Entrepreneurship Advisory Board
Entrepreneurship Advisory Board
On This Page
- Teresa Nelson, Ph.D., Chair
- Amelia J. Spiliotes, Practitioner Chair
- Paige Arnof-Fenn
- Anita Brearton
- Rick Blume
- Nancy Costikyan
- April Evans
- Patricia K. Fletcher
- Helene Fuchs
- Roger Glovsky
- Sherry R. Gordon
- Sharon Halter
- Jean Hammond
- Stephen Honig
- Sharon Kan
- Julie Kantor
- Suzanne Karl
- Peg Kelley
- Julie LeMoine
- Pama Miller
- Amir Nashat
- Carol Roby
- Rudi Scheiber-Kurtz
- Katie Schuller-Bleakie
- Sheryl Schultz
Teresa Nelson, Ph.D., Chair
Elizabeth J. McCandless Professor in Entrepreneurship
Director of the Entrepreneurship Program
Amelia J. Spiliotes, Practitioner Chair
Co-founder and President, ValeoVox
Amelia Spiliotes is currently President and co-founder of ValeoVox. Spiliotes has more than 25 years experience in new venture development in both national and international markets. She has served as an executive advisor to Fortune 500 companies in the healthcare, financial services, publishing, information technology, consumer products and retail industries. She received a B.A. in Neuroscience from Smith College and a M.Sc. in Management from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.
Paige Arnof-Fenn
Founder and CEO, Mavens & Moguls
Founder and CEO of Mavens & Moguls, a global marketing strategy consulting firm, Arnof-Fenn has previously held senior marketing positions at many established and entrepreneurial companies, including Zipcar, where she was Vice President of Marketing, Inc.com, Launch Media, The Coca-Cola Company and Procter and Gamble. Arnof-Fenn is a founding board member of Women Entrepreneurs in Science & Technology, and serves on both the Stanford University and Harvard Business School Alumni Boards.
Anita Brearton
Managing Director and Boston Forum Leader, Golden Seeds
Anita Brearton is a Managing Director and the Boston Forum Leader of Golden Seeds, an angel investment group that provides early stage and growth capital to women-led businesses across all industry sectors. In addition to her work with Golden Seeds, Brearton works with technology startup companies as a marketing and strategy consultant, helping shape go-to-market strategies that enable clients to achieve their marketing and business goals. She serves on the board of the Angel Capital Association and on the advisory boards of Altruik, Inc., a search engine optimization technology company, and Connect2 Communications, a technology public relations firm.
Rick Blume
Managing Director, Excel Medical Ventures
Rick Blume has been financing companies in healthcare for over three decades. By having savvy healthcare providers as limited partners and advisers, Rick has built an extraordinary network to help with due diligence and market acceptance issues. Rick is currently a Director at Dormir and Lantos Technologies and has served as a director or active investor in many successful companies including Cytyc (now Hologic), AbT (now OSI - OSIP), Somatogen (acquired by Baxter), EdenTec (acquired by Nellcor), Exact Sciences, IPC The Hospitalist Company, GeneOhm (acquired by Becton Dickinson), Zonare, TransMedics, US Servis (acquired by McKesson); and the former public health insurance company Washington National. He also serves on the board of teh Regenerative Medicine Foundation, and as an external advisor to the Chicago Biological Consortium.
Nancy Costikyan
Director, Harvard University Office for Work/Life Resources
Nancy Costikyan, MSW, LICSW, is the Director of the Office for Work/Life Resources at Harvard University, and a lecturer on Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. As Work/Life Director, Nancy oversees a broad range of programs provided to staff, faculty, doctoral students, and post-doctoral fellows. Nancy serves on the editorial board of The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS), published by the Division on Addictions at the Cambridge Health Alliance.
April Evans
Partner and Chief Financial Officer, Monitor Clipper Partners
Simmons MBA '91
April E. Evans is Partner and CFO of Monitor Clipper Partners, a $2 Billion private equity investment firm. Previously, Evans was Partner and CFO of Advanced Technology Ventures and she has also held other senior finance and operations positions with Falcon Partners Management, BBK, Harvard Student Agencies, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and in the Harvard Medical School teaching hospital system. Evans, a certified public accountant, received her MBA with honors from Simmons College. She is currently a member of the Boston Steering Committee for the Women's Association of Venture and Equity and she has been active with the Kauffman Fellows Program of the Center for Venture Education. Ms. Evans has served on the Advisory Committee to the Center for Women and Enterprise Venture Center, on the Emerging CEOs Steering Committee of The Commonwealth Institute, and as a director of the Private Equity CFO Association.
Patricia K. Fletcher
Global Marketing, SAP
Dr. Patricia (Patti) Fletcher is a software executive in at SAP, the global leader in enterprise software, has built an extensive network over her 14 year tenure that spans across SAP's global ecosystem of partners, large enterprise customers, influencers, and academic thought leaders. Through various entrepreneurial leadership and business development roles, Patti has successfully helped to launch game-changing competitive, value-based offerings; change management business practices; go-to-market models; and has help build a community of customers, partners, and employees focused on cultivating an inclusive culture that welcomes a truly diverse talent pool. Patti's research of women executives and entrepreneurs who hold board of director positions in life sciences and technology businesses uncovered several new and dynamic factors among women who have achieved the ultimate in leadership positions in the most male-dominated industries in the world. Patti has continued to focus on the role of women entrepreneurs in technology and innovation through on-going research, and active leadership and participation with key leadership and entrepreneurial associations. Patti serves on the Board of Trustees of ASTIA and on the Advisory Board of ASTIA NYC.
Helene Fuchs
Founder and Principal, HF Associates
Simmons MBA '82
Helene Fuchs created HF Associates in 1989 to help health care organizations improve their existing programs, products, and services and develop new ones. As principal of HF Associates, she fosters collaborations with clients while offering her experience from disciplines as varied as clinical care, education, and management. Fuchs is a member of The Massachusetts Health Data Consortium and Qualitative Research Consultants Association. She is a director of Circle of Caring — Hospice of Good Shepherd, Newton, MA.
Roger Glovsky
Founder and CEO, Indigo Venture Law Offices
For over 20 years, Roger Glovsky has provided legal counsel to startup and emerging businesses in matters such as business formation, partnership agreements, stockholder agreements, technology licensing, loan agreements, and sales and distribution agreements. He received his M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a Master of Engineering degree and A.B. degree from Dartmouth College.
Sherry R. Gordon
President, Value Chain Group
Simmons MBA ‘79
Sherry Gordon is an innovator in enterprise measurement and performance improvement techniques and a thought leader in supplier performance management. Gordon helps companies improve their operations, improve supplier performance and reduce supply chain risk by applying supply management practices and performance improvement strategies and methodologies such as Lean and Six Sigma to their supply chains. She wrote the highly-regarded book, Supplier Evaluation and Performance Excellence: A Guide to Meaningful Metrics and Successful Results published by J. Ross Publishing in 2008.
Sharon Halter
Founder, Crossroads Management Group
Sharon Halter is an international business executive with 30 years of experience building new businesses and leading successful operating turnarounds, strategic repositionings, and high-growth industrial product businesses. She is currently a partner at BurnBright and Principal at Crossroads Management Group, LLC. In 2006, Halter founded Crossroads Management Group to acquire and operate under-performing industrial products companies.
Jean Hammond
Owner, JPH Associates
Founding Member, Golden Seeds - Boston
Jean Hammond is serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the high-tech industry. Her entrepreneurial activities include co-founding and managing Quarry Technologies and AXON Networks, and leading 3Com's WAN strategy. Hammond is an active angel investor focusing on early stage high tech startups. She was a founder of the Boston branch of Golden Seeds (which invests in women-managed businesses) and a member of Launchpad and Hub Angels. She earned a B.S. from Boston University and an M.S. from the MIT Sloan School of Management and currently serves on the board of The Technology Capital Network.
Stephen Honig
Partner, Duane Morris LLP
Stephen Honig practices a broad spectrum of business law, with emphasis on corporate law, securities law and mergers and acquisitions. He has great depth of experience in forming, building, reorganizing and advising on the governance of private companies and public companies and M&A transactions for public and private buyers and sellers both in the United States and globally. Honig's career reflects the technological orientation of the New England area in which he has practiced, representing startups, emerging businesses, and entities and individuals in many technology industries, including high energy physics; electronics; computer manufacturing; software; medical devices; pharmaceuticals; semi-conductor materials; circuit boards; online service providers; telecom infrastructure; e-commerce; and energy.
Sharon Kan
Co-Founder and General Manager, Tikatok.com at Barnes & Noble
Sharon is an entrepreneur and a seasoned operational executive. Tikatok, which was acquired by Barnes & Noble in 2009, is the fourth startup company that Sharon has built from its foundation with a group from MIT University. Tikatok.com received the 2010 Parents' Choice Approved Award and 2010 Moms Gold Award. Before Sharon co-founded Tikatok she was CEO of Zoomix, a data management solution provider that was acquired by Microsoft in 2008 (Nasdaq: MSFT). Prior, Sharon was President North America (NA) of c-Ark, a PLM (product lifecycle management) company. c-Ark was acquired by SSA (now Infor). Prior to c-Ark, Ms. Kan spent 5 years with Demantra Inc., a leading global provider of SCM (supply chain management) and established its activity in NA. Demantra was acquired by Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) in 2006. Sharon is a mentor at The MIT Venture Mentoring Service (VMS). VMS is an organization formed to support entrepreneurial activity throughout the MIT community by matching prospective entrepreneurs with skilled mentors. Sharon is on the advisory board of Entrepreneurship Program at Simmons College School of Management.
Julie Kantor
Executive Director, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship
Julie Kantor is a veteran in the field of entrepreneurship education and has taught entrepreneurship to urban youth since 1992. Julie launched NFTE-New England in 1992, serving the most economically challenged neighborhoods of Massachusetts. She also subsequently served as National Vice President for NFTE Government Affairs. Kantor is currently the Executive Director for NFTE—Greater Washington.
Suzanne Karl
Principal, Karl & Associates
Suzanne Karl is the Principal and Senior Human Resources Executive of Karl & Associates. She has global experience with companies ranging from pre-IPO's to Fortune 500's in high tech, biotech, and financial services. Karl has implemented a full range of HR fundamentals, from initial phase to redesign, including international and domestic compensation and staffing, Pre-IPO diligence, international employee relations and compliance.
Peg Kelley
Founder, Facilitation Plus
Simmons MBA ‘88
Peg Kelley has over 25 years of experience in facilitation and international management consulting. She formed Facilitation Plus™ in 1996 to pursue her commitment to the power of facilitation in helping organizations achieve objectives. Peg serves as facilitator in sessions requiring strong management and creative output. The tasks range from idea-generation on organizational issues, new product development, product or service naming, or simply group information-sharing.
Julie LeMoine
CEO of 3D ICC
Julie is an innovator, technology and business leader in collaboration, information security and Internet-based solutions. She has over 25 years of experience in leading organizations and teams, providing thought leadership and defining and designing "first -time ever" Internet collaboration and Security protocols, products, and services to the Financial Industry, Military, Intelligence Agencies, NSA, and Fortune 100 companies. Julie was named a Top 10 Woman to Watch in Technology and Science in New England by Mass High Tech and MIT in 2004, and is a member of the Simmons College School of Management Entrepreneurship Advisory Board where she also has served as an Entrepreneur in Residence.
Julie is the CEO of 3D ICC, the premier provider of OpenQwaq-based immersive environments for the enterprise. Their flagship product Immersive Terf provides an innovative distributed teaming, training and meeting environment that is 1/2 gaming, 1/2 unified collaboration. Immersive Terf is more like real life than a tool, and is the top end of social interaction tooling.
Prior, Julie established and led the Fidelity's Center for Applied Collaboration, setting the firm's strategy and future vision in social media/computing, video and advanced collaboration and was fundamental to Fidelity's social computing planning, market analysis, vendor selection, deployment and rationalization efforts. She led the design of the company's first crowdsourcing gaming platform as well. Before Fidelity, Julie consulted in an interim CIO role to Faith Popcorn's BrainReserve, a trend forecasting and marketing services company in NYC. Julie is a serial entrepreneur, co-founding 4 advanced technology companies including U C How Technologies, which created a highly secure integrated collaboration software product for enterprises and Concept Five where she lead the delivery of several secure distributed object products that were OEM-ed by market leaders leading to the company's purchase by Hitachi.
Julie worked in advanced R&D at the MITRE Corporation for a decade with work spanning from invention of early security protocols for the Arpanet/Internet to being the security architect for the largest secure Intranet built to date to work on the space shuttle systems for NASA. Prior to joining the MITRE Corporation, Julie worked for Ford Aerospace as a SW developer in security software for the US Government.
Pama Miller
Managing Director of Borrower Services, American Student Assistance
Simmons MBA '94
Pama Miller is the Managing Director of Borrower Services at American Student Assistance, the nation's original student loan guarantor. Miller has more than 25 years of experience in higher education administration and management consulting. For the past 12 years, she has held several senior roles in a consulting capacity related to the delivery of higher education services, including Manager of Higher Education Consulting with KPMG Consulting; Senior Consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting; and Managing Consultant of Human Capital Management/Workforce Enablement with IBM Global Business Services.
Amir Nashat
General Partner, Polaris Ventures
Amir Nashat is a general partner at Polaris Ventures, with a focus on investments in the life sciences. Amir currently serves on the Board of the New England Venture Capital Association, on the Venture Advisory Committee of the IAVI Innovation Fund, and is a Catalyst of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT. Prior to joining Polaris, Amir completed his PhD as a Hertz Fellow in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Amir earned both his MS and BS in Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
Carol Roby
Senior Global Client Advisor, The Forum Corporation
Simmons MBA ‘94
Carol Roby is a senior client advisor with The Forum Corporation, a Boston-based world leader in helping organizations execute strategies. During her 25 year career, she has participated in all aspects of sales force effectiveness, led human resource steering committees, prepared and monitored business plans to streamline operations while cutting costs, and overseen the recruitment, management and training of hundreds of employees.
Rudi Scheiber-Kurtz
Founder and CEO, Next Stage Solutions
Simmons MBA '98
Rudi Scheiber-Kurtz is the founder and CEO of Next Stage Solutions, a firm that offers CFO/Controller-on-Demand services for innovative startups and established companies. Active in the Simmons School of Management community, Rudi established and chaired the Entrepreneurship Advisory Board from 2005 — 2008. She currently is a member of the Dean's Business Advisory Council and serves as Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Rudi is a committee member for Mass High Tech's "Women to Watch" and for the MIT Enterprise Forum; she is a partner of the Private Sector Network of InnerCity Entrepreneurs, and an advisor for Larta NIH-CAP Program — Medical Devices, among other professional and community activities.
Katie Schuller-Bleakie
Simmons MBA '94
Katie Schuller-Bleakie is a business professional and an investing member of Golden Seeds, a group of largely women investors investing in women-led early stage businesses. Katie has over 25 years of experience in investment finance, advertising, fashion, entrepreneurship, and operations management including her role as co-founder, President and Chief Operating Officer of Bill Blass New York, a design and marketing company. She also co-managed her family's investment company, which held interests in stocks and bonds, real estate, and oil and gas. Currently, she consults for several start-ups, is a board member for Proxy Apparel and several non-profits, including the New England Conservatory of Music.
Sheryl Schultz
Managing Director, Golden Seeds
Sheryl Schultz is an expert in startup company dynamics, with a deep understanding of the marketing and organizational challenges faced by early stage businesses. She has spent over 30 years working with young companies as a marketer, board advisor, mentor, and investor. During her career, Sheryl has designed and orchestrated the launch of some of the most successful companies in Massachusetts including Acme Packet, ArrowPoint Communications, Sonus Networks and Wellfleet Communications. Sheryl is currently a Managing Director at Golden Seeds, a network of angels that provides early stage and growth capital to women led businesses. Prior to her work at Golden Seeds, Sheryl spent over 20 years as President of SRS Associates, a firm she founded to provide communications and market strategy consulting to telecommunications startups. In that capacity, Sheryl worked with dozens of companies, 20 of whom engaged her from inception through successful exit by IPO or acquisition. Sheryl is a Board Director for Crimson Hexagon, a Harvard University spin-out that delivers Social Intelligence from the billions of unsolicited opinions individuals express on-line, and for The Capital Network, Boston's leading non-profit organization providing education and community to help early-stage entrepreneurs master the entire funding process. She is also a founder of the Women's Entrepreneurial Council (WEC), a "super" organization created to align the many groups that support women entrepreneurs, and provide a powerful ecosystem for entrepreneurial women.