Babson Board of Trustees Welcomes Two New Members

The Babson College Board of Trustees has formally welcomed two new accomplished members to its ranks: KP Balaraj P’25 and Ryan Kratz ’98. Balaraj was elected earlier this year, and Kratz was formally elected at the board’s annual October meeting. 

Balaraj and Kratz join at a momentous time for the board and the College. The Babson Board of Trustees earlier this year received the 2024 John W. Nason Award for Board Leadership by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. The College’s recent successes include being ranked the No. 2 Best College in the United States by The Wall Street Journal, and the No. 1 undergraduate school for entrepreneurship for the 28th consecutive time by U.S. News & World Report. 

Meet the newest members of the Babson Board of Trustees: 

KP Balaraj P’25 

Balaraj is the founder of KPB Family Trust, a family office investment company. He was a co-founder and managing director of WestBridge Capital and co-led the firm for close to 20 years. He also was a co-founder and managing director of Sequoia Capital India from 2006 to 2010.   

Balaraj received an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Bachelor of Science degree in business management from Brigham Young University, Hawaii, where he graduated as valedictorian of his class, and his schooling at Madras Christian School in Chennai.  

Balaraj currently serves on the boards of the HBS South Asia Board and Harvard University’s Mittal South Asia Institute. He also serves on the board of Aptus Housing Finance, a publicly listed company, in India, which is a market leader in the affordable housing finance market in India. 

Balaraj, a former top-ranked national tennis player who represented India at the international level, is an active promoter of Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association’s (KSLTA) efforts to promote international tennis in Bangalore. 

KP also was selected as one of India Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s distinguished “Champions of Change,” and he was honored for his contributions to the growth of venture capital and the startup industry in India. 

Ryan Kratz ’98 

Kratz is a private investor and former senior executive in the commercial real estate services industry.   

Kratz was recently president, Southeast and Mid-Central regions at Colliers, a global, publicly traded commercial real estate services corporation where he was part of the U.S. leadership team and responsible for a large geography with multiple service lines.   

Currently, he is a private investor focusing on a variety of sectors, including fragmented overlooked operating businesses, credit opportunities in dislocated markets, Digital Asset Ecosystem (DAE) investments, technology, niche healthcare, and several asset classes of commercial real estate (retail, apartments, workforce housing, marina, hospitality). He is devoting time to a startup enterprise in the clean-tech sector ridding forever chemicals (PFAS) and other contaminants from water using a patented system and technology.  

Kratz earned his Bachelor of Science from Babson, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with a concentration in entrepreneurship and finance, and he earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in Boston. 

Kratz, a native of Decorah, Iowa, now lives in Miami. A passionate traveler, Kratz has visited more than 100 countries. 

Posted in Babson Briefs

Tagged Campus, Alumni, Entrepreneurship Education

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