Entrepreneurship is not just about starting a business. It’s about starting a movement. It’s about creating something that solves problems, makes a difference—and inspires others to come along.
The RAC Network was created from decades of educational and professional
experience of Rice University alumni/entrepreneurs who made the system work.
“The greatest opportunity for a Rice MBA is to acquire a small business and grow it by adding sophistication to an unsophisticated business.”
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“If you are going to be successful in business, you must know it inside, outside and upside down.”
Read MoreEd Williams, a successful entrepreneur, helped his high school friend, Robert Waltrip, take Service Corporation International (SCI) public. Through Williams’ strategic “rollup” approach, they consolidated smaller companies into a single parent company and grew SCI into the largest in its industry.
Ed Williams (age 33) founded the Jones School Entrepreneurship Program at Rice University — an early pioneer in the field as there were only a few graduate programs focused on entrepreneurshipat the time.
Ed Williams was instrumental in establishing the Rice Business Plan Competition, now the world’s largest (and richest) business plan competition for graduate schools.
(Jones School students have awarded Williams the Teaching Excellent Award seven times.)
While concurrently running a computer consulting and education business (for 21 years), Professor Al Napier taught the New Enterprise course across MBA programs at Rice University. Napier was known for his research in entrepreneurship and human/computer interaction, authoring sixteen books on the subject and publishing more than fifty scholarly articles.
Al Danto came to Rice University’s MBA program having already built Structured Graphics, a company recognized in printing and document management. As an MBA student, he started Universal Worker as a class project.
After graduating, Al Danto collaborated with Ed Williams and Al Napier on several important projects including the Rice Alumni Entrepreneurs Organization, student and alumni pitch competitions (which became the Napier Launch Challenge), the Owl Spark Summer Accelerator, E-Labs and Alumni Roundtables.
Ed Williams and Al Napier began to transition their roles and responsibilities to Al Danto while continuing their work in entrepreneurship initiatives.
Present Day: The work of these three individuals – and countless others – has culminated in the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (LILIE), a central hub for experiential learning and co-curricular activities in entrepreneurship and innovation. LILIE offers a range of undergraduate and graduate courses and — in collaboration with Rice Business, the George R. Brown School of Engineering, and the School of Social Sciences — now offers a new minor in entrepreneurship. LILIE’s mission is to prepare Rice students with an entrepreneurial mindset and skills applicable across myriad industries.
RAC (Rice Alumni Capital) was launched, with Al Danto and other leaders from Rice’s entrepreneur program serving as Advisors. The Fund is managed by TEI (Texas Essential Investments), a Rice Alumni led private investment group. RAC’s primary mission is to support Rice Alumni entrepreneurs in successfully acquiring and operating businesses.