Houston Endowment Donates $12 Million to Support Rice’s Jones School Programs

CONTACT: Mike Cinelli

PHONE: (713)
831-4794

E-MAIL: mcinelli@rice.edu

HOUSTON ENDOWMENT DONATES $12 MILLION TO SUPPORT RICE’S
JONES SCHOOL PROGRAMS

Houston Endowment Inc. continued its
long-standing support of Rice’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management
this summer with a $12 million gift to the business school.

The gift will be given to Rice incrementally during the next
six years. The first $2 million will endow the Mary Gibbs Jones Professorship in
Management, while the remaining $10 million will support enhancements to the
Jones School.

“Our plans are to elevate the Jones School to the next level of
achievement, so the support of the Houston Endowment is particularly important
to us,” said Rice President Malcolm Gillis. “Like Jesse Jones himself, the
Houston Endowment recognizes the value to our community of a top-flight business
school within a premier research university.

“In this, the centennial of Jesse Jones’ arrival in Houston,
all at Rice share in the appreciation of Mr. Jones’ immense contributions toward
building a metropolis of international dimensions. This new, generous gift will
further strengthen Rice’s capacities to play a leading role in Houston’s growth
and success for the next 100 years.”

Gilbert Whitaker, dean of the Jones School, said: “This is a
leadership gift that moves us forward rapidly with our program to make the Jones
School a top-tier business school. Houston Endowment’s strong vote of confidence
in the Jones School and its future tells others that we are serious in our
aspirations and that we will succeed.”

Whitaker, a Rice alumnus, was named dean of the Jones School in
1997. During the past year he has initiated a retooling of the business school’s
programs. Major initiatives include a new building, expanding the student base,
enlarging the faculty, revamping the school’s curriculum, and adding an
executive MBA program which starts classes this semester.

Houston Endowment was instrumental in the creation of the Jones
School: the foundation provided a $5 million gift to establish the graduate
school in 1974. During the past 24 years, the Endowment has provided more than
$21 million–in addition to the founding grant and the current announced
gift–to support the school’s programs and facilities.

“This $12 million gift to the Jones School demonstrates our
commitment to working with Rice to provide the highest quality graduate business
school program possible,” said Houston Endowment President H. Joe Nelson III.
“Plus, we want to be supportive of the energy and excitement that Dean Whitaker
and his team have created at the school.”

The Houston Endowment gift is one of a number of major
contributions made recently to Rice by foundations, alumni and friends of the
university as part of a fund-raising effort to support implementation of Rice’s
strategic plan, “Rice: The Next Century.”

The “Next Century” is a blueprint for the university’s success
in the decades to come, as developed by a committee of Rice faculty, staff,
students, alumni and friends and approved by the university’s trustees in
December 1997. The “Next Century” comprises 34 strategic initiatives to be
undertaken over the next 10 years, building upon the high standards established
in Rice’s first 100 years and enhancing selected areas in which Rice can achieve
the greatest impact during the 21st century.

Rice University is a leading American research
university–small, private, and highly selective–distinguished by its superior
teaching, commitment to undergraduate education, outstanding graduate and
professional programs, residential college system, collaborative and
interdisciplinary culture, and global perspective.

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