We’ve written about the top schools for entrepreneurship, where Wellesley-based Babson has sat at #1 for 18 consecutive years. We’ve also written about the top entrepreneurial classes taught at University’s across the nation, where the college’s flagship freshman course hooks hundreds of students to further explore entrepreneurial opportunities.
These are no small feats, in particular for a tiny college with not nearly the network, history or capital that a research university like Harvard or MIT enjoys. That’s part of why today we’re happy to tilt our brims in appreciation of Babson’s President Leonard Schlesinger, who was just named the Most Entrepreneurial University President by the National Policy Forum on Minority Entrepreneurship Education.
Here at BostInno we have the pleasure of writing about dozens upon dozens of entrepreneurs at or having graduated from the school (fresh off from $15M in funding Gemvara, for example, with CEO and Babson alum Matt Lauzon pictured with Schlesinger above), as well as lots of other innovative initiatives launched recently by the college – no doubt with a sign off or touch from President Schlesinger:
- $100k business plan competitions
- $60M exits from students who started ventures while at Babson
- An initiative bring Babson’s curriculum to entrepreneurial minded high schoolers (for actual credits)
- A 6,000 foot new Venture Accelerator for students, along with a summer incubator program
- The launch of a social entrepreneurship center, the Lewis Institute
- A new satellite campus in San Francisco
- A new satellite campus in the Innovation District at the MassChallenge building right in downtown Boston
- Heck, he even locked down Biz Stone for the commencement address this May
“I’m flattered and honored to receive this recognition for the great education we provide and my role in helping to make it happen. Babson’s faculty and staff have created an enormously powerful living and learning laboratory that prepares our students with deep functional knowledge and the significant capability to take action in the face of uncertainty—an unusual combination that allows us to proudly say we’re the only school in the world that does what we do,” said Schlesinger.
Schlesinger was named the 12th president of Babson College in November 2007, officially starting on July 1, 2008. He came from Limited Brands, where he served mainly in executive operating roles for almost ten years (most recently as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer). Before then he was EVP and COO at Au Bon Pain, and before tehn a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School.
Congrats to Babson, its faculty, students, entrepreneurs, alum, and most important – President Schlesinger!
