Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD

President
Babson College

Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD is the 14th president of Babson College. A successful entrepreneur, academic leader, and scholar, he assumed the role of president in July 2019.

Dr. Spinelli has spent his career at the intersection of academia, business, and philanthropy. Under his leadership, Babson was named the No. 2 best college in the United States by The Wall Street Journal and has retained its long-standing place atop U.S. News & World Report’s undergraduate and graduate entrepreneurship rankings.

In collaboration with the Babson community, Dr. Spinelli launched a strategic planning process in 2019 aimed at ensuring the College’s continued success and financial stability amid market headwinds. The plan, centered on the strategic belief that Babson empowers entrepreneurial leaders to impact communities everywhere, continues to yield positive outcomes from the College and its 46,000 alumni around the world.

As a self-made entrepreneur with an innovative vision for creating and scaling successful business models, he co-founded Jiffy Lube International and was chairman and CEO of the American Oil Change Corporation, helping to pioneer the quick-lube industry across the United States and turning Jiffy Lube into the America’s dominant competitor with more than 1,000 service centers.

Dr. Spinelli is a long-standing member of the Babson community. He spent 14 years of his career as a member of the College’s faculty, as vice provost for entrepreneurship and global management, and as director of The Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship.

In 2007, he became president of Philadelphia University, which later merged with Thomas Jefferson University to form the new Jefferson, where he was named chancellor in 2017.

His entrepreneurial spirit and successful business acumen have led him to numerous leadership roles as a board member, investor, advisor, and educator. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Planet Fitness and a member of the board of directors for Fyzical Therapy and Balance Centers and board of advisors for the Berwind Corporation.

Dr. Spinelli earned his PhD in economics from The Management School, Imperial College, University of London, his MBA from Babson College, and his BA in economics from McDaniel College.