Our seventh recipient, (Captain) Blake J. Rice, graduated from Harvard Business School (HBS) in 2013 with an MBA.  As a Marine infantry officer, Blake served from 2007 to 2011 in Platoon Commander and Company Executive Officer billets with Delta Company, Third Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion.  He deployed with the Wolfpack to Iraq in 2009, and to Afghanistan in 2010-2011.  Before joining the Marine Corps, Blake worked as a French linguist for the U.S. State Department’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program in Africa and was the Executive Officer to the President and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan research institute.  He graduated from Davidson College in 2003 with a degree in German and Political Science.  Following HBS, Blake co-founded a search fund that acquired a Southern California software company in healthcare.