Raji Aiyer
Director of Employer Relations
Raji Aiyer is the Director of Employer Relations at the Rockwell Career Center of the C.T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston (UH). Before joining this position, Raji managed national sales and marketing teams at Paramount Pictures, CBS Television, Showtime Networks, and WEA (a division of the Warner Music Group). She has also provided marketing and operations consulting services to non-profit organizations and start-ups.
Raji, an alumna of Bauer’s Executive MBA program, holds an M.A. in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica and a B.B.A. in Marketing from the University of Texas at Austin. She is currently the advisor for the New Millennial/GenZ Community organization. Raji is passionate about connecting employers with students and faculty for experiential learning opportunities.
Specialties and Interests
Business Development, Sales, MarketingAudience
EmployersIndustries
Business Services (Event Planning / Executive Search / HR / Recruitment Firm / Staffing)ConsultingGovernment (Federal/State/City) / Law Enforcement / Military ServiceOliver Blanco
Assistant Director of Employer Engagement
Oliver Blanco is the Assistant Director of Employer Engagement at the Rockwell Career Center at the C. T. Bauer College of Business. He previously served on the MBA/MS Career Counseling team from 2013 to 2020 and the BBA Career Counseling team from 2007 to 2013. In his current role, Oliver partners with employers to design strategic recruitment plans and connect them with top Bauer BBA, MBA, and MS talent.
Drawing on experience in both graduate and undergraduate career counseling, as well as in HR and nonprofit work, Oliver brings a comprehensive perspective to talent development and employer engagement. He is a proud alum of the University of Houston and the University of Houston–Downtown, a nonprofit advocate, a devoted dog dad, and a trained Cougar Ally committed to inclusive student success.
Audience
EmployersIndustries
Accounting FirmsBanking / Financial / InsuranceTechnology / Telecommunications/ Technical ServicesCheryl Hicks
Assistant Director of Employer Relations
Cheryl brings extensive experience in higher education and recruiting, including more than eight years at Wake Forest University’s Office of Personal and Career Development, where she served as an associate. She also serves on NACE’s Career Coaching Faculty.
Audience
EmployersRyan Gentile
Events & Recruiting Manager
Ryan joined the team in January 2025 as the Events and Recruiting Manager.
Before joining the team he spent the last 10 years in the recruiting field and got his start with Mattress Firm. He joined them in 2012 and spent his first 2 years selling mattresses in their stores in the Houston area. He would then transition in 2014 into the Talent Acquisition Department where he would recruit people to work in stores all around the state of Texas and Louisiana. While doing that, he would also be responsible for doing collegiate recruiting of students looking for full/part time work or internships for the summer in their stores.
This is where he fell in love with collegiate recruiting and for 4 years recruited students from the University of Houston to intern with the company and/or work after graduation. He would partner with Bauer and PES and attend multiple career fairs, do mock interviews, info sessions, speak to organizations, resume reviews, and host an event called Bed Races on campus. He also ran the summer internship programs for the Houston area for the summers of 2017, 2018, and 2019.
After leaving Mattress Firm in 2020, he would take a year off before joining the Talent Acquisition Team with Tailored Brands in the Summer of 2021. That company owned and operated Men’s Wearhouse, Jos. A Bank, K&G Fashion Superstore, and Moore’s Clothing (Canada). He would recruit people to work in their store locations around the Houston area and then primarily for Moore’s Clothing. He would then transition to be the company’s first Collegiate Recruiter where he would find students from across the country to intern for the corporate offices in Houston, Dublin, CA, Atlanta, and NYC.
Ryan loves his sports and you can always find him rooting for his Rockets, Texans, and especially his Astros. Baseball is his favorite sport so being the talker he is, he can talk baseball all day long. When he’s not watching sports, you can find him spending time with his wife and also being a girl dad with his 2 daughters.
