Babson College Announces Leadership Team for The Arthur M. Blank School for Entrepreneurial Leadership

WELLESLEY, Mass., Sept. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Babson College, named today the No. 1 undergraduate school for entrepre­neurship for the 24^th consecutive time by U.S. News & World Report, is where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society. Today, Babson announced the appointment of Donna Levin and Scott Taylor as two inaugural leaders of The Arthur M. Blank School for Entrepreneurial Leadership—launched last November with a $50 million gift by Arthur M. Blank '63, H'98 and The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation.

The Blank School embodies Arthur M. Blank's core leadership values and will advance and amplify values-driven entrepreneurial leadership on a global scale. The school creates additional opportunities for the entire Babson community to lead change, solve global problems, and build greater sustainable value across business and society through learning, teaching, research, and engagement in entrepreneurial practice. The Blank School expands the College's view of entrepreneurship to focus on the human condition, building entrepreneurial leaders with empathy, morality, compassion, and drive to produce scalable solutions that can benefit individuals, communities, and the world.

As CEO and endowed faculty chair, respectively, Levin and Taylor will amplify entrepreneurial leadership, solidifying Babson and The Blank School to the forefront of entrepreneurship education.

• Donna Levin, CEO. Co-founder of Care.com, Levin is an accomplished entrepreneur and business leader with a broad and impressive portfolio of academic leadership credentials. She joins Babson from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where she served as the college's first executive director of innovation and entrepreneurship, and also previously served as the vice president of operations for UPromise.
• Scott Taylor, Arthur M. Blank Endowed Chair for Values-Based Leadership. A six-year Babson veteran, Taylor will lead curriculum development, leverage opportunities for experiential learning, and support research in the field of entrepreneurship, social and economic impact, and sustainability. He will convene the leaders of Babson's renowned entrepreneurial centers and institutes to further experiences.

"We are proud to be recognized for our ongoing leadership and energized by the progress we have made in pursuit of our strategy to advance entrepreneurial leadership," said Babson College President Stephen Spinelli Jr. "With the launch of The Blank School, and the appointment of our impressive new leadership team, we are taking action to extend our leadership and empower learners anywhere to create lasting value for themselves, their communities, and the world."

Maintaining its dedication to progression, Babson continues to advance innovation in its curricula and within the Babson College community with a range of new programs:

• Master of Science in Advanced Entrepreneurial Leadership program (MSAEL): Babson's first online master's degree in leadership—the MSAEL program—launched this semester with a cohort students from around the world. The program is designed to cultivate learners' abilities to mobilize and drive growth opportunities at their organizations.
• Entrepreneurial Leadership Village: The heart of Babson's entrepreneurial ecosystem is the Entrepreneurial Leadership Village (ELV), which will bring our community together to create solutions and growth opportunities through collaborative learning. The ELV will launch with virtual components.
• The Arthur M. Blank School of Entrepreneurial Leadership Scholars: Babson welcomes six Blank School Scholars to the Babson community who were selected for their high academic achievement and potential as entrepreneurial leaders, and with funding from the Blank Family Foundation, have been awarded four-year, full-tuition, merit-based scholarships.

The inaugural class of 2020 Blank School Scholars are six students who embody Arthur Blank's leadership qualities and his personal foundational values that have been incorporated within the school: Put People First; Listen and Respond; Include Everyone; Innovate Continuously; Lead by Example; and Give Back to Others.

• Michael Agard of Atlanta, Ga., who opened his own e-company offering designer streetwear, and limited supply sneakers
• Oliver Bustos of Fort Worth, Texas, who encouraged his mother to start her own handbag resale enterprise
• Charlotte Cole of New York, N.Y., who assists her mother in emphasizing the ecological importance of second-hand clothing trade through her new venture Thrift Lab
• Madison Grogan of Fountain Valley, Calif., whose goal is to create a business that analyzes generational trends and predicts how businesses will shift when generations enter and exit the workforce
• Shruti Jain of Richmond, Calif., who plans to utilize entrepreneurship to breakdown socioeconomic barriers
• Kate Lapierre of North Smithfield, R.I., whose passion for socially conscious businesses led her to co-found Twin Skin, an eco-friendly lip balm company

"These unprecedented times have highlighted the need for values-based leaders to reimagine almost every facet of the way we live, learn, shop, travel, and thrive in the world," said Donna Levin. "Babson has always understood that entrepreneurs should be catalysts, leading their communities in positive societal development. Thanks to the Arthur M. Blank Foundation, Babson is well-positioned to grow and amplify values-based leadership around the globe."

About Babson College
Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader of Entrepreneurship of All Kinds^®. The top-ranked college for entrepreneurship education, Babson is a dynamic living and learning laboratory where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society. We prepare the entrepreneurial leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to make a difference in the world, and have an impact on organizations of all sizes and types. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought & Action^® as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value.

SOURCE Babson College

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