Over the past decade, Rice Business has scaled with intention.

MBA enrollment has doubled. Faculty ranks have grown. New MBA formats have launched. The Virani Undergraduate School of Business was established. And a new building will open soon, designed to further fuel collaboration, research and innovation.

In this conversation, Dean Peter Rodriguez reflects on the strategy behind that momentum — from championing the Online MBA to building one of the nation’s strongest entrepreneurship ecosystems in the heart of Houston. He discusses AI’s impact on business education, the evolving energy landscape, and the leadership lessons that come with guiding a school through rapid transformation, all while shaping the next chapter for Rice Business.

Episode Guide:

00:00 Meet Dean Peter Rodriguez

01:20 Online MBA Origins and Vision for Growth

07:50 Virtual Campus Advantage

09:41 From Space Crunch to Expansion: Designing the New Building

16:29 Launching the Virani Undergraduate School of Business

21:51 AI and Business Education

28:46 Dean Life and Daily Headwinds

29:23 Why Rice Ranks High & Houston’s Entrepreneurship Advantage

36:32 What Deans Learn on the Job

43:37 Next 50 Years Vision

48:25 Closing

The Owl Have You Know Podcast is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

On Rice MBA’s Growth over the decade

01:37: If there was one overarching theme of the last decade, I think growth is it. The question is always like, well, why growth? Or growth for what? And of course, clearly want growth for the good outcomes, and that good outcomes all start with pursuing the mission.
We have a mission to create and disseminate knowledge at the vanguard of business and the business disciplines. And so that is what we really do. And when I was really looking at the job almost exactly 10 years ago and thinking about where Rice was and where it needed to be, one of the first conclusions that was easy to draw was that it needed to be about twice as big as it was, at least, you know, and, and it is not that growth is all good, but why would I say that? And the thinking was, you know, in order to advance that mission, we needed more tenure track faculty. And there the foundation on which more or less everything else proceeds.

How does the Rice Business navigate AI? 

22:19: On the basic part of our mission, which is delivering an education, we have to do two things. We have to prepare people to think really critically and to be able to assess them as individuals without this incredible, unprecedented tool. That is to say, what can Peter do of his own accord? What does he know? And then I have to train him very aggressively to make sure that with the tool, he is also highly capable, far more capable to do some things, and as capable as anybody in any university in the country is using the tool. So there's sort of almost sounds like martial arts mastery. You know, you have to sort of, wax on, wax off, you know, learn these sort of things that are apart from the tool, and then you are sort of empowered. That's where we are, is trying to do that.

Houston loves risk takers

30:59: Houston loves risk takers. It is part of the environment, it is part of a Texas thing too, but, you know, it is going to space, drilling out in the Permian Basin or deep in the ocean, putting in an artificial heart, whatever it is. I think there is a real admiration for trying hard things and picking yourself up if you fail and not being discouraged because things did not go right the first time.

Show Links: 

• Rice Business New Building Plans
• Transcript
  
  

Guest Profile:

• Peter Rodriguez | Rice Business
• LinkedIn