market clock: battery costs. What figure or trend convinced you diesel-versus-solar-plus-storage now works for a 22-person shop?
4. Why not wait two more years: what would another Brazos project teach you that you don't already know?

To think about

What specific battery cost data or rough unit economics for your uncle's workshop make it a business now? Have you run any numbers?

Avoid: Vague 'costs have fallen' talk in front of a storage investor. Either bring a rough number or say honestly what you still need to test.

Material

• Pecan Bayou Solar recovery: 3-2 failed abatement vote, 14 community meetings, panels moved 300 feet, hiring pledge at 1.5% not 4%, abatement passed Nov 2025, $212M close Aug 2026 Your biggest, most measurable result, with a clear before and after and your own role from 2025 on.
• Your own push for an early vote in 2024, and Mr. Holcomb saying nobody knocked on his door It shows you owned the setback, and that ownership makes your later actions believable.

The angle

Pecan Bayou lets you show impact you caused and can trace step by step: you chose to start with the opponents, and you pulled two concrete fixes, glare and jobs, out of 14 meetings. Martin closed two deals through contested county abatements and learned most from landowner negotiations, so he will test whether you really sat in those churches and that feed store. Keep the focus on what you decided and said, not on the team's outcome.

Talking points

1. Set up the 3-2 vote in March 2025 and admit your 2024 push for the early vote
2. Why you asked to start with the opponents, and how you picked the venues
3. The two concerns you heard, and the call to pull 40 acres back 300 feet: who you had to convince internally?
4. The contractor's 4% labor estimate and how you got it to 1.5%
5. Results: abatement passed eight months late, $212M financial close, Mr. Holcomb speaking in favor

To think about

What did the 300-foot setback cost in MW or economics, and who at Brazos signed off on it? What exactly did you say to the contractor to move them from 4% to 1.5%?

Avoid: Martin knows abatements and will ask what the eight-month delay cost the project, so don't treat the late approval as a clean win. Have the numbers ready, and be clear which parts were your team's work, like the redesign and the financing.

Material

• Senior PM, team of 4 (2 engineers, land analyst, permitting coordinator) on 3 projects, 520 MW Your daily leadership of people, not one heroic moment.
• Pecan Bayou recovery: 14 community meetings, abatement passed Nov 2025, $212M close Aug 2026 A team effort with a clear arc and a hard result an infrastructure investor will respect.
• Lead tutor planning lessons for 6 volunteer tutors; 11 of 14 passed vs 6 of 13 Backup if he wants leadership without formal authority.

The angle

Martin closed two deals through contested county abatements, so Pecan Bayou will be read by someone who knows exactly how that work gets divided. Show how you ran your four people through the eight-month recovery: who did land, who did permitting, what you took on yourself. The test is daily team leadership, not you alone in a feed store.

Talking points

1. Set scene: took over Pecan Bayou in 2025 after the 3-2 vote, with your team of 4
2. How you split work: land analyst, permitting coordinator, engineers on the 300-foot panel setback
3. Your own piece: the 14 meetings and the contractor negotiation, 4% ask down to 1.5%
4. How you kept the team going through eight months of delay: what did you do week to week?
5. Result: November vote, $212M close; one thing you'd run differently with the team

To think about

What did each of your four team members actually do on Pecan Bayou, and was there a moment one of them struggled or disagreed with your plan?

Avoid: Telling it as a solo community story (your essay version) and leaving the team invisible; expect 'who did the redesign?' follow-ups.

Material

• Pile-foundation dispute between civil contractor and engineering lead, settled by 40-pile load test ($85K, saved $1.3M) A real two-sided conflict you resolved with evidence.

The angle

Your resume shows you broke a stalemate between your contractor and your own engineering lead by paying for data rather than picking a side. Martin reads site plans before models, so he'll want the technical substance and the human side: what each person said and how you kept your engineering lead's trust.

Talking points

1. The disagreement: what the contractor claimed vs what your engineering lead claimed about the piles
2. Why you didn't just side with your own engineer
3. Proposing the 40-pile field load test, and getting $85K approved: from whom?
4. How each side reacted to the results and the redesign
5. Outcome: $1.3M saved; how the relationship with the lead stood afterward

To think about

What did each side actually say, and how did the person who turned out to be wrong take it?

Avoid: Turning it into a pure engineering story; he will ask you to reenact the conversations, so know the words used.

Material

• The line to Luis Ortega after the missed ERCOT deposit: 'The miss is the system's fault and mine; the next one would be yours.' It's the one conversation in your file where you already have the actual words, so you can reenact it without making anything up.
• Asking your director for six weeks instead of moving Luis off interconnection work It was a second conversation, upward and higher-stakes, and the interviewer will likely ask what you said there too.
• Negotiating the local-hiring pledge with the contractor who quoted a 4% labor-cost increase It shows how you talk to a counterparty, not just a junior, if the probe lands on Pecan Bayou.

The angle

Martin dealt with landowners and contractors himself, and he will want the actual words, not a summary. Your Luis line works because it splits blame clearly between the system, you and Luis. Be ready to say it plainly and then explain why you put 'mine' in it. Have the director and contractor conversations ready at the same level of detail.

Talking points

1. Set the scene: Luis's third month, the deposit two days late, the queue position at risk
2. Say the line to Luis as you said it, then stop and let it land
3. Explain why you took part of the blame and drew a line at 'the next one'
4. Give the words you used with your director to get the six weeks
5. If he moves to Pecan Bayou: what you said to the contractor when they quoted 4%

To think about

What did you actually say to your director, and to the contractor when you pushed back on the 4%? Can you recall Luis's reply?

Avoid: Don't polish the quote into something smoother than you really said. If you don't remember the exact words, say so and give the gist. Inventing dialogue will fall apart under follow-ups.

Material

• The 2024 early abatement vote you pushed for, with one community meeting held, and the 3-2 failure Answering 'what led to it' honestly means owning that your push caused the first loss.
• Mr. Holcomb, the cattle rancher who said nobody had knocked on his door He is a named person whose response changed, ending with him speaking in favor at the second hearing.
• The cast: your manager, the county commissioners, the civil contractor, and your current VP Dana Whitfield Martin has closed two deals through contested county abatements and will test whether you understand every party's interests.

The angle

Martin knows how abatement fights work, so a vague 'stakeholders' answer won't hold up with him. Lay out the chain: you wanted to hold the construction slot, so you argued for an early vote, and that meant skipping the door-knocking. Then go through how each party responded, both in March and in November.

Talking points

1. Start with the cause: your argument to hold the construction slot, and your manager agreeing
2. Say the gap plainly: one community meeting before the vote
3. Mr. Holcomb at the hearing, and how the 3-2 vote split
4. Who changed and why: glare on the county road, local jobs, the 40 acres moved back 300 feet
5. How the contractor, the commissioners and Holcomb each responded by November 2025

To think about

Which commissioners flipped, and what moved them? How did your manager or Dana react when you asked to start with the opponents?

Avoid: Don't blur your 2024 role into 'the team decided.' The resume reads as a recovery story, so be the one who brings up that you caused the problem.

Material

• Essay B: Startup Garage, Doerr School energy policy courses, Stanford Seed's work with African entrepreneurs These are the specific offerings you named; your questions should test whether they actually serve the Nigeria solar-plus-storage company, not just repeat that you like them.
• Essay B line about Admit Weekend alumni saying classmates pushed back on their plans Gives you a real thread to pull with an alum: ask him whether a classmate ever changed his course, which builds the relationship the dean describes.
• Essay A gaps: raising capital, pricing risk in naira, building a company from nothing Martin moved from field engineering to infrastructure private equity, so he can speak to exactly the finance gap you say you have.

The angle

Martin was a field engineer who learned most from landowner negotiations, went to GSB, and now closes ERCOT storage deals, some through contested abatements like Pecan Bayou. Your questions should use that overlap to test fit for your plan: how GSB actually turned an engineer into someone who prices and raises capital, and whether Seed and Startup Garage can carry a Nigeria venture. Ask for his experience and judgment, not facts you could find on the website.

Talking points

1. Ask how GSB changed the way a former field engineer like him reads a deal, given your own gap in raising capital and pricing risk
2. Ask whether Energy Club or classmates ever pushed back on his plans, tying it to the Admit Weekend comment that drew you
3. Ask his honest read on testing a Nigeria solar-plus-storage model through Startup Garage and Seed. Did he see emerging-market energy ventures work there?
4. Ask about the Arbuckle Leadership Fellow role or Leadership Lab squads, connecting to how you went from Luis's mentor to leading a team of 4
5. Which of these would you drop if time runs short? Pick your top two before the interview.

To think about

Which question would you ask that you genuinely don't know the answer to and that could change your decision to attend? And have you thought about what you'd want to know about naira or currency risk from an investor's view?

Avoid: Don't turn this section into a pitch of your Nigeria plan or a re-run of Pecan Bayou. He has heard about 15 applicants a year since 2016, so a website-level question like 'what's the culture like' won't land. Also don't flatter his career or quiz him on his abatement deals as if you'd researched his profile in detail. Keep it to curious, specific questions and listen to the answers.