‘A Year of Growth, Learning, and Opportunity’

Editor / Writer

Eric Beato

Eric Beato is the Editor of Babson Thought & Action and Babson Magazine. A native of Chicago and a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Eric has worked as an editor and writer at newspapers across the country, including the Chicago Sun-Times and Boston Herald. Eric joined Babson College in 2019 after working as the communications director for a private educational travel company and as the managing editor of six regional sports publications.

| July 1, 2021

Listen

Babson College—and the world—looks a lot different than when Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD began his tenure as the College’s 14th president two years ago today.

The disruption and uncertainty of the pandemic, the events around social injustice, the urgency of climate change, and more have reshaped the landscape for Babson, for higher education, and for the world.

Under Spinelli’s leadership and girded by its strategic plan, Babson not only survived the worst of the pandemic—safeguarding the health and safety of the community and maintaining academic continuity and excellence—but the College also has re-emerged even stronger.

“For Babson, I am proud to report that it was a year of growth, learning, and opportunity. Our community demonstrated entrepreneurial leadership in action. We worked collaboratively to solve problems, generate solutions, and lead change,” Spinelli wrote to the Babson community today. “Now, our collective yearlong focus on managing the COVID-19 crisis, promulgating our strategic plan, and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion has positioned us to thrive in the post-COVID world.”

As he marks his two-year anniversary as president, in the video above, Spinelli shares more about how Babson has advanced its objectives over the past year with an eye to the future in developing entrepreneurial leaders to help solve the world’s biggest challenges.

Posted in Community

Tagged Babson Together, Entrepreneurial Leadership

Latest Stories

Babson Professor Jeffrey Shay ’87, MBA’91, sits at a table with professors from Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Babson Works with HBCUs to Boost Entrepreneurship Education A case-writing program, which teaches participants how to develop a hallmark of business education, is one of several Babson initiatives with Historically Black Colleges and Universities that aim to empower entrepreneurial leaders and the professors who educate them.

By John Crawford

Senior Journalist

John Crawford

A writer for Babson Thought & Action and the Babson Magazine, John Crawford has been telling the College’s entrepreneurial story for more than 15 years. Assignments for Babson have taken him from Rwanda to El Salvador, from the sweet-smelling factory of a Pennsylvania candy maker, to the stately Atlanta headquarters of an NFL owner, to the bustling office of a New York City fashion designer. Beyond his work for Babson, he has written articles and essays for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Notre Dame Magazine, The Good Men Project, and other publications. He can be found on Twitter, @crawfordwriter, where he tweets about climate change.

October 31, 2025

Tagged Faculty, Inclusive Excellence, Entrepreneurship Education

Posted in Entrepreneurial Leadership