About Dr. Peter Rodriguez

Dr. Peter Rodriguez has been named Wake Forest’s 15th president. He will begin his tenure on July 1, 2026.

Dr. Rodriguez will come to Wake Forest from Rice University, where he has been dean of Rice Business, which includes the Jones Graduate School of Business and the Virani Undergraduate School of Business, since 2016.

During his tenure at Rice, he has doubled MBA enrollment and increased the number of tenure-track faculty by more than 40%. He introduced Rice’s first online graduate degree and launched the Hybrid MBA program. Under his leadership, McNair Hall was renovated — complete with a new public art installation — and construction began on a second building, scheduled to open in 2026. He also oversaw the founding of the business major in 2021 and the naming of the Virani Undergraduate School of Business in 2024. Additional accomplishments include forming a new operations faculty group, launching the faculty insights magazine Rice Business Wisdom, expanding Rice’s entrepreneurship initiatives and integrating a global field experience into the curriculum for every MBA student.

An economist and professor of strategic management, Rodriguez teaches MBA classes on leadership and has instilled the core values of being attentive, responsive and kind as central to the culture of Rice Business. Poets&Quants named Peter Rodriguez its Dean of the Year for 2025. He is also a sought-after voice in the media, providing expert commentary on the global economy for Bloomberg Markets, CNBC and PBS.

He’s presently serving a three-year term on the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Houston Branch board of directors, providing input on regional economic conditions as part of its monetary policy functions. He is also a board member for three nonprofit organizations. His dedication to inclusive excellence has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Multicultural Leadership Award from the Texas Diversity Council.

A recipient of numerous teaching awards from Princeton, Texas A&M and the University of Virginia, Peter holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University and a B.S. in economics from Texas A&M University. While at Princeton, he studied under Ben Bernanke, former chairman of The Federal Reserve.

Rodriguez came to Rice from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, where he was a professor, senior associate dean for MBA programs and chief diversity officer. He also served as associate dean for international affairs and director of the Tayloe Murphy International Center. His research interests include corruption, globalization, economic development and social institutions. He worked for several years as an associate in the Global Energy Group at JPMorgan Chase.

A Texas native, Peter and his wife Kathleen have three children: Gabriella, Sam and Michael.