Rich Hohenbrink
I credit my experience as a student at UT with shaping me as a young professional.
Supply Chain Management - Alumni
Rich Hohenbrink has tallied up an impressive list of experiences in the short decade since graduating from Haslam: an advanced degree, three businesses founded and two circumnavigations of the globe. Hohenbrink studied logistics and transportation as an undergraduate with a secondary concentration in operations and management science.
“I credit my experience as a student at UT with shaping me as a young professional,” Hohenbrink said. “The student organizations and the relationships I developed gave me a holistic educational experience.”
Hohenbrink began at American Accessories International managing client relationships with companies and manufacturers in the United States, Italy, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Japan.
“My time traveling and working was extremely valuable,” Hohenbrink said. “It was during that time that I etched my philosophy of always do as much as you can.”
That philosophy drove him to launch a card game called First to the Line while working a full-time U.S. Capitol tour guide and a full-time graduate student at George Washington University. The game received overwhelmingly positive reviews in industry publications and shipped all over the U.S. and to more than 15 countries. While the company was not ultimately successful, it gave Hohenbrink an opportunity to hone his project management skills and a first-person view of small business ownership.
The experience led Hohenbrink to assist with the startup of O&G Research Services, an oil and gas land services company based out of West Virginia, in 2011. In his four years with the company, Hohenbrink served as lead trainer, senior reviewer, president of title and president of land mid-continent. In this final position, Hohenbrink led a geographic expansion of the company to the Rocky Mountains.
Soon after moving to Denver, Hohenbrink launched Party Pizza Chef, a pizza-centric catering operation. Party Pizza Chef has been extremely well received and is undergoing rapid growth thanks in part to its partnership with several local businesses. Hohenbrink is currently looking at franchising the business into other geographic markets.
“I’m working towards building Party Pizza Chef into more of a self-sustaining entity so I can focus time on other business ventures,” he said.
In the spare time he has, Hohenbrink volunteers at Denver East High School as the goalie coach for the boy’s lacrosse program.