Rice University has been one of the nation’s leading research universities for more than a century, and for the past 50 years, Rice Business has been its home for developing business leaders. Founded in 1974 with support from Houston Endowment, the school began with three faculty members and 55 students meeting in borrowed classrooms. It has since grown into a school of nearly 1,800 students across eight graduate programs and a rapidly growing undergraduate business major. Today, Rice Business is ranked among the best business schools in the country.

From a few classrooms in Herman Brown Hall in 1977 to full occupancy of Herring Hall by 1984, Rice Business has grown its alumni and reputation. McNair Hall has met our promising future since 2002. Today, with multiple new programs — and the faculty and staff to support them — it’s time to expand. 

• Five new programs since 2016, including a new undergraduate program and one of the most popular majors at the university
• Student growth nearly tripled in 10 years, from 587 (2015) to 1,716 (2025)
• 47% growth in tenure and tenure-track faculty since 2016

Rice MBA demand has risen exponentially since the school launched 50 years ago, but since 2016, that growth has been a core part of our story. With expanded programs, major growth among our faculty, and new modes of educational delivery, we are giving more students what they need to be successful in business, while meeting them where they are.

Our rankings tell a story. We’re growing — in Texas and around the world. Our peers and students are taking note of the strength and momentum of our programs. We change as the world changes around us and remain committed to preparing our students to do the same.

Now we are bringing that same world-class business education to a new generation of students with Rice’s undergraduate business major. Business is quickly becoming the most popular undergraduate major at Rice University, with more than 550 declared and divisional business majors in spring 2026 and more than 1,250 distinct students enrolled in undergraduate business courses this academic year. Like all Rice undergraduates, these students represent a wide array of backgrounds and experiences. And a Rice Business education is propelling our graduates to success and achievement.

• Host of the country’s top business competitions, including the Rice Business Plan Competition, Rice Energy Case Competition, Napier Rice Launch Challenge and Veterans Business Battle
• Home to world-class faculty whose research shapes business practice, policy and decision-making around the globe.
   

Gift Request: $5,000,000

The Chevron Event Center is a 3,000-square-foot event space with 200 seats and a 22-foot ceiling. A focal point of the new building and a premier hub for academic and corporate events, this large space allows Rice Business to host key stakeholders and integrate the greater university and Houston communities.

Groups such as Rice Business Partners, Rice Alliance and the Liu Idea Lab have a sophisticated new area to hold gatherings and celebrations. Executive Education and Rice Business alumni are able to creatively assemble with more room to spread out in a welcoming, modern space. This is also where board meetings and key presentations take place, offering an impressive backdrop that embodies the grandeur and importance of these pivotal moments.

Rice Business hosts more than 250 events annually, with dozens of those being student-led. Among the most visible is the Rice Energy Finance Summit, which brings together students, faculty and energy industry leaders — a fitting home for a partner as central to Houston's energy sector as Chevron. The Women in Leadership Conference and other flagship events draw 400-500 guests each year. With so many people crossing its threshold, the Chevron Event Center aligns Rice Business's most visible gathering space with the industry — and the company — at the center of its mission.

The best naming gifts at Rice Business don't just mark a door. They become part of how students talk about their own school — shorthand passed from one class to the next, said so often it stops sounding like a company name at all and starts sounding like home. That kind of permanence isn't bought with signage; it's earned by being present, semester after semester, for the students who will one day carry your name into their own careers. We look forward to our students, faculty, staff and guests visiting "Chevron" inside our new building for decades to come.

 

Gift Request: $3,000,000

For more than 50 years, Rice Business has educated some of the world’s most successful business minds. Now, that same foundation is extending to undergraduates — the future analysts, associates and executives who will make up tomorrow’s energy workforce.

The Chevron Classrooms are two adjoined, 120-seat teaching spaces. Outfitted with the latest instructional technology, these rooms will host the discussions, lectures and projects that shape how our MBA and undergraduate students think about business from day one.

This is where Chevron’s name will greet hundreds of Houston’s future business leaders, every week, for years to come — long before they ever submit a resume.

That pipeline is already flowing. Today, 128 Rice Business alumni work at Chevron, and the company hired eight students out of the Full-Time and Professional MBA programs in FY25 alone. A visible, permanent presence in the classrooms where Rice’s undergraduate business students spend their first years builds that relationship earlier — and deeper — than any career fair table ever could.
 

Rice Business respectfully requests Chevron’s support for one of these spaces. And we look forward to the next chapter in a partnership that has already shaped hundreds of Rice Business students' careers.

In recognition of Chevron’s gift to our new building, Rice Business will provide:

• Physical signage displaying the Chevron name, using designs and materials consistent with the building.
• Recognition of Chevron’s named space in event announcements, building signage and printed materials
• Naming rights for the usable life of the space.

More than signage, this is a standing introduction to Rice’s business talent — a direct line to the students Chevron will one day be recruiting.