Bertarelli Foundation Plans to Give $3 Million to Babson
Babson College announced at the 2014 Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC) that the Bertarelli Foundation plans to fund the chair of the Bertarelli Foundation Distinguished Professor of Family Entrepreneurship with a $3 million gift to the school. The chair will lead a multidisciplinary approach to family enterprise, where the family is the focus.
Also announced at BCERC, was a new research prize named for Ernesto Bertarelli, a 1989 graduate of Babson College, in recognition of his family’s history of fostering entrepreneurship. The Bertarelli Prize will reward $2,500 to the best family entrepreneurship paper presented at the 2014 BCERC.
“Family entrepreneurs face a unique challenge,” said Dona Bertarelli, co-chair of The Bertarelli Foundation. “As their businesses grow or change, they, too, need to adapt and evolve. At the same time, they need to preserve the original and special strengths, passions, and entrepreneurial characteristics of the family as they move in new directions. Through this faculty chair and our partnership with Babson College, we will have the opportunity to study this dynamic and help a new generation of individuals become tomorrow’s family entrepreneurs.”
Family entrepreneurship has been at the core of Babson College from its founding. Babson College was established to educate the sons of businessmen to join their fathers’ businesses. Babson’s vast experience with family businesses includes nearly a century of teaching, research and programming for students, alumni and friends of the College.
The Bertarelli Foundation was founded in 1998 in memory of Fabio Bertarelli, by his widow Maria Iris and children, Dona and Ernesto. For the first ten years, the foundation worked primarily to establish and develop healthcare projects building upon the legacy of the Serono Foundation, focusing on issues relating to human reproductive health. In 2008 it extended its horizons to focus on more general life science research and marine conservation.
BostInno Alumni Impact Awards Recognize Babson Alumni
Two graduates of the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business – Babson College were honored as BostInno Alumni Impact Award winners at the inaugural Boston UpFront event held at the Revere Hotel in downtown Boston. Sarah Hodges’ M’10 and Jon Feinman’s M’10 companies were among six total startups recognized as being exceptionally influential in Boston.
This is the first year of the BostInno awards as well, which recognize young leaders who, since graduating from Boston-area colleges, have made a positive impact in Massachusetts and are shaping what’s to come in the future of innovation. Continue reading…
Babson to Team Up with the Small Business Administration for National Small Business Week
The F.W. Olin School of Business – Babson College has announced that the school will be one of 40 partners to team up with the Small Business Administratio which hosts the National Small Business Week. National Small Business Week is hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration in order to recognize the nation’s top small businesses, entrepreneurs, small business advocates and champions.
Scheduled to kick off events on May 12 in San Francisco, the annual week-long celebrations will continue on May 13th in Kansas City, May 15th in Boston and then culminate in Washington DC over May 15-16. Activities in all four cities will feature nationally recognized speakers, workshops, expert panels on a variety of entrepreneurial topics, and business matchmaking opportunities. Speakers will include such notable leaders as Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact, Janet Yellen, Chair of the Federal Reserve , former NFL star and motivational speaker Eddie Kennis and Henry W. Bloch, Co-Founder of H&R Block. The national celebrations will culminate with the presentation of the National Small Business Person of the Year award in Washington. D.C., on May 16. Continue reading…
Babson College Recognizes Outstanding Students and Alumni with Changemaker Awards
Since 2011, the Lewis Institute’s Changemaker Awards have recognized Babson students and staff who exemplify remarkable effort to create a positive change within the community and in the world. Two of recipients of this year’s Changemaker Awards are Two of this year’s honorees are from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College; Mayank Arora M’15, and the institute’s first ever alumni award was given to Jon Feinman M’10.
Arora is a first-year MBA student, who will participate in MBAxAmerica this summer. This new, six-week program designed for MBA students from the nation’s top business schools incorporates cross-country travel where students participate in six business challenges with innovative entrepreneurs. He serves as the Vice President of Operations for the Babson Energy & Environmental Club. Arora, who strives to become a social entrepreneur, has a passion for sustainability and is working on improving energy efficiency within the residential sector. Continue reading…
Babson Tech Firm Wins $15,000 in Startup Rounds Business Contest
The Babson Entrepreneurship Club’s Startup Rounds Business Contest at the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business – Babson College, has awarded a $15,000 first prize to HigherMe, a Babson tech startup designed to help retail employers to hire qualified workers.
Founded by Babson Graduate students Rob Hunter and Evan Lodge, HigherMe is a website and mobile application that gives prospective employees the chance to submit short one-minute video introductions to retail establishments. Employers in turn are better able to consider the candidate’s interpersonal skills that are essential to helping them succeed in a retail environment.
Startup Rounds was founded by Babson MBA candidate Paul Hammond. The contest qualifies startups for investment. Companies apply to compete in a contest for support, recognition, customers and capital. The top scoring startups advance to later rounds, establishing credibility, proving concept, gaining recognition, furthering opportunities to raise money and generate sales, and ultimately winning cash prizes.
The Startup Rounds Contest was open to any company founded by Babson undergraduates, graduate students, or alumni with less than $1 million in earned revenues. Each company had to demonstrate the strength of their business idea and network by winning support through social media.
Over $30,000 in prizes were awarded, including $20,000 in cash and $10,000 in legal resources (Pepper Hamilton and Pierce Atwood); $25,000- $100,000 in real-estate consultation and speculation fees donated by the VP of Colliers International, Boston; Bostinno press and Mass Challenge opportunities; and meetings with Rough Draft Ventures with the opportunity to raise up to $25,000.
Babson Business School’s student and alumni entrepreneurs compete in B.E.T.A Challenge
Eighteen businesses helmed by undergraduates, graduate students and alumni have been selected as semifinalists to compete in Babson’s College’s Babson Entrepreneurial Thought and Action (BETA) Challenge on April 2, with finalists announced on April 4th and presenting their ventures on April 10 during Founder’s Day activities on campus.
Winners in three categories ─ alumni entrepreneurs, undergraduate and graduate student entrepreneurs ─ will each win a grand prize of $20,000 in cash and “services in kind” donations from corporate sponsors. In addition, $2,500 will be awarded to the two other finalist ventures in each of the three competitions. B.E.T.A. Challenge entrepreneurs must demonstrate success in reaching major milestones achieved through action.
Six of the finalist businesses are from current students at the F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business, and range from apps such as BlueGift (Jad Antouh M’14), which allows users to create social funding campaigns in order to give their birthday gifts to a social cause, HigherMe (Rob Hunter M ’14 and Evan Lodge M’14) both a website and app that gives prospective employees the chance to submit one-minute videos to retail establishments, thus giving prospective employers a glimpse of the interpersonal qualities needed to succeed in retail environments, or micro businesses such as FedWell Pet Foods (Emily Lagasse M’15) which seeks to provide better quality food, made with the highest quality ingredients, to dogs.
Corporate sponsors for the event include Samuel Goldstein & Co., Pepper Hamilton LLP and Pierce Atwood LLP. Prizes will be awarded on April 10th after the finalists’ presentations.
