Institute for Family Entrepreneurship at Babson College Names Inaugural Advisory Board Members

WELLESLEY, Mass., Feb. 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Institute for Family Entrepreneurship (IFE) at Babson College has established a new Board of Advisors composed of global family entrepreneurship leaders.

Board members include:

• Stephen Martiros '83, MBA'85 is Chair of the Advisory Board for the Babson Institute of Family Entrepreneurship.
• Luis Alberto Atala is the Executive Vice-President of Ficohsa Financial Group, which provides banking, insurance, and pension funds services in Central America.
• Korakot Asvalertson (Nat) is from Bangkok, Thailand. She is a student in the one-year MBA program. Nat is part of a Family Entrepreneurship Peer Forum, and is currently in the Butler Launch Pad program working on importing healthy snacks to Thailand.
• Linda Bourn MBA '11 is Executive Managing Director of Crystal & Company's Family Enterprise Risk Practice.
• Born in Cognac, France in 1971, Cyril Camus is the fifth-generation owner and President of the world's leading independent Cognac House.
• Thiraphong Chansiri is President and CEO, Thai Union Group, effective 1995.
• Thomas F. Gilbane, Jr. is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Gilbane, Inc., a holding company with subsidiaries, Gilbane Building Company of which he is Chairman, James F. Freeman of which he is CEO, and Gilbane Development Company.
• Ingrid Prasatya is a Director and Managing Partner of Entebe Shipping and PT. Energy Samudera Logistics.
• Fazal Ahmed Sheikh joined Fatima Group (a family owned business) in 1988 as a Director after completing a degree in Economics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
• Sylvia Shepard is a Family Firm Institute certified family business advisor, with 15 years of experience in family governance, education and leadership development.
• Elizabeth Reed is an undergraduate senior of the class of 2019 and the undergraduate student representative for the IFE Board of Directors. She represents her family business, Storee Construction, in the IFE Family Amplifier Course.
• William B. Gartner is the Bertarelli Foundation Distinguished Professor of Family Entrepreneurship at Babson College.
• Lauri Union, Executive Director, Institute for Family Entrepreneurship, comes to Babson with extensive experience both in family business leadership and in entrepreneurship through organizational transformation.

During its inaugural meeting, Stephen Martiros '83, MBA '85, Chair of the Board, welcomed the 12-member board and thanked them for supporting IFE's vision to be the world leader in family entrepreneurship. The Institute for Family Entrepreneurship, launched in April 2018, builds upon Babson's nearly 100-year history of educating family entrepreneurs.

Martiros, who has been instrumental in the creation of IFE and its Board of Advisors, said that he believed IFE could benefit immensely from the strategic input from board members. "Our board members have a wealth of experience in business generally and family entrepreneurship specifically.  Our global board, with members from Asia, the Middle East, North and South America, reflects the broad scope of our program. I'm honored to be working with such an esteemed group of professionals," said Martiros.

In addition to business leaders, the Board also include two Babson students, one undergraduate and one graduate.

"One of IFE's core focus areas is to prepare the next generation to create economic, social, and family value through their families' entrepreneurial legacy. That's why it is critical for us to include our students in the board," explained IFE Executive Director Lauri Union.

William Gartner, Bertarelli Foundation Distinguished Professor of Family Entrepreneurship at Babson College, is the faculty representative of the Board.

"Family entrepreneurship is an area of emerging scholarship. I'm excited to see that Babson is taking significant strides on this front. With their direct experience and global perspective, the Board of Advisors will be fabulous partners for the IFE," said Gartner.

The IFE Board of Advisors meets twice per academic year. The next meeting will be in the spring of 2019.

About the Institute for Family Entrepreneurship

The Institute for Family Entrepreneurship is a hub for research, resources, and innovative programming dedicated to entrepreneurial students and their families.

The business, investment, and philanthropic activities of entrepreneurial families are significant drivers of the global economy. Consistent with Babson's leadership in entrepreneurship education, and unlike any other school, Babson's commitment to family entrepreneurs recognizes that families, not just family businesses, drive entrepreneurial behavior. This includes the support of multigenerational family businesses, family foundations, startups and acquisitions supported by families, spousal startups, entrepreneurial family members embarking on separate ventures, and many other value-creating family activities.

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

Related Links

http://www.babson.edu