Jim Whitehurst ’89, former President of Red Hat and IBM and Rice Trustee, to serve as inaugural speaker on September 12
A new speaker series is coming to Rice University this year – one by engineers, for engineers.
“Right now, we are in a new industrial revolution in which technology has not only become the chief driver for societal advancement and innovation, but is being infused in every aspect of our lives at an accelerating pace,” said Fred Higgs, Faculty Director of the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership (RCEL). “In this era of near-exponential change, it is crucial for the Rice community to hear from technology leaders about how products and workplaces are being disruptively transformed, and how engineers will be expected to not just adapt to but lead this transformation.”
The Rice Engineering Leader Speaker series, hosted by RCEL, features executives and thought leaders from technology organizations who uniquely employ or depend on engineers. These accomplished and insightful leaders will share their experiences in navigating disruptive change and how engineers can equip themselves to lead the way.
Jim Whitehurst ’89 to serve as inaugural speaker of Rice Engineering Leader Speaker Series
The Rice Engineering Leader Speaker Series opens with renowned executive and thought leader Jim Whitehurst on Tuesday, September 12, 2023 at 6:30pm in McMurtry Auditorium at Rice University. In his talk, “Open to Innovation: How Engineers Can Lead in Disruptive Change”, Whitehurst will share his journey from Rice engineering student (computer science) to Chief Operating Officer of Delta Airlines, President and Chief Executive Officer of Red Hat, and President of IBM, as well as the transformations he has led along the way. Whitehurst will discuss how rapid technological change is transforming the skills required for successful leadership, and how engineers can prepare themselves to lead and thrive in those challenges.
Whitehurst joined Delta on September 11, 2001, and successfully steered the company through the shock of 9/11, financial restructuring, and hostile takeover attempts by rival airlines. At Red Hat, Whitehurst grew the Linux software firm into the world’s first billion-dollar open source company, increasing revenue eightfold and ultimately engineering Red Hat’s $34 billion acquisition by IBM. Whitehurst is now an independent director of several companies and an influential speaker and writer on organizational leadership. His book, The Open Organization: Igniting Passion and Performance, is a ground-breaking study based on his own and other leaders’ experience of how agile leaders and organizations – embracing the principles of transparency, participation, and community — can successfully adapt to the challenges of industry disruption.
“I have known Jim since we were students together at Rice”, explained George Webb (EE ’88, ’91), RCEL’s Industry Relations Director and principal organizer of the Speaker Series. “For all his accomplishments, one of the most impressive things about Jim is his combination of deep thoughtfulness and down-to-earth approachability. He has not only been an amazing leader, but he has thought about and can communicate his experiences in a profoundly understandable way. Our audience on September 12 is in for a treat.”
Among his many ties to Rice, Jim serves on the Rice Board of Trustees and is the proud parent of a current senior at Jones College. The second speaker in the Rice Engineering Leader Speaker Series will be Antonio Neri, CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), who will come to campus in February 2024.
Rice Engineering Leader Speaker Series answers a need to hear a leading engineer’s perspective
To achieve their career goals, or even decide what their goals should be, engineering students must have a vision of what they could be – be it an individual contributor, a manager leader, or leave engineering to influence the world from other avenues such as business, medical school, or law.
For those who want to lead engineering and not leave engineering, they need to see the path and process for how engineers and related technical professionals rose from the individual contributor rank to become engineering managers, directors, VPs of engineering, and Chief Technical Officers…. and in some cases, founder CEOs and founder CTOs of start-up companies. The vision for future engineering leaders is what RCEL works to inspire.
The Rice Engineering Leader Speaker Series was born when RCEL directors realized that while top business schools bring business leaders to campuses, there was no consistent university venue for engineers who have risen to leadership roles to discuss their journey, as well as the state of technology products and services at companies and organizations, from an engineering perspective.
“Universities are unique places where ideas are born, discovered, cultivated, and imparted to the next generation,” said Fred Higgs, RCEL Faculty Director. “Universities also have a mandate of academic freedom where ideas can be shared without being captivated and screened by their profit-making potential. This makes them important venues for curating and disseminating knowledge to the world.”
Through the Rice Engineering Leader Speaker Series, audience members will experience what it is like to learn about Engineering Management and Leadership from RCEL, its community of scholars, and prominent thoughts leaders who drop by, either as a student or an alumni.
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ABOUT RCEL The mission of the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership (RCEL) is to inspire, educate, and develop, ethical leaders in technology who will excel in research, industry, non-engineering career paths, or entrepreneurship. RCEL programing enhances a traditional engineering education by providing skills not typically covered in the Rice engineering curriculum, including learning to create and communicate a vision, build a high-performing team, form and execute collaborative plans, and create innovations that endure. RCEL was established in 2009 with a gift from John ’73, ’74, and Ann ’75 Doerr, and the official Engineering Leadership Certificate was approved in 2014.
RCEL Contact Information:
George W. Webb III, J.D.
Industry Relations Director, Rice Center for Engineering Leadership
gwebb@rice.edu
Kaz Karwowski
Executive Director, Rice Center for Engineering Leadership
karwowski@rice.edu