Friday, November 18, 2011

Innovation All-Stars

MHT All-Star: Emily Nagle Green

By James M. Connolly

Age: 54
Title: Chairman
Company: Yankee Group
Education: Bachelor’s degree in linguistics from Georgetown University, 1979; Master of Science in Engineering in computer science (focused on artificial intelligence) from the University of Pennsylvania, 1981
Work/career highlights: VP, marketing at Fibermux; managing director at Forrester Research; CEO at Cambridge Energy Research Associates; board member at Molecular Inc., Maven Networks and AMR Research; President & CEO at Yankee Group.
Currently: Chairman of Yankee Group; Chairman of MITX; board member of Mass Tech Collaborative.

For Emily Nagle Green, technology is all about the possibilities. “Just when someone says networks can’t get any faster, somebody figures it out. I love the inevitability of progress. I love the fact that my latest laptop is my favorite one,” she said. Green stepped down as CEO of Boston research firm Yankee Group a year ago. But, apparently she hasn’t slowed down, and is still looking at possibilities.
 

Her workweek: Keeping the title of chairman, I spend about a quarter of my time working with Yankee Group clients and representing the company on the speaking circuit. Another quarter to half of my time is spent doing board work for the Massachusetts Information Technology Exchange (MITX) and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, depending on what those groups are doing at any given time. The rest I advise startups and mess around with another book idea.

Accomplishments to be proud of: It might have to be a tie. One of the things I’m very proud of is six years ago, seeing the incredible potential of Yankee Group and being confident that mobility was going to emerge as the next tech trend.” I helped to pull off equity firm Alta Communication’s acquisition of Yankee Group — a 41-year-old market research firm that had focused on telecom and IT — and focus it on mobile technologies.

Her work style: People think I’m frequently unrealistic, that things can’t be done that fast for that little. I have heard from a lot of people that I’m approachable. I like to laugh. I like teams. I don’t like drama. I don’t like people who are negative. I get unhappy when people on my team tell me why things won’t work.