Babson Magazine Winter 2021–2022 by Babson College

BABSON

MAGAZINE

WINTER 2021–2022

FROMTHEPRESIDENT

a community and a home to student entrepreneurs at Babson. It is an inspirational place where young entrepreneurs support each other, exchange ideas, and imagine the future together. Read more about the impact of eTower in the cover story of this issue (Page 10). Embracing the example of eTower, we recently launched the Entrepreneurial Leadership Village at Babson. The ELV is a place—both physical and virtual—where the Babson community, extended ecosystem, and people around the world come together

to learn, collaborate, and take action. It’s a

person working by themself in the garage,

opportunities and apply the mindsets,

chasing an ambitious, audacious idea alone.

principles, and tools of entrepreneurial

Certainly, there are countless examples of

leadership.

e often are told the myth of the

place where both aspiring and established

lonely entrepreneur, the inspired

entrepreneurial leaders create and unlock

successful entrepreneurs pursuing their

Entrepreneurs thrive and great companies

ventures on their own, but it is even more

are scaled in such supportive environments.

rewarding to have trusted colleagues,

The Babson community also is united within

supporters, and collaborators by your side.

our expanding network of more than 43,000

At Babson College, no entrepreneur

alumni. It was rewarding to see so many of

goes it alone. Every undergraduate student

our accomplished alumni at Back to Babson

begins their journey with Foundations of

weekend in October. We reconnected and

Management and Entrepreneurship (FME),

reminisced, we celebrated our successes

in which they work with a team of their peers

and milestones, and we toasted our future

to develop, launch, and manage a real venture.

endeavors together.

All students, undergraduate and graduate,

Back to Babson is the latest reminder of

also engage with our renowned centers and

what we’re capable of accomplishing when

institutes, as well as The Arthur M. Blank

we come together as a community, as One

School for Entrepreneurial Leadership, to learn

Babson, to lead change, solve global problems,

together and to support and develop their

and create lasting value across business and

ideas and ventures.

society.

Nowhere is the power of community and collaboration more evident than at eTower, the College’s first living-learning community. For 20 years now, eTower has been providing

Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD

FEATURES 10

20 Years of eTower

Newton & Babson

Student leaders embrace an entrepreneurial legacy. A collection connects the innovator and the College.

DEPARTMENTS

BABSON MAGAZINE STAFF / Vol. 88, No. 2 EDITOR Eric Beato PUBLISHER Kerry Salerno, chief marketing officer COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY Lorraine A. Daignault CREATIVE MANAGEMENT Cheryl Robock CREATIVE ART DIRECTION Cathy Cahill SENIOR JOURNALIST John Crawford JOURNALIST Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman CONTRIBUTORS Kara Baskin, Scott Dietz, James Kiley, Bryan Lipiner, Leslie Macmillan, Brion O’Connor, Erin O’Donnell, Thecla Ree, Wendy Schoenfeld MULTIMEDIA TEAM Christopher Brown, Paul DeWolf, Maggie McGinnis, Adam Pearlman

Babson and Beyond

Office Hours

People (and Canine) of Babson

The latest news and updates from campus. Gary Ottley MBA’97 empowers grad students, faculty. Meet Kevin Carrigan and Roger the Dog.

Athletics

Advancement Spotlight

News, Notes, and Nods

Beaver Tales

Stephanie Mishler ’22 runs a “magical” mission. Alumni return for a picturesque Back to Babson. Undergraduate, 26; Graduate, 29; In Memoriam, 31 When dynasties and legends roamed campus.

We welcome your feedback on the magazine. Contact Eric Beato at ebeato@babson.edu Find out more about what’s happening at Babson College at: entrepreneurship.babson.edu On the cover: Illustration by Cathy Cahill

(depicting eTower’s IdeaPaint)

TABLEOFCONTENTS

Babson Magazine (USPS 898-140) is published by Babson College, 231 Forest Street, Babson Park, MA 02457-0310, two times a year, in the summer and winter. Copyright 2021 by Babson College. Editorial office: Babson Park, MA 02457-0310. Send address corrections to advancement_services@babson.edu, or call +781-239-4044.

WINTER 2021–2022 / BABSON MAGAZINE

BABSONANDBEYOND 2

BABSON MAGAZINE / WINTER 2021–2022 PHOTO: JUSTIN KNIGHT

Back to Babson Brings Us

TOGETHER AGAIN

Above: Babson alumni gather with Biz E. Beaver on the “Friends” couch in front of the Babson World Globe.

Babson College alumni and friends

Scholars, as well as the Babson

from near and far reunited on the

Black Alumni Alliance, which held

first weekend of October for the first

a BBQ at the home of Lawrence P.

Left: John Tucker MBA’66 and his wife, Marsha Tucker, celebrate their visit to campus during Back to Babson weekend in October.

major community-wide gathering in

Ward, vice president and dean of

two years.

campus life. There also were several

The campus roared with activity

including the 25th anniversary of the

more than 2,200 alumni and friends

Babson Honors Program and the 20th

congregating at the upper fields for

anniversary of eTower (see Page 10).

food, activities, and reminiscing. The

See more photos from Back to Babson in Advancement Spotlight, Page 22.

milestone reunion celebrations,

on a picturesque Saturday with

Back to Babson kicked off Friday

day also featured the Cruickshank

with the College honoring a part of

Race for Shelter 5K, the Volunteer

its history, as the Half-Century Club

Leadership Awards celebration, and

held its luncheon and induction

several affinity group gatherings,

ceremony, followed by a campus

including LGBTQ+ and the Posse

trolley tour.

WINTER 2021–2022 / BABSON MAGAZINE

BABSONANDBEYOND

Expanding Franchising Education:

TARIQ FARID FRANCHISE INSTITUTE Tariq Farid P’15 and Somia Farid Silber ’15 are paying it forward with the new institute.

certification-level courses; a world-class advisory council; and a multidisciplinary faculty research program. Few people understand the convergence

“My time at Babson had a very

of entrepreneurship and franchising

positive impact not only on me but

quite like Somia Farid Silber ’15. She

also on my family,” Farid Silber said.

arrived at Babson College a decade

“There’s always an opportunity to pay

ago to hone her entrepreneurial

it forward and to continue to have that

skills and eventually return to her

legacy and to continue to build. For us,

family’s franchising business, Edible

it’s really nice to be able to do that with

Arrangements, which her father, Tariq

Babson, considering how amazing my

Farid P’15, founded in 1999.

experience was there.”

Her Babson experience helped

Few other institutions offer such

propel Farid Silber, who now serves as

programming, even though franchising

the vice president of e-commerce at

accounts for more than $674 billion of

Edible Brands, one of the world’s most

business conducted annually in the

successful franchises with more than

United States. The creation of a new

1,000 locations around the world. In

franchising institute—introduced by

2020, Farid Silber was named to the 100

Babson President Stephen Spinelli Jr.

Influential Women in Franchising list by

MBA’92, PhD, a franchising expert

BusinessWoman magazine.

himself as the co-founder of Jiffy Lube

Now, Farid Silber and her family are

and chair of the board of Planet Fitness;

giving back with the announcement of

and Donna Levin, CEO of Babson’s Blank

the new Tariq Farid Franchise Institute

School—is a major step forward for the

at Babson College. The institute,

future of franchising and for Babson as

which will reside in The Arthur M.

it continues to expand its leadership of

Blank School for Entrepreneurial

entrepreneurship education.

Leadership at Babson College, will

“There’s just a lot of opportunity

fill a growing need for franchising

when it comes to the intersection

education, providing transdisciplinary

between franchising and

undergraduate, graduate, and

entrepreneurship,” Farid Silber said.

BABSON MAGAZINE / WINTER 2021–2022

Milestone:

25 TIMES NO. 1 The fall semester at Babson welcomes certain rituals and traditions. And, for more than two decades, those fall expectations also have included a prestigious recognition. For the 25th consecutive time, U.S. News & World Report has named Babson the No. 1 undergraduate school for entrepreneurship. The honor recognizes the College’s ongoing leadership and innovation in entrepreneurship education. “This is a moment of pride and celebration for the Babson community,” President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD said. “To be No. 1 for so long is a significant accomplishment.” Babson also recently was named No. 1 for Entrepreneurship, Northeast Graduate and Undergraduate Programs 2022 by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine, marking the first time since 2012 that Babson has been ranked No. 1 for undergraduate and graduate entrepreneurship education by both U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review/ Entrepreneur magazine. Of course, over more than two decades, Babson has proven it is never complacent. “We have seen great success, but we are always looking ahead,” Spinelli said. “The world needs entrepreneurial leaders to take on the many challenges we face in the future, and we must make sure they’re ready.” — John Crawford

New Board of Trustees Chair Jeffery Perry ’87, P’23:

CREATING OPPORTUNITIES

Nearly 40 years ago, Jeffery Perry ’87,

MBA from Harvard Business School

P’23 was a promising high school

and embarked on a successful

student in Cleveland who had not

business career, including an

even heard of Babson College when

impressive 16-year run at EY. He

an unexpected opportunity arose

retired from EY in 2020 and founded

that would change the trajectory

his own consulting firm, Lead

of Perry’s life and, ultimately, the

Mandates LLC, based in Chicago. He

College itself.

also has built an impressive résumé

Perry was invited to attend the College’s Management Expo, a

as chair of the board of directors of

weeklong summer program for Black

Chicago Children’s Museum since

and Latino students from around

2016. Last year, he also was named

the country. “With Management

board director at Fortune Brands in

Expo, Babson demonstrated

December.

the importance of being more Jeffery Perry ’87, P’23 is the first parent of a current student to serve as chair of the Board of Trustees and the first Black chair of the Babson board, an important milestone for the College.

“Now more than ever, the world needs entrepreneurial leaders, and Babson is uniquely positioned to thrive by developing them and empowering them globally.” — Jeffery Perry ’87, P’23

of board work, including serving

He joined the Babson Board of

inclusive, encouraging diversity,

Trustees in 2016, serving on the

and welcoming people into the

Advancement Committee before

environment,” Perry says. “That’s

chairing the Academic Excellence

why, even to this day, I am a strong

Committee. “It’s been a very dynamic

believer in the power of early-access

few years,” he says. “Now more than

programs to expose young people to

ever, the world needs entrepreneurial

the school and opportunities in ways

leaders, and Babson is uniquely

that they may not otherwise have.”

positioned to thrive by developing

Now, as the new chair of the Babson Board of Trustees, Perry has taken on a larger role to help the

them and empowering them globally.” When Marla Capozzi MBA’96

College continue creating those

stepped down as chair of the

opportunities for young students

Babson Board of Trustees, Perry

and lifelong learners of all ages and

was a natural option to replace her.

developing them as entrepreneurial

His appointment, which he calls

leaders.

humbling, also is historic. Perry is the

As a Babson undergraduate

first parent of a current student to

student, Perry naturally gravitated

serve as board chair; his second son,

toward leadership opportunities,

Donovan Perry ’23, is a junior. Jeffery

including serving as president of

Perry also is the first Black chair of

what is now the Black Student Union

the Babson board, an important

as a sophomore. By graduation, he

milestone for the College.

was honored with the prestigious

“I think it’s significant for Babson,

Roger W. Babson Achievement

and I recognize the significance of it,”

Award. “That was a significant

he says. “For me personally, I’ve often

achievement,” he says, “and I really

been the first, but it’s less important

appreciated getting that award.”

about being the first but hopefully

After Babson, Perry earned his

not being the last.”

— Eric Beato

WINTER 2021–2022 / BABSON MAGAZINE

BABSONANDBEYOND

Babson’s Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs Welcomes

VANILLA BEANE AND LEONARD GREEN Risk takers. Community leaders. And,

leaders. Now, more than ever, their

two entrepreneurial leaders who have

ability to harness the unknown to

manifested confidence and success in

create value places them in a unique

themselves and others.

position to impact businesses,

Leonard Green, a longstanding

communities, and the world.”

member of the Babson College

At 102, Beane still owns and

community, and Vanilla Beane,

operates Bené Millinery & Bridal Supply

who shared her 100th birthday

in Washington, D.C., which she opened

with Babson in 2019, are the newest

in 1979. Her hats have adorned the

inductees to Babson’s Academy of

heads of such luminaries as the late

Distinguished Entrepreneurs® (ADE).

Dorothy Height, former president of

Since its inception in 1978, the ADE has

the National Council for Negro Women.

inducted more than 100 internationally

Though Bené Millinery sells hats made

renowned entrepreneurial leaders who

by other designers, each custom-made

have contributed to the development of

hat is designed by Beane herself. No two

free enterprise worldwide. Both Beane

are exactly the same.

and Green were honored November 12

Green is a CPA, MBA, and

at an ADE ceremony in New York City.

entrepreneur-chairman and founder of

“In a year unlike any other,

Vanilla Beane (top) and Leonard Green were honored in November as the newest inductees to Babson’s Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs.

The Green Group, a tax and financial

we honor and celebrate two

services consulting firm. He has been

entrepreneurial leaders who embrace

an owner, advisor, and investor in more

values-based leadership and the

than a dozen businesses. His business

human-centricity of entrepreneurship,”

accomplishments have “led to my most

said President Stephen Spinelli Jr.

meaningful position, as a Babson College

MBA’92, PhD. “Len and Vanilla will join

professor, where I was able to teach

and stand out among an impressive

over 1,500 students, acquainting them

roster of renowned entrepreneurial

with over 75 entrepreneurs,” Green said.

U.S. GEM REPORT Examines

Pandemic’s Impact on Entrepreneurship A once-in-a-century pandemic, COVID-19 disrupted industries and lives around the world. It also forged opportunities—both for established entrepreneurs and those with entrepreneurial instincts. In 2020, one-half of entrepreneurs said they were motivated to start a venture because jobs were difficult to find, representing a 22% increase from 2019, according to Babson College’s new 2020/2021 U.S. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report, released in September. The report also found that 54% of entrepreneurs

BABSON MAGAZINE / WINTER 2021–2022

and 43% of business owners reported that the pandemic introduced new business opportunities. “The GEM results show that people will still turn to entrepreneurship, even in the throes of a social and economic crisis,” said Smaiyra Million P’21, executive director of The Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship. The newest U.S. GEM report provides a comprehensive look at the impact COVID-19 had on entrepreneurs and business owners six months after the pandemic began disrupting American life and business.

FOR MORE BABSON NEWS AND EVENTS:

entrepreneurship.babson.edu

Q&A WITH GERALD WATSON ’76 on the Babson Black Alumni Alliance GERALD WATSON ’76 KNOWS HOW TO BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER.

Gerald Watson ’76 and President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD

As an undergraduate, he was the driving force behind the Beaver Brau, the College’s original watering hole, which opened in April 1974. Now, nearly a half-century later, Watson is helping connect his fellow alumni as the founding chair of the new Babson Black Alumni Alliance (BBAA), which formally launched during Back to Babson weekend in October. “Our interest is to institutionalize this effort,” Watson says, “so that 50 years from now, it will still be here.” Watson sat down with Babson Magazine to talk more about the BBAA, as well as the College’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) efforts.

How will the Babson Black Alumni Alliance serve Babson’s Black alumni?

What are some ways the BBAA will help make those connections?

“Much of the engagement with

“We’re launching an initiative called

alumni has been primarily focused

‘BBAA Means Business’ to help

on the alumni serving as a resource

Black alumni who have their own

to students. That’s really necessary, it

business—whether it be through more

needs to continue, it needs to expand.

business opportunities or professional

What we’re looking to do is to put

development or providing access to

a focus more broadly on what the

financing. … The biggest thing we

it into the strategic plan, so that DE&I

needs are for alumni, how we can be

can do is be a facilitator for providing

now touches every aspect of the Babson

a resource to them, and how we can

access and collaboration.”

community. … The idea of creating a

graduate schools to achieve a set of common goals and objectives.”

is the consciousness of the College at the highest levels. Today, what we have at Babson that we didn’t have 50 years ago is a clear focus and commitment of the College—from the trustees to the president to our entire leadership—to see the importance of DE&I to integrate

BBAA came out of that strategic plan. We

work in tandem with students on campus in both the undergraduate and

“The most significant thing that’s evolved

How do the College’s efforts on DE&I today compare to your time as an undergraduate in the 1970s?

see ourselves as another way to help the College in executing its mission through the alumni.” FOR THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW, VISIT bab.sn/bbaa

NEW FACULTY AWARD Funds Study of Healthcare Inequity A team of Babson faculty members is researching healthcare inequities, thanks to a scholarship provided by the new Faculty Research Angel Fund (FRAF), sponsored by The Arthur M. Blank School for Entrepreneurial Leadership at Babson College. The inaugural scholarship team—with its project, Investigating Healthcare Entrepreneurship:

PHOTO: PAIGE BROWN

Financial Well-Being, Equity, and Social Determinants of Health—includes Wiljeana Glover, the Stephen C. and Carmella R. Kletjian Foundation Distinguished Professor of Global Healthcare Entrepreneurship and an associate professor in the Operations and Information Management Division; Candida Brush, the F.W. Olin Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship;

Alia Crocker, associate professor of strategy; and Yunwei Gai, associate professor of economics. The FRAF award, announced in April, provides faculty with a research budget for a maximum of three years and comes with a series of milestone requirements and an expectation that the researchers will seek external funding during the third year. — Leslie Macmillan

WINTER 2021–2022 / BABSON MAGAZINE

OFFICEHOURS

Motivating Action Through Marketing

Award-winning Senior Lecturer Gary Ottley MBA’97 helps empower grad students and faculty

ary Ottley MBA’97 feels strongly about the power of marketing. Before arriving at Babson as an instructor in 2008, he worked for 11 years as a marketing consultant for three firms, and he currently teaches core marketing courses to graduate students. “I would argue that marketing as a discipline has more power than almost any other business discipline in terms of what it does and what it can do,” the senior lecturer says. “It’s the part of business that convinces people to change their behaviors and has the power to move things from Point A to Point B.” Ottley’s doctoral work examined the marketing strategies of companies committed to the principles of “conscious capitalism,” and he is convinced that business can and should play a role in addressing complex issues such as income inequality, climate change, and all types of reform. “The very term ‘reform’ implies a change—in behaviors, in attitudes, in actions,” Ottley says. “Marketing has always played a role in all of those changes and phenomena.” A popular instructor known for animated lectures and a deep voice that carries hints of his childhood in Trinidad and Tobago, Ottley recently received the Dean’s Graduate Teaching Award for his work with students in the full-time, part-time, and blended MBA programs. “If you are in a graduate

PLEASE VISIT OUR

The very term ‘reform’ implies a change—in behaviors, in attitudes, in actions. Marketing has always played a role in all of those changes and phenomena. program at Babson, there is a likely chance that you’ll be in one of my classes at one point or another,” he says. Ottley also teaches Senior Lecturer Gary Ottley MBA’97 recently received the Dean’s Graduate Teaching Award and served on an important diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) taskforce. undergraduates One of the College’s major periodically and has developed initiatives was the creation of the and delivered executive education Inclusive Teaching Training Program programs. for faculty members, and Ottley says He recently served on a diversity, he’s heartened to see the Babson equity, and inclusion (DE&I) taskforce, community taking efforts seriously— convened early in 2021 to advise the and taking action. Making an effort Graduate Academic Policy Committee to attract and support students and on ways to advance DE&I initiatives faculty members from marginalized in the graduate school. Increasing groups will only strengthen Babson’s the diversity of races, cultures, programs, Ottley stresses. backgrounds, and perspectives is one “We teach students how to make of Babson’s critical objectives. In the decisions, and to try to get the best course of taskforce discussions, Ottley out of those decisions,” he says. “That’s says, he brought up the structural what entrepreneurship is all about. The barriers that might prevent students more and better perspectives you get from both enrolling and thriving at into that decision-making process, the Babson, such as income inequality or better your decisions are going to be.” the challenges faced by international — Erin O’Donnell students trying to obtain student visas.

DIGITAL BOOKSHELF 8

BABSON MAGAZINE / WINTER 2021–2022

Featuring Publications by Babson Faculty

BABSON.EDU/BOOKSHELF

PHOTO: MICHAEL QUIET

PEOPLE(AND CANINE)OFBABSON Small Talk with

KEVIN CARRIGAN

(and ROGER the Dog)

Kevin Carrigan has been a police officer in the Babson Public Safety Department for nine years, but he has never had a partner quite like Roger, Babson’s new community resource dog, affectionately named for the College’s founder. Carrigan is the primary handler for the English cream golden retriever, who was adopted in January by the Student Government Association. Roger not only comforts students who may be dealing with anxiety or other mental health issues, but he also provides bursts of joy when he strolls around campus with Carrigan to play with students and pose for photos. After spending almost a year on campus with Roger, Carrigan says the experience has exceeded his expectations. What does your job as primary handler entail? “My job is to care for Roger and to make sure that he’s advocated for as a working dog on this campus, to make sure that people understand what his job is, and then also take care of driving him around, his training, his social media, because I run Roger’s Instagram, all those things. It’s pretty much like having a child, a child who’s a star. The community engagement piece is huge with me, so I’m kind of the talking end of Roger who can let people know about Public Safety, what we do, and what we can offer to the community.”

This was a student-initiated, student-funded idea, so how did you get involved with Roger? “As a dog lover and as one of the officers who does a lot of community engagement, I thought it would be a perfect fit. Getting our message out there about what Public Safety stands for and what we do and how we’re trained is important. I think that Roger was the perfect conduit to do that. He almost serves as an ambassador of our department, and that is a huge help.”

How important is Roger to the Babson community? “He’s quite possibly the most important thing that we have going as far as a mental health resource. He’s a priceless commodity on the Babson campus, and most people do take advantage of that, which I think is great. … He’s become his own little mascot. I know Biz will — Eric Beato hate that I said that.” READ OUR COMPLETE Q&A WITH KEVIN CARRIGAN: magazine.babson.edu PHOTO: MICHAEL QUIET

WINTER 2021–2022 / BABSON MAGAZINE

20 YEARS OF

eTOWER

BABSON MAGAZINE / WINTER 2021–2022

Andrew Foley ’03 (left), Alicia Sibole ’23 (center), and Diana Yuan ’15 share a bond of creating, preserving, and improving eTower over two decades.

PHOTO: MICHAEL QUIET

By Eric Beato

Babson’s first living-learning community endures because of committed leaders who carry on the legacy and make eTower a true home for student entrepreneurs.

licia Sibole ’23 was homeless in high school. Her parents had divorced when she was in ninth grade, and her mother struggled with mental illness and was unemployed. So, for a year and a half, the teenager from Tucson, Arizona, shared an air mattress with her mom in a “roach-infested bedroom” at a relative’s house. “It was crazy,” she says. “We had nothing.” What Sibole did have was a burning entrepreneurial spirit, unique organizational skills, and a burgeoning business. She started what would become Alicia’s Life Tips in seventh grade, creating and selling pencil boxes with stationery and weekly tips on organization and time management, then eventually customizable planners. “Entrepreneurship was the thing that I grasped on to,” Sibole says. “Honestly, it was a coping mechanism. It was survival for me at that time.” The light at the end of the tunnel, she says, was pursuing her passion for entrepreneurship in college, far from the troubles of home. Sibole discovered Babson (2,600 miles away) and ultimately eTower—the College’s living and learning community for entrepreneurs. “They understood my story, and they wanted me to be a part of eTower’s story,” Sibole says. “That was where I really found my family; that’s where I found my home. I truly mean that, because I had no family, I had no home. eTower became my home.” Now, Sibole is the president of eTower, carrying on a legacy that began 20 years ago.

WINTER 2021–2022 / BABSON MAGAZINE

THE IDEA

Alicia Sibole ’23 (above), the current president, carries on the legacy of eTower that began 20 years ago when Andrew Foley ’03 (right) first conceived and helped create the College’s first living-learning community for student entrepreneurs. OPPOSITE: A group of eTower alumni and residents congregate outside Van Winkle Hall (inset) during Back to Babson weekend, when eTower celebrated its 20th anniversary with a gala.

It was early 2001, and Babson sophomore Andrew Foley ’03 had an idea: What if we could create a community of entrepreneurs—a live-in incubator for students growing businesses? “It was clear that there was a place for it in the ecosystem of all the things that Babson does to accelerate entrepreneurship,” Foley says. Foley began rounding up support and possible fellow residents, including Richard Futrell ’04. “We were just solving a problem. There was no space for kids living on campus to run businesses,” Futrell says. “Entrepreneurs need to live together, need to work together, and we started this incubator.” With the support of the College— including President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD, then the director of The Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship—the fledgling group secured approval and space on the second floor of Van Winkle Hall as the first living-learning community on campus. In summer 2001, the first group of 21 eTower residents moved in. They replaced the teal carpet and pink and purple furniture, and they repainted the pink walls in business colors: Babson green, Home Depot orange, and Dunkin’ Donuts purple. “We quickly made it a home,” Foley says. “It was us; it was eTower.”

THE LAUNCH At eTower, the writing has always been on the walls. In its second year, eTower’s eager entrepreneurs would cover the walls with giant rolls of sticky paper during brainstorming sessions. It was productive but not efficient. So, Foley had another idea: Let’s repaint

BABSON MAGAZINE / WINTER 2021–2022

PHOTOS: MICHAEL QUIET

the walls with dry-erase paint. The problem was no product existed. In a living community of emerging entrepreneurs, that’s no problem; that’s an opportunity. First-year student John Goscha ’06 —“the most pure inventor I’ve ever met,” Foley says—quickly set up a makeshift lab in his eTower room, where he and roommate Will Gioielli ’06

TOP PHOTO: MICHAEL QUIET

BOTTOM PHOTO: TONY RINALDO

began mixing paints and chemicals. Soon, they tested a formula and painted a wall. “It wasn’t what it is today, but it worked,” Foley says. “It was miraculous.” The nearly noxious smell didn’t deter other students and faculty from writing on the wall, asking to order the paint. Foley began creating a business plan and came up with a name: IdeaPaint. It took years for Goscha —along with co-founder and eTower alumnus Jeff Avallon ’06 —to perfect the product and formally launch the company, but its roots were firmly planted in eTower. “What was so great about it was that it was a business and a product that embodied exactly what eTower was all about,” says Michael Mandel ’05, who joined the inaugural class as a first-year student and lived all eight semesters in eTower. After graduation, Foley worked

full time on IdeaPaint for a couple of years before moving into real estate development, leaving eTower in the care of a second wave of resident entrepreneurs. “We knew it was a good idea, and we knew that there was a place for it,” Foley says. “We didn’t know if it was going to last. Student organizations are a relay race. It requires consistent leadership to hand off year after year, to reinvent and elevate it. Any one year, or string of years, it could fall by the wayside.”

THE PIVOT After about a decade, though, the eTower baton dropped. Although eTower wasn’t designed only for students with startup ventures, the pressure to create and to compete grew and the environment changed. eTower became more exclusively geared toward startups, became more isolated on campus, and eventually lost its housing status.

WINTER 2021–2022 / BABSON MAGAZINE

As president, Diana Yuan ’15 helped restore eTower’s status and sparked a renaissance for the community.

David Zamarin ’19 proved that eTower residents can successfully swim with sharks. In 2018, as a Babson student, Zamarin appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank” to pitch his company, DetraPel, a nontoxic spray to protect fabric and repel liquid-based substances. Zamarin received offers from four of five sharks and landed a deal with Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner.

BABSON MAGAZINE / WINTER 2021–2022

“It was a real wakeup call,” Foley says, “that there has to always be this balance between community and creation.” More than anyone, Diana Yuan ’15 began to restore that balance. “It took a year, but we began to turn it around,” Yuan says. “It was a lot of community building, finding the right people, and improving the perception on campus.” Under Yuan’s leadership, eTower returned to Van Winkle Hall after two semesters and quickly reconnected with the campus. The efforts paid off, and a year later, eTower earned the 2013–2014 Community of the Year Award from the College. Yuan—who co-founded Indico Data Solutions after her term as eTower president—ensured the relay would continue. “We worked to reset the culture and keep the core aspects that made eTower special. We also wanted to make sure that we could pass it along to the next generation and allow them the flexibility to make it their own,”

Yuan says. “Every year it’s been passed on, it’s just evolved and gotten bigger and better. I feel super-inspired by the younger generation.” The leaders who followed— including presidents such as Ryan Laverty ’20, Sumukh Setty ’20, and Jason Shatsky ’21, all of whom now serve on eTower’s board of advisors, alongside Foley, Mandel, Yuan, Gautam Gupta ’07, and Chris Jacobs ’10—have made eTower integral to the Babson entrepreneurial ecosystem. They opened eTower’s weekly Wednesday night speaker series to the public, attracting upward of 80 people to the community room. They powered ePitch—Babson’s biggest business competition with $100,000 in prize money—as part of the Centennial celebration in 2019, and they launched the Young Entrepreneurs Conference. And, eTower’s success has served as the inspiration for Babson’s new Entrepreneurial Leadership Village, a physical and virtual hub for aspiring and established entrepreneurial leaders. As importantly, they have continued to fortify their own community. The eTower residents focus as much on supporting one another as they do building their ventures. Over the past 20 years, nearly 200 alumni have called eTower home. “Unconditional love is a big thing at eTower,” says Jonathan DiModica ’21, who spent seven semesters at eTower. He singles out “hot seats,” in which residents share sometimes deeply personal issues they are facing in their ventures and their lives and receive overwhelming support. “That’s what showed me that this was a family, and this was an unbreakable bond.”

THE FUTURE The future of eTower will be determined by the same force that

TOP PHOTO: MICHAEL QUIET

BOTTOM PHOTO: PATRICK O’CONNOR

Current residents Aarushi Dham ’24, William Huebner ’23, Demarre Johnson ’24, and Anh Thu Le ’24 are among the next generation of leaders at eTower, which has been home to nearly 200 student entrepreneurs. founded it. “eTower is driven by the student body. It’s up to the students to carry it forward,” Foley says. “The students that are there now are just, I mean, they’re rock stars.” The torch now is in the hands of one of those star students, who shared part of her personal story with eTower alumni at its 20th anniversary gala during Back to Babson weekend in October. Sibole joined eTower in January 2020, less than two months before the pandemic forced her and all Babson students off campus. Because eTower was her literal home, she didn’t know where to go. She settled with her older sister in Virginia and threw herself into her work—not unlike how she handled the uncertainty of her home life in high school. Sibole started as a paid intern with Calyx Containers, where eTower

PHOTO: MICHAEL QUIET

alumnus Anton Pronichenko ’17 was the operations manager. She embraced operations analytics and quickly advanced in the company, opting to take a leave of absence from Babson in fall 2020 to work full time as a strategic project manager. Harnessing her passion for organization and her entrepreneurial mindset, she made an immediate impact. The company offered her a raise, and a percentage of profits, to stay another semester. But, eTower needed her, too. Back in March 2020, when the residents were saying their tearful goodbyes, Sibole had realized that she soon would be the only resident to experience eTower before the pandemic. So, she made a promise. “I vowed to them that I would keep eTower great. Every day, I think about that promise,” Sibole says. “So,

$112,178 The eTower alumni not only reunited at Back to Babson to celebrate its 20th anniversary, but the gala at Babson Commons also capped a major fundraising campaign, which included a matching donation from Babson Professor Leonard Green, a longtime eTower supporter. A collegial but competitive auction of naming rights for the resident rooms generated nearly half of the campaign’s fundraising total of $112,178. I literally turned down a potential six-figure job to be the president of eTower, and I don’t regret it one bit.” Sibole returned to eTower. She returned home. 

WINTER 2021–2022 / BABSON MAGAZINE

By Kara Baskin

Roger Babson picks an apple from one of the College’s Newton apple trees.

BABSON MAGAZINE / WINTER 2021–2022

PHOTO: BABSON ARCHIVES

The College’s extraordinary collection of historic books, manuscripts, artifacts, and more not only represents a symbolic connection to Sir Isaac Newton but also offers inspiration in the classroom and beyond.

ext time you’re strolling beneath the grove of apple trees on the North Lawn near Tomasso Hall, think of Sir Isaac Newton. That’s right: Those eight trees are descended from the famed tree whose apple Newton watched fall to the ground in 1666, leading the prolific scientist, author, and theologian to formulate the law of universal gravitation. In fact, Newton’s roots at Babson College run even deeper. Founder Roger Babson and his wife, Grace, were fascinated with Newton as a polymath entrepreneur, amassing the dazzling Grace K. Babson Collection of the Works of Sir Isaac Newton. It’s now a landmark collection at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. Complemented by The Huntington’s own materials, this collection of “Newtonia” is the largest in the United States. The Babson collection comprises more than 1,000 rare books; 54 manuscripts (most by Newton himself); plus ephemera, artifacts, and memorabilia. “Newton is one of the most important and influential thinkers in the history of the world, and I think that’s why he appealed to Roger and Grace Babson: He thought very

differently than most people around him, and his ideas were extraordinarily innovative,” says Joel Klein, Molina Curator for the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences at The Huntington. The Babson collection has been on loan since 2006 at The Huntington, renowned for its special collections library devoted to preserving historical documents. Now, The Huntington is working with an international team of conservators and computer scientists to digitize Newton’s manuscripts, develop a computer vision method for watermark recognition, and use those watermarks to provide more accurate dates for the manuscripts. The ambitious project—which will bring chronological organization to Newton’s wide-ranging intellectual prowess—also will allow anyone to access images of Newton’s manuscripts at The Huntington Digital Library, and scholars will ideally have a new tool for understanding watermarks. But what does a long-dead scientist, fluent in Latin, have to do with modern entrepreneurship? In Newton, Roger Babson perhaps saw a glimmer of himself. Newton embodied the best ideals of a Babson education: creative thinking, entrepreneurship, innovation. In fact, Roger Babson was one of the few

PHOTOS: THE HUNTINGTON LIBRARY; BABSON COLLEGE’S GRACE K. BABSON COLLECTION OF THE WORKS OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON

WINTER 2021–2022 / BABSON MAGAZINE

financiers who predicted the stock market crash in 1929, foresight that he attributed to his appreciation for Newton’s Third Law: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and “what goes up must come down.” Pretty impressive for Babson to be inspired three centuries later by a scientist born in 1643.

Collection for the Ages

The Newton death mask originally owned by Thomas Jefferson

BABSON MAGAZINE / WINTER 2021–2022

The Babsons acquired much of the Newton collection at auction in the mid-1930s, and it showcases Newton’s boundless intellectual range. This is, after all, a man who discovered calculus; proposed new theories of color and light; revolutionized physics; built the first reflecting telescope; and helped to spearhead the Scientific Revolution. Not bad for a shy child born prematurely, small for his age, who reportedly retreated to the worlds of math and science after being taunted by a schoolyard bully. The collection includes many books that were a part of Newton’s library or that he himself annotated, including two first-edition copies of The Principia, his most influential work, which laid out his three laws of motion. Several of Newton’s books are even complete with dog-eared pages. (“He was a notorious dog-earer of pages,” Klein reveals.) Then there’s Opticks, delving into the phenomena of light inflexion; several letters; a posthumously published book on calculus; alchemical notes and emblems; and a plaster death mask originally owned by Thomas Jefferson, made as a model for Newton’s tomb in Westminster Abbey. Newton’s Temple of Solomon manuscript, considered by historians to be his landmark theological work, is also included. It’s a fascinating peek into a restless mind, admirable in sheer magnitude. “It’s just the extraordinary nature of the collection which shows Roger and Grace’s genius,” Klein says. “It’s equally extraordinary that Babson College has this collection, because there’s nothing like it.” Scholars soon will have even greater access to the collection, thanks to The Huntington’s digitization. In the meantime, the materials are painstakingly preserved, says Trustee Emerita Katherine Babson Jr. MBA’77, H’99, who represented the College—along with then-Board Chair Marla M. Capozzi MBA’96 and Trustee Emerita Elizabeth P. Powell MBA’76, P’01, G’25 —on a trip to The Huntington in 2019 ahead of Babson’s Centennial, when part of the collection was temporarily on display on campus. At the library, they

were delighted with the materials’ preservation in temperature-controlled settings, under tight security, tended by a dedicated staff of conservationists. “It made a big difference to us, knowing the care, attention, and importance of the collection to The Huntington,” says Katherine Babson, a distant cousin of Roger Babson who counts Newton’s death mask as her favorite piece of memorabilia. For her, of course, the trip was intensely personal. “Family-wise, it’s quite an exceptional thing that Roger and Grace put this collection together, and so much of Roger’s business theory is based on the theories of Isaac Newton,” she says. “And, to go from a teeny college to this—the largest collection outside of England of Newton material in the world—is remarkable.”

Lessons for the Future At Babson Park, Newton’s legend also loomed large. In 1938, the Babsons bought the fore-parlour from his London abode and placed it within the

new Babson Institute Library. In 1954, the first Newton apple tree sprouted on campus, purchased from the Pennsylvania Historical Commission, a gift from Roger to Grace. Newton’s legacy lives on in the classroom, too. Senior Lecturer Charles Winrich, who teaches astronomy and physics, frequently incorporates Newton into lectures, which help illustrate his Renaissance Man-style versatility. “I’d compare him to Elon Musk,” says Winrich, laughing. “The connection to the Babson curriculum, and to the idea of entrepreneurship in general, is that Newton was very much an entrepreneur who tried a lot of different things and succeeded in a lot of different areas. So often we get into our little academic silos and just think about certain things. He had a lot of interests and ideas but also a very systematic approach, which is the spirit of how we think about entrepreneurship today: finding problems and working on solving them.” James Hoopes, Murata Professor of Ethics in Business, teaches the History of Ethics in Capitalism. Here, he offers his students a dose of Newtonian

PHOTOS: THE HUNTINGTON LIBRARY; BABSON COLLEGE’S GRACE K. BABSON COLLECTION OF THE WORKS OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON

theory. As he explains, Roger Babson was visionary in that he applied Newton’s teachings—written in Latin, etched hundreds of years ago—to the modern stock market while others doubted him. “We have a phrase at Babson: ‘Entrepreneurship of all kinds.’ Roger Babson was an entrepreneur of many kinds, maybe. The point is that students should be open to the world, open to experience, open to the world of thought, and not narrow themselves by thinking that business is just about trend lines,” Hoopes says. “What I’m trying to communicate to the students is that nothing is irrelevant to their studies.” Klein has a similar hope for the Babson community worldwide. “I want more people at Babson to know about their extraordinary heritage,” he says. “If more people find inspiration in Newton, I think it’s a great thing. I hope that legacy continues to live on at Babson and that people continue to find in Newton an inspirational figure for changing the world.”  Kara Baskin is a freelance writer based in Arlington, Massachusetts.

WINTER 2021–2022 / BABSON MAGAZINE

ATHLETICS SPORTS IN BRIEF FIVE SELECTED FOR HALL OF FAME Five former standout student-athletes will be enshrined in the Babson Athletics Hall of Fame next year, the Hall of Fame committee announced. The 18th induction class includes Catie Funk ’13 (softball), Jason Kosow ’04 (baseball), Anita Martignetti Sassi ’08 (women’s lacrosse and soccer), Kevin Sampson ’94, MBA’03 (men’s soccer), and Nicole Wurdeman ’12 (women’s basketball). The new class will be inducted during Back to Babson weekend in fall 2022.

RYAN NOTCHES 200TH CAREER WIN Field hockey head coach Julie Ryan, in her 15th season with the program, recorded the 200th win of her career when then fifth-ranked Babson defeated Wheaton, 7-0, on October 16. Ryan (below, celebrating with the team) is one of 27 active NCAA Division III head coaches with 200 career victories.

MEN’S BASKETBALL VS. HARVARD The Babson men’s basketball team was set to renew its series with Harvard on December 6 for the first time since 1996. The Beavers and the Crimson played six consecutive seasons in the early to mid-1990s. This game marks the 30th anniversary of a 100-80 victory by the 1991-92 team, which advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history.

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF TITLE IX Babson Athletics, along with campus partners, is planning a six-month celebration of women’s athletics beginning in January, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Title IX on June 23, 2022. The department will highlight its 11 women’s varsity programs through education, recognition, storytelling, and fundraising. The Beavers’ first varsity women’s program was basketball in 1974.

SAAC VOLUNTEERS AS SUPERHEROES For the second time in three years, members of the Babson Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) volunteered at the annual Trunk or Treat event at Mitchell Elementary School in Needham, Massachusetts. This year’s theme was Marvel Avengers, and multiple Babson student-athletes looked the part, including two who dressed up as superheroes. FOR MORE SPORTS NEWS, VISIT: babsonathletics.com

BABSON MAGAZINE / WINTER 2021–2022

JULIE RYAN PHOTO: JADE PERRY ’23 / STEPHANIE MISHLER PHOTO: JON ENDOW P’17

MISHLER’S ‘MAGICAL’ MISSION Runner makes a difference for others A two-sport athlete, Stephanie Mishler ’22 knows all about going the distance. The cross country and track & field runner also runs her own nonprofit. Her training and discipline help her stay on course. “In cross country and track, you need to have a strong mindset to get through the daily runs and workouts,” she says. “Over time, that mental muscle has helped me get everything done that I need to. When I feel like I don’t know if I can do something, I always make it through, because I transfer that muscle into everything.” Mishler has flexed her entrepreneurial muscles in her nonprofit organization, Home by Midnight, which combines her passion for beauty and her love for volunteerism. With a name inspired by Cinderella, Home by Midnight’s mission is to give girls with disabilities their “princess moment.” Mishler’s nonprofit provides hair and makeup services for girls attending the national Autism Cares Prom. “The impact on both the attendees and the volunteers is gratifying, heartwarming, and magical,” Mishler says. “For most teenage girls, dressing up with friends to attend prom is a rite of passage. Salons typically don’t know how to cater to girls with autism, so oftentimes they don’t go.” Mishler began changing that as a high school freshman in Newtown, Pennsylvania, in 2015, when she partnered with the Autism Cares Foundation. Working with a team of eight to 10 girls, Mishler’s pop-up salon comes to life every May in the location of the prom, with volunteers putting on makeup, styling hair, greeting girls and parents, and taking pictures. Mishler plans to expand her efforts after graduation this spring. “When I came to Babson, I wanted to turn my nonprofit into a beauty business,” she says, “but the more I learned about entrepreneurship, the more I felt like I needed more experience before doing that.” An Arthur M. Blank Scholar, Mishler also excels in the classroom. She is writing her honors thesis on the beauty industry, and as a two-sport student-athlete, she has earned NEWMAC Academic All-Conference honors three times. Mishler missed out on both the track & field and cross country seasons in 2020 because of the pandemic. She returned this fall to running cross country and will return in the spring to the track, where she has run the 400-, 800-, and 1,500-meter events. For Mishler, though, there is no finish line in making a difference for others. “My mission is to integrate this type of social mission and sustainability into business models of current businesses,” she says. “I would love to either start my own company or work at a L’Oréal or Estée Lauder because they have the biggest impact.”

— Scott Dietz

WINTER 2021–2022 / BABSON MAGAZINE

ADVANCEMENTSPOTLIGHT 22

More than 2,200 alumni returned to the Wellesley campus to celebrate Back to Babson in person once again. Friends and classmates gathered on a picturesque, blue-sky weekend in October for the “Friends”-themed event that even included a Babson-green couch, straight out of the sitcom’s Central Perk café, plopped in front of the Babson World Globe. There was something for everyone as alumni and friends enjoyed class reunions, affinity celebrations, campus tours, athletic events, BBQs, the annual Cruickshank Race for Shelter 5K, and, of course, the Tent—a homecoming tradition.

BABSON MAGAZINE / WINTER 2021–2022

TOP PHOTO: PAIGE BROWN / BOTTOM PHOTO: JUSTIN KNIGHT

WELCOME BACK TO BABSON

PHOTOS: PAIGE BROWN, ALAN EDWARDS, AND JUSTIN KNIGHT

WINTER 2021–2022 / BABSON MAGAZINE

ADVANCEMENTSPOTLIGHT

BABSON MAGAZINE / WINTER 2021–2022

PHOTOS: PAIGE BROWN, ALAN EDWARDS, AND JUSTIN KNIGHT

2021 Volunteer Leadership Awards During Back to Babson weekend, the College honored the alumni and friends who have risen to serve the community at the 2021 Volunteer Leadership Awards celebration. Babson offers heartfelt congratulations to the winners: Cruickshank Alumni Leadership Award

Joseph R. Weintraub Alumni Award for Distinguished Faculty/ Administrator Service

Vivek Jain MBA’83, P’07

Richard J. Snyder Distinguished Service to the College Award

Jim McLaughlin

Elaine Frazer Mann ’91

Adelaide Van Winkle Friend of the College Award

Distinguished Recent Alumni Award

Sandi C. Finn

Mark S. Gagliardi MBA’17 Matthew Thomas Hard ’16

Miami, Florida February 3–5 Join us for the world’s premier entrepreneurship summit featuring: • Educational and cultural forums and presentations • Social events including the best of Miami’s cuisine and entertainment • Keynote speakers and panels discussing emerging trends in family business, global investing, and social enterprise • Unrivaled professional development opportunities to network and connect with the global Babson community

babson.edu/connectworldwide

WINTER 2021–2022 / BABSON MAGAZINE

NEWSNOTESANDNODS 26

UNDERGRADUATE

Gerry McCarthy ’85 has joined CBIZ, the nation’s 10th-largest accounting and tax provider, as a tax managing director working out of the Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, offices. “With more than 35 years of experience, Gerry has a depth of knowledge and specialized expertise in serving multinational companies in a wide range of insurance and asset management market segments that will enhance and expand the services we provide to our business community,” according to a CBIZ press release.

1992

Kelly Konsul ’92 has been appointed to the Columbia-Greene Community College Board of Trustees in Catskill, New York. Konsul, whose term extends to 2027, began her career in education working for Miller Middle School in Lake Katrine, New York. Since 2007, she has served as a school counselor at Catskill Senior High School and has numerous certifications, including Identifying and Reporting Child Abuse and SAVE (Safe Schools Against Violence in Education). “Volunteering in my community has always been important to me, and I am honored to be appointed to the C-GCC Board of Trustees,” Konsul says. “As a school counselor, I work with high school students as they develop their post-high school plans. I believe this perspective will be valuable to the Board of Trustees and the administration of C-GCC. I hope to be able to share my insights with leadership to affect the future growth of the college.”

Jeremy Weiner ’97 and his son, Jacob, spent some time on the tennis court last summer with Babson President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD. He writes: “There is no better way to thank your friend and mentor Steve Spinelli than hooking him up with a private lesson with your son, the 2035 Wimbledon champ.”

this represents an opportunity of a lifetime,” McKenzie says. “I feel honored and humbled to receive such trust and recognition from my peers and am confident that I will continue to move the chamber in the right direction and improve the foundation that has been laid throughout the generations before me.”

2010

Teddy Droseros ’10 founded a nonprofit called Grateful Peoples. “Our focus is simple: Bring a daily gratitude practice to classroom curriculum,” he says. “I designed a Gratitude Journal, and an awesome community has helped donate over 18,000 copies to schools

Wendy Liebowitz ’01 celebrated her 20-year service anniversary at Fidelity Investments. She started at Fidelity as a college intern in 1999 and transitioned to full time after graduation. Liebowitz also has an MBA from the University of Florida and is a certified financial planner. She has been the vice president and branch leader at Fidelity in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, since 2008. Liebowitz is married to Derick Jaindl ’00, the chief financial officer for MobileHelp. across the U.S. and Canada. … I also just finished a five-year ‘public gratitude journal’ project, where I collected over 75,000 anonymous, handwritten grateful messages from strangers around the country and turned it into a coffee-table book!”

2013

Jessica Lynch ’13, MS’13, MBA’18 writes that her startup, Wishroute, a nextgeneration SMS platform that increases user engagement and conversion through motivating human conversations, has been accepted into the highly selective Roux Institute Techstars Accelerator. “The

2007

Cameron McKenzie ’07, MBA’12, founder of the Puerto Rican financial services firm McKenzie & Associates, LLC, has been appointed president-elect of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce. “For me,

BABSON MAGAZINE / WINTER 2021–2022

A group of friends from the Class of 2000 gathered August 21 to celebrate their 20th class reunion, which was delayed because of COVID-19. The group included (from left) Jeff DelPapa ’00, Michael Palumbo ’00, Wendy Liebowitz ’01, Derick Jaindl ’00, Eric Newmark ’00, host Yan Katz ’00, Linda Pizzuti Henry ’00, H’19, and Adam Koncius ’00.

David Oksman ’03 was promoted to vice president of marketing and ecommerce for Samsonite, where he drives a portfolio of brands that includes Samsonite, American Tourister, ebags, Hartmann, and High Sierra. accelerator is working with 10 startups focused on building expertise at the intersection of humans and machines in areas that will revolutionize how we live and work, including AI, life sciences and health, and data and analytics.”

Brad Bero ’14 married Carly Shumrick on September 4, 2021, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He writes, “Fun fact: It was one of those long engagements, where we pushed the wedding an entire year due to COVID!” The group included (from left) the groom’s father, Bret Bero P’14, a lecturer in the Management Division; Amir Ketabi ’14; Sam Byrne ’14; Jhonatan Guerra ’14; Alex Tynell ’14; John Bummara ’14; bride Carly Shumrick; groom Brad Bero ’14; Andrew Darling ’14; Jeff Stout ’14; Dara Behjat ’15; Matthew Brown ’15; and Evan Paskalis.

2016

Alex Min ’16 leads marketing for a fully remote startup that developed a crypto wallet called Liquality. The company

Brianna “Breezy” DiPietro ’13 published her first book, 30: Reflections of Resilience, Growth, and an Age No Longer Feared. Her father was killed by an act of gun violence when he was 30. In this creative memoir, DiPietro recounts her experience growing through that loss, and shares the stories of other trauma survivors and leading gun sense advocates. Though gun sense and her burgeoning volunteer work play a major role in the book, her focus is on shared human experience, good and bad, and the unmatched potential of someone who is supported, no matter what.

recently raised $7 million from notable venture capitalists in the crypto industry, including Hashed, Galaxy Digital, White Star Capital, Accomplice, Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, and more. The funding round received press from Axios, The Block, Blockworks, CoinDesk, Crowdfund Insider, Forbes, TradedVC, and Yahoo! Finance. Sarah-Lizz Myers ’16 had a poem published in the July 2021 issue of Kaleidoscope: Exploring the Experience of Disability through Literature and the Fine Arts. Myers’ poem, “Robotic Pancreas,” appears in Issue 83, “Global Perspectives.” The work was selected from more than 400 submissions considered for publication. Myers is a poet and MFA student at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Nature, mythological themes, and Type 1 diabetes often are the subjects of her work. “Poetry allows me

to help others with Type 1 diabetes and other medical complications know they are not alone in the fight to live,” she says. She also has recently finished her first chapter book, Hanging Flowers.

2017

Teresa Wolf ’17 writes that she recently has been promoted to team lead for product and technology strategy at HubSpot.

2018

Ryan Lupberger ’18, CEO of Cleancult, was honored by World Biz magazine with a Top 100 Innovation CEO Award.

2019

David Zamarin ’19 was recognized by Worcester Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 awards for his role as founder and chief executive officer of DetraPel. The company, based in Framingham, Massachusetts, traditionally has made protective sprays for furniture, clothing, and shoes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, DetraPel pivoted to disinfectant, a move that meant repurposing the manufacturing line and making a significant capital investment in machinery. Zamarin is “truly entrepreneurial. His ability to retool an entire line overnight is the embodiment of the action-oriented approach we teach at Babson,” says Ian Lapp, former undergraduate dean at Babson.

WINTER 2021–2022 / BABSON MAGAZINE

NEWSNOTESANDNODS

Michael Gray ’13 and Bonnie Leung ’13 were married in May. “We lived in the same building freshman year and met on move-in day,” Gray writes. “Twelve years later, we finally tied the knot, with some of our best Babson friends in attendance (and many more on Zoom).”

Wes Woodson ’20 published his first book, I Have Anxiety (So What?), in May and followed with a national speaking tour. He writes, “I Have Anxiety (So What?) empowers readers to own their anxiety and other mental health challenges unapologetically through self-reflection and self-acceptance.” Woodson also was awarded contracts to travel the country speaking on mental health advocacy and teaching the power of storytelling. Follow his journey at weswoodson.com.

Kyle Gietzen ’14 and Rachel (Secrist) Gietzen ’15 were married on July 9, 2021, at Chatham Bars Inn on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. “Thirty Babson alumni were in attendance to celebrate our special day,” they wrote. “This group means everything to us, and we are so thankful for their love and support.”

BABSON MAGAZINE / WINTER 2021–2022

GRADUATE 1985

Mark Ahern MBA’85 joined Wexford Capital as managing director of investor relations. He is based in the firm’s West Palm Beach office and lives in Jupiter, Florida. He writes that his eldest daughter is a sophomore at UMass Boston, another daughter is a freshman in high school, and his son is in seventh grade. “We will continue to spend the summer on Cape Cod,” he writes.

1998

Deborah A. Bitsoli MBA’98 was named to the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA), a nonprofit that works with hospitals and other providers to promote highquality, affordable, accessible care in Massachusetts. Bitsoli has more than 25 years of experience in health care and has spent the past 19 years in leadership roles, including as president of Morton Hospital in Taunton and as CEO and vice president at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester.

Paras Patani MBA’03 was recruited from more than 25,000 applicants for his LEGO teaching expertise to participate in the worldwide TV phenomenon “LEGO Masters,” the Olympics of LEGO. Called “Mr. LEGO” by his students, Patani founded NextGen SmartyPants using LEGO bricks for STEAM education to make learning fun in classes on robotics, coding, and engineering. About 4,000 students across New England have implemented the NextGen SmartyPants curriculum.

Brian Mottola MBA’03 was appointed president of Abbott Medical Japan, a subsidiary of Abbott Laboratories. Abbott Medical Japan is one of the largest medical device companies in Japan, with more than 800 employees focused on improving the quality of life of Japanese patients with cardiovascular disease and chronic pain.

Bradley (BJ) Nichols MBA’04 has taken on the role of leader for EY’s insurance and federal claims services practice. “It’s an honor to lead this incredibly talented team that is helping so many state and local governments, nonprofits, and companies recover financially from COVID-19 and many other disasters here in the U.S. and around the world,” he writes.

2011

Sal Rodas MBA’11 is executive director of the Foundation for Airway Health, a nonprofit that raises awareness about issues related to lung health and their impact on other major medical issues. Rodas also founded, launched, and raised funds for a company, Sleep Architects, that helps healthcare providers learn how to identify and treat patients who suffer from sleep apnea.

2012 Connie Askin MBA’99 was appointed CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Massachusetts and Metrowest. Askin has held senior-level positions in both business and nonprofit organizations, including City Year and Year Up. “The past year and a half has been so challenging for children and families,” she writes. “As a relentless believer in silver linings, I am excited to be part of a team that is actively helping alleviate some of that stress by matching caring adults and children in our communities who will benefit from this kind of actionable optimism.”

2003

Andrew Musingo MBA’03 was named chief integration officer at Coca-Cola Beverages Africa.

Henrique Duarte MBA’12 is a director at Karaíba, a single-family office based in Brazil that has developed an investment strategy focused on search funds, both in Brazil and abroad. Duarte writes that it has participated in the acquisition of two companies, including “the first acquisition by a traditional search fund on the African continent.” Cameron McKenzie ’07, MBA’12: See Undergraduates, 2007.

2013

Jessica Lynch ’13, MS’13, MBA’18: See Undergraduates, 2013. Kaine Lowell Nicholas MBA’13 has been named executive director of the Black Cooperative Investment Fund, which raises money through community donations and

Heidy Frank MS’03 joined the Coral Gables, Florida, office of Morgan Stanley in 2020. She writes that, in her new role, she helps “financially successful individuals and families create, implement, and monitor a personalized plan to help them meet their goals,” setting up future generations for success through a long-term partnership with her clients. She focuses on business owners, entrepreneurs, retirees, and executives.

reinvests the funds in small Black-owned businesses. According to a press release, the fund “was founded in 2016 to address financial issues that have plagued Black communities for several decades.”

2015

Melis Dural MBA’15 is the founder and CEO of EKOS, an AI-driven audio and video platform that allows users to interact, engage, and grow their business networks.

Daniel Sarao MBA’15 writes that he has moved on from his role as vice president of marketing and product management at IdeaPaint, a Babson-founded company, to launch Macaw Digital Marketing, a boutique digital marketing agency that he is actively growing. He also co-founded a real estate investment business and says he is “a pretty well-known real estate investor. I was just featured on a podcast episode with Joe Fairless on ‘The Best Ever Real Estate Investing’ show.”

WINTER 2021–2022 / BABSON MAGAZINE

NEWSNOTESANDNODS

GOT NEWS?

Please submit all updates for News, Notes, and Nods at babson.edu/nods

Neritti Lakshman MBA’20 writes, “Richard O’Brien MBA’20 and I met on the very first day of orientation, as we embarked on the journey of pursuing the two-year, full-time MBA at Babson. Turned out that we happened to live just 10 minutes from each other and have been inseparable throughout our two years at Babson. One year after we graduated in 2020, and after weathering a pandemic together, we decided to get married on June 1, 2021. During our time at Babson, we founded a tech startup together, formed our relationship, and now, we cannot wait to see what the future holds! Thank you, Babson, for bringing us together from entirely different sides of the world.” Michael Budd MBA’03 writes that he and Bonnie Greer Anderson, former Blended Learning manager at Babson Executive Education, “met as colleagues and started dating shortly after she left to run her own company. A year later, we moved in together, and a year after that we got engaged, and a year after that we got married. This September, we celebrate our fifth anniversary.” Jen Sorenson MBA’15 was named vice president at Highwire PR, a modern communications agency specializing in technology, health care, and consumer public relations and digital offerings.

2018

Jessica Lynch ’13, MS’13, MBA’18: See Undergraduates, 2013.

2019

Angela Castillo MBA’19, former chief of staff at Drift, writes that she “recently took the plunge into entrepreneurship” with Pipe Abello and co-founded HelloGuru, “a no-code tool for citizen developers to build internal tools. Companies need custom apps, dashboards, admin panels and other internal tools to run their critical operations. Rather than building from scratch, any employee can use the HelloTool to build powerful tools by dragging and dropping UI elements.” Castillo is COO of the company, and Abello is CEO.

BABSON MAGAZINE / WINTER 2021–2022

Oriana Torres MBA’13 became director of partnerships and sustainability at Aprende Institute, a leading startup in vocational training, in September. “Aprende’s mission is to empower Spanish speakers so that through education and entrepreneurship they can generate higher income and progress economically,” she writes. Aprende Institute is on the 2021 LATAM Edtech 100, HolonIQ’s annual list of most promising edtech startups in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Elizabeth Atwater Pawlicki MBA’19 and Patrick Pawlicki MBA’19 welcomed their daughter, Eve Alexandria, on February 13, to the delight of big brother Julian, 2. Becoming a family of four was just the first milestone change of the year; both Patrick and Elizabeth also recently began new jobs. Patrick is now a senior manager with private equity advisory E78 Partners, and Elizabeth joined the editorial team at Boston Consulting Group.

Jacob Fohtung MBA’19, MSEL’20 recently joined the Clayton Christensen Institute as a research associate, researching how individuals, businesses, governments, and nonprofits “can leverage innovation to create prosperity in emerging markets and under-resourced communities.” The Clayton Christensen Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that seeks to create and drive new market growth through a concept known as “Disruptive Innovation.”

INMEMORIAM

Carlos Espinal MBA’06 is a managing partner at Seedcamp, a European seed-stage venture capital fund headquartered in London. He recently published the second edition of his book on fundraising for startups, Fundraising Field Guide: A Startup Founder’s Handbook for Venture Capital. He also recently was awarded Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II “for services to the British Technology Entrepreneurship Ecosystem.”

Robert Markus, of Westwood, Massachusetts, died on June 20. He taught graduate and undergraduate students at Babson for 11 years and was honored four times with the Undergraduate Professor of the Year Award in 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2003. He also was president and CEO of Ballagh & Thrall Inc., a Philadelphia international trading company, from 1985 to 1992; and group CEO of several specialty chemical firms of Venesta International Ltd., of London.

Bruce Dupree Clemmons ’46, of Pearland, Texas, May 24, 2020 Leo deSanctis ’50, of Everett, Massachusetts, May 11 Robert William McArthur ’50, of Cranford, New Jersey, May 17 Rodman Hazard Leavell ’53, of Dover, New Hampshire, June 2 Robert Herrick Trewhella ’54, of Natick, Massachusetts, May 5 John J. Mazzone ’55, of West Dennis, Massachusetts, Aug. 25 Bruce Floyd Avery ’57, P’89, of Woodstock, New Hampshire, July 31 James J. Cotter MBA’57, of Needham, Massachusetts, Sept. 22 Richard Everett Pierce Jr. ’58, of Williamstown, Massachusetts, Aug. 4 Oreste C. Carbone ’59, of Athol, Massachusetts, Aug. 6 Gordon R. Cole ’59, P’84, of Worcester, Massachusetts, Aug. 5 Edward Kittredge ’59, of New York, New York, Sept. 28 William L. Knight ’59, P’87, of Boca Raton, Florida, July 14 Joseph W. Sweeney ’60, P’86, of South Harwich, Massachusetts, May 31

Hargreaves Heap III ’61, MBA’71, of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, Aug. 28 John Dunston Waddy II ’61, of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, May 25 Richard Carter Hobbs Jr. ’62, of Providence, Rhode Island, July 31 Philip Bickford Rand ’62, MBA’63, of Pompano Beach, Florida, June 18 John Charles Bacon ’63, of North Fort Myers, Florida, June 23 Richard M. Millen ’63, of Natick, Massachusetts, April 30 Edward H. Tate II MBA’64, of Rye, New Hampshire, June 4 Myron S. Schulman ’65, of Poughkeepsie, New York, Sept. 9 Donald J. Halpin MBA’65, of Woburn, Massachusetts, Aug. 4 Stuart Kirkpatrick Eason ’66, P’96, of Wilton, Connecticut, July 30 Donn R. Proven ’66, of Glenview, Illinois, Sept. 11, 2019 Thomas W. Suydam ’66, MBA’68, of Johnstown, New York, May 12 Retired Lt. Col. Armand Eugene Malo MBA’66, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, Aug. 6 Jay Cooke III ’67, of Gloucester, Massachusetts, July 7 Douglas J. Coldwell ’68, of Berlin, Massachusetts, Aug. 1 Lincoln Kempton Richards MBA’68, of Wellesley, Massachusetts, June 15 Peter R. LaJoie ’69, of Melbourne Beach, Florida, May 11 James F. Powers MBA’69, P’85, of Naples, Florida, May 27 Bruce S. Sargeant ’71, of Gloversville, New York, April 28 Dana S. Swanson ’71, of Hampton, New Hampshire, June 2, 2020 Bruce Becker ’73, of Center Valley, Pennsylvania, March 8 Peter R. Kyte ’73, of Wappingers Falls, New York, Sept. 20

William George Rogers ’73, of West Dennis, Massachusetts, July 29 Glenn Edward Kantorski MBA’73, of Southborough, Massachusetts, May 30 James P. McGuire ’74, P’05 ’05, of Weymouth, Massachusetts, June 16 John E. Schroeder MBA’74, of Westwood, Massachusetts, Sept. 14 Solomon Wodajo MBA’74, of Framingham, Massachusetts, April 23 Bryan Curtis Cary ’75, of Darien, Connecticut, May 3 Guido A. Reitano ’75, of North Reading, Massachusetts, June 29 Roy A. Medeiros M’75, of Seekonk, Massachusetts, May 1 Chris John Stavaridis MBA’75, of Venice, California, July 16 Elizabeth Ann Clingan Baird ’78, of Jensen Beach, Florida, June 24 Jefferson Smith Caverly ’78, of Rutland, Vermont, Dec. 4, 2020 Retired Col. Thomas F. Finn Jr. MBA’78, of Wilmington, Massachusetts, July 12 Andrew P. Roth MBA’78, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, July 12 Francis A. Pantuosco ’79, of New Hartford, Connecticut, Sept. 20 James Austin Curtin Jr. MBA’79, of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, July 29 Anthony Paul Cirignano MBA’80, of Wakefield, Massachusetts, July 6 Raymond J. Diette MBA’80, of Guilford, Connecticut, Sept. 10 Andrew G. Dick ’82, of Morristown, New Jersey, June 11 Mark Andrew Robinson ’82, of Plaistow, New Hampshire, April 28 Brian Andrew Reardon MBA’83, of Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 18 Sue Hanks Singleton MBA’83, of Amesbury, Massachusetts, Aug. 10

Heather S. Downing ’84, of Reading, Massachusetts, May 21 Richard Godfrey Jacobus Jr. ’84, of Boston, Massachusetts, Sept. 7 Gregory James Doran MBA’84, of Manchester, Massachusetts, May 11 Charles J. Knox MBA’84, of Brookfield, Massachusetts, May 8 Lawrence J. Conroy Jr. MBA’86, of Needham, Massachusetts, Sept. 17 Julianna H. Coutu MBA’88, of Murietta, California, Dec. 31, 2020 Ellen Solomita ’89, of Charlestown, Massachusetts, Oct. 10 Shawn D. DeAmicis ’92, of Chicago, Illinois, May 26 Mary V. Kurkjian M’93, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, April 30 David Hugh Rennie MBA’94, of Reading, Massachusetts, May 16 Jill M. LeBlanc MBA’95, of Groton, Massachusetts, July 4 Donald G. Gleason MBA’96, of Simsbury, Connecticut, May 17 Audrey M. Nelligan MBA’96, of West Roxbury, Massachusetts, May 17 William E. Wright MBA’96, of Greenville, Rhode Island, Sept. 12 Cheryl A. Purinton ’97, of Danvers, Massachusetts, June 29 Elizabeth Lucien MBA’99, of Melrose, Massachusetts, Feb. 9, 2019 Corey T. Nelson MBA’99, of Western Springs, Illinois, Dec. 20, 2019 John Thomas Magraw MBA’03, of Quincy, Massachusetts, April 30 Dylan Patrick Rogers ’14, of Upton, Massachusetts, June 2 Kerrie L. Dunn, of Framingham, Massachusetts, Aug. 11 Robert E. Johanson, of Wrentham, Massachusetts, Aug. 27 Burke C. Pullman, of Laguna Hills, California, Sept. 10

WINTER 2021–2022 / BABSON MAGAZINE

BEAVERTALES

Dynasties and Legends: WHEN PRO SPORTS TEAMS ROAMED CAMPUS

abson College’s sports history includes more than five NCAA national championship teams. It also includes a parade of pro sports teams and legends such as Bill Russell and Diego Maradona. Most notably, at the height of their dynasty, the Boston Celtics held their preseason camps from 1959 to 1966 at Peavey Gymnasium, now the PepsiCo Enrico Pavilion. Though the Celtics had Hall of Fame coach Red Auerbach and alltime greats such as Russell and Tom Heinsohn, two other players caught the eye of Ohio native Brian Barefoot ’66, H’09, P’01, a junior transfer on campus in fall 1964. A three-sport athlete, Barefoot would go on to serve as Babson’s president from 2001 to 2008. “I followed basketball, and (Larry) Siegfried and (John) Havlicek were from Ohio,” Barefoot says. “I had the opportunity to observe and interact with them. They were all nice guys. You’d sit there, just in awe of these guys.” Former Babson basketball coach Tom Smith watched those Celtics training sessions, applying lessons to his own practices. Likewise, baseball coach Matt Noone has leveraged his longtime assistant position with the Boston Red Sox to introduce his players to a championship work ethic. Longtime men’s soccer coach Jon Anderson ’75, P’04 ’08 ’13 ’13,

BABSON MAGAZINE / WINTER 2021–2022

who won a national championship with the Beavers his senior year, says Babson’s secluded location and quality athletic facilities— especially its manicured grass fields—have attracted high-profile soccer teams, including men’s and women’s national teams from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Ireland, Russia, and the United States; Italian champion Juventus in 2017; and the New England Revolution. Argentina, with the legendary Maradona, set up camp on campus during the 1994 World Cup. Anderson marveled at Maradona’s ball-handling wizardry with his shoes untied. But the mercurial superstar wasn’t in shape. “That was a funny part,” Anderson says. “Maradona came late, and they were trying to get him fit. So, I was driving him to Gold’s Gym.” Bora Milutinović, who coached the 1992 U.S. men’s national team, invited the Babson varsity—coming off a Final Four season—to scrimmage. Erik “Izzy” Isbrandtsen ’94—who was later killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and whose name now graces the practice field— was on that team. “All of a sudden,

A look back at the people, events, and moments that shaped Babson College.

Red Auerbach (left) and Bill Russell brought the Celtics dynasty to Babson for preseason camps.

Isbrandtsen gets the ball at top of the 18 and blows one by Tony Meola into the low corner,” Anderson says. “And, we’re up, 1-0, at halftime.” Though the U.S. squad rallied to win, the Babson players weren’t disappointed. “It was an experience that I’ll never forget,” says goalkeeper Stephen Webber ’92, MBA’05, now a Babson assistant coach. “I get to say I trained with the national team. They didn’t even know my name when they left, but I thought I held my own.” — Brion O’Connor

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

In this time of disruption and change, when the world is more connected and complicated than ever, the need for lifelong education has never been greater. — President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD

If your job was to learn how to learn, would you excel at it? Today’s workforce is changing faster than ever. Babson inspires human potential with curated opportunities for education and growth for every stage of your career. In this era, the abilities to deepen your knowledge, adapt to market changes, and create new value will become your superpowers. Make the commitment to lifelong learning with a community of like-minded individuals and you’ll discover the value you can create for yourself, your organization, and beyond. babson.edu/lifelonglearning

Give the Gift of Scholarship Scholarships are life-changing, giving deserving students the opportunity to focus on what’s most important: learning. By alleviating the financial burden of a higher education, you create a diverse Babson that’s rich in talent and within reach for everyone with an entrepreneurial spirit. Even small donations can add up to make a profound difference in the lives of our students—an investment that lasts season after season.

There’s no time like the present to give the gift of scholarship. Visit babson.edu/givescholarship or contact us at 781-239-4562 to make a gift.

“Receiving this scholarship means the world to me. It means I could break the cycle of poverty in my family while also fulfilling my goals and dreams.” — Yekaterina Vikhrev ’22, Sofi Tucker Foundation Scholarship