TCU alumna Nikki Morris is set to take the reins of the institute Oct 28, bringing 17 years of leadership roles in the oil and gas industry.
October 14, 2024
By Ralph Lowe Energy Institute
Nikki Morris ’08 (MS ’10) is returning to TCU as a proven leader with expertise in the oil and gas industry. The Horned Frog alumna was recently announced as the executive director for the Ralph Lowe Energy Institute, a center of excellence in the Neeley School of Business. Morris joins the business school from global integrated energy company TotalEnergies. Her start date is October 28.
Morris has worked in international oil companies and startups as an executive, geologist and trailblazer, including the last seven years at TotalEnergies where she most recently served as vice president of business development in the South American country of Suriname. As executive director for the Ralph Lowe Energy Institute, Morris will provide strategic direction and leadership for the Energy MBA, Energy Business minor and energy programming that welcomes energy industry leaders to campus and corporate partnership to the classroom.
Morris is well acquainted with TCU. She is a Horned Frog twice over, earning both her undergraduate degree and master’s degree here. Morris also met her husband, John, while both were students in Professor Larry Brogdon’s class, Prospect to Production. Nikki Morris continued her education by earning her Professional MBA from Rice University.
She chose to return to campus for the opportunity to connect what she learned in her years of leadership with TCU’s unique positioning as a collaboration hub for business, research, innovation, and policy in the energy space, and use that to develop global leaders in the business of energy.
“The Ralph Lowe Energy Institute has been at the forefront of research and thought leadership on the global challenges around energy for years,” Morris said. “I’ve seen it firsthand from my perch in industry and I’m looking forward to being part of building on that legacy.”
In recent years, the institute has partnered with the U.S. Department of Defense on a research initiative around energy security, revamped the Energy Business minor at Neeley, and launched the TCU Legends in Energy to honor the university’s deep roots in energy.
The department of defense project remains ongoing under the leadership of newly named RLEI interim research director Mike Slattery and Morris. The institute leaders will also look to increase the institute’s global footprint.
Morris believes in the institute’s mission to help build future leaders through strategic partnerships with industry, research opportunities, and bringing leaders to campus for students.
"Over the years, the Ralph Lowe Energy Institute has benefited from innovation in the classroom with world-class faculty and research, through corporate partnerships connecting us to industry leaders, and dynamic leadership,” said Craig Crossland, the John V. Roach Dean for the TCU Neeley School of Business. “I am excited for the future of energy, and more specifically I look forward to seeing how Nikki will lead the vast opportunities the institute will capitalize on with the spirit of innovation that’s specific to TCU.”
Morris knows that spirit well. She learned it in Brogdon’s class all those years ago. Now she rejoins Brogdon, an advisory board member for the Ralph Lowe Energy Institute and TCU Legends in Energy, Class of 2024, in bringing that to the next generation of Horned Frogs.
