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23 Oct 2012

Seventeen Entrepreneurs-in-Residence Join Harvard Business School

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BOSTON—Seventeen entrepreneurs are working with the Harvard Business School (HBS) community this year as Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EiR). Sponsored by the School's Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, the Entrepreneur-in-Residence program, now in its seventh year, invites veteran entrepreneurs to HBS to advise MBA students interested in starting companies and work with faculty on research and course development.

The seventeen entrepreneurs, fourteen of whom are HBS alumni, represent careers and experiences from across several industries, including entertainment, internet and technology, private equity, telecommunications, and venture capital.

“Entrepreneurship is one of the most popular fields of interest among students at Harvard Business School,” said Meredith McPherron (MBA 1993), Executive Director of the Arthur Rock Center. “The willingness of these entrepreneurs to share their extraordinary wisdom, skills, and experience with members of the HBS community enriches us all.”

The School has named the following as Entrepreneurs-in-Residence for 2012-13:

  • Kent Dauten (MBA 1979), after an earlier career in private equity, has built a conglomerate through a large number of acquisitions, including businesses in medical records management and hospitals.
  • Chuck Davis (MBA 1986), formerly president and CEO of Shopzilla, Inc., has worked extensively in e-commerce, having served as CEO of Fandango and president of The Walt Disney Company's internet group.
  • Dayna Grayson (MBA 2006), a principal with the venture capital firm North Bridge Venture Partners, specializes in digital media.
  • Steve Halmos (MBA 1972) founded Safecard Services and took the company public while still a student at HBS. He also has extensive experience in the financial services industry.
  • David Hornik, a venture capitalist at August Capital, invests broadly in IT companies, focusing on enterprise application and infrastructure software as well as consumer-facing software and services.
  • Terry Kramer (MBA 1986), formerly a senior executive with Vodafone, has experience in data infrastructure, mobile gaming, and customer analytic solutions. He also currently serves as ambassador and head of the U.S. delegation to the World Conference on International Telecommunications.
  • Eric Paley (MBA 2003) is a managing partner at Founder Collective, an early stage venture capital fund started by a team of entrepreneurs. Previously, he was the co-founder and CEO of Brontes Technologies.
  • Jules Pieri (MBA 1986) is the founder and CEO of the Daily Grommet, a product launch platform that discovers and celebrates innovative companies.
  • Eric Ries is an entrepreneur and author of the best-selling book The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses.
  • Diego Rodriguez (MBA 2001), a partner at IDEO and a professor at Stanford's Design School, specializes in venture design, organizational processes, and marketing.
  • Ray Rothrock (MBA 1988) has been with the venture capital firm Venrock Associates for more than two decades, where he invests in software and energy.
  • Cristián Shea is CEO and chairman of Equitas Capital, an international investment firm based in Chile. His company specializes in late stage venture capital and early stage private equity investments in the areas of environmental services and consumer-related industries.
  • Steve Sydness (MBA 1981) spent his early career in consulting before helping to build Great Plains Software, the world's largest provider of mid-market financial management software, and The Endurance International Group, the largest provider of online services to small and medium businesses.
  • Tony Tjan (MBA 1998) founded and runs the venture capital firm Cue Ball after an early career as a successful entrepreneur in consulting.
  • Lauri Union (MBA 1992), managing director, strategy, at White Oak Investment Partners, specializes in several areas, including turnarounds and running and growing small businesses. She was formerly president and CEO of the Union Corrugating Company, a family-run building products manufacturing company that she turned into an industry leader.
  • Russ Wilcox (MBA 1995) is the former CEO of E Ink, the company behind the display technology used in the Kindle and other e-readers.
  • Gwill York (MBA 1984), the founder and managing director of Lighthouse Capital Partners, directs the firm's East Coast investment activities and its national life science investment activities She has focused exclusively on venture lending for the past 22 years.

Entrepreneurs-in-Residence serve for the entire academic year in a part-time capacity, meeting with students in group and one-on-one sessions and collaborating with various faculty members on cases, courses, research, and other activities.

Besides working together with the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, Harvard MBA students interested in entrepreneurship have the opportunity to collaborate with HBS faculty members through field studies, independent research projects, a Silicon Valley Immersion Experience Program, and participation in the HBS New Venture Competition. In addition, students have access to the Harvard University Innovation Lab (i-lab), where they can use work space to develop and create a start-up idea.

All first-year MBA students also take the required course The Entrepreneurial Manager, as well as a new first-year course called FIELD (Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development), whose third module requires them to work in small teams to launch a microbusiness. Second-year students can choose from more than two dozen entrepreneurship-related elective courses.

An estimated 50 percent of HBS graduates describe themselves as entrepreneurs 10 to 15 years after they graduate. Among the many alumni who have founded successful business ventures are Michael Bloomberg (MBA 1963), founder of Bloomberg L.P; Marc C. Cenedella, ( MBA 1998), founder, president and CEO of TheLadders.com Inc; Scott Cook (MBA 1976), chairman and cofounder of Intuit; Mark Pincus (MBA 1993), founder and CEO of Zynga; Abby Falik (MBA 2008), founder of Global Citizen Year; Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Carter (both MBA 2009), co-founders of Rent the Runway; Marla Malcolm Beck (MBA 1998), founder of bluemercury; Tom Stemberg (MBA 1973), founder of Staples; and Jeremy Stoppelman (MBA 2005), CEO and cofounder of Yelp.

About The Rock Center:
The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship was created through the generosity of prominent venture capitalist Arthur Rock (MBA '51), who donated $25 million to Harvard Business School 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 and, today, entrepreneurship is one of the largest faculty units at the School, with over 30 faculty members conducting entrepreneurship research and teaching. The Rock Center works closely with the HBS California Research Center in Silicon Valley on entrepreneurship-related research and course development efforts.
Contacts

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

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