Faculty and Research
Dr.Teresa Nelson, Elizabeth J. McCandless Professor of Entrepreneurship
Ph.D., Business Administration (Strategic Management), University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Dr. Nelson holds the Simmons School of Management Elizabeth J. McCandless Chair in Entrepreneurship. She is a respected teacher and researcher engaged in consulting internationally. Her research focuses on the governance and growth of high potential firms, as she describes them – “the Fortune 500 of tomorrow”, including the role of women as founders and top team members. Her work appears in leading academic business journals including the Strategic Management Journal, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Management and Journal of International Business Studies. Nelson also has a strong interest in China and the emerging global business landscape. She has traveled in China extensively and shares her experience and knowledge with passion. She is a faculty affiliate of the Simmons Center for Gender in Organizations.
Fiona Wilson, Director, Silverman Business Plan Competition and Practicum
DBA Candidate, Boston University School of Management; MBA, Simmons School of Management
Fiona Wilson came to academia from over 15 years in industry including her role as VP of Marketing for CMGI, a prominent Internet investment and development company, and the global advertising and marketing firm, Ogilvy & Mather. She has consulted to a wide range of entrepreneurial organizations including venture-funded technology companies and social ventures on their marketing and business strategy. She serves on start-up advisory boards including BIG TENT. Her research includes a number of publications examining the ambitions and motivations of female entrepreneurs. Currently Wilson is engaged in working and writing about emerging companies interested in both profitable and social outcomes. Wilson directs the graduate Entrepreneurship Certificate practicum program linking aspiring entrepreneurs with practicing entrepreneurs, and also serves as the Director of the Silverman Business Plan Competition.
Dr. Jill Avery, Assistant Professor of Marketing
DBA, Marketing, Harvard Business School, Harvard University; MBA, Marketing and Finance, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Avery works with entrepreneurship students at Simmons through a hands-on, practical workshop on marketing for start-ups delivered in the business plan course. Students engage in the strategy, pricing, and promotion aspects of their businesses, as well as developing expertise in fundamental concepts that will be useful throughout the career. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Avery spent nine years as a brand manager for The Gillette Company, Braun Inc., Samuel Adams, and AT&T, and spent three years on the agency side of the business, as an account executive managing consumer promotions for Pepsi, General Foods, Bristol-Myers, and Citibank. She remains close to practice by offering pro-bono marketing consulting services to a range of entrepreneurial start-up companies and non-profit organizations.
Margaret Heffernan, Visiting Entrepreneurship Professor of Practice Margaret Heffernan is a serial entrepreneur, author, and educator reaching audiences around the world through personal appearances, writing, and teaching. In the 1990s she developed interactive multimedia products with Peter Lynch, Tom Peters, Standard & Poors and The Learning Company. She then joined CMGI where she ran, bought and sold leading Internet businesses, serving as Chief Executive Officer for InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation and iCAST Corporation. She was named one of the Internet’s Top 100 by Silicon Alley Reporter in 1999, one of the Top 25 by Streaming Media magazine and one of the Top 100 Media Executives by The Hollywood Reporter. Her "Tear Down the Wall" campaign against AOL won the 2001 Silver SABRE award for public relations. In recent years Heffernan has authored two books: How She Does It: How Women Entrepreneurs Are Changing the Rules of Business Success and The Naked Truth: a Working Woman's Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters. Dr. Bonita Betters-Read, Faculty Affiliate, Center for Gender in Organizations Dr. Betters-Reed shares with the Simmons community her expertise in organizational leadership, communication, and behavior, emphasizing diversity management and cross-cultural communication. She has built her academic strengths by staying actively involved in her family business, Betters International Food Corporation, and providing strategic consultation for both small businesses and the non-profits. With colleague Lynda Moore, Betters-Read has produced cases for classroom teaching on entrepreneurship including women of color entrepreneurs. Dr. Lynda Moore, Faculty Affiliate, Center for Gender in Organizations
Ph.D., Boston College
Ed.D., University of Massachusetts
Dr. Moore has dedicated her teaching and research to the advancement and leadership of women and the management of diversity in organizations. She studies diversity management with a special focus on women business leaders and entrepreneurs, and publishes her work in both scholarly and professional journals. Moore was the founding consultant and Acting Director of the Radcliffe Public Policy Institute at Harvard University and continues to consult extensively to numerous organizations. With colleague Bonita Betters-Read, Moore has produced cases for classroom teaching on entrepreneurship including women of color entrepreneurs.
Dr. Hugh Colaco, Assistant Professor of Finance
Ph.D., Finance, University of Connecticut
Dr. Colaco actively participates in the graduate entrepreneurship curriculum, teaching and mentoring students on the fundamental concepts of finance for the entrepreneurial venture. Topics covered include financial modeling for the start-up, preparation of prospective financial statements and sources and uses of funding, including debt and equity. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Colaco spent eight years at a commercial bank in Mumbai, India and almost two years at a financial services company in New York. His dissertation and research interests lie primarily in Initial Public Offerings (IPO), and he is currently partnering with Dr. Nelson on research topics in this area.
Dr. Paul S. Myers, Assistant Professor of Management
Ph.D., Organizational Behavior, Harvard University
Dr. Myers brings an eclectic mix of research, management, consulting, and entrepreneurial experience to Simmons. A trained pastry chef, he opened, ran, and then sold his own bakery, Paul’s Bake Shop & Café, in Boulder, CO. His business experience also includes four years as director of new product development at ICEX, an IT research and content management firm with Fortune 100 clients, and he was a research leader at CapGemini/Ernst &Young LLP’s Center for Business Innovation. His teaching, research, and consulting interests include process design and management in small businesses, autonomy and dependence in collaborative relationships, and social networks in corporate governance.