The Rock Center’s Advisory Board is responsible for providing strategic direction for the Rock Center and its staff. The Advisory Board includes HBS entrepreneurial alumni, HBS faculty, and HBS staff.
Paul Baier (MBA 1994), Authoria
Paul A. Baier (MBA 1994) has been involved or started a number of entrepreneurial ventures. While working three days a week at AOL, he bootstrapped Compare.com, which enabled customers to compare prices on everything from PCs to mortgages. Later, He worked for Open Market, an e-commerce software firm, for four years, joining nine months before it went public. He then led Open Market's expansion into business-to-business applications. In 1999, he founded and ran PurchasingCenter.com, a "My Yahoo" portal for industrial purchasing agents who purchase $2-$10 million of factory supplies a year. After the dot-com crash, he renamed the company Excara and switched to selling enterprise software for managing product content. In 2002, he started two nonprofits in response to the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. He is currently acting VP of Product Strategy for Authoria as he researches and evaluates other start-up opportunities. He graduated from Kenyon College, has one daughter, and lives in Wellesley, MA.
Marla Malcolm Beck (MBA 1998), Bluemercury
Marla Malcolm Beck is the co-founder and CEO of Bluemercury Inc., a high-growth luxury beauty retailer and cosmetics brand developer, founded in 1999 when she was twenty-nine years old. In 2015, Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) acquired the company. Ms. Beck also co-founded M-61 Laboratories, makers of M-61 Skincare, the first highly technical, natural cosmeceutical brand and makers of Lune and Aster Cosmetics, a vegan cosmetics line.
Ms. Beck is often invited to share her entrepreneurship, branding, and innovation expertise. Bluemercury’s innovative retailing and human resource model has been the topic of numerous books, including Shopping: Why We Love it and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience and Be Happy at Work: 100 Women Who Love Their Jobs and Why.
She has appeared as a guest on CNBC, CNN and Fox Business News and has been a guest speaker for WWD’s Beauty Innovation Forum, Harvard University’s Luxury Branding Speaker Series and Columbia University’s Lang Center for Entrepreneurship’s Distinguished Speaker Series. In 2014, Ms. Beck received an appointment by Harvard Business School as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and was named as one of Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs. Ms. Beck was Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005.
Prior to founding Bluemercury, she was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. She holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, an M.P.A. from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. She serves on the Advisory Board of Harvard Business School’s Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, the Board of Directors of the National Retail Federation, the Board of Trustees at the Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C. the Board of Council for Public Leadership, Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and is an independent director on the Board of Directors of The Children’s Place (NASDAQ:PLCE). She resides in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and three children.
Shelby Bonnie (MBA 1990), CNET Networks
Shelby Bonnie, Chairman and CEO of CNET Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: CNET) has overseen the company's evolution from a start-up in 1992 to its position today as the leading global media company informing and connecting the buyers, users and sellers of technology. One of CNET Networks' first employees and senior executives, with past responsibilities including COO, CFO and Vice Chairman, Bonnie assumed his current role in 2000.
The next year, he directed the company's efforts in introducing the Interactive Messaging Unit (IMU), the online industry's catalyst for going "beyond the banner" and standardizing new ad formats that dramatically enhanced both the user experience and ad performance. His influence in this evolution earned him his current role as Chairman Emeritus of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, where he continues to champion innovation in online advertising.
Bonnie had guided the successful marriage of CNET Networks' authoritative, award-winning content with the power of technology, evolving the company's leading media brands into vibrant online learning environments and marketplaces, including both advertising-supported and fee-based services. Today, CNET Networks' online properties attract more than 66 million Web users each month ranging form C-level executives and IT professionals to technology or consumer electronics enthusiasts and gamers.
Prior to joining CNET Networks, Bonnie was a managing director at Tiger Management, a New York-based investment firm.
Jon Burgstone (MBA 1999), Symbol Capital
Mr. Burgstone is Managing Director of Symbol Capital, a San Francisco-based hedge fund, where he leads the firm's activities in portfolio management and research. Mr. Burgstone also serves as Faculty Chair and Adjunct Professor of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley.
Earlier in his career he was co-founder and CEO of SupplierMarket, a leading internet supply chain software provider. SupplierMarket.com was purchased for approximately $1.1B by Ariba, where Mr. Burgstone served as Vice President and co-head of corporate development. He has also worked as a high-tech strategy consultant (semiconductor, telecom, online financial services), and in general management for Ford Motor Company.
He is a trustee of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and serves on boards of the Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School and the University of Illinois College of Engineering. Mr. Burgstone actively supports organizations working to improve education and to promote human rights.
Mr. Burgstone earned a BS in engineering from the University of Illinois, an MS in engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He received the 2006 Distinguished Alumnus Award by the University of Illinois Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering.
Michael Cline (MBA 1985), Accretive Technology Partners
J. Michael Cline is the founding Partner of Accretive Technology Partners, LLC, a private equity firm focused on building market leaders in the business process outsourcing, software, and IT services markets. Mr. Cline had previously spent ten years as General Partner at General Atlantic Partners. While at General Atlantic Mr. Cline co-founded Exult and Xchanging, today's leading business process outsourcing companies. Prior to General Atlantic, he was an associate at McKinsey, a leading global management consulting firm.
Mr. Cline has an MBA from Harvard Business School and obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University. He is a Trustee of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and serves on the boards of Manugistics (MANU), Exult (EXLT), Equitant, NewRoads, Fandango and several other leading private technology companies.
Srikant Datar, Harvard Business School
Srikant M. Datar is the Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard University. A graduate with distinction from the University of Bombay, he received gold medals upon graduation from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India. A chartered accountant, he holds two master's degrees and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.
Cited by his students as a dedicated and innovative teacher, Datar received the George Leland Bach Award for Excellence in the Classroom at Carnegie Mellon University and the Distinguished Teaching Award at Stanford University. He is a co-author (with Professors Charles T. Horngren and George Foster) of the leading cost accounting textbook,Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis published by Prentice-Hall.
Datar's research interests are in the cost management and management control areas. He has published his research on activity-based management, quality, productivity, time-based competition, new product development, bottleneck management, incentives and performance evaluation in several prestigious journals, including The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Management Science. He has served on the editorial board of several journals and presented his research to corporate executives and academic audiences in North America, South America, Asia, and Europe.
Datar has worked with many corporations, including General Motors, Mellon Bank, General Chemicals, Solectron, TRW, VISA, AT&T, Boeing, DuPont, Co-operative Bank and British Columbia Telecommunications, on field-based projects in management accounting. He is a member of the American Accounting Association and the Institute of Management Accountants.
Kent Dauten (MBA 1979), Keystone Capital, Inc.
Kent Dauten graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College in 1977 and received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1979. From 1979 to 1994, Mr. Dauten worked at First Chicago Venture Capital/Madison Dearborn Partners, Inc., serving as Senior Vice President of First Chicago Venture Capital and Co-Founder of Madison Dearborn Partners, Inc. He is currently the Founder and President of Keystone Capital, Inc., a private equity investment advisory firm. Mr. Dauten is also the former CEO and President of HIMSCORP, Inc., a medical records storage and retrieval company that he successfully merged with Iron Mountain in 1997. Mr. Dauten currently serves on the Board of Iron Mountain, as well as Health Management Associates of Naples, Florida.
Mr. Dauten has been active with Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (past board chair), School District #29 (past president), Ascension Church (past president), and the Metropolitan Planning Council (past board nember). He is currently involved with the Northwestern Memorial Foundation (board member), the ELCA Fund for Leaders in Mission (leadership council), the Dartmouth College President's Leadership Council, and the Wake Forest Parents' Council, and is a guest lecturer at various business schools. He and his wife Elizabeth have four children: Jenna - 19, Mandy - 18, Ben - 16, and Kit - 12.
Daphne Dufresne (MBA 1999), RLJ Equity Partners
Daphne Dufresne is a Principal at Weston Presidio Capital, a diversified venture capital firm with over $2.3 billion in assets under management. With offices in San Francisco, Boston and Menlo Park, Weston Presidio has worked side by side with the entrepreneurs behind more than 200 companies. Daphne joined Weston Presidio in 1999, following her selection as a 1999 Kauffman Fellow. She is currently involved with the firm's investments in Hunter Fan, Picarro, @hoc, Insulair and Zoots.
Daphne previously led business development for the online trading platform of Interactive Investor, a London-based financial advisory site. She also spent a summer on Wall Street working for Merrill Lynch in its Financial Institutions M&A group. She began her investment career as an Associate Director in Bank of Scotland's Structured Finance Group, focusing on management buyouts in the United Kingdom and France. Prior to that, Daphne served as an Associate in Accenture's (formerly Andersen Consulting) Strategic Services Group, specializing in business and technology strategy for Fortune 500 companies.
Daphne is very active in the Boston community. She was recently appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Economic Stabilization Trust by Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. The Trust provides direct loans and guarantees to manufacturing businesses. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Big Brother Association of Massachusetts Bay, a mentor to a Robert A. Toigo Fellow, a member of the Brigham and Women's Hospital Leadership Forum, and a member of the Steering Committee for New England Springboard Enterprises. Daphne is a frequent guest lecturer at Harvard Business School and has judged the Harvard Business Plan competition for the last four years.
Daphne earned her BS in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and her MBA from Harvard Business School.
Paul Edgerley (MBA 1983), Bain Capital, Inc.
Paul Edgerley joined Bain Capital in 1988 and has been a Managing Director since 1990. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Edgerley spent five years at Bain & Company where he worked as a consultant and manager in the healthcare, information services, retail and automobile industries. Previously, Edgerley, a certified public accountant, worked at Peat Marwick, Mitchell & Company. Edgerley received an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and a BS from Kansas State University. He and his wife, Sandra, reside in Brookline with their four children.
Thomas Eisenmann (MBA 1983), Harvard Business School.
Thomas Eisenmann is the Howard H. Stevenson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and Faculty Co-Chair of the HBS Rock Center for Entrepreneurship. He studies the management of new ventures. Eisenmann teaches an MBA elective course, Product Management 101, in which students specify and supervise development of a software application. In recent years, Eisenmann has served as Chair of Harvard's MBA Elective Curriculum—the second year of the MBA Program—and as course head of The Entrepreneurial Manager, taught to all 900 first-year MBA students. He twice co-led a Harvard Innovation Lab course, Cultural Entrepreneurship in New York City, in which students from across Harvard spent a winter break week in New York exploring new ventures in fashion, food, and fine arts, and co-led four similar winter break trips to Silicon Valley. Eisenmann also created the MBA electives Launching Technology Ventures, which examines challenges that entrepreneurs encounter when starting and scaling new information technology businesses, and Managing Networked Business (now called The Online Economy), which surveys strategies for platform-based businesses that leverage network effects.
Professor Eisenmann received his Doctorate in Business Administration ('98), MBA ('83), and BA ('79) from Harvard University. Prior to entering the HBS Doctoral Program, Eisenmann spent eleven years as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he was co-head of the Media and Entertainment Practice. Eisenmann is on the editorial board of Strategic Management Journal. He currently serves as a director on the boards of Harvard Business Publishing and Harvard Student Agencies, the world’s largest student-run corporation.
Blogs: Platforms & Networks, Launching Tech Ventures (course blog with student posts)
Shikhar Ghosh (MBA 1980), Harvard Business School
Shikhar Ghosh is the Mel Tukman Faculty Fellow, Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit. He teaches and co-leads The Entrepreneurial Manager (TEM) in the MBA program. Shikhar has been a successful entrepreneur for the last 20 years. He has been the founder and CEO or Chairman of eight technology-based entrepreneurial companies and was the past Chairman of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council (MTLC) and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) - two leading entrepreneurial organizations. He was selected by Business Week as one of the best Entrepreneurs in the US, by Forbes as one of the ‘Masters of the Internet Universe’ and by Fortune as the CEO of one of the 10 most innovative companies in the US. Companies he founded were selected as both the ‘hottest’ and ‘coolest’ emerging companies by business publications.
Shikhar joined the Boston Consulting Group after getting his MBA from HBS in 1980. At BCG he focused on organization and innovation in large organizations. He was elected a worldwide partner of the firm in 1987. Shikhar left BCG in 1988 to become CEO of Appex, an early-stage venture backed company that built the inter-carrier infrastructure for the US mobile phone industry. Appex provided centralized services that enabled independent mobile carriers to operate as a single seamless network. Appex’s services included call forwarding across carriers, fraud prevention services, billing and customer service. Appex was bought by EDS in 1990. By the time Shikhar left in 1993, Appex’s revenues exceeded $100 million with an order backlog of over $1 billion. It was selected by Business week as the fastest growing private company in the US.
Shikhar founded Open Market in 1993. Open Market was one of the pioneering companies in the commercialization of the Internet. It built the first commercial infrastructure for enabling secure commerce on the Internet and provided the software and services that enabled companies like Time Warner and AT&T to offer their services on the Internet. Open Market was one of the first Internet companies to go public. It was selected by numerous business publications as one of the companies that helped to make the Internet what it is today.
After leaving Open Market Shikhar has been the founder, CEO or Chairman of several companies in the wireless, payment, Internet marketing, and on-line retailing industries. He has worked in all facets of the entrepreneurial process – starting companies with technical teams, providing and raising capital with venture capitalists, buying and selling companies, or taking them public and closing down unsuccessful companies. He has been a keynote speaker in numerous conferences on innovation, entrepreneurship, digital media and on the future of the Internet.
Andrew Goldfarb (MBA 1993), Globespan Capital Partners
Andy is Executive Managing Director of Globespan Capital Partners and is based in the firm's Boston office. He serves or has served on the boards of Ocular Networks (acquired by Tellabs), Silknet (NASDAQ: SILK), edocs, Idiom Technologies, Incipient, Silicon Dimensions, and Virtusa. Andy has also led investments in Aptis Communications (acquired by Nortel Networks), Argon (acquired by Siemens), Cerulean Technology (acquired by Aether), Net Perceptions (NASDAQ: NETP) and Pirus Networks (acquired by Sun Microsystems).
Prior to Globespan, Andy was Senior Managing Director of JAFCO Ventures, where he established the Boston office in 1997. Previously, Andy directed Trans National Group's venture investing. Andy negotiated TN's investment in Infoseek (NASDAQ SEEK) and Interzine (acquired by TimesMirror). He also negotiated TN's investment in the consolidation of ProMark Teleservices and S&P Data to form International Data Response Corporation (acquired by Telespectrum; NASDAQ TLSP).
Prior to founding TN Ventures, Andy managed new business development activities and served on the Executive Committee for TN. Andy was integral in the sale to MBNA of a major operating division, TNFS, one of the largest credit card origination companies in the United States.
Earlier, Andy worked in the Corporate Development Department at Kikkoman Corporation's Tokyo headquarters for four years. There, he was primarily responsible for identifying new business opportunities in the Japanese market and was involved in the expansion and development of Kikkoman's health club business. Andy has also worked at Booz-Allen & Hamilton in the Marketing Intensive Group and at OPTA Food Ingredients. Andy received an AB in East Asian Studies and Economics, magna cum laude, from Harvard College and received an MBA, with Distinction, from Harvard Business School . Andy serves on the Board of the Institute of Contemporary Art as well as on the fundraising and admissions committees of Harvard College. Andy is also fluent in Japanese.
Todd Krasnow (MBA 1983), Orchid Partners
Todd Krasnow graduated from Harvard Business School in 1983. Following three years at the Star Market division of Jewel Companies, Todd joined Staples before it opened the first office superstore in the country, as part of the original management team. In twelve years at Staples, Todd had a variety of responsibilities. He created the company's first catalog, and later ran that business as a $500 million operation. In 1992, Todd helped launch, and then ran, Staples' international ventures. Several years later, he became executive vice president of sales and marketing. Todd identified and negotiated the naming rights for the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and won a gold "Clio" award for the best retail advertising in the U.S. Under his sales leadership, the multi-billion dollar retailer enjoyed four years of double digit comparable store and delivery sales growth.
In 1998, Todd left Staples to co-found dry cleaner Zoots with Staples founder, Tom Stemberg (who remained Staples C.E.O.). Todd was C.E.O. of Zoots for five years, building the company to over fifty stores in the Northeast. Zoots is credited with introducing a number of innovative concepts to the dry cleaning industry, including 24-hour-a-day accessibility and dry cleaning on line.
Recently, Todd hired a new C.E.O. at Zoots and became chairman of the company. He then started Orchid Partners with four other entrepreneurs. Orchid Partners is a venture capital firm focusing on early stage, New England- based, technology, communications, software and consumer product companies.
Todd earned a BA in chemistry in 1979 from Cornell University. He holds several patents for his work as a chemist at General Foods in the early 1980s. He has served on the board of the Newton Schools Foundation and the Newton high school task force. Todd is married and has three children.
Joseph Lassiter, Harvard Business School
Joe teaches Entrepreneurial Finance and Innovation in Business, Energy and Environment in the MBA Program as well as courses in the Executive Education Program. He is Faculty Chair of the University-wide Harvard Innovation Lab. His academic and professional work focuses on high-potential ventures, including both those formed as new companies and those formed within existing organizations.
From 1994 to 1996, Joe was President of Wildfire Communications, a telecommunications software venture backed by Matrix Partners and Greylock Management. From 1977 to 1994, Joe was a Vice President of Teradyne (NYSE/ automatic test equipment) and a member of its Management Committee. Joe joined Teradyne in 1974 as a Product Manager while on sabbatical from MIT. As a general manager, he was responsible for organizations ranging from start-ups to international, multi-plant businesses. As an individual contributor, he was best known for his work on product development/ sales management problems and on the application of TQM methods to business planning and control.
Joe began his career at MIT's Department of Ocean Engineering as an Instructor in 1970 and was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1972. He developed and taught a course on marine mineral resource economics. He lectured in hydrodynamics, marine transportation, and computer simulation modeling. In a joint program with Harvard Law School, he lectured on marine legal / regulatory policy. His research focused on forecasting economic and environmental consequences of offshore oil and gas development. He was appointed to the MIT-led National Academy of Engineering study on the future of engineering education. Joe received his BS, MS, and PhD from MIT and was awarded National Science, Adams and McDermott Fellowships. He was elected to Sigma Xi.
Josh Lerner, Harvard Business School
Josh Lerner is the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School, and head of the Entrepreneurial Management unit. He graduated from Yale College with a special divisional major that combined physics with the history of technology. He worked for several years on issues concerning technological innovation and public policy at the Brookings Institution, for a public-private task force in Chicago, and on Capitol Hill. He then earned a Ph.D. from Harvard's Economics Department.
Much of his research focuses on venture capital and private equity organizations. (This research is collected in three books, The Venture Capital Cycle, The Money of Invention, and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.) He also examines policies on innovation and how they impact firm strategies. (That research is discussed in the books Innovation and Its Discontents, The Comingled Code, and the Architecture of Innovation.) He co-directs the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Program and serves as co-editor of their publication, Innovation Policy and the Economy. He founded and runs the Private Capital Research Institute, a nonprofit devoted to encouraging access to data and research about venture capital and private equity, and serves as vice-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Investing.
In the 1993-1994 academic year, he introduced an elective course for second-year MBAs. Over the past two decades, “Venture Capital and Private Equity” has consistently been one of the largest elective courses at Harvard Business School. (The course materials are collected in Venture Capital and Private Equity: A Casebook, now in its fifth edition, and the textbook Venture Capital, Private Equity, and the Financing of Entrepreneurship.) He also teaches a doctoral course on entrepreneurship and chairs the Owners-Presidents-Managers Program and executive courses on private equity.
Among other recognitions, he is the winner of the Swedish government’s Global Entrepreneurship Research Award. He has recently been named one of the 100 most influential people in private equity over the past decade by Private Equity International magazine and one of the ten most influential academics in the institutional investing world by Asset International's Chief Investment Officer magazine. He currently serves as Vice Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Investing.
Dan Levitan (MBA 1983), Maveron, LLC
Dan Levitan and his partner Howard Schultz co-founded Maveron in 1998. Levitan and Schultz, who shared the same philosophies about what makes a great company and powerful consumer brand, wanted to bring to fruition their shared values and vision for a different kind of venture capital firm. Within six months Levitan raised $75 million, eventually creating the largest venture capital fund in the state of Washington, now totaling more than $400 million under management. Maveron's mission is to become the premier financial and strategic partner to the great consumer brands of the future.
Prior to his role as Managing Partner at Maveron, Levitan was a managing director at Schroder Wertheim & Co., a leading investment banking firm in New York. At Schroder's, Levitan headed consumer investment banking, new business development and founded the West Coast investment banking division. Levitan serves on the board of directors of The Motley Fool, drugstore.com, Quellos Group, Potbelly Sandwich Works, and Cranium, and has acted as a consultant to numerous private, public and philanthropic organizations, including Duke University's Trinity College of Arts & Sciences Board of Visitors and Pilchuck Glass School. Levitan is a graduate of Horace Mann School, Duke University, and Harvard Business School. Levitan's personal interests include fine art, Duke basketball, and mountain climbing. In 1997, he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, and in 2000 ascended Mount Rainier for the second time.
Carl Martignetti (MBA 1985), Martignetti Companies
Carl is President and Co-owner of Martignetti Companies, the leading distributor of wines and spirits in New England. He is co-chairman of the Harvard College Fund, past chairman of the Harvard Associates Program, and a member of the Harvard Committee on University Resources. He is a Trustee of the Belmont Hill School and of the Boston Lyric Opera, a Director of the American Repertory Theatre, a member of the Executive Council of the Inner City Scholarship Fund, and a member of the President's Advisory Board of the Massachusetts General Hospital. Carl received his BA from Harvard College and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Terry McGuire (MBA 1985), Polaris Ventures
Terry McGuire is a co-founder and general partner of Polaris Partners, where he focuses on life sciences investments. Terry has co-founded Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Advanced Inhalation Research, and MicroCHIPS. He represents Polaris on the boards of directors of Acceleron Pharma, Adimab/Arsanis/Alector, Aero Designs, 480 Medical/Arsenal Medical, Editas, Iora Health, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Life Line Screening, MicroCHIPS, Nextcode, Pulmatrix, SustainX, and Trevena.
Terry is Chairman Emeritus of the National Venture Capital Association, and Chairman of the Global Venture Capital Congress. He chairs the Board of Overseers of the Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, and serves on the boards of MIT's The David Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, Harvard Business School, and The Healthcare Initiative Advisory Board (HBS).
Terry received a MBA from Harvard Business School, a MS in engineering from The Thayer School at Dartmouth College, and a BS in physics and economics from Hobart College.
In 2013, Terry was listed as one of Forbes' Top Life Sciences Investors, and he received The Boston Irish Business Award. In 2011, Terry was listed in Forbes' Midas 100 List of Top Tech Investors. He is also a recipient of the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research Award, and the Albert Einstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Life Sciences, awarded by Harvard and the City of Jerusalem. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws degree from Ohio Wesleyan University for his work in translational science.
Christopher McKown (MBA 1981), Health Dialog Services Corporation
Mr. McKown is president and co-founder of Health Dialog Services Corporation, a leader in providing evidence-based medical information and decision support to patients facing treatment decisions and living with chronic conditions.
Prior to Health Dialog, Mr. McKown was the founder (1987) and president of Response International Services Corporation, a niche insurance direct marketing company sold to Providian in 1994. Mr. McKown was a principal in Booz, Allen & Hamilton in New York from 1981 to 1987. Mr. McKown is a director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston; a director of the Pine Street Inn; an overseer of WGBH; co-chair of the Director's Advisory Committee at the Arnold Arboretum; and treasurer of the Friends of the Boston Night Center.
He received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1981, and a BS from Penn State in 1977. He lives with his wife and their two daughters in Milton, MA.
Glen Meakem (MBA 1991), Meakem Becker Venture Partners
Glen T. Meakem is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Meakem Becker Venture Capital, a venture capital firm located near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that is focused on the eastern and Midwestern United States and invests in and helps to build early-stage companies in the information technology, biomedical, and service industries.
Prior to entering the venture capital industry in 2004, Mr. Meakem was the founding Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of FreeMarkets, Inc. Mr. Meakem founded the company in 1995. During its history, FreeMarkets first created the market for internet deployed supply management software and services and then went public in 1999 in a record setting IPO. Later, the company expanded dramatically across the globe, achieving over $US 180 million in annual revenues and tens of millions of dollars in positive cash flow. Mr. Meakem and his team sold the company to Ariba (NASDAQ: ARBA) for $US 500 million in 2004.
A trailblazer in electronic commerce, Mr. Meakem was named one of 40 technology pioneers by the World Economic Forum in 2003, and holds eight United States patents for electronic commerce inventions. FreeMarkets and Mr. Meakem were profiled in a widely taught Harvard Business School case study.
A leader in Pennsylvania, Mr. Meakem is a member of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Mellon University, and is a former Chairman of the Board of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania - Heinz History Center. He is a member of the Boards of Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, The Urban League of Pittsburgh, Sewickley Academy, and the Extra Mile Education Foundation. He also sits on the advisory committee of Imani Christian Academy, an inner-city private school. Mr. Meakem has won numerous awards including the Anti-Defamation League's National American Heritage Award, Ernst &Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Western Pennsylvania, Syracuse University's Salzberg Medallion for Exceptional Business Achievement, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts Cultural Award, and Junior Achievement's Spirit of Enterprise Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Early in his career, Mr. Meakem held professional and managerial positions with General Electric, McKinsey &Company, and Kraft-General Foods. A former officer in the United States Army Reserve where he achieved the rank of Captain, Mr. Meakem also volunteered for and served in the 1991 Gulf War. Mr. Meakem holds a B.A. cum laude from Harvard University, an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration from Robert Morris University.
Mr. Meakem is married with five children.
Mick Mountz (MBA 1996) Kiva Systems
Mick founded Kiva Systems in January 2003 after spending time in high tech product development, manufacturing, operations, and marketing. With a unique blend of warehouse management expertise and technology insight, Mick is the chief architect of Kiva's game-changing product vision. Prior to Kiva, Mick worked on a business process team at Webvan designing a next generation distribution strategy for grocery home delivery, during which he experienced first-hand the high cost of order fulfillment and the inflexibility of existing material handling systems.
Prior to joining Webvan, Mick spent three years in product marketing at Apple Computer as a Product Manager where he helped move many new technologies into the standard desktop platform including FireWire, DVD, Fast Ethernet, and 3D graphics acceleration. He began his career at Motorola, where he worked as both a Mechanical and a Manufacturing Engineer. In 2008 Mick was a winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award in the New England region. In 2009, under Mick's leadership, Kiva was ranked number six on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing companies in America, and Gartner named Kiva one of its "Cool Vendors in Supply Chain Management." Mick holds seven United States technology patents. He earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a MBA from Harvard Business School.
Gary Mueller (MBA 1994), Internet Securities
Gary Mueller is Chairman of Internet Securities Incorporated (ISI), an online provider of financial and business information on the emerging markets. Gary founded ISI in 1994 and has led the company ever since. ISI currently has 250 employees in 19 countries and its subscription-based service covers over 50 emerging markets, including Brazil, Mexico, Russia, China, and India. In 1999 Euromoney Institutional Investor, a FTSE 250 company, purchased ISI. In June 2000 Gary was appointed to Euromoney Institutional Investor's Board of Directors. He is a graduate of Harvard College (1988) and Harvard Business School (1994).
Prior to joining Webvan, Mick spent three years in product marketing at Apple Computer as a Product Manager where he helped move many new technologies into the standard desktop platform including FireWire, DVD, Fast Ethernet, and 3D graphics acceleration. He began his career at Motorola, where he worked as both a Mechanical and a Manufacturing Engineer. In 2008 Mick was a winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award in the New England region. In 2009, under Mick's leadership, Kiva was ranked number six on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing companies in America, and Gartner named Kiva one of its "Cool Vendors in Supply Chain Management." Mick holds seven United States technology patents. He earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a MBA from Harvard Business School.
Venkatesh Narayanamurti, Harvard University
Venkatesh ("Venky") Narayanamurti is Dean of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. He is also the Dean of Physical Sciences and a professor in the Harvard Physics Department. From January 1992 to September 1998 he served as the Richard A. Auhll Professor and Dean of Engineering, as well as Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He was Vice President of Research and Exploratory Technology at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, from May 1987 to January 1992. He obtained his PhD in Physics from Cornell University in 1965. He joined Bell Laboratories in 1968 as a member of technical staff, and became Director of Solid State Electronics Research in 1981. He has published widely in the areas of low temperature physics, superconductivity, semiconductor electronics and photonics. He is credited with developing the field of phonon optics—the manipulation of monoenergetic acoustic beams at terahertz frequencies. He is currently very active in the field of semiconductor nanostructures.
Narayanamurti is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. He is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the IEEE, the Indian Academy of Sciences, and Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. Over the years he has served on numerous advisory boards of the federal government, research universities, and industry. Most recently he has served as Chair of the Directorate of Engineering Advisory Board, NSF (1995-1996), Chair of the National Research Council Panel on the Future of Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (1996-1999), and Chair of the Committee of Visitors for the Division of Materials Research, NSF (2002). Currently he is a member of the Advisory Board for the University of California's Miller Institute for Basic Science and a member of the Dean's Leadership Councils of Princeton and Cornell Universities. In addition to his duties as Dean and Professor, Narayanamurti lectures widely on solid state, computer, and communication technologies, and on the management of science, technology, and public policy.
Steven Papa (MBA 1999), Endeca
Steve Papa founded Endeca in 1999 after recognizing that in this age of overwhelming information overload, information access methods available for people to find what they are looking for or get answers are ineffective and inefficient. Endeca is located in Cambridge MA, has over 100 employees, and is backed by Venrock, Bessemer, and Ampersand ventures. With Steve's guiding vision, Endeca's information access technology, with seven patents pending, now addresses a wide range of information challenges across a variety of industries and in the public sector. Today, Endeca is a growing and thriving software company with customers such as the CIA, Harvard Business School Publishing, IBM, ABN Amro, Old Mutual, Putnam Investments, The Library of Congress, Forrester Research, Barnes & Noble and many others. Despite the difficult technology market, Endeca has received numerous accolades such as Enterprise Outlook's 2003 Investor's Choice Award (one of ten software companies nationwide most likely to succeed) and ComputerWorld's Innovative Technology Award (one of twenty-five annually).
Prior to Endeca, Steve was part of the early team at Inktomi where he was the business lead in charge of creating the company's infrastructure caching business, which grew to make up 60 percent of Inktomi's revenues prior to their acquisition by Yahoo!. He was also part of the original business team at Akamai. In addition, Steve was a venture capital associate with Venrock Associates, the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family, and was responsible for managing AT&T's $500 million high-end enterprise computing system product line.
Steve holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Operations Research from Princeton University.
Mike Roberts (MBA 1983), Harvard Business School
Michael J. Roberts recently retired as the MBA Class of 1961 Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School. He spent 25 years on the HBS faculty, serving for the last 16 years as the Executive Director of the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship. In this capacity, he directed the School’s non-classroom activities in support of entrepreneurship, including the HBS Business Plan Contest, fellowship programs, Entrepreneur in Residence program, and the California Research Center in Silicon Valley. Dr. Roberts has also served as Executive Director, Case Development at the School. In this role, he oversaw many aspects of the School’s case development activities. While at HBS, he also taught the second-year elective course “Evaluating the Entrepreneurial Opportunity” for students who were actively working to transform an idea into a real business. He also taught the School’s first-year required courses in entrepreneurship and business history.
Dr. Roberts has worked in a variety of private sector roles. Prior to and during business school, he worked for McKinsey & Co. and Morgan Stanley, respectively. From 1989 to 1991, he served as Director of International Business Development for Cellular Communications, Inc. where he led a successful effort to acquire the second cellular license in Italy. He has also served as Chief Financial Officer of a start-up chain of quick service Italian restaurants, and as Vice President of Business Development for a company in the health care services field.
Dr. Roberts received his BA, cum laude, from Harvard College in economics in 1979. He was awarded his MBA, with high distinction, from Harvard Business School in 1983. He completed his formal studies in 1986 when he received his doctorate, as a Dean's Fellow, in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He is the author of over 150 case studies on starting and managing entrepreneurial companies. He co-authored New Business Ventures and the Entrepreneur, a textbook that is used at over 100 graduate business schools. He is also a co-author of The Entrepreneurial Venture and of a legal text, Business Structures.
Dr. Roberts serves on the boards of several private companies.
Phone: 617-767-4556
Email:mikeroboston@gmail.com
Javier Saade (MBA 2000), Fenway Summer Ventures
Javier is Managing Director of Fenway Summer Ventures. FSV invests and supports pioneers tackling challenges at the intersection of finance and technology and makes early stage investments. Javier recently served as SBA's Associate Administrator and oversaw the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC), Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR), and the Growth Accelerator Fund programs. Since inception, the programs he led have invested $120 billion in over 320,000 high-growth startups and businesses. Prior to public service he spent 20 years in various investment, entrepreneurial, operational and advisory roles at firms that include McKinsey & Company, Booz Allen & Hamilton, Bridgewater Associates, The GEM Group, Paradigm Ventures, Pacific Community Ventures, Air America Media and Abbott Laboratories.
Bill Sahlman (MBA 1975), Harvard Business School
William Sahlman is the Dimitri V. d'Arbeloff Class of 1955 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. The d'Arbeloff Chair was established in 1986 to support teaching and research on the entrepreneurial process. The Chair honors the late Dimitri d'Arbeloff (HBS '55), whose entrepreneurial skills helped make Millipore Corporation a world leader in its industry.
Mr. Sahlman received an AB degree in Economics from Princeton University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a PhD in Business Economics, also from Harvard.
His research focuses on the investment and financing decisions made in entrepreneurial ventures at all stages in their development.
Mr. Sahlman's most recent article, "Expensing Options Solves Nothing" (Harvard Business Review, December 2002), discusses proposals to require a charge to income for the estimated value of stock option grants. He notes that we already disclose detailed information on stock options and that the proposed charges do little to add information to the income statement. Moreover, there are far more serious issues in accounting and governance that warrant attention including the level and structure of executive compensation, other liability and asset accounting practices, and the role of the board of directors.
In "The New Economy is Stronger Than You Think" (Harvard Business Review , November/December 1999), Mr. Sahlman describes the positive role of entrepreneurship in the economy. He emphasizes the impact of enabling technologies like the Internet on critical factors like inflation and productivity.
In "How to Write a Great Business Plan" (Harvard Business Review , July/August 1997), Mr. Sahlman describes the appropriate role of the business plan in new venture formation, whether in a new company or within an existing enterprise. The article emphasizes the role of people in making businesses succeed.
In 1985, Mr. Sahlman introduced a new second-year elective course called Entrepreneurial Finance. That course has been taken by over 8,000 students since it was first offered. Mr. Sahlman and an HBS co-author, Paul Gompers, published a casebook in 2002 entitled Entrepreneurial Finance (Wiley). In 2000, he helped introduce and teach a new course in the first year called The Entrepreneurial Manager.
Mr. Sahlman was co-chair of the Entrepreneurship and Service Management Unit from 1999 to 2002. From 1991 to 1999, he was Senior Associate Dean, Director of Publishing Activities, and chairman of the board for Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. From 1990 to 1991, he was chairman of the Harvard University Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility. He is a member of the board of directors of several private companies.
Angelo Santinelli (MBA 1989), North Bridge Venture Partners
Angelo Santinelli joined North Bridge Venture Partners as a Principal and became a General Partner in the firm's fourth and fifth fund. Prior to joining North Bridge, Angelo was with Shiva Corporation, a leading provider of remote access networking products, where he served as Senior Vice President Worldwide Marketing and Business Development. At Shiva he was responsible for building and managing the product management, product marketing, marketing communications, knowledge management and Web groups. Prior to Shiva he was with the Boston Consulting Group where he participated in the high-tech practice group. Angelo also spent several years in sales with International Business Machines. Mr. Santinelli's venture investing is targeted at the communications and Internet infrastructure industries.
Angelo is a senior lecturer at MIT's Sloan School of Management. He is a graduate of Fordham University, 1984 and Harvard Business School, 1989.
Asif Satchu (MBA 1999), Chronos Capital
Mr. Satchu is a founding Partner of AMV Capital, a distribution rights investment fund. He is also a co-founder of StorageNow, one of Canada's leading self-storage companies. Mr. Satchu was previously Chairman of SupplierMarket, a leading supply chain management company. Prior to co-founding SupplierMarket, Mr. Satchu worked at Tiger Management Company and Morgan Stanley. Mr. Satchu received a bachelor's degree from McGill University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Robert Smith (MBA 1985), Castanea Partners
Robert A. Smith is currently Vice Chairman of Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. and Managing Partner of Castanea Partners, Inc. Mr. Smith is the former Co-Chief Executive Officer of both Harcourt General, a diversified publishing concern, and Co-Chief Executive Officer of The Neiman Marcus Group.
Mr. Smith serves on numerous community boards, including the Children's Hospital, Boston, Facing History and Ourselves, Harvard Committee on University Resources, and the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge. and is an overseer at the Beth Israel/Deaconess Medical Center. He is a Trustee of the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation, and the Stoneman Family Foundation.
He received his degrees from Harvard, AB 1981, and MBA, 1985. Mr. Smith and his wife, Dana, have three children.
Howard Stevenson (MBA 1965), Harvard Business School
Howard H. Stevenson is Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. The Sarofim-Rock Chair was established in 1982 to provide a continuing base for research and teaching in the field of entrepreneurship. Dr. Stevenson is its first incumbent. The program for entrepreneurial studies uses a multi-disciplinary approach to the creation and maintenance of entrepreneurial focus of business organizations. He is a Senior Associate Dean and Director of External Relations. From 1999 to 2001 he served as Chair of the Latin American Faculty Advisory Group. He also served as Senior Associate Dean and Director of Financial and Information Systems for Harvard Business School from 1991 to 1994. He has been chairperson of the Owner/President Manager Program in executive education and of the Publications Review Board for Harvard Business School Press of Harvard Business School Publishing Company.
He was a founder and first president of the Baupost Group, Inc. which manages partnerships investing in liquid securities for wealthy families. When he resigned from active management, Baupost assets had grown to over $400 million. He is now co-chairman of the Advisory Board of Baupost LLC, a registered investment company. From 1978 to 1982, Professor Stevenson was Vice President of Finance and Administration and a Director of Preco Corporation, a large privately-held manufacturing company. In addition, in 1970-71, he served as Vice President of Simmons Associates, a small investment banking firm specializing in venture financing.
Prior to 1978, he held various academic appointments at Harvard University, specializing in Real Property Asset Management and General Management. He received his BS in mathematics, with distinction, from Stanford and his MBA, with high distinction, and DBA degrees from Harvard University. He was a Thomas Watson National Merit Scholar and a recipient of the ALCOA and Ford Foundation Fellowships for graduate study.
He has authored, edited or co-authored six books and forty-one articles including New Business Ventures and the Entrepreneur, with Michael J. Roberts and H. Irving Grousbeck; Policy Formulation and Administration, with C.R. Christensen, N. Berg and M. Salter; The Entrepreneurial Venture, with William Sahlman. "The Importance of Entrepreneurship" and "Capital Market Myopia," with William Sahlman; "A Perspective on Entrepreneurship," and"'Preserving Entrepreneurship As You Grow," "The Heart of Entrepreneurship," "How Small Companies Should Deal with Advisers," and "Why Be Honest If Honesty Doesn't Pay" have appeared in Harvard Business Review. Other scholarly papers of his have appeared in Sloan Management Review, Real Estate Review,Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Business Strategy, Strategic Management Journal and elsewhere. He has also authored, co-authored or supervised over 150 cases at Harvard Business School. He is the author of Do Lunch or Be Lunch: The Power of Predictability in Creating Your Future, published by HBS Press. His latest book, co-authored with David Amis, is Winning Angels: The Seven Fundamentals of Early Stage Investing.
He is currently a director of Camp Dresser & McKee and Landmark Communications, as well as a trustee for several private trusts and foundations. He is a director of Sudbury Valley Trustees where he served as president from 1996 to 2000. He is a trustee of the Boston Ballet and a member of the Harvard Club of New York City.
Phil Terry (MBA 1998), Collaborative Gain, Inc.
Phil Terry, CEO of Collaborative Gain, Inc., runs The Councils, a collaborative network of senior leaders, and until early 2014, Phil was also the CEO of Creative Good, a pioneering consulting firm focused on customer experience and strategy. Phil also co-authored "Customers Included", the book widely praised by CEOs, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs for its practical and passionate focus on building better businesses.
With the Councils, Phil has developed a community of hundreds of senior leaders who help each other run better, more customer-inclusive companies. Member companies range from American Express to Walmart, from startups like Squarespace to industry leaders like Google. Phil and his extended team run numerous councils including Product Councils, General Management Councils, CEO Councils, CMO Councils and others. Phil has also written about the power of asking for help as a key leadership discipline in the Harvard Business Review. As noted, Phil until recently ran the Creative Good consulting operation - including designing the methodology, recruiting and managing the team and overseeing more than 400 project across many industries.
Phil has given more than 150 keynote speeches at events like the Harvard Business School Distinguished Speaker Series, National Retail Federation, Forbes, Inc. , and for private corporations such as American Express, eBay, Fidelity, Intuit, Walmart, and many others. He's been profiled and quoted extensively in publications like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times and named by Fast Company as one of the Fast Company 100 - 100 leaders shaping the 21st century.
Phil is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) and holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he was also awarded the Dean's Award. Phil is on the advisory board of the Harvard Business School Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, the University of Southern California's Engineering School's Innovation Institute and the high-growth startup, Stella Service. Phil began his career at Moody's Investors Service and McKinsey & Co.
In his spare time he founded and runs two innovative nonprofits that are changing the customer experience for art and literature - Slow Art Day and Reading Odyssey. He lives with his wife in Brooklyn.
Rob Wadsworth (MBA 1986), Harbour Vest Partners
Mr. Wadsworth has been a founding Managing Director of HarbourVest Partners, LLC since its creation in 1997. HarbourVest Partners is a global private equity firm managing over $15 billion in committed capital for institutional limited partners. HarbourVest's business activities include investing as a primary and secondary investor in venture capital, leveraged buyout and mezzanine funds, as well as investing as a direct investor in venture capital and buyout transactions worldwide.
Prior to HarbourVest, Mr. Wadsworth was a general partner at Hancock Venture Partners from 1988 to 1997. Hancock Venture Partners was the predecessor firm to HarbourVest Partners. Previously, Mr. Wadsworth worked for Booz, Allen & Hamilton, where he specialized in the areas of operations strategy and manufacturing productivity. Mr. Wadsworth received his bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, in systems engineering and computer science from the University of Virginia and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. He currently serves on the boards of several domestic and international private companies. Mr. Wadsworth is presently a director of Concord Communications, Inc., ePresence, Network Engines, Inc., Switchboard, Inc., and Trintech Group PLC, all public companies.
Mr. Wadsworth focuses HarbourVest's efforts in direct investing world-wide where the firm has historically invested over $2 billion in venture capital, expansion capital, leveraged buyout, and recapitalization transactions.
Gwill York (MBA 1984), Lighthouse Capital Partners Inc.
Gwill E. York is the Founder and Managing Director of Lighthouse Capital Partners. Ms. York has spent the last twenty years in a variety of positions in the venture capital community, the last fifteen focused exclusively on structured venture capital investing. She directs the firm's East Coast investment activities, and provides oversight of other operational activities for the Lighthouse Funds. Since co-founding Lighthouse, she has led the firm's investments in companies such as Millennium Pharmaceuticals, StorageNetworks, DataSage, Corvis, Triton, Curis, and Sirocco Systems.
Prior to co-founding Lighthouse in June 1994, Ms. York was a Senior Vice President with Comdisco Ventures where she directed and managed East Coast investment activities. She joined Comdisco Ventures in 1988 having been recruited to establish its East Coast presence. During her tenure, Comdisco Ventures successfully launched its national presence and became the market leader in the venture debt industry in both market share and profitability. While at Comdisco, she led its investments in over fifty companies, primarily in the biotechnology and communications equipment areas, including Human Genome Sciences, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Appex, Brooktrout Technologies, and Cascade Communications.
Prior to joining Comdisco, Ms. York was a Senior Business Analyst for Fidelity Investment Company from 1986 to 1988. From 1984 to 1986, she worked in a medical software start-up, which successfully raised venture capital from four leading venture capital firms. She started her career in 1980 at Salomon Brothers in the corporate finance department.
She holds an AB in economics from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is on the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees for the Museum of Science in Boston. She has been active on several visiting and alumni/alumnae committees over the years for Harvard University as well as served on the National Council of the Harvard Medical School.