After he left the Air Force, Rice became president and chief operating officer of Teledyne in March 1993, serving until August 1996. After helping lead a restructuring of the company and a negotiated merger with Allegheny Ludlum, he left Teledyne to become founding president and chief executive officer of Agensys Corporation (founded in 1997 and formerly called Urogenesys), a Santa Monica-based biotechnology company. In 2002, he became chairman of the Agensys board of directors."Chairman, President, CEO Agensys, Inc." , Board of Directors, Wells Fargo & Company, San Francisco, California, 2008. In 2007, he negotiated the sale of Agensys to Astellas, Inc., continuing as its CEO until his retirement in 2010.
