By Andrew Zacharakis
Writer
Andrew Zacharakis
Andrew Zacharakis is The John H. Muller, Jr. Chair in Entrepreneurship at Babson College, Wellesley, MA. He is the Director of the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference and past president of the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. He is also a past chair of the Entrepreneurship Department at Babson College and a past Director of the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson. His writings and research focus on two major areas of entrepreneurship: the venture capital decision-making process, and entrepreneurial growth strategies. Professor Zacharakis has been interviewed in newspapers nationwide, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times, and by several magazines, including Inc., Entrepreneur, and Kiplinger's. He has also appeared on television in the Bloomberg Small Business Report, and radio on NPR Morning Edition. Professor Zacharakis has taught seminars at leading companies, including Dassault, Merck, Intel, and Met Life. He has also taught executives, students, and professors worldwide in such countries as Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Germany, Mexico, Norway, Spain, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates. Prior to his work at Babson, he held investment banking/venture capital positions with The Cambridge Companies, a Los Angeles firm that invested in retail concepts and movie partnerships. Today, Zacharakis is an active angel investor in seed stage deals. He also previously held positions at IBM and Leisure Technologies.
and Will Drover
Writer
Will Drover
Dr. Drover teaches and researches high-growth entrepreneurship at the University of Oklahoma. His research primarily focuses on new venture financing, including angel investing, venture capital and crowdfunding. His work also explores the intersection of neuroscience and entrepreneurship. Drover’s work has been published in several leading peer-reviewed journals, receiving best paper recognition on four occasions. His research has received attention by the press, including an article featuring his findings in Forbes. Professor Drover has delivered several invited talks on the topic of entrepreneurship that include the keynote address to one of the world's largest angel investor symposiums at Microsoft in Silicon Valley. In addition, Drover has collaborated with the U.S. Department of State on three occasions through the Diplomacy Lab, and is also an instructor in the SBA/Department of Defense's Boots to Business program, where he teaches entrepreneurship courses on military bases around the world. Drover remains active in startup investment and advisory roles. Professor Drover earned his Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University in 2014. Prior to OU, Drover was a Visiting Scholar at Babson College in Boston.