Jones School Leadership

Bill Glick

Dean of the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business and
H. Joe Nelson III Professor of Management
bill.glick@rice.edu

William (Bill) H. Glick, Ph.D., H. Joe Nelson III Professor of Management, has served as dean of the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business since July 2005. While at Rice University, Dr. Glick has supported significant curriculum revisions in existing programs and launched four new programs:

 - Rice MBA for Professionals (weekday evening and weekend options)
 - Rice Undergraduate Business Minor
 - Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program (REEP)
 - Ph.D. in Business

Total enrollments are up by roughly 50 percent, admission standards are at record levels, and all three Rice MBA programs are leaders in terms of percentages of women and underrepresented minorities. Improvements in all programs have been widely recognized in major publications such as Business Week, Financial Times, Economist, U.S. News & World Report, and the Princeton Review. Read More >

 

Jeff Fleming

Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and
Houston Endowment Professor of Finance
jfleming@rice.edu

Jeff Fleming is Professor of Finance and Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. He joined the Jones School faculty in 1993. He teaches courses on Futures and Options in the MBA program and a course on Financial Risk Management in the MBA program for executives. He received the Jones Graduate School Excellence in Teaching Award in 2000 and 2003. His research interests include option pricing, implied volatility, volatility modeling, and the role of information flow in financial markets. He has published research articles in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Financial Econometrics, the Journal of Empirical Finance, and other top finance journals. Two of his papers were finalists for the Smith-Breeden Prize awarded annually by the Journal of Finance.

He earned a Ph.D. in Business Administration (Finance) and MBA in Finance from Fuqua School of Business, Duke University and a B.A. in Economics and Business from Cornell College, Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Academic All-America (Basketball). Read More >
 

Brent Smith

Associate Dean of Executive Education and
and Associate Professor of Management and Psychology
smithb@rice.edu

Prior to his current academic appointments, Dr. Smith was a member of the faculty at London Business School and Cornell University where he taught in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Johnson Graduate School of Management. He has also taught for shorter periods at the University of California at Berkeley, Oxford University, and the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad and has conducted executive programs around the world for companies such as Shell, IBM, HSBC, Credit Suisse, Barclays, KPMG, ExxonMobil, BP, ADCO, Lufthansa, DeBeers, Schneider Electric, Microsoft, El Paso Energy, Veritas, Dynegy, ONGC, CGG Inc., Marathon Oil, Citibank, RedBull, Phillip Morris International, Swedbank, Ulster Bank, RBS, and Total.

His teaching interests focus primarily on leadership and management development. Dr. Smith’s executive programs include Leading and Managing Change, Talent Development and Coaching, and Leading and Managing High Performance Teams. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Maryland at College Park. Read More >
 

Sean O. Ferguson

Assistant Dean of Degree Programs
sean.o.ferguson@rice.edu

Sean Ferguson is responsible for overseeing the administrative activities of the school’s four MBA programs, as well as the admissions office and the career management center. Since joining Rice in 2005, he has driven many initiatives that have contributed to the success of the MBA programs. Upon becoming assistant dean in 2007, he led the launch of the MBA for Professionals evening and weekend programs that have resulted in increases in student enrollment of more than 40 percent. The MBA for Professionals program was ranked No. 6 in the U.S. in Businessweek, 2011.

Additionally, during his tenure, the Full‐Time MBA program has achieved Top 25 status among U.S. MBA programs in the 2011 Financial Times Full‐Time MBA Rankings and 2011 Economist Full‐Time MBA Rankings. Additionally, for the first time, the JGSB Full‐Time MBA program placed in all the big four MBA rankings publications (Businessweek, U.S. News, Financial Times and The Economist). Read More >
 

Ben Renberg

Assistant Dean of External Relations
ben.renberg@rice.edu

Named the first assistant dean, External Relations, Ben Renberg is responsible for developing and executing long-term strategies for cultivating engagement of alumni and corporate partners and raising philanthropic support among JGSB’s key constituencies. Prior to joining Rice, he served as a partner with Dini Partners, a consulting firm that serves the nonprofit community. While with Dini, Renberg provided counsel in the areas of campaign planning, strategic planning, board development and build high-performing development operations.

With a wide range of experience in the philanthropic community, Renberg has also served as associate vice president for development at Baylor University where he was part of the leadership team responsible for a comprehensive $500 million Campaign for Greatness. He has also served as a development officer for Methodist Children’s Home (Waco, Texas) and Baylor College of Medicine. Prior to his work in the nonprofit arena, Renberg worked in the oil and gas sector. Read More >