Entrepreneurs in Residence

Craig Dubitsky joined Babson as an entrepreneur in residence in 2017. A consumer products serial entrepreneur and founder of hello® products, he is on a mission to make the things we regularly use better and more beautiful, and, in doing so, elevate the everyday. He leads the creative vision at hello, a new kind of oral care, crafted by a small, passionate crew, using naturally friendly™ ingredients. In record time, hello has become the No. 2 natural oral care brand in the United States and has been recognized as one of Inc.’s “25 Companies That Are Changing the World”. Prior to hello, Dubitsky co-founded the Kind Group, conceiving eos, a women’s personal care brand known for its ubiquitous spherical lip balm. He also has served as the CMO of Popcorn, Indiana, and as SVP of Venture Development at Simon Property Group, leading the initial investment in Method Products, where he served as a founding board member. Dubitsky was named one of Advertising Age’s “Creativity 50,” Brand Packaging magazine’s “Brand Innovators,” and The Internationalist’s “100 Most Inspirational Marketers in the World.”

Leonard C. Green is a CPA, MBA, entrepreneur, and an entrepreneur in residence at Babson College. He is the founder of The Green Group, an accounting, tax, consulting, and advisory firm, and also is involved in 14 businesses in diverse markets. Green is one of the founders of the NASDAQ publicly traded Blue Buffalo pet food company that is the fifth-largest company in the United States in this category. His other business ventures include commercial and residential real estate, thoroughbred horses, sports teams, other publicly held companies, and several charities. Green also sits on the board of directors and board of advisors for a number of companies and foundations, and was elected a trustee at Babson College in 2013. In the past 15 years, Green has taught two of the most highly rated entrepreneurial courses at Babson College, including The Ultimate Entrepreneurial Challenge. His classes have been featured on CNBC Squawk Box and on ABC networks. In 2001, Green received the Edwin M. and Gloria W. Appel Award for outstanding contributions to the entrepreneurial spirit of academia at Babson College.

Nina Kandilian MBA’19 is Vice President of Healthcare and Life Sciences Venture Capital Relationship Management at Silicon Valley Bank where she manages relationships with traditional venture capital firms focused on healthcare and life sciences investments.

Prior to her time at SVB, Nina led product marketing and strategy at digital health startup Orbita. Prior to Orbita, Nina led operations at the MassChallenge HealthTech startup accelerator program helping hundreds of digital health startups scale their companies through meaningful partnerships with corporations and the venture capital community.

Nina started her career in various product and digital transformation roles at the Mass General Brigham health system in Boston, MA. Nina received her MBA at Babson College and Bachelor’s degree from Suffolk University.

Stephen Martiros ’83, MBA’85, P’21 ’21 is the founder of Financial Building Blocks, an unbiased, financial education software platform. Previously, he served as the managing partner of CCC Alliance, America’s largest private network of single-family offices. He founded Summitas, a cloud-based software company to provide family offices and investment advisors with a secure portal for client engagement. He earned his BS and MBA from Babson College, where he serves on the College Advisory Board, is an Entrepreneur in Residence helping to advance the Bertarelli Institute for Family Entrepreneurship, and is a recipient of the College’s Snyder Award for Distinguished Service.

Reginald C. Mbawuike ’97 is a Hutchins Mobile Health Technology Fellow at Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and was one of the first five directors of the International Economic Alliance, where he served for five years. In his most recent role with the mental health branch of MassHealth, he provided health research analysis using big data to assess the pediatric visits with psychiatric participation for 95% of the pediatric visits in Massachusetts. This monthly, quarterly, and annual data analytics report was received by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health for inpatient and outpatient evaluation.

Reginald was the innovator of the app prototype used by the GIVE mHealth Program for its global health equity pilot. As CEO Research Associate to Professor Michael Porter—the author of the bestseller Redefining Healthcare at Harvard Business School—Reginald was responsible for market analysis for new multi-billion dollar per-annum CEOs. The 12 CEOs increased revenues by $3.2 billion the following year. He also served as the Research Associate to Dr. Henry Louis Gates.

Reginald founded Generating Innovation Ventures & Enterprises, Inc. and was the Institutional Associate for Investing and Managing in Emerging Markets, Strategy, Real Asset Property Management, The Entrepreneurial Manager, and Finance at Harvard Business School. He drafted the tax-free clause of the African Growth & Opportunities Act that was later passed as law by the Congress, Senate, and President of the United States. He has been part of several start-ups in his years in Silicon Valley and prior. Along with his studies at Harvard University he possesses a degree from Babson College.

With nearly 20 years of experience, Rich Palmer is a serial entrepreneur and AI/ML expert who has created several successful technology companies, built influential products and teams from the ground up, invested in dozens of AI and tech startups, and is an advisor and board member to promising businesses and executives.

Rich rises above the crowd as the former co-founder and CTO of Gravyty, the first and leading company using AI for social good which had a highly successful exit. His focus on helping non-technical organizations understand and adopt AI led to industry awards, patents, publications, and accolades such as the Boston Business Journal’s coveted 40 Under 40, a patent for proactive and intelligent communications, and Babson College’s esteemed Entrepreneurship Award where he was also a Price Babson MBA Fellow and graduated Summa Cum Laude. He holds a dual major BS from RPI in Economics and Information Technology.

Prior to Gravyty, Rich led product development at Relationship Science (RelSci), a business and nonprofit intelligence platform which raised $120M and was head of portfolio analytics for S&P CapitalIQ’s quantitative intelligence team.

As a frequent speaker and educator, Rich coaches on cognitive technologies, innovation, product development, and new venture creation. He specializes in helping companies and startups in non-technical and traditional industries apply emerging technologies to overcome their biggest challenges in practical ways.

He lives in the Greater Boston area with his wife, Brittany, and their dog, Atlas.

John S. (JR) Reale Jr. ’98 partners with founders at their earliest stage to build the future. JR founded Integr8d Capital, a seed-stage venture capital firm, in 2017. Integr8d’s mission is to help founders realize their vision by building enduring enterprise software businesses.

JR serves as Venture Executive for the Texas Medical Center (TMC), leading the TMC Venture Fund that invests in early-stage digital health and med device startups transforming the future of health. In addition, JR serves as Executive-in-Residence (EIR) for TMC Innovation by being as an in-house resource for startups in the TMC community.

Previously, JR co-founded Station Houston, Inc. (Station), Houston’s hub for tech innovation and entrepreneurship, where he served as its CEO from inception through August 2018. In April 2018, Station announced its partnership with the City of Houston and Rice University to develop and launch the Houston Innovation District, now called the Ion. Prior to Station, he worked in early-stage go-to-market roles for two Fraser McCombs Capital (FMC) portfolio companies. He started his career in the financial services industry at Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan, as well as Founding Member of Avalon Advisors, a wealth management and advisory firm based in Houston.

JR serves a variety of civic organizations focused on education and entrepreneurship. JR served as Chair of Mayor Sylvester Turner’s Innovation Task Force to develop the City of Houston's strategy and plan to spark the long-term growth of Houston's innovation and technology entrepreneurship economy.

JR serves as an Advisor to SnapStream Media; the Advisory Board for the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship; the Investment Committee for the Cougar Venture Fund at the University of Houston; was the past-President of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Houston chapter; and mentor at numerous start-up acceleration programs. JR is a Lecturer at Rice University’s Jones School of Business focused on management and entrepreneurship. Finally, JR co-founded the Mentoring Initiative at Cristo Rey Jesuit Preparatory High School in Houston (Viva Cristo Rey!).

JR received his B.S. in Finance and Investments from Babson College in Massachusetts. JR and his wife, Kim, are the proud “founders” and parents of their daughter, Juliana, their most important Houston-based startup!

Gail Simmons joined Babson in 2013 to work directly with the Frank & Eileen™ Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership and the Institute for Social Innovation to mentor and guide Babson entrepreneurs, especially in designing strategic marketing and communications approaches to their enterprises. Simmons is a trained culinary expert, food writer, and dynamic television personality. Since the show’s inception in 2006, she has lent her extensive expertise as a permanent judge on Bravo’s Emmy Award-winning series Top Chef. Now in its 10th successful season, Top Chef is rated the No. 1 food show on cable television. Simmons also is host of Top Chef: Just Desserts, Bravo’s pastry-focused spinoff of the Top Chef franchise, which aired its second season in the fall of 2011. She joined Food & Wine in 2004 and directs special projects for the magazine, acting as liaison between the marketing and editorial teams on magazine events and chef-related initiatives, working closely with the country’s top culinary talent.

Michael S. Varadian ’72, MBA, JD is an accomplished, national health care leader and innovator, successfully operating at the highest levels of medical technology start-ups, hospitals and health care management, legal and regulatory functions, and health care mergers and acquisitions.

Most recently, he has held comprehensive national and statewide leadership positions in the nation's largest publicly traded community behavioral health provider and was the former Executive Director of RI Department of Health, and RI Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals. Prior to that, he was the Healthcare Division Director at the MA Office of the Inspector General, together with senior responsibilities at Boston area academic medical centers, national managed care companies, and strategic national consulting and law firms. His current special expertise is in the innovative health care start-up space, where he is co-founder of two start-ups and advising three additional emerging healthcare technology companies.

Michael has led national pilots in integrated physical and behavioral health care for CMS, as well as a state Medical Marijuana program, and has established and advised statewide Drug Courts in multiple states. He has extensive multi-dimensional operational experience, performed over $1B health care mergers and acquisitions, has national Medicare/Medicaid fiscal, legal, regulatory and quality oversight experience in some of the most innovative health care organizations and environments in the nation. He has presented on health care finance and reform around the world and has been a guest lecturer at Babson College, Brown University Graduate School of Public Health, Providence College and the American University of Armenia.

Michael has been a long time mentor at Babson for the MBA program and has judged multiple entrepreneurial pitch competitions at the college, and has advised multiple start-up companies founded by Babson students.

He lives in Norwood, MA with his wife, Armenie, who is a hospice nurse.

Andrew Zimmern joined Babson in 2012 to share his experiences and mentorship with Babson students, and play a role in Babson Food Days through a partnership with the Institute for Social Innovation to further innovation in the food system. As the co-creator, host, and co-executive producer of Travel Channel’s hit series, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, he travels the world, exploring food in its own terroir. From world-class restaurants to street carts and jungle markets, it’s all about discovering and sharing the authentic experience. To date, Zimmern has explored food cultures in more than 32 countries, including hands-on experience working with food innovators and food entrepreneurs.