Brad Burke is responsible for leading the internationally recognized Rice Alliance in its mission to support entrepreneurship education, technology commercialization, and the launch of early-stage technology companies from Rice and in the Houston and Texas region. The Rice Alliance is Rice University’s flagship entrepreneurship initiative, launched in 2000. Since its inception, more than 3,525 tech start-ups have participated in Rice Alliance programs and have raised more than $27.8 billion in funding.

Under Burke’s watch, the Rice Business entrepreneurship program has achieved the ranking of the #1 best graduate US entrepreneurship program in the United States for six consecutive years (2020–2025 inclusive) by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. 

The Rice Alliance hosts the Rice Business Plan Competition, the largest and richest student start-up competition in the world, offering more than $1.5 million in prizes each year. The competition has served as the launchpad for more than 280 successful start-ups that have raised more than $6.1 billion in funding.

In January 2024, the scope of the Rice Alliance was expanded to include responsibility for programming and community activities at the Ion, Houston’s premier start-up and innovation hub, and the center of the 16-acre Ion Innovation District.

Burke joined the Rice Alliance from the technology start-up Viant, which went public via IPO in 1999. Prior to Viant, he served for three years as a consultant to the energy industry with CSC Index. Prior to CSC Index, Burke spent 15 years at Exxon, primarily in the downstream business in refining and marketing, where he served in various financial management, planning, sales, and other operational roles.

He received his MBA from Northwestern (Kellogg) as an Austin Scholar and his BS with a double major in business and computer science from Vanderbilt (magna cum laude).