Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Invites

IN THIS EPISODE:  What are boards and why are they a powerful tool for successful businesses? Mark Hamill joins host Philip Guarino to look at best practices for startups, post-pandemic board trends, and the skills required for top performing boards. Together they discuss the keys to landing board positions, the benefits of virtual board meetings, and the increased demand for board diversity. Whet...

IN THIS EPISODE: In this episode our host, Denise Silber, is joined by Mark Chussil, Founder of Advanced Competitive Strategies Inc., and business wargaming expert. They discuss  the worrisome fact that the vast majority of entrepreneurs still execute on untested strategies, only to discover that the market did not react as predicted.  Mark then shares some of his most impactful experiences with c...

IN THIS EPISODE:  As a business grows, the opportunities - and challenges - are many. Finances, consistent product delivery, leadership and team-building, and pursuing a strategy while remaining nimble are just a few of the many things leaders must keep an eye on. To discuss some of these challenges and best practices for ensuring success during times of growth is Elizabeth Coleon, Chief Marketing...

IN THIS EPISODE:  In this episode our host, Denise Silber, is joined by Shirley Liu, Global Vice-President  at L'Oreal who is passionate about mentoring and psychology. Together, they discuss how building trusting relationships in business is facilitated by mentoring and being mentored and potentially curating a set of mentors. Shirley shares some of her most impactful experiences as a mentor, and...

IN THIS EPISODE: Stress, anxiety, and uncertainty have all become part of daily life. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that we find ways around these negative obstacles. In this episode, Professor Daniela Pittman, positive psychology expert, joins our host, Philip Guarino, to discuss some of the attitudes, practices, and habits we can all adopt to increase our well-being and overall happiness...

IN THIS EPISODE: In this episode our host, Denise Silber, is joined by Diane Primo, CEO of Purpose Brands and Co-Founder of the Primo Center, a not for profit. Together, they take a deep dive into the critical importance of building a business ensuring that a business is built with purpose, the lessons Diane has learned in applying the fundamentals of business analysis to solving homelessness, and...

IN THIS EPISODE: In this episode, Professor David Ricketts joins host Philip Guarino to pull back the curtain on the Smart City movement. Now an Innovation Fellow at Harvard, David Ricketts has provided research and insights for the most innovative cities in the world. David examines the cities at the forefront of the movement, describes the importance of innovating across an entire organization a...

IN THIS EPISODE: Tune in to hear the intimate thoughts of an inspiring and articulate entrepreneur, as he examines a life spent building a multi-billion dollar real estate enterprise and creating social change. In this episode, our host, Denise Silber, takes a deep dive into Quintin E. Primo III's life in business, from his success as a young HBS grad at Citibank to the collapse of his first entre...

In recent years, our world has become increasingly concerned with the social and environmental effects of the global economy. As a result, the Impact Investing industry has begun to spread to all corners of the financial sector. In this episode, our host Philip Guarino, sits down with Carlos Vargas, Professor of Finance at EGADE Business School, to fully unpack the positive and negative implicatio...

Helen Reltgen is a Senior Partner at Egon Zehnder where she leads the Technology & Communications Practice and founded the Global Digital Practice. She is also a core member of the Global Board and CEO Succession practices.  Previously with McKinsey & Company in Paris and Morgan Stanley International in London, Helene has served on the board of AlphaMOS and is engaged in pro bono causes including...

HBS alumna Cveti Yotova has a strong international practice in business development, strategy execution, and change management in many Fortune 500 companies. She has extensive experience having led over 150+ projects in the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. After completing her studies at HBS, she focused her efforts on clients in diverse industries most of which operate, manage, or have valu...

Dr. Lissy Hu is the CEO and Founder of CarePort, where she works with leading health systems, payers, and accountable care organizations to optimize post-acute care outcomes. Dr. Hu brings over 15 years of experience working in the healthcare technology space. In 2012, she founded CarePort to provide care coordination software solutions to manage patient transitions across the continuum. CarePort'...

John Lynch's business career included serving as director of admissions at Harvard Business School, as president of The Lynch Group, a business consulting firm in Manchester, and as CEO of Knoll Inc., an American furniture manufacturer, where he transformed the company from a losing enterprise to a highly profitable one. In 2004, John was elected governor of New Hampshire and served four terms thr...

From founding a hot dog start-up at Melbourne University,  to graduating from Harvard Business School's MBA as a Baker Scholar, Bill Lang's experience has been formed over a 30-year career in working with business owners and leaders across multiple industries and countries, and from his own entrepreneurial journey. By the time Bill had graduated from Harvard Business School, he had co-founded busi...

Richard Steel is an entrepreneur, investor, author and business consultant. He has run private and public companies, served on nonprofit boards and advised the White House Business Council. Richard is an alumnus of Harvard Business School's Owner/President Management program. He is an advisor to large and mid-size companies, governments, startups and nonprofits. Currently, Richard is the CEO of th...

Mark E. Watson III is an entrepreneur who has been investing in innovative companies for over three decades. In 1998, he founded Aquila Capital Partners to back transformational companies. Among his early investments was Argo Group, in the specialty underwriting sector. When Watson became CEO of Argo in 2000, it was a regional, $300 million underwriter nearing insolvency. In 2019, Watson left Argo...

Xiao-Li Meng, Professor of Statistics, and the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Data Science Review. Meng was named the best statistician under the age of 40 by COPSS (Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies) in 2001, and he is the recipient of numerous awards and honors for his more than 150 publications. In 2020, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Meng recei...

"Chuck" Bunch currently serves on the boards of Conoco Philips, PNC Financial Services Group, Marathon Petroleum Corporation and Mondelez International, Inc. The former Executive Chairman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PPG Industries, Inc., Chuck Bunch entered PPG upon receiving his MBA from Harvard Business School and worked with the corporation for more than 35 years, holding positions...

Chairman of Marks and Spencer since 2017, Archie Norman, a leading British businessman, has led transformations of major companies, with results ranging from doubling to multiplying by eight the starting value. Archie has served on several other boards and built management teams who are now in leading positions. The only Footsie 100 Chairman to be elected a Member of Parliament, where he served fo...

Nate Gray is the CEO of Wingnut Digital, a rewards-based gaming company. He is an innovator, investor, and advisor who, as a child of the "gaming boom," developed a lifelong fascination with the ways video games tie together engineering, storytelling, and design—among other disciplines.  Nate's experiences include travelling extensively abroad,  serving as an international instructor in Shanghai,...

Audrey Philippot is the Managing Director of the Saas Division which she created as an intrapreneur at Dimagi, the social enterprise that develops technology solutions to support underserved populations. Previously, Audrey had worked as a strategic consultant at McKinsey & Company, as a strategy team lead with LVMH – the French luxury group – at the World Bank and for non-profits in developing cou...

Tom Davenport is a world-renowned thought leader and author, is the President's Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College, a Fellow of the MIT Center for Digital Business, and an independent senior advisor to Deloitte Analytics. An author and co-author of 20 books and more than 200 articles, he helps organizations to transform their management practices in...

Martha Crawford is the Dean of the Jack Welch College of Business and Technology (Sacred Heart University) in Fairfield, CT. Welch College provides fully integrated  undergraduate and graduate programs in Business, Computer Science, and Engineering. Throughout her career, Crawford has been  laser-focused on promoting sustainable development through concrete actions.  After 20 years in France where...

Federico Marchetti is the founder of Yoox.com and the CEO of Yoox Net-A-Porter. Wired UK called Federico one of the most influential figures in European tech.  Over the past two decades, Federico Marchetti has brought speed and agility to the luxury industry, reinventing the business of fashion through technology. If an online shopper is buying luxury right now, chances are it's coming from YOOX N...

Born in segregated Tulsa, Oklahoma and raised in the South, Henry joined IBM straight out of Harvard Business School, a time when IBM was recruiting "diversity" candidates. Henry spent 12 productive years at IBM and then created his own company.  With a Harvard MBA in fInance and IT, Henry is a speaker, author, professor, business architect, and certified executive coach.  A Lean Six-sigma Master...