Houston Tops Forbes Ranking for Young Professionals Relocation

From Forbes.com via the Houston Business Journal:

Houston topped this year’s Forbes list of best cities where a recent college graduate can get a strong start on a high-powered career. The magazine placed the Bayou City at No. 1 for its “business-friendly environment and abundance of oil money,” considering it is home to 14 of the country’s largest companies. Only New York City, fourth on the list, had more big employers, according to Forbes.

Houston also had high average incomes and a concentration of graduates from elite colleges — and not just from local Rice University — but from across the country. Texas fared very well in the studdy, both Austin and Dallas also securing a spot in the Top 10 — Dallas at No. 6 and Austin rounding out the list at No. 10.

To come up with the list, Forbes looked at all of the Metropolitan Statistical Areas across the U.S., and then eliminated cities with fewer than 1 million people, and cities where Moody’s Economy.com predicts job growth will be negative over the next year. Next, each city was ranked based on its current unemployment rate, then criteria was factored in such as what people earn, the ability to stretch a dollar in the city and how many public companies called that city home. Then Forbes counted how many members of the Class of 2000 at Princeton University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Duke University, Rice University and Northwestern University were currently living in each city.

Cities rounding out the list included Washington D.C. at No. 2 followed by Minneapolis-St. Paul, Boston, Seattle, Denver and Atlanta.

Rice University to Teach & Invest

Reported by Greg Barr, a Senior Reporter, at the Houston Business Journal:

Rice University forms investment company

A new internal company will oversee financial investments for Rice University. The Rice Management Co. will be headed by Scott Wise, who has been appointed president of the new entity. Wise was previously vice president for investments and treasurer at the university.

Although the company is part of the university and not a separate legal entity, it has its own bylaws and a separate board of directors appointed by the Rice Board of Trustees. It replaces the board’s investment committee. The company has 13 investment professionals and three administrative support staff members. Although the majority of its board will be Rice trustees, several external advisers will be elected.

Jim Crownover, chairman of the Rice Board of Trustees, said a number of Rice’s peer institutions have formed similar companies to manage their endowments. Some of Wise’s other administrative duties will be handed over to other university employees so he can concentrate on investment decisions.

“The performance of the endowment is crucial to Rice’s long-term success,” he said, noting that the endowment accounts for about 45 percent of the university’s annual budget. “The Rice Management Co. will allow us to have a more focused approach to governing and managing the endowment. It will also allow us to tap the experience and skills of top investment professionals across the country by bringing in outside members to the board of directors.”

Rice’s endowment fund was worth $3.6 billion as of June 30.

Two Houston Hispanic Community Leaders Win National Awards

Rice University professor Richard Tapia has received the annual Hispanic Heritage Award for Math and Science at a ceremony in the nation’s capital.
Tapia, an engineering professor and director of Rice’s Center for Excellence and Equity in Education, was honored Sept. 29 at a star-studded ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

He was cited for his international reputation for research in the computational and mathematical sciences and is a national leader in education and outreach.
Born in Los Angeles to parents who emigrated from Mexico as teenagers to seek educational opportunities, Tapia was the first in his family to attend college. He was the first native-born Hispanic elected to the National Academy of Engineering and in 2005, he earned Rice’s highest academic title, University Professor, becoming only the sixth person to earn the rank at Rice.
Ten-time world champion boxer Oscar de la Hoya, whose Los Angeles-based Golden Boy Promotions company owns 25 percent of the Houston Dynamo soccer team, received the Achievement in Sports Award, and was recognized for his accomplishments in the ring and his impact on the Hispanic community.
“I feel truly privileged to be receiving this award,” said de la Hoya. “To be recognized along with such influential members of the Hispanic community is a great honor.”
The Hispanic Heritage Awards were created by the White House in 1988.