Leading Women Entrepreneur Series
Innovative drug development outside the private sector, the creation of a social movement around knitting, and the harnessing of a unique retail concept, are the entrepreneurial achievements celebrated during Simmons School of Management’s Leading Women Entrepreneur Series this spring.
Sponsored by the Entrepreneurship program at the Simmons School of Management, speakers knit real world experience to a core curriculum of coursework, internships and business plan competition.
“It all starts with the entrepreneur, herself: what do you want to accomplish and why,” notes Dr. Teresa Nelson, Elizabeth J. McCandless Chair in Entrepreneurship and director of the entrepreneurship program. “Entrepreneurs build the economy and the country by combining motives, to create innovation, jobs, wealth and direct social benefit.”
The Leading Women Entrepreneur Series -- open to both the public and to students -- explores how individuals identified a need and developed a concept. From there, entrepreneurs will speak on funding model development as well as how to deal with the ups and downs of starting an entrepreneurial venture, while at the same time grappling with questions of how to grow, when to grow and indeed, if to grow, in bumpy local, national and global economies.
Featured entrepreneurs include: Jessica Marshall Forbes co-founder of Ravelry.com, a two year old social networking site for knitters, crocheters and other fiber arts enthusiasts to keep track of their yarn and pattern information, as well as to seek inspiration. With over 250,000 members it has grown to feature Ravelry brand products sold through an online store and has fostered a worldwide community of knitters. Jessica and her co-founder and husband, Casey Forbes will speak on Monday, March 16 from 6-7:30 pm
Betty Riaz founder of the boutique Stil, “followed her heart” and opened a small retail boutique introducing unknown and exciting designers to “fashion-forward” women in Boston. With two stores, Betty wove her early experiences in fashion and retail, with her years of living abroad in Scandanavia, England and Switzerland and her own artistic sensibility, to fill a retail niche for women 20-55 who are looking to wear “something different.” Riaz will speak on Monday, April 6 from 6-7:30 pm
Rounding out the series on Monday, April 20 from 6-7:30 pm is Vidula Sukhatme, founder of GlobalCures Inc, a nonprofit designed to bring alternative drug therapies to cancer patients. After her friend died of breast cancer, Sukhatme, trained as an epidemiologist, saw the enormous gap between what happening in basic scientific research and what was available in the market. Approximately three fourths of promising scientific developments potentially leading to effective therapies are not financially viable for big pharmaceutical companies. Ms. Sukhatme is Simmons School of Management 2009 Entrepreneur-in-Residence.