ENRON, RICE UNIVERSITY SIGN BROADBAND SERVICES AGREEMENT;
RICE RECEIVES $8 MILLION GRANTS FROM ENRON, LAY FAMILY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, June 22, 2000
HOUSTON -- Enron Broadband Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Enron Corp., and Rice University announced today that they have formed a strategic alliance to explore joint development opportunities for educational communications services and network applications. In addition, Rice University received a $5 million endowment from Enron Corp., and $3 million from the Linda and Ken Lay Family. Mr. Lay is chairman and CEO of Enron.
The electronic educational initiative agreement with Enron Broadband Services includes a broadband connection between Rice and the International University of Bremen in Germany, which creates a unique e-campus with potential for abundant research and teaching applications. Enron will locate equipment at Rice for connection to Enron’s fiber optic network and will participate in Rice’s Jones School e-commerce curriculum and broadband technology research and development projects. Enron also will provide a platform for streaming broadband applications developed by Rice including distance learning programs, web-casting, electronic marketing initiatives, online tours and briefings.
The $5 million endowment from Enron Corp. will fund two new chairs in Rice’s Jones School of Management, one in e-commerce and the other in risk management. The Linda and Ken Lay Family’s $3 million contribution will initiate Rice’s development of a research and teaching center, the Ken Lay Center for the Study of Markets in Transition.
The Ken Lay Center for the Study of Markets in Transition will be a joint undertaking between the economics department and the Jones School. It will examine vital issues raised by the evolution of markets for critical products such as energy and bandwidth, deregulation and privatization, and investigate the economic effects and implications of regulation and new forms of global competition.
“Leadership and innovation are evident in Enron’s pioneering work in establishing new markets and fundamentally changing the way markets operate, creating increased efficiencies and opportunities,” said Malcolm Gillis, president of Rice University. “Our relationship with Enron advances many common goals—seeking excellence in all that we do and finding new ways to serve our constituencies. We both intend to seize upon the manifold opportunities offered by the information revolution, and we are taking a significant step in that direction today.”
“We are extremely pleased to support Rice, a premier learning institution for technology and science,” said Lay. “We believe these initiatives will bring tremendous benefits to Enron from a recruiting and business perspective. The broadband services alliance with Rice also should serve as a launching pad for similar initiatives with other universities.”
The new e-commerce and risk management Jones School chairs involve fields of study closely linked to the future work of the new center for market study and will therefore have a high degree of interaction with the faculty in the center. The Lay Family gift, combined with equivalent other funding, will also establish a new chair in the general field of regulatory economics and industrial organization, and a chair in international finance. This new funding will also support new graduate fellowships in the fields of the new chairholders.
Rice University is consistently ranked one of America's best teaching and research universities. It is distinguished by its size, selectivity, and collaborative culture, which crosses disciplines, integrates teaching and research, and intermingles undergraduate and graduate work. Rice’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management is ranked by Business Week among the ten U.S. business schools best able to balance real-world professionals and traditional faculty. The Jones School is one of only two or three in the nation requiring students to take their classroom knowledge into real business settings, developing crucial leadership and managerial skills.
Enron is one of the world’s leading electricity, natural gas and communications companies. The company, which owns approximately $37 billion in energy and communications assets, produces electricity and natural gas, develops, constructs and operates energy facilities worldwide, delivers physical commodities and financial and risk management services to customers around the world, and is developing an intelligent network platform to facilitate online business. Fortune magazine has named Enron "Most Innovative Company" for five consecutive years, the top company for "Quality of Management" and the second best company for "Employee Talent." In addition, Enron ranks in the top quarter of Fortune's "Best 100 Companies to Work For in America." Enron’s Internet address is www.enron.com. The stock is traded under the ticker symbol “ENE.”
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For additional information please contact:
Shelly Mansfield
Enron Broadband Services
(713) 853-4589
shelly.mansfield@enron.com
Catherine Del Paggio
Rice University
(713) 348-4672
cdelpag@rice.edu
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