Rice started his career while attending college, job coaching special needs students who were packaging consumer products for a small manufacturer. He was so successful at implementing process improvements that he soon began consulting for the company to make other parts of the operation more efficient. Rice completed his undergraduate degree in business administration from Walsh College while he worked full time.In 2000, Rice became operations manager for a plastic injection molding plant in the automotive industry. He led a Kaizen Blitz to eliminate waste, and he improved delivery performance to 98%. After he was named general manager, Rice made capital investments in new equipment and cut the workforce to a size that matched the volume of business. Rice shed contracts that were not profitable and applied metrics to gauge quality, productivity and customer satisfaction. A combination of new equipment and employee suggestions cut the time to change molds by 80%. When space opened up as inventory was trimmed, it was used to build capacity. Working with OEM and Tier One customers Rice increased sales 600% over two years, eliminated a $1.2 million operating loss, and exceeded company targets by achieving a 38% contributed profit margin.Rice joined Link 2 Technologies in March of 2003 and helped Link Howard found Powerlink Facilities Management Services in August of that year. Starting with just one customer and 20 employees, Powerlink has grown to over 600 employees working at health care, manufacturing and education facilities in the Midwest and Southeast United States and Canada. Rice has had responsibilities in every facet of the operation, from sales and marketing to operations, and he now serves as Powerlink’s Chief Operating Officer.