Herve Mazzocco, president of the green energy and consulting firm RA Energie, got to Las Vegas by way of an international wild ride of sorts. He spent the money he earned by playing professional rugby in Italy — in which he broke his neck — paying for his education. He’s also worked for NASA in Houston.
Friday, Nov. 21, 2008 | 2 a.m.
You would not expect to find Herve Mazzocco in Las Vegas, but then, it is hard to imagine a universe in which you would expect to find him at all.
Beyond the Sun
Consider the geography. Born in the Ivory Coast, Mazzocco was raised in France, lived in England, Italy and sometimes Texas, and took jaunts to the Republic of the Congo before winding up in Las Vegas.
Consider the academics. A bachelor’s degree in fundamental physics, a master’s degree in climate and atmospheric systems and a doctorate in hydrology and environmental modeling.
And now consider that Mazzocco paid for all of that schooling by playing professional rugby, a sport that combines the protective gear of soccer with the delicacy of a mating-season battle between bull elephant seals, if the seals were launched from catapults.
About the only part of Mazzocco landing in Las Vegas that makes any sense is that his childhood dream was to explore Mars.
A few years ago when he was earning his doctorate from the University of Padua, one of Europe’s oldest universities, and playing for Petrarca Rugby, Mazzocco spent his off seasons in Houston, at NASA, looking at ancient riverbeds on Mars and trying to figure out what that water, when it was there, would have meant for the atmosphere.
One night, while driving around southeast Texas, he saw people playing rugby, which seemed unusual. He stopped and, as happens so often for Mazzocco, made friends. Later, they invited him to a wedding in Las Vegas — where he met a UNLV student working as a waitress. That would be Elizabeth, now his wife.
So that was how he ended up moving to Las Vegas?
Well, first he had to persuade Elizabeth to move to Padua, Italy, where they had a son and he continued to pursue his Ph.D. and play rugby, a schedule that worked out like this: Go to school early, go to rugby practice, go back to school in the afternoon, go to evening rugby practice and then home to help care for the newborn.
He kept up this schedule until he broke his neck during a rugby match, which his wife got to watch on live television.
(Actually, he kept up this schedule for several more months, annoyed by the tingling numbness, until he finally went to a doctor and got the news.)
At the end of 2006, with his Ph.D. wrapped up, Mazzocco moved to Las Vegas, which is home to his in-laws.
And with rugby off the table, what does he do for a living? Mars? No. “I realized my brain could probably be put to better work on what was going on with our own planet’s environment,” Mazzocco says.
He’s president of his own green energy and consulting firm, RA Energie, and a principal in another one, Energy & Environmental Solutions, working out of an office in downtown Las Vegas.
He’s all of 31 years old, with a 6-year-old son, Eason, and another son on the way.
So what’s next?
Maybe an MBA, Mazzocco says.
“You know, put another three letters after my name.”
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