Jones School announces 2011 awards for teaching excellence
Honorees recognized for commitment to education

FROM THE JONES GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business (JGSB) students and alumni recently recognized five professors for their teaching contributions. Honorees were chosen by the Rice MBA alumni group, as well as students from the school’s three MBA programs – Rice MBA Full Time, Rice MBA for Executives and Rice MBA for Professionals, both evening and weekend schedules. Each of the five winning professors, who come from diverse educational and professional backgrounds, received a cash award.

Rice MBA Alumni Award for Teaching Excellence

Al Napier, professor of management, joined the Rice faculty in 1984 and started teaching entrepreneurship in the fall of 1997. He has played a key role in establishing the Jones School’s entrepreneurship specialty and developing it into the nation’s sixth-ranked program.

	AL NAPIER

”I am humbled to receive the JGSB Alumni Award for Teaching Excellence,” Napier said. “It means I had a positive impact on the students that continued to assist them after they finished their MBA. Since I commute from Fredericksburg for the opportunity to serve on the Rice faculty and teach such wonderful, bright students, awards like this one encourage me to ‘keep on keeping on’ and not to retire anytime soon.”

Napier, who brings to the classroom 30 years of entrepreneurial experience and eight years in the private sector, loves sharing his knowledge with his students. He teaches courses that concentrate on the process for starting new businesses, including the New Enterprise course in each of the MBA degree programs. While his current focus is primarily on teaching, he continues to conduct research with entrepreneurship program founder Ed Williams. They are currently studying the impact of venture capitalists on the organizations in which they invest.

Napier also won the Rice MBA for Executives Award for Teaching Excellence in 2007 and 2010. He holds a Ph.D., an M.B.A. and a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Rice MBA for Executives Award for Teaching Excellence

Margaret Cording joined the faculty at the Jones School in July 2003. She teaches competitive strategy, strategy implementation and business ethics. Her research explores the linkages between strategy and business ethics, the performance implications of stakeholder management, management of the post-acquisition integration process and the measurement of firm performance.

	MARGARET CORDING

“The Executive MBA Class of 2011 is an outstanding group of people,” Cording said. “It was a privilege and an honor to participate in the learning journey with them. I wish them peace and prosperity as they continue to contribute to society in meaningful ways.”

Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., Cording was a managing director at the Chase Manhattan Bank (now JP Morgan Chase) where she was responsible for managing the foreign exchange sales business. During her 14-year tenure at Chase, Cording was also responsible for the development and management of a program to improve the strategic relevance, risk-adjusted economic performance, productivity and efficiency of a diverse set of businesses, including capital markets globally and wholesale banking activities in Europe and Asia.

Cording received her Ph.D. in management from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia. She earned an M.B.A. at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where she was a fellow in the Wharton Executive MBA Program, and a B.B.A. in finance and economics at Temple University. Her other Jones School honors include the 2006 Rice MBA for Executives Award for Teaching Excellence.

Rice MBA Full-Time Award for Teaching Excellence

Associate Professor of Accounting Brian Rountree joined the Rice faculty in 2003. He has taught core financial accounting and financial statement analysis in the MBA program, both of which complement his research interests concerning financial reporting and analysis.

	BRIAN ROUNTREE

”It is a tremendous honor to receive the MBA teaching excellence award as selected by the students given the world class teachers we have at the Jones Graduate School of Business,” Rountree said. “I take great pride in the fact that the students rate my course more difficult than the average and at the same time find it rewarding enough to consider me worthy of a teaching award.

”Students at the Jones School are committed to learning and are pushed to their limits by our curriculum. However, it never ceases to amaze me that no matter how hard we push the students, they always respond and excel. I attribute this to the great faculty we have at Rice University that attract the best students from across the globe. It is a true pleasure to work with such dedicated and enthusiastic students, who help to shape the unique and outstanding academic culture at Rice.”

Rountree earned his Ph.D. in accounting from the University of North Carolina and holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Babson College, where he was valedictorian. His other Jones School honors include the 2009 Business Research Excellence Award and 2008 Rice MBA Full-Time Award for Teaching Excellence.

Rice MBA for Professionals Evening Award for Teaching Excellence

	RICHARD PRICE

Richard Price is a professor whose door is always open for both current and former students. He joined the Jones School in 2005 as an assistant professor of accounting. He teaches financial accounting and enjoys teaching the importance and usefulness of understanding financial statements.

”It is an honor to be recognized by my students,” he said. ”I truly enjoy teaching and am glad that the students feel they benefit from my efforts.”

His research focuses on financial accounting and the relation between accounting information and stock prices. One of his current research projects focuses on junk emails that urge investors to buy stocks.

Price earned his Ph.D. in business administration with an emphasis in accounting from Stanford University, where he also holds a master’s degree in statistics. He received master’s and bachelor’s degrees in accounting from Brigham Young University. His other Jones School honors include the 2008 Rice MBA for Professionals Award for Teaching Excellence.

Rice MBA for Professionals Weekend Award for Teaching Excellence

Prashant Kale, associate professor of management, enjoyed teaching others in his childhood and ultimately gravitated to the profession after working in industry.

	PRASHANT KALE

”It is an honor to receive the award for teaching excellence for the third consecutive year,” he said. “The credit for this award goes equally to all the students in my class because given the interactive, discussion-oriented nature of the strategy course, the quality of students’ overall learning experience in class not only rests upon any inputs I provide, but also depends strongly upon what each and every student brings into the discussion and debate that we have together as a group. I wish the students all the very best in their professional life and urge them to stretch themselves once in a while doing things off the tried and tested path. Because as T.S. Eliot once said, ‘Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”’

Kale currently teaches two core courses and has also taught advanced competitive strategy. He enjoys teaching courses in strategy, alliances and acquisitions to MBA students and practicing executives and adopts an interactive approach to learning in the classroom.

He is currently studying how firms in emerging economies are using a distinctive ”partnering approach” to manage their overseas acquisitions.

Kale has an undergraduate degree in engineering and a Ph.D. in management from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. His other Jones School honors include the 2009 Rice MBA for Professionals Award for Teaching Excellence and the 2010 Rice MBA Full-Time Award for Teaching Excellence.