Rice University elects four new trustees
Arnold, Hackett, Kellner, Szalkowski join board; Tudor re-elected to another term

BY B.J. ALMOND
Rice News staff

Rice University has strengthened the business, social justice and legal expertise on its board of trustees with the election of four new members: Laura Arnold, co-founder and president of the Laura and John Arnold Foundation; James T. Hackett, chairman and CEO of Anadarko Petroleum Corp.; Larry Kellner, president of Emerald Creek Group and former chairman and CEO of Continental Airlines; and Rice alumnus Charles Szalkowski ’70, a senior partner and general counsel of Baker Botts LLP. Their four-year term begins July 1.

	LAURA ARNOLD
	JAMES T. HACKETT
	LARRY KELLNER
	CHARLES SZALKOWSKI
	ROBERT “BOBBY” TUDOR III

The board also re-elected current trustee and Rice alumnus Robert “Bobby” Tudor III ’82 to a four-year term. He is chairman and CEO of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., LLC.

“Rice is very fortunate to welcome Laura, Jim, Larry and Charles as new trustees,” said Jim Crownover ’65, chair of the Rice Board of Trustees. “The variety and combination of their areas of professional expertise and their differing relationships with Rice — some as alumni, some as friends and all as community leaders — will be valuable additions to Rice’s already strong board of trustees. We’re also grateful that Bobby Tudor has agreed to serve on the board an additional term.”

Arnold co-founded the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, which invests in innovative strategies to address the country’s most significant social justice issues, including poverty and education. Previously she was executive vice president and general counsel of Cobalt International Energy in Houston — a position she held until late 2006. Prior to that she was a mergers and acquisitions attorney at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz in New York City.

A member of the New York State Bar Association, Arnold has a J.D. from Yale Law School and an M.Phil. in European studies from the University of Cambridge. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a B.A. in government. After law school, Arnold clerked for Judge Judith W. Rogers in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Arnold is an adjunct professor of management at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business. She is a member of the national board of directors for Teach for America. She also chairs the Civil Service Commission of the City of Houston and serves as a trustee of the Baylor College of Medicine and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Hackett oversees one of the world’s largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies. He joined Anadarko in December 2003 as the company’s president and CEO. Previously he had been president and chief operating officer of Devon Energy Corp. following its merger with Ocean Energy, of which he had served as chairman, president and CEO. Ocean Energy had also resulted from a merger with Seagull Energy Corp., where Hackett had been chairman, president and CEO as well. He has held high-level positions at Duke Energy and Pan Energy and also has energy experience in engineering, finance and marketing with NGC Corp., Burlington Resources and Amoco Oil Co.

Hackett has a B.S. from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Harvard University. He is an adjunct professor of management at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business.

Currently chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and chairman of America’s Natural Gas Alliance, Hackett also serves as a director of Fluor Corp. and Halliburton and as a board member of the American Petroleum Institute, the National Petroleum Council and other industry associations. He is vice chairman of Baylor College of Medicine and the former chairman and now a member of the Houston Grand Opera’s board.

Kellner assumed his new role as president of Emerald Creek Group, a Houston-based private equity firm, earlier this year after stepping down as chairman and CEO of Continental — a position he held since December 2004. He joined the airline in 1995 as chief financial officer and was elected president of the company and to the board of directors in May 2001. He became president and chief operating officer in 2003.

His pre-Continental career included positions as executive vice president and chief financial officer of American Savings Bank and as executive vice president and chief financial officer of The Koll Company, a private real estate investment and construction firm.

Kellner graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in business administration from the University of South Carolina, which honored him with its Distinguished Alumni Award in 1998.

He is vice chairman of the Greater Houston Partnership and serves on the board of directors for Marriott International and on the development board of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Kellner also is a member of the board of directors for the Methodist Hospital, YMCA of Greater Houston and the Spring Branch Education Foundation.

Szalkowski has represented public and venture-backed companies and their investment bankers and investors for more than 30 years. He counsels private equity funds, hedge funds and institutional investors, including large insurance companies, Rice and other universities and other endowments. He has been general counsel of Baker Botts since late 2005.

A former president of the Association of Rice Alumni (ARA), Szalkowski has served as a committee or board member with numerous departments, schools and organizations of Rice University. Most recently he served on the Humanities Research Center Advisory Board, as a judge for the Rice University Business Plan Competition and as a member of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship Advisory Board. He chaired the Rice University Fund Council and has helped raise money for the Rice Annual Fund and various capital campaigns, and he was recognized in 1995 for his efforts on Rice’s behalf with the National Philanthropy Day volunteer award. He will receive a Meritorious Service Award from the ARA this spring.

Tudor was originally elected to the Rice Board of Trustees in 2006. After a nearly 20-year career with Goldman Sachs, Tudor returned to Houston and started Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., an integrated energy investment and merchant bank that provides high-quality advice and services to institutional and corporate clients.

Tudor has a B.A. in English and legal studies from Rice and a J.D. from Tulane Law School. He is a former president of the “R” Association’s board of directors at Rice and has served on the ARA Board of Directors. He also will receive a Meritorious Service Award from the ARA this spring.

Rice’s board will have 24 trustees as of July 1. Rice is a nonprofit institution and will celebrate its centennial year in 2012.