Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative

• This page is referenced in Rice Entrepreneurship

The Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative, also known as Entrepreneurship@Rice and REI, is "a collaborative effort of students, professors, mentors and the Houston entrepreneur community to foster innovative entrepreneurial spirit and help launch successful ventures through education, guidance and connections"[1].The initiative, launched in 2015, is led by Yael Hochberg, Head of Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative and the Ralph S. O'Connor Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship, and Abby Larson, Director of Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative[2] [3].

Calendar of Events

The Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative maintains and updates a calendar of campus and city wide events relating to entrepreneurship.

Team

Leadership

• Yael Hochberg, Head of Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative and the Ralph S. O'Connor Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship
• Abby Larson, Director of Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative and Lecturer in Entrepreneurship

Faculty

• Eric Floyd, Assistant Professor of Accounting
• Haiyang Li, Professor of Strategic Management and Innovation
• Doug Schuler, Associate Professor of Business and Public Policy
• Danielle Supkis-Cheek, Adjust Professor
• Al Danto, Lecturer in Management – Entrepreneurship & IT
• Michael Evans, Lecturer
• Aziz Gilani, Lecturer in Management
• Tom Kraft, Director Technology Ventures Development - Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, Lecturer in Management

Rice Alliance

• Brad Burke, Managing Director
• Mary Lynn Fernau, Director of Marketing
• Lea Aden Lueck, Director of the Rice Business Plan Competition
• Quynhmai Nguyen, Director of Operations and Event Planning
• Noy Shemer, Program Specialist
• Kerri Smith, Associate Managing Director

Advisors

• Kazimir Karwowski, Executive Director of the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership
• Amy Kavalewitz, Associate Director of the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership
• Maria Oden, Director, Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen
• Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Director, Rice 360°: Institute for Global Health Technologies, Director, Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering

Website

The website provides resources for faculty and students. A list of undergraduate, graduate, MBA, and EMBA courses relating to entrepreneurship are provided.[4]

FreeStyle

FreeStyle is an offshoot of the Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative designed for students, faculty, and community members to discuss entrepreneurship issues. The program will host speakers and discussions throughout the school year. The first series of speakers will comprise of faculty from Religion, Sociology, and Architecture fields.[5]

Students may enroll in the program for course credit starting with the Spring 2016 semester, although course enrollment is not required to attend lectures and presentations.

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Events

The Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative organized its first event on October 22-25, 2015, where students from Rice University and the University of Houston participated in the 3 Day Startup held at TMCx. Rice Launch collaborated with the REI.[6]

Other events include:

• Rice Business Plan Competition, the "world's largest graduate-level student startup competition"[7]
• Rice Undergraduate Elevator Pitch Competition, a 90-second product pitch contest supported by the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK), Rice Alliance, and Rice Center for Engineering Leadership (RCEL)
• Owl Open, a campus-wide business plan competition and qualifier for the Rice Business Plan Competition
• OwlSpark, a 12-week summer accelerator program

Entrepreneurship Clubs and Organizations

• Rice Launch
• Jones Graduate School of Business Entrepreneurship Club - Open to current Jones Business School students
• Rice Alliance
• OEDK
• RCEL
• Rice University Office of Tech Transfer, (OTT)
• Rice 360˚ Institute for Global Health
• Jones Graduate School Entrepreneurs Organization, (JGSEO) - Open to current and past Jones Business School students
• Rice Reep, a program which enhances educators' business skills to better enable them to run a school with the mindset of a CEO.