The new academic year begins with five new members of the Rice University Board of Trustees, all of whom are alumni with extensive ties to their alma mater. D. Mark Durcan, Michol McMillian Ecklund, Lynn Lednicky, Elle Moody and Randa Duncan Williams will each serve four-year terms that began July 1.
Durcan is a retired CEO of Micron Technology, one of the world’s largest memory chipmakers, where he managed a global corporation with more than 30,000 employees and an annual revenue run rate of approximately $20 billion. He is a recipient of the Robert N. Noyce Award from the Semiconductor Industry Association and he was inducted into the Academy of Engineers at the University of Idaho College of Engineering. Durcan has held positions on numerous boards and he currently serves the boards of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Veoneer, AmerisourceBergen Corp., and St. Luke’s Health System, a nonprofit hospital system in Idaho.
Durcan earned bachelor's and master's degrees in chemical engineering from Rice in 1983 and 1984, respectively. He has been a member of the George R. Brown School of Engineering Advisory Board since 2018 and is a member of the board of governors for the Goliard Scholarship at Rice. He served on the 2018 Rice Annual Fund Reunion Committee and was honored with the Rice University Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2019.
Ecklund is senior vice president and general counsel of Callon Petroleum, a publicly traded independent oil and natural gas company. She previously served as deputy general counsel for commercial and operations services at Marathon Oil after starting her career at Baker Botts LLP. She is a director of The Woman’s Hospital of Texas and the World Affairs Council of Houston and was previously a director of Education Pioneers Houston and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Houston Gulf Coast. She was named among the “Women Who Mean Business” in energy by the Houston Business Journal.
Ecklund earned a bachelor's degree in political science, economics and managerial studies from Rice in 1997 and a Juris Doctor from Harvard University in 2000. At Rice, she served as president of the Association of Rice Alumni (ARA) Board (2018-2019) and on the Laureates Committee and the Alumni Trustee Nominations Committee. She is also a member of the Rice Initiative for the Study of Economics (RISE); the Rice University Lawyer Alumni Association; the Alumni Regional Group Leaders, Houston; and the Women’s Athletics Advisory Board. She is a member and former board member of Rice Alumni Volunteers for Admission (RAVA). Ecklund was a past chair of the Rice Annual Fund Steering Committee; a Centennial reunion chair (2011-2013) and is a reunion giving co-chair (2006-present). Along with her husband, Michael “Mike” Ecklund '94, she is a former Rice Homecoming chair and a member of the R Association.
Lednicky is a partner of Newport LLC, a national strategic advisory firm that helps owners and CEOs of emerging and midsize companies grow and improve the performance of their businesses. As a member of the Houston office, he focuses on middle market companies in a variety of industries including the energy and energy-related sectors.
Lednicky earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry and an MBA from Rice in 1982 and 1991, respectively. He was a board member of the Association of Rice Alumni (2013-2015), the Alumni Communications Committee (2013-2014), the Alumni Groups Committee (2013-2014) and the Board Nominations Committee (2006-2008). He is a Baker College Associate and has been a member of the University Standing Committee, Undergraduate Curriculum since 2017. He was a reunion committee member (2002-2003, 2012-2013); Rice University Fund Council member (1981-1982, 1987-1993); class chair (1984-1986, 1987-1989); and class giving committee member (1984-1989). At the Jones School of Business, Lednicky was an Alumni Association board member (2012-2018) including serving as president-elect, president, and past president from 2016-2018, a class ambassador (2017) and a member of Rice Business Partners. He was honored with the Jones School’s M.A. “Mike” Wright Award in 1991.
Moody graduated from Rice in 2014, earning bachelor's degrees in art history and religious studies. During her time at Rice, Moody represented the Owls on the cross-country and track teams and spent time at King’s College London studying the international museum landscape. She holds a master’s degree in visual art administration from New York University. She is currently an account manager at the global communications firm Sutton, where she leads international communications strategies for a diverse roster of clients in the cultural sector.
Moody serves on the advisory board for the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice as well as the Moody Foundation’s board of trustees, where she leverages her diverse background in arts and culture to guide the foundation’s investments in the arts across Texas. She has advocated for projects ranging from the Contemporary Austin and the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin to the Galveston Arts Center. Moody serves on the National Leadership Board for the Blanton Museum of Art.
Williams was awarded her bachelor's degree from Rice in 1985, majoring in political science and economics. After receiving her J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center in 1988, she worked at Butler Binion LLP and later at Sims, Wise and White PC. She then joined her family’s company, Enterprise Products, where she currently serves as chairman. She also serves as chairman of the Dan L. Duncan Foundation and Texas Monthly LLC, as well as general partner of Enterprise Products Partners LP.
Her extensive history of nonprofit board service includes the Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital committee, Houston Museum of Natural Science (where she is a two-time former chair), the Houston Zoo (where she is also a trustee emeritus), the Alkek and Williams Foundation, the Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation (where she also serves as secretary and director), Episcopal High School (where she’s also past chair), the Episcopal High School Endowment Fund and the River Oaks Baptist School Endowment Foundation.
At Rice, she has previously served not only as a trustee and a member of the board’s Academic Affairs Committee, but also as a member of the Shepherd Society, the School of Social Sciences Advisory Committee and the Baker Institute for Public Policy board.