Tulsa area business leader and Rogers State University First Lady Peggy Rice was selected as an honoree for the Journal Record’s 2013 Fifty Making a Difference award, honoring the influence of women in the workforce and community.
Rice serves as President and CEO of the Small Business Capital Corporation, which was founded in 1992 and has funded debentures for over $127 million, with total project costs for these loans of over $355 million. The result has helped create more than 2,300 jobs. She has been recognized as the national Small Business Administration’s Financial Advocate of the Year by President Bill Clinton in 1996.
Previously, Rice served as Director of Existing Business Development for the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce and Senior Vice President of Commercial Lending and Marketing Officer for First National Bank and Trust Company in Stillwater, Okla. While living in Stillwater, she served on the Boards of the Chamber of Commerce, YMCA, United Way and the Stillwater Public Schools Foundation. She is a graduate of Leadership Oklahoma.
Today, she serves on the board of directors for RCB Bank and is active in numerous civic and non-profit organizations in northeast Oklahoma. She also volunteers her time at RSU, where her husband Dr. Larry Rice serves as President.
“There are so many amazing and accomplished women in Oklahoma and it is such an honor to provide them with the recognition they deserve,” said Mary Mélon, president and publisher of The Journal Record. “The Journal Record started the Woman of the Year program in 1981, to recognize what was then called a growing segment of the workforce. Today, women play such a critical role in leading businesses, organizations and communities and it is critically important to continue highlighting the difference they make and to build up future generations of leaders.”
Honorees were recognized at a banquet on Oct. 3 at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City and will be featured in a special Journal Record publication, “Fifty Making a Difference.”