Family Entrepreneurship Stories at Babson

Strengthening family business was the core of Babson’s founding mission in 1919. The College has a long history of educating family entrepreneurs, including: , co-founder of Home Depot, chairman of The Arthur Blank Family Foundation, and owner of the Atlanta Falcons; C. Dean Metropoulos ’67, MBA’68, founder and CEO of his family business, Metropoulos & Co.; Edsel Ford II ’73, H’00, great-grandson of Henry Ford and member of the board of directors of Ford Motor Company; , CEO of Serono—founded by his grandfather in 1906, and co-chair of The Bertarelli Foundation; with his sister, Dona Bertarelli P’20 ’22; and more.

Babson also was the first to embark on a global research study focused on entrepreneurship in families. Through the Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices (STEP) Project, led by Academic Director Matthew Allen, Babson has convened and collaborated with 35 academic affiliates and 175 scholars to publish 11 books and 120 cases focused on family entrepreneurship across generations.

Now, 50 percent of Babson’s undergraduate students come from a family business.

Critical to the development and launch of Babson’s Institute for Family Entrepreneurship has been the support and enthusiasm of dedicated alumni, parents, and members of Babson’s Board of Overseers: Stephen Martiros ’83, MBA’85, P’21 ’21, Linda Bourn MBA’11, and Sylvia Shepard MBA’09.