Rice U.’s Indo-American Business Club to launch Sept. 2

A new club with the goal of connecting the Indo-American business community of Houston and Texas with the faculty and students of Rice University will launch at the university’s Jones Graduate School of Business Sept. 2.

Credit: thinkstockphotos.com/Rice University

The Rice Indo-American Business Club inaugural event is free and open to the public. The program will begin at 6:15 p.m. in McNair Hall’s Shell Auditorium, 6100 Main St. A reception and networking opportunity will take place at 5:45 p.m. Registration is required at http://bit.ly/RIABC.

Led by current Jones School students, the club will provide a platform for sharing the intellectual capital of Rice faculty, inspirational journeys of business leaders of Indian origin, mentorship and networking opportunities for members and guidance on doing business with India, which has the world’s ninth-largest economy. The club plans to host a major event in the fall and one in the spring. The club will also collaborate with other Indo-American organizations in Houston, such as the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston and India Institutes of Technology Alumni of Greater Houston, and organize several other events.

Keynote speakers at the launch will be Ashok Rao, the first Indian-American to take a company public on Nasdaq and a member of the Jones School’s Council of Overseers, and Prashant Kale, associate professor of strategic management at the Jones School and head of the school’s Health Care Initiative. Rice President David Leebron will give opening remarks and will officially inaugurate the club with his wife, University Representative Y. Ping Sun.