Jones Journal -- Alumni Magazine of the Jones Graduate School of Management, Rice University

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Deanna Sheaffer, Editor
Director of Alumni Affairs
Jones School of Management - MS 531 Rice University
P.O. Box 1892
Houston TX 77251-1892
e-mail:JGSalum@rice.edu

Keep Your Eye on the Rice Alliance
– By Trish Leggett, Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship

Kevin Harvey, Rice alumnus and partner @Benchmark Capital, was the keynote speaker at the Alliance’s December mixer.

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship has now completed its inaugural year. As a bold interdisciplinary effort among the schools of Engineering, Natural Sciences, and Management, the Alliance involves students, faculty, staff, alumni, and members of the Houston high-tech business community as collaborators, mentors, and investors in new business ideas coming from research and development on the Rice campus.

In its first 12 months, 47 business innovation concepts were presented at Rice Alliance Forum events — some of which have already received national attention, and many of which have found funding. The Alliance has hosted a wide array of innovations — from Professor Jim Tour’s molecular electronics and Professor Rick Smalley’s carbon nanotubes to Rice alumna Lisa Judson’s e-commerce retailing of women’s clothing. Presenter backgrounds have run the gamut — from undergraduates to a Nobel Prize laureate. Each forum has produced its unique synergy, and all have crackled with the excitement of the potential of technology innovation.

Director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship Steve Currall and Rice University President Malcolm Gillis review their notes before welcoming well over a hundred people to the Alliance’s final mixer of the first semester, December 13.

The Alliance has expanded as the year progressed — during the summer, an end-of-semester mixer was held. The event was so popular, that two more were planned for the fall semester. The attention we received in the media opened new doors of opportunity as well — in November, we held a joint forum with the M.D.Anderson Cancer Center to highlight innovations in life sciences and health services. Presenters were selected from research innovations coming out of both Rice and M.D. Anderson. The event culminated in a pledge of additional future collaboration between Malcolm Gillis, President of Rice University, and Robert Bast, Vice President of Translational Research, M.D. Anderson.

Keynote speakers at Alliance events also lend their perspectives to the community and help to forge bonds between Rice and new allies “beyond the hedges.” In September, Rob Shaw, President and CEO of Emerging, spoke. With the successful launch of four high tech businesses including Emerging, Ashford.com, Synergy Development Corporation, and StyleWare, Shaw has developed an impressive track record in the world of e-business and information technology. In October, our forum keynote was Thierry Pilenko, president of Schlumberger-GeoQuest. That same month a Business Thought Leader presentation featured Robert Winter from Rocket Ventures in Silicon Valley. The Silicon Valley area boasts 1,600 Rice alums — an impressive number, considering the size of their alma mater!

On January 10, 2001, in conjunction with Rice University Executive Education and Texas eComm, Rice Alliance hosted “2001: An Internet Odyssey” in Alice Pratt Brown Hall. Keynote speakers at the event were Michael Capellas, Chairman and CEO of Compaq and Jeff Skilling, President and COO of Enron. Panelists included Harvin Moore, President and CEO of Frontera.com and Kenny Kurtzman, CEO of Ashford.com, as well as Blake Young of Dynegy, Brian Landrum of Reliant Energy, and Tom Nicewarner of Conoco.

On March 30-31, 2001 the first annual Southwest Business Plan Competition will be held here at Rice. The winner will compete at MOOT CORP, the international business plan competition held annually at UT-Austin later in the spring. In short, keep your eye on the Rice Alliance — if you even glance away, you might miss something exciting! For more information on the Rice Alliance, go to www.alliance.rice.edu.