Brad Burke

For nearly 25 years (2001 to 2026), Brad built and led the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship at Rice University.  In 2024, the scope of the Rice Alliance was broadened to include the programming and community activities at the Ion and Ion District.  

Under his leadership, Rice Business’ entrepreneurship program went from being “unranked” to becoming the #1 best graduate U.S. entrepreneurship program in the U.S. for seven consecutive years from 2020 to 2026 as determined by the editors at the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine, based in part on the success of the Rice Business Plan Competition.  In addition, Rice’s program was recognized by the Deans at peer business schools, achieving a ranking of #7 in 2026 and top fifteen ranking for the past 15 consecutive years.

During this time, the Rice Alliance built the Rice Business Plan Competition into the largest and richest intercollegiate graduate student startup competition in the world, offering more than $1 million in prizes each year. The competition has served as the launchpad for more than 280 successful start-ups that have raised more than $7.1 billion in funding, including 7 IPOs and 67 that have had successful exits.

Brad led the internationally recognized Rice Alliance in its mission to support entrepreneurship education, technology commercialization, and the launch of early-stage technology companies from Rice and in the Houston and Texas region. The Rice Alliance was launched in 2000 as Rice University’s flagship entrepreneurship initiative launched. Since inception, more than 3,710 tech startups have participated in Rice Alliance programs and have raised more than $31.4 billion in funding.

In January 2024, the scope of the Rice Alliance was expanded to include responsibility for programming and community activities at the Ion, the 270,000 sq. ft. innovation hub launched by Rice in Midtown Houston.  The Ion is the heart of innovation in Houston, and the center of the 16-acre Ion Innovation District development.  Under his watch, the Ion achieved 90+% occupancy, expanded corporate sponsorship support, and co-founded the first ever Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week, based on the 20+ year success of the Rice Alliance’s Energy Technology Venture Forum, the premier energy venture capital conference.

Brad joined the Rice Alliance from internet technology startup Viant that went public via IPO in 1999. Brad launched the Houston office of Viant and was responsible for the largest corporate client of the firm.  Prior to Viant, Brad was a principal consultant for CSC Index for 3 years, where he advised energy majors, including helping to launch the first large format retail convenience stores in Canada. Prior to CSC Index, Brad spent 15 years at ExxonMobil (formerly Exxon), where he held eight different roles of increasing responsibility in refining, marketing, corporate financial planning and analysis, industrial sales, and operations.

He received his MBA from Northwestern (Kellogg) as an Austin Scholar and served as president of the Kellogg Student Government.  He received his B.S. from Vanderbilt (magna cum laude) with a double major in business and computer science.