The Rice Engineering Alumni (REA) has recently elected Theodore (Ted) A. Adams III as the new REA president.
Adams earned his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Rice in 1986. He went on to receive his MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA and completed postgraduate studies at Yale-China at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and at Harvard Business School.
Adams is the President and CEO of Unified Industries Incorporated (UII) and the President and Founder of Red Zeppelin Productions LLC. The impact of his leadership also extends to the nonprofit sector, where he co-founded the Stan Lee Foundation, chairs Unified Empowerment Inc., and serves on the Association of Rice Alumni Board, the Advisory Board for the George Mason Film School, the Board for the Chesapeake Film Festival, and the Board of the DC Black Film Festival.
One of his top priorities as the REA president is advancing its outreach program to help engineering alumni “rediscover Rice'' and connect with the Rice Engineering community. He builds on the momentum of his predecessors, Jim Pyke and Marylauren Ilagan, to engage alumni through programs like the REA Summer Engineering Experience (SEE) and special events that celebrate Rice Engineering.
Adams was inspired by his own rediscovery of Rice to give back to the alumni community and support the next generation of engineers when he received a call from the then Dean of Engineering Sidney Burrus to consult on a entrepreneurial venture for the School of Engineering.
In 2010, Adams was invited to give a talk to the Rice Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, which he co-founded as a Rice student in 1985. This reconnection sparked Adams’ renewed engagement with Rice Engineering, and he began a long tradition at UII of hiring Rice summer interns—independently at first, and now as part of the REA’s SEE program.
“I decided that I was going to commit fully to supporting Rice in any capacity that I could,” said Adams. “The challenge of going through the Rice Engineering program was a character builder for me. I found that I have a common bond with [students and alumni in the Rice engineering community]...a camaraderie of going through such a demanding program together.”
Programs like the REA’s SEE solidify that bond. The SEE offers a professional hands-on engineering experience to students who may not already have access to valuable industry connections that lead to internships.
As the REA President, Adams aims to strengthen the SEE program by identifying more alumni industry connections for student placements and establishing an endowment to ensure the program’s longevity.
Adams also plans to leverage key events to celebrate the alumni community. Rice Engineering will recognize outstanding alumni at the School of Engineering Alumni Awards Celebration on September 12, 2024.
“Members of our community have done some pretty miraculous things, and they should be celebrated,” Adams said. Nominations for the Engineering Alumni Awards open each year in January, and he encourages his fellow REA members to honor each other’s accomplishments by nominating their outstanding classmates.
Beyond the Rice campus, Adams plans to create a series of outreach events in Austin, Dallas, Washington DC, New York City, Seattle, Denver, and the San Francisco Bay Area to engage the national alumni community in person.
Adams believes that in a world where virtual meetings are an everyday occurrence, these face-to-face interactions are crucial for building true community.
“In-person interactions create bonding opportunities that cannot be provided through virtual platforms,” Adams said. “In the professional world, many of the most important conversions occur in hallways and during breaks. For the Rice Engineering alumni community, in-person connections can lead to conversations that have a positive impact on the REA and Rice Engineering as a whole.”
Adams took office as REA president for a one-year term on July 1, succeeding Jim Pyke ’97.