Dan Isenberg (@danisen) is founding executive director of the Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project, Associate at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School. From 1981-7 and 2005-9 Dan was a professor at the Harvard Business School, and in the interim (1987-2005) was an entrepreneur and venture capitalist in Israel. Dan authored Worthless Impossible and Stupid: How Contrarian Entrepreneurs Create and Capture Extraordinary Value (Harvard Business Review Press 2013), published over 30 online and print articles on entrepreneurship in the Harvard Business Review, and has been featured in the Economist, Forbes, NPR, Bloomberg, Quartz, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, etc. Dan has been a pioneer in the concept and development of entrepreneurship ecosystems, and he launched and directs Manizales-Mas and Scale Up Milwaukee. Between 2009-2013 Dan was active in the World Economic Forum and conducted Forum events in Davos, Africa, Europe, and China. In 2012 Mikhail Gorbachev awarded Dan the Pio Manzu Award for "Innovations in Economic Development." At Babson Executive Education, Dan created and directs the 3-day program, Driving Economic Growth Through Entrepreneurship Ecosystems. He holds the Ph.D. degree in social psychology from Harvard University, received under the mentorship of Robert Freed Bales.

Lauren Skinner Beitelspacher (Ph.D., University of Alabama) is an Associate Professor in the Marketing Division at Babson College. Her research concentrates specifically on the relationships with retailers and manufacturers. Whenever possible, her research focuses in the athletic, outdoor, and sporting goods industry. Her work has been published in numerous scholarly journals including: Journal of Marketing, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Retailing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, and Industrial Marketing Management. Lauren is very involved in pedagogical contributions for principles of marketing and retail management. Lauren is also actively involved in the marketing community. She is the co-chair of Retail and Pricing Special Interest Group for the American Marketing Association.

Kait Smith Lanthier is the Director, Content Strategy at Babson College and the Managing Editor of Babson Thought & Action. Her writing has appeared in print and online in a variety of outlets including USA Today, Yahoo Shine, YourTango, CosmoGirl, and First for Women magazine. Smith earned her undergraduate degree in journalism and graduate degree in integrated marketing, both from Marist College.

Kait Smith Lanthier is the Director, Content Strategy at Babson College and the Managing Editor of Babson Thought & Action. Her writing has appeared in print and online in a variety of outlets including USA Today, Yahoo Shine, YourTango, CosmoGirl, and First for Women magazine. Smith earned her undergraduate degree in journalism and graduate degree in integrated marketing, both from Marist College.

Dr. Rao teaches extensively in the Babson Executive Education programs. His executive teaching and consulting is in the areas of innovation, implementation of innovation initiatives within firms, corporate entrepreneurship and customer experience innovation. Dr. Rao also teaches 2 elective courses in the Babson MBA programs – (1) Leading Innovation: Gorillas, Chimps & Monkeys and (2) #CX #UX #DX Innovation. His research has appeared in The Sloan Management Review, Journal of Innovative Management, The European Business Review, The European Financial Review, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly and others. He is the author of the book “The Discipline and Culture of Innovation.” He has written several business cases on a range of topics: Innovation Strategy, Innovation Culture, Leading Innovation, Customer Service, and Strategy Execution.

Kait Smith Lanthier is the Director, Content Strategy at Babson College and the Managing Editor of Babson Thought & Action. Her writing has appeared in print and online in a variety of outlets including USA Today, Yahoo Shine, YourTango, CosmoGirl, and First for Women magazine. Smith earned her undergraduate degree in journalism and graduate degree in integrated marketing, both from Marist College.

Dan Isenberg (@danisen) is founding executive director of the Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project, Associate at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School. From 1981-7 and 2005-9 Dan was a professor at the Harvard Business School, and in the interim (1987-2005) was an entrepreneur and venture capitalist in Israel. Dan authored Worthless Impossible and Stupid: How Contrarian Entrepreneurs Create and Capture Extraordinary Value (Harvard Business Review Press 2013), published over 30 online and print articles on entrepreneurship in the Harvard Business Review, and has been featured in the Economist, Forbes, NPR, Bloomberg, Quartz, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, etc. Dan has been a pioneer in the concept and development of entrepreneurship ecosystems, and he launched and directs Manizales-Mas and Scale Up Milwaukee. Between 2009-2013 Dan was active in the World Economic Forum and conducted Forum events in Davos, Africa, Europe, and China. In 2012 Mikhail Gorbachev awarded Dan the Pio Manzu Award for "Innovations in Economic Development." At Babson Executive Education, Dan created and directs the 3-day program, Driving Economic Growth Through Entrepreneurship Ecosystems. He holds the Ph.D. degree in social psychology from Harvard University, received under the mentorship of Robert Freed Bales.

Rob Cross is the Edward A. Madden Professor of Global Leadership at Babson College. For almost twenty years, his research, teaching and consulting have focused on applying social network analysis ideas to critical business issues for actionable insights and bottom-line results. He has worked with over 300 leading organizations (companies, government agencies, and non-profit organizations) across industries on a variety of solutions including innovation, revenue growth, leadership effectiveness and talent management. Ideas emerging from his research have resulted in three books, the most recent one titled, “Driving Results through Social Networks.” Rob has written over 50 articles, many of which have won awards. In addition to top scholarly outlets, his work has been repeatedly published in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, Academy of Management Executive and Organizational Dynamics. His work has also been featured in venues such as Business Week, Fortune, The Financial Times, Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CIO, Inc. and Fast Company.

Scott Taylor is a professor of organizational behavior and the Arthur M. Blank Endowed Chair for Values-Based Leadership at The Blank School at Babson College. He is also a research fellow with the Coaching Research Lab at Case Western Reserve University, a member of the Institute of Coaching (IOC) at McLean, Harvard Medical School Affiliate, and a core member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations (CREIO).

Wiljeana Glover is an Assistant Professor of Technology, Operations, and Information Management and is the Faculty Director of the Schlesinger Fund for Global Healthcare Entrepreneurship at Babson College. Professor Glover’s research uses systems thinking to understand the impact of boundary spanning and the interplay between strategic and social factors on performance outcomes. Professor Glover has extensive experience studying healthcare systems, including Clalit Health Systems-Israel, the U.S. Military Health System, and recently the Ugandan healthcare system. She has also worked with manufacturing and other service organizations. Professor Glover’s teaching interests include technology and operations management, scaling operations, improvement approaches (lean, agile, six sigma, etc.), and systems design, interactions, and improvement. Her teaching heavily uses experiential learning and she has developed a project-based course with industry that focuses on how students can learn operational principles by doing, creating measurable improvements for the partner companies. She completed her Ph.D. at Virginia Tech and postdoctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Prior to her academic career, she worked as an Associate Consultant with Stockamp and Associates, implementing revenue cycle and process improvements in hospital settings.

Kait Smith Lanthier is the Director, Content Strategy at Babson College and the Managing Editor of Babson Thought & Action. Her writing has appeared in print and online in a variety of outlets including USA Today, Yahoo Shine, YourTango, CosmoGirl, and First for Women magazine. Smith earned her undergraduate degree in journalism and graduate degree in integrated marketing, both from Marist College.