Team

Janet Strimaitis
Executive Director
Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship
781-239-5023

In her role as Executive Director of the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship, Janet is responsible for the strategic direction, tactical execution and operational oversight for achieving the Center’s annual goals. The Center focuses on expanding the practice of Entrepreneurship of All Kinds™ through innovative co-curricular programs and global collaborative research initiatives that inspire and inform Entrepreneurial Thought and Action®. She leads the team that is responsible for the John E. and Alice L. Butler Venture Accelerator Program; two applied longitudinal global research studies, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and the Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices (STEP) Project; and the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference. She also advises the leadership team for the annual Babson Entrepreneurship Forum, the largest student-organized event at Babson. She is an active member of the Boston-area Entrepreneurship Ecosystem and the Global Consortium for Entrepreneurship Centers.

Janet joined Babson in 2003 to expand the Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators to a global delivery model and became Associate Director of the Center in 2007 and Managing Director in 2009. Prior to joining Babson, she had her own company through which she organized and implemented more than thirty international conferences in the USA, Europe and Japan. She has an MBA from Babson and an MS from Virginia Tech.

Fyllis Berg-Elton
Senior Academic Division Coordinator
Entrepreneurship Division
781-239-4577

Fyllis joined the Entrepreneurship Division in January 2013. She provides administrative support to the Division Chair and is responsible for the logistics of various faculty, staffing, and scheduling matters. Previously, she worked as a Department Administrator at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a paralegal. She earned a B.A. in Education from Tufts University.

Marcia L. Cole
Media and Public Relations
GEM Global and GEM USA
781-239-5795

Marcia Cole works closely with the leaders and the members of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Consortium in the US and overseas. Marcia manages the GEM website (www.gemconsortium.org), the GEM publications, the GEM Organizational Meetings along with routine daily operations. She has been employed at Babson College since 1995. Marcia has Bachelor’s in Literature from Michigan State University and a Master’s of Fine Arts in Writing from Vermont College.

Valerie Duffy
Manager
STEP Project
781-239-3970

Valerie Duffy, Manager of the STEP Project has been at the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College since September 2004. She was engaged in several different responsibilities for the Entrepreneurship Division team including administrative assistant, teaching case coordinator, and budget coordinator. In January 2010, she assumed responsibility for the college-wide case-writing/production initiative. As Manager of the Babson Faculty Pedagogical Fund (BFPF) and Babson Teaching Center, she created, developed, implemented, and oversaw all of the operational activities of new initiatives at Babson to encourage and facilitate the development of new pedagogical materials. Val has her undergraduate degree from University of Massachusetts.

Chris Gill
Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Chris Gill, CEO of SVForum (www.svforum.org), has co-founded 8 companies, with 6 achieving profitable liquidity events.

Chris has experience as a business executive in Europe, North America and Asia, with Fortune 100 companies as well as privately funded and venture backed companies. He has been a Guest Lecturer on entrepreneurship at the National Institute of Technology, Trichy, India, and Oxford University Said Business School, and has been an invited speaker at startup and venture capital conferences in cities around the world, including Barcelona, Belfast, Berkeley, Dublin, London, Montreal, Ottowa, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Toronto, and Vancouver. In addition, for 2 years, Chris coached the winning teams of the global Microsoft Innovation Accelerator program, on business and entrepreneurship.

Chris is a member of Sand Hill Angels (www.sandhillangels.com), and a Board Member of the Mission College Center for Innovation and Technology. He has been featured in and written articles on business and technology issues for the Financial Times, Business Week, Linux Journal and other publications. Chris was awarded a BSc in Computer Science from Manchester University (UK).

Antonette Ho
Manager
Entrepreneur Programs
781-239-4456

As Manager for Entrepreneur Programs, Antonette is responsible for programming and operations for student and alumni entrepreneurs, including competitions, workshops and events. Antonette graduated from Babson in December 2006 and was recipient of the Allison Carroll Global Leadership Award in 2006. While studying, Antonette was a student employee for the Blank Center. Prior to returning to Babson, Antonette worked in Shanghai and London managing events.

Daymond John
Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Daymond’s creative vision and foresight enabled him to build one of the most iconic fashion brands in recent years. FUBU, standing for “For Us By Us,” represented a lifestyle that was neglected by other clothing companies. Realizing this marketplace void, John created the untapped urban apparel space and laid the groundwork for other companies to compete in this newly established market.

Daymond has written two books: Display of Power: How FUBU Changed a World of Fashion, Branding and Lifestyle, which tells the story of his inspiring journey; as well as, The Brand Within: How We Brand Ourselves, From Birth to the Boardroom, which discusses the loyal relationships companies seek to establish with the public by attaching celebrities to their brands.

In recognition of his contributions to fashion and the face of American business, Daymond John has been celebrated with some of the most prestigious awards: Brandweek Marketer of the Year, the Advertising Age Marketing 1000 Award for Outstanding Ad Campaign, Crain's Business of New York Forty Under Forty Award, and Ernst & Young’s New York Entrepreneur of the Year Award to name a few.

Over the last twenty years Daymond John has evolved from one of the most successful fashion icons of his generation to one of the most sought after branding experts as well as business and motivational speakers in the country.

Sharon Kan
Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Sharon Kan is an entrepreneur and a seasoned operational executive. Sharon was a co-founder of Tikatok.com, which was acquired by B&N in 2009.  Tikatok was the fourth startup company that Sharon built from its foundation with a group from MIT University. Before Sharon co-founded Tikatok she was CEO of Zoomix, a data management solution provider that was acquired by Microsoft in 2008. Prior, Sharon was President North America of c-Ark, a product lifecycle management company. c-Ark was acquired by SSA (now Infor). Prior to c-Ark, Ms. Kan spent 5 years with Demantra Inc., a leading global provider of supply chain management and established its activity in NA. Demantra was acquired by Oracle in 2006.

Sharon is currently Entrepreneur in Residence at Babson College; a mentor at The MIT Venture Mentoring Service, formed to support entrepreneurial activity throughout MIT University.; and a member of the Advisory Board of Entrepreneurship at Simmons College School of Management. She has been a speaker at conferences and educational institutions on the subjects of entrepreneurship, innovation, core values and leadership.

Sharon holds an Executive MBA from the University of Bradford in the UK, a BA degree in Business from the College of Management in Israel, and is a graduate of the French Culture program of the Sorbonne University in Paris, France.

Cindy Klein-Marmer
Manager
The John E. and Alice L. Butler Venture Accelerator Program
781-239-5087

In her current role as Manager of the John E. and Alice L. Butler Venture Accelerator Program, Cindy manages the mentoring of student entrepreneurs. Cindy joined Babson’s Graduate School Center for Career Development in 2004, most recently working as Associate Director with students interested in technology, life sciences, energy and entrepreneurial careers. Cindy is an MBA from Babson College’s two year MBA program where she went through the Entrepreneurship Intensity Track (EIT) and co-launched AdvantageNet, Inc., a business and career management consulting firm. Prior to Babson, Cindy held several positions of increasing responsibility in the financial services and communications industries. She earned her B.S. in Accounting at University of Delaware, an MBA with honors from Babson College and is a former CPA.

Jennifer MacDonald
Program Assistant
Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC)
781-239-3984

Jen joined the Blank Center in November 2005. She assists with all aspects of the BCERC conference, maintains the BCERC website and manages the distribution of Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, the annual publication of the BCERC conference proceedings.

Prior to joining Babson, Jen worked at Loomis, Sayles & Company, L.P. and Fidelity Investments. She is a graduate of Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT.

Georgia Papavasiliou
Manager
Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference
781-239-4992

Georgia has been with Babson College since 1987 and was the Program Coordinator for the Babson Entrepreneurial Exchange and the Administrator for the Babson Entrepreneurial Review until April 2001. From 1991 to 2001, she also coordinated Babson's business plan competitions for both undergraduate and graduate students.

In 2001, Georgia assumed the role of Program Coordinator for the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference, (BCERC) and Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research. BCERC is an annual international conference and premier scholarly forum for entrepreneurial research. Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, published every year, contains the proceedings of the conference and is the most comprehensive collection of empirical research papers on entrepreneurship.

Kirtland Poss
Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Prior to becoming a co-founder of BioAnalytix LLC in 2012, Kirtland Poss co-founded VisEn Medical in June of 2000 and ran the company as President and CEO from its early technology platform formation through product development, worldwide commercialization, clinical program partnerships and M&A with PerkinElmer in 2010. In his role with VisEn, Mr. Poss led the development, launch and commercialization of several molecular imaging system and agent product lines, and focused the company on emerging market opportunities in the life science and clinical diagnostic marketplaces. He also established and led several of VisEn’s strategic corporate development partnerships, including multi-million dollar, multi-year programs with leading medical system companies, pharmaceutical companies, and clinical research centers. Before VisEn Mr. Poss worked in healthcare business strategy consulting for Kendall Strategies in Cambridge, MA, and prior to that worked in scientific research at the Center for Molecular Imaging Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Mr. Poss attended the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College from 1999-2000 (before leaving to found VisEn), and he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Connecticut. He is also co-author on several scientific publications and multiple patents, all in the field of molecular imaging and biomarker-based clinical diagnostics.

Jane Tekeian
Administrative Assistant
Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship
781-239-5621

Maureen Walsh
Administrative Assistant
Entrepreneurship Division
781-239-4420

Maureen joined the Entrepreneurship Division in January of 2010. She supports the faculty and manages the student interns for the division. Maureen has been with Babson since 2001. Prior to coming to Babson she was a Business Manager for a software developer.