07 Sep 2017

Harvard Business School Names 2017-2018 Entrepreneurs-in-Residence

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BOSTON—Harvard Business School (HBS) recently named its twelfth annual cohort of Entrepreneurs-in-Residence at the School’s Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship. As part of an extensive program in entrepreneurship and under the leadership and guidance of more than 25 faculty members, these successful entrepreneurs and investors spend time on the HBS campus throughout the academic year, advising MBA students eager to start their own companies and working with faculty on research and course development.

Since 1947, the study of entrepreneurship has been a vital part of the Harvard Business School MBA program, which includes a required course in the first year, numerous electives in the second-year curriculum, and a thriving annual New Venture Competition. The School’s Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, which has earned accolades as the top program for entrepreneurial studies in the nation, supports faculty and their research in the field of entrepreneurial management as well as spurs the HBS community with the energy and spirit needed for new ideas and innovations to thrive and grow. Through a community that provides support, access to content, and a gateway to entrepreneurial ecosystems everywhere, the Rock Center helps students and alumni create ventures that revolutionize in both the for-profit and social enterprise sectors.

The twenty-one Entrepreneurs-in-Residence for 2017-18 are:

STEPHEN BONNER, former president and CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America and currently an advisor to private equity firms and a healthcare merchant bank as well as an investor, advisor, and board member for six health care startup companies.

DAVID CANCEL, serial entrepreneur, podcast host (Seeking Wisdom) and angel investor/advisor. He is best known for creating hypergrowth products and product teams at companies such as Drift, HubSpot, Performable, Ghostery and Compete.

DAVID CHANG (MBA 2001), a five-time entrepreneur/operator at web and mobile startups, angel investor in 40 companies, and leader in the entrepreneurship community, who previously ran the PayPal Boston office.

TOM CLAY (MBA 1997), CEO of Xtalic Corporation, which develops high-performing metal alloys that address large, high-value problems in mobile electronics and other fields. Before joining Xtalic, he was CEO of Z Corporation, a leading pioneer in 3D printing.

SAM CLEMENS (MBA 2004), founder and chief product officer at InsightSquared in Cambridge, MA, whose expertise is in product management and development for business-to-business software startups.

KERRY COOPER (MBA 1997), CEO of Choose Energy, a retail energy marketplace in San Francisco, where customers can shop for electricity and natural gas. She has a broad background in retail, software, and e-commerce and previously served as CMO of ModCloth.

JIM DOUGHERTY (Advanced Management Program 1983), cofounder and CEO of Madaket, a software that automates the manual, error-prone process of enrolling in Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA), Electronic Data Interchange for Claims (EDI), and other common provider-payer transactions. He spent his early career as executive vice president of global markets at Gartner, Inc.

ANNE DWANE (MBA 1998), a partner at GSV Acceleration, an early stage venture capital firm backing entrepreneurs leveraging technology to transform learning and career outcomes from “pre-K to grey”. Previously, she was chief brand officer at Chegg, CEO at Zinch, and co-founder of Military.com, acquired by Monster.

SARAH ENDLINE (MBA 2001), founder and CEO of sweetriot, an activist candy company, which is creating “a sweet movement to fix the world.” Sweetriot started by sourcing caco in Latin America and featured artwork on its packaging. Its products are sold in Whole Foods and served on Virgin America Airlines.

LARA HODGSON (MBA 1998), cofounder, president, and CEO of NowCorp, a business-to-business payment company. She is also founder and CEO of Nourish, which sold a patented line of spill-proof purified water for infants and toddlers.

ADITYA JULKA (MBA 2009), cofounder of Paddle8, an online auction house for fine art and collectibles. A serial entrepreneur with a history of successful startups and extensive experience in business and technology, he also serves on the board of Performa, New York’s biennial for performance art and Khoj, an organization dedicated to performance art in South Asia.

JANET KRAUS, a serial entrepreneur who is now CEO of Peach, a startup that provides women with better fitting, more thoughtfully designed lingerie and basics in the privacy of their home. She also founded Spire (acquired by Perfect Escapes) and Circles (acquired by Sodexho).

DON MATHIS (MBA 1998), general manager of growth for Comcast NBCUniversal, where he is responsible for all new ventures, from ideation and inception through growth stage. He is also an operating partner at Periscope Equity, an entrepreneurial private equity firm that invests in lower-middle market, tech-enabled services companies.

SHARON PEYER (MBA 2006), an entrepreneur with experience in building online consumer ventures and data-driven monetization platforms from the ground up. She cofounded and led business development for BitBliss, an online entertainment service offering TV shows the day after they first air and movies on the date their DVDs are released by the major studios.

JULES PIERI (MBA 1986), co-founder and CEO of The Grommet, a product launch platform in Somerville, MA, that has helped FitBit and SodaStream get off the ground.

JAVIER SEGOVIA (MBA 2002), a Boston-based entrepreneur and advisor to many startups while driving growth for a number of technology companies. He has expertise in leading lean startups, product management, business development, marketing strategy, and high-performance product development and design teams.

JIM SHARPE (MBA 1976), an entrepreneur with many years of experience in running small and medium enterprises and turnarounds, while meeting the challenges of work/life balance issues with his wife, also an HBS graduate.

MARTIN SINOZICH, founding partner of Venn Capital and an active angel investor and entrepreneur, with interests in fundraising and pitching, scaling rapid-growth businesses, and positioning closely-held businesses for exit.

JIM SOUTHERN (MBA 1983), founding partner of Pacific Lake Partners in Boston, which concentrates on small capitalization buyouts via the search fund model and provides entrepreneurs with search and acquisition capital.

SATISH TADIKONDA, managing partner at Avigo Solutions and an executive partner at Blue Cloud Ventures, who specializes in the life sciences and healthcare sectors. As an entrepreneur and early stage investor, he has helped found and/or fund more than a dozen innovative companies in technology, health care, and the life sciences.

THOMAS TULL, chairman and CEO of Tulco, LLC. He previously served as founder, chairman and CEO of Legendary Entertainment, a leading media company with film, television, and digital and publishing divisions. He is a part owner and board member of the six-time Super Bowl champions, Pittsburgh Steelers.

Contacts

Cullen Schmitt
cschmitt+hbs.edu
617-495-6155

ABOUT THE ROCK CENTER

The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship was created through the generosity of prominent venture capitalist Arthur Rock (MBA 1951), who donated $25 million to Harvard Business School in 2003 to support the entrepreneurship faculty and their research, fellowships for MBA and doctoral students, symposia and conferences, and outreach efforts to extend the impact of the School's extensive work in this field. HBS offered the country's first business school course in entrepreneurship in 1947; today, more than 50 percent of our alumni, 10 to 15 years after graduation, describe themselves as entrepreneurs, creating ventures in a quest to change the world. The Rock Center also works closely with the HBS California Research Center in Silicon Valley on entrepreneurship-related research and course development efforts.

ABOUT HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL

Founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University, Harvard Business School is located on a 40-acre campus in Boston. Its faculty of more than 200 offers full-time programs leading to the MBA and doctoral degrees, as well as more than 70 open enrollment Executive Education programs and 55 custom programs, and HBX, the School’s digital learning platform. For more than a century, HBS faculty have drawn on their research, their experience in working with organizations worldwide, and their passion for teaching to educate leaders who make a difference in the world, shaping the practice of business and entrepreneurship around the globe.