Seven elected to Rice Board of Trustees

The Rice University Board of Trustees has elected six new members with expertise ranging from banking and investments to the airline, energy, product distribution and satellite communication industries. The board also re-elected one current member.

New trustees are:

* Doyle Arnold, vice chairman and chief financial officer (CFO) of Zions Bancorporation;

* Mark Dankberg, co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of ViaSat Inc.;

* Doug Foshee, chairman, president and CEO of Sallyport Investments LLC;

* Jeffery Smisek, chairman, president and CEO of United Continental Holdings Inc.;

* B.B. “Ben” Hollingsworth Jr., chairman of BBH Capital;

* Guillermo “Memo” Treviño, president of Southern Distributing Co.

Re-elected to another four-year term was Randa Duncan Williams, chairman of the board of directors of Enterprise Products Holdings LLC.

“Having such a talented group of trustees joining the board, and Randa returning, as I turn the reins over to Bobby Tudor makes me even more optimistic about Rice’s future,” said Jim Crownover, whose second term as chairman of the board ends June 30. “The extensive variety of their business backgrounds will complement the expertise of our current board.”

“New people bring new ideas, and I’m excited about working with our recently elected and current board members as we take on the challenges of Rice’s second century,” said Bobby Tudor, who will succeed Crownover as chairman. “We have a remarkable skill set among our trustees, and one thing they have in common is a relentless dedication to Rice University.”

Doyle Arnold

Arnold has been CFO of Zions Bancorporation in Salt Lake City since December 2001. Operating 480 full-service banking offices in 10 Western and Southwestern states, Zions is one of the 50 largest banking companies in the U.S. Arnold was formerly group executive vice president for corporate strategy and development at Bank of America Corp. in San Francisco. He served as senior deputy comptroller of the currency and executive assistant to the deputy secretary of the treasury during the Ronald Reagan administration. He is a Rice alum from the Class of 1970 with a B.A. in mathematics and economics.

Mark Dankberg

Dankberg, of Encinitas, Calif., co-founded ViaSat in 1986. He received the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics International Communications Award in 2008. Dankberg was named “Visionary Executive of the Year” for 2012 by Satellite Research and Markets. ViaSat’s most recent ViaSat-1 satellite is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s highest bandwidth communications satellite and serves home Internet, in-flight WiFi and other applications. Dankberg received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Rice in 1976 and 1977, respectively.

Doug Foshee

Foshee established Sallyport Investments in Houston after leaving El Paso Corp., where he served as president and CEO of one of the largest natural gas producers in North America from September 2003 until May 2012. He also served as chairman of El Paso during his last three years there as the company was being acquired by Kinder Morgan. He previously served as chairman of the Houston branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and currently serves as a trustee for the KIPP Academy. He was inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame in 2012. Foshee served two four-year terms on the Rice Board of Trustees from 2004 to 2011. He received an MBA from Rice in 1992.

Jeffery Smisek

Smisek was chairman, president and CEO of Continental Airlines when it merged with United Airlines in 2010 and formed the world’s most comprehensive global route network. He joined Continental in 1995 as senior vice president and general counsel and became president in 2004. In his current position with United Continental Holdings, Smisek leads what Fortune magazine rated the world’s most admired airline in 2012. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Smisek is a former partner of Vinson & Elkins LLP.

B.B. “Ben” Hollingsworth Jr.

Hollingsworth has been chairman of BBH Capital since 2007. Before taking on that venture, he led two different Fortune 500, New York Stock Exchange-listed companies. He was a founder of Group 1 Automotive Inc., a leading operator in the automotive retailing industry, and served as chairman, president and CEO for 10 years. He spent two decades with Service Corporation International, North America’s leading provider of funeral, cremation and cemetery services and products, and served as president and director of the company for 10 years. Hollingsworth, also a Houstonian, received a B.A. from Rice in 1964 and is currently a member of the Council of Overseers of the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business.

Guillermo “Memo” Treviño

Treviño is president of Southern Distributing, a beer and soft drink distributor in Laredo, Texas. He currently serves as a director of BBVA Compass and BBVA Compass Bancshares. He formerly served as a director of the San Antonio Branch of the Dallas Federal Reserve and International Bancshares Inc. Treviño has served as president of the Laredo Chamber of Commerce, Laredo Development Foundation and the Washington’s Birthday Celebration Association. He received a B.A. in English from Rice in 1983.

Randa Duncan Williams

Duncan Williams was elected chairman of the board of Enterprise Products Holdings in February this year and as a director of Enterprise Holdings in November 2010. Enterprise Products Partners LP is a leading North American provider of midstream energy services to producers and consumers of natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil, refined products and petrochemicals. Duncan Williams was elected chairman of Enterprise Products Co. in May 2010 after serving as group co-chairman since 1994. She was originally elected a Rice trustee in 2009 and is now serving a second term on the board. She is a Houstonian and received a B.A. in political science and economics from Rice in 1985.

“I thank Jim again for his incredible leadership of the board and his generous devotion to Rice,” Rice President David Leebron said. “He has been an extraordinary partner for the last eight years. I look forward to working with Bobby Tudor and Rice’s exemplary board, and I welcome our new trustees.”