About the McNair Center

The McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation was founded in June 2015 with a generous gift of $8m from the McNair Foundation. Mr. Robert McNair and Mrs. Janice McNair, along with Ambassador Djerejian, Rice University President Leebron, and Secretary James A. Baker attended the signing ceremony at Baker Hall. In August 2015, Dr. Edward J. Egan, formerly an assistant professor at Imperial College Business School, was appointed the center's first director.

The Center's Research Focus

The Baker Institute's McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation has a mandate to conduct policy-relevant research and advocate for entrepreneurs and innovators. The center develops academic papers intended for publication in peer-reviewed journals, as well as policy reports, issue briefs, white papers, Op. Eds., and blog articles. In this work the center develops our understanding of entrepreneurship and innovation as phenomena that create economic growth, and conveys this understanding to academics, policy-makers, and the public. The McNair Center also takes an active role in helping entrepreneurs and developing entrepreneurship ecosystems.

Faculty and Researchers

Faculty:

• Dr. Edward J. Egan - Director of the center and Fellow of Rice University's Baker Institute.
• Prof. Yael Hochberg - Baker Institute Faculty Scholar, Head of the Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative, Associate Professor of Finance

Associated Baker Fellows:

• Dr. John Diamond - Head of the Tax and Expenditure Policy Program, Rice University's Baker Institute
• Dr. Russell Green - Head of the International Economics Program, Rice University's Baker Institute

Researchers:

• Mr. Albert Nabullin
• Ms. Carlin Cherry
• Ms. Rachel Garber
• Ms. Komal Agarwal
• Ms. Iris Huang

Contact

The McNair Center is located in office 230, Baker Hall. You can follow the center on Twitter at @BakerMcNair. You can reach the center by email at admin@mcnaircenter.org and by phone at +1 713 348 4862.