COMPANY: Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Boston
TITLE: Chief Information Officer
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in computer science from Santo Domingo Institute of Technonoloy and Boston University, respectively, and graduate studies from New York University (NYU) and Suffolk University

Giving back to her new homeland

Claritza Abreu

“I was 16 years old, one of the top students in his class, and he said I’d make a great engineer. I was going to be the first to graduate from college in my family.”

BY JIM SCHAKENBACH, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: Claritza Abreu is the first Latina to hold a senior technology position with the city of Boston and the commonwealth of Massachusetts. She has assumed numerous leadership roles in her professional career and her private life, dedicating time and energy to the health and well-being of Massachusetts residents as well as to a variety of Latino, women’s, and community causes. Abreu has spent her professional career in various positions within public agencies. She is responsible for a $13 million budget and an IT department with more than 75 staff members and the support of 33 sites across the state, including five large mental health hospitals.

GETTING STARTED IN TECHNOLOGY:
“My math teacher in high school back in the Dominican Republic actually inspired me to go into an engineering career. I was 16 years old, one of the top students in his class, and he said I’d make a great engineer. I was going to be the first to graduate from college in my family, and I’d never even met a woman engineer.”

HER TOUGHEST CHALLENGE:
“Coming here to the U.S. in my 20s, speaking just a little English, was tough. More than just the language, I had to learn the culture and how to get ahead to where I needed to be. As a recent immigrant with a college degree, I just had to work harder.”

MENTOR:
“While I was in college I had an internship in computer science working with a professor of systems and computer engineering at the University of the Andes, Joaquin Oramas. He took the time to encourage students like me to pursue advanced degrees and achieve our goals. He said technology was useless unless it was used to improve people’s lives.”

WHAT ACCOMPLISHMENT SHE IS MOST PROUD OF:
“I helped adapt digital pen technology that the Boston Public Health Commission used to collect data from at-risk families in our Healthy Baby, Healthy Child program. This device made it faster, safer, and more efficient to gather data, reducing time, paperwork and cost while helping mothers provide the data necessary to help their children stay healthy.”

Thoughts on Abreu
Robert Peterson, retired director of application development, Massachusetts Department of Mental Health

“She really cares about people, that’s her main concern. She’s a self-starter and has worked extremely hard. She’s very motivated to help people.
“She has natural leadership ability. It’s hard for her to sit back, she naturally likes to volunteer. She comes from a background of strong values — she would get to work at 7 o’clock in the morning and leave at 8 at night and still have time for her kids. People look up to her.”

COMPANY: Avid Technology Inc., Burlington
TITLE: Chief Operating Officer
EDUCATION: Bachelor of arts degree in government from Dartmouth College

An urge to build things

Kirk Arnold

“Find where you belong. There’s no ‘more is better.’ Your title is not important.”

BY GALEN MOORE, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: Kirk Arnold has worked for startups, and she has worked for giants including IBM Corp. The best jobs, she said, are those that combine the two worlds. “The trick is to try a lot of different things and find out where you’re destined to be. I always felt this urge to build something. Building inside of big companies is its own reward. Building in a startup environment is also rewarding, with a very different profile.”

HER PATH INTO TECH:
“Arnold graduated from Dartmouth College in 1981 and started her career working for Big Blue in Massachusetts, under Mike Daniel when Daniel was helping to lead IBM the mainframe manufacturer to become the systems-integration business it is today. “I was 20 years old or whatever and I said, Why would anyone want to do that? We’re selling all these big, wonderful machines.” But she went along with the program. “I was smart enough to follow brilliant people even into places where I had no idea where I was venturing.”

MOVING INTO THE STARTUP WORLD:
“She left IBM to run sales at an object-oriented database startup called Ontos in 1992. Ontos struggled, and Arnold left for a consulting gig at Computer Sciences Corp. It wasn’t long before she was back in startup land again, after a friend, Malcolm Frank, knocked on her door to recruit her to help start NerveWire, an early-stage IT consulting company. Boosted by the late 1990s Internet bubble, NerveWire scaled quickly, hiring 300 people in a short time. Then, like other companies, it had to cut back after the bubble burst. After that experience, Arnold says she knew what her calling was: transformation. She now works at digital audio and video technologies prover Avid Technology (Nasdaq: AVID). After Avid’s initial success transforming video editing, the company made a series of acquisitions, and became a company focused on several siloed products. Arnold has been working to change that to a more customer-centric focus.

ADVICE FOR YOUNG WOMEN STARTING A TECHNOLOGY CAREER TODAY:
“It is about finding the environment where you feel like you can flourish and prosper. Ultimately the advice I give to all young people, men and women, is to find where you belong. There’s no ‘more is better.’ Your title is not important.”

Thoughts on Arnold
Malcolm Frank, former CEO of NerveWire

“I think Kirk exhibited a lot of strong traits going through that (NerveWire). One of the things you have to do is get the bad news out there. Not only does everyone understand the change we’re going through, but they can help. They can come up with ideas. Candor is a great strength of hers — she was very good from that perspective.”

COMPANY: Avila Therapeutics Inc., Waltham
TITLE: President and CEO
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in biology from Cornell University; Program for Management Development at Harvard Business School.

At the intersection of science and business

Katrine Bosley

“Being flexible and nimble is one of the very few competitive advantages a small company has.”

BY JAMES M. CONNOLLY, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: Katrine Bosley is the president and CEO of Avila Therapeutics, which was recently named as one of the hottest biotech companies in the nation. In December, Avila signed an agreement with French drug maker sanofi-aventis potentially worth over $800 million. That’s in addition to deals worth more than $400 million inked over the past year and a half with other industry leaders. Before becoming Avila’s first CEO in 2009, Bosley was a vice president at Adnexus Therapeutics Inc. where she forged a lucrative partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb that eventually led the pharmaceutical giant to acquire Adnexus for $505 million. Prior to that, Bosley helped Biogen Idec Inc. seal a commercial partnership with Irish pharmaceutical firm, Elan, for its popular multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri.

WHAT BROUGHT HER INTO BIOTECH:
“I’ve been interested in science since I was a kid. For me it was more a question of how I was going to be involved (in science), not whether. I was not so much interested in being in the laboratory as I was in being at the intersection of science and something else, which turned out to be business.”

TOUGHEST CHALLENGES:
“It’s never easy building a small company. It’s tough keeping your options open and making progress. Being flexible and nimble is one of the very few competitive advantages a small company has. But it’s tough keeping an organization comfortable when people want a direction and you want to keep options open.”

BALANCING WORK AND PRIVATE LIFE:
“You have to recognize that being a CEO is a lifestyle choice, it’s not just a job. It can invade your whole life. But if you really enjoy the industry and the people you’re working with, that blending is not such a bad thing. But I think you need to do one or two things that are not work related. One thing that I do — and that I’m not good at — is I’ve been running in marathons for the past few years.”

FAVORITE TECH TOY:
“I’m not a huge gadget person — I have the appropriate array of electronic devices, but my favorite technology is the Post-It note. I like the two-and-a-half inch square Post-Its — anything that doesn’t fit on a note that size is too much. It forces you to filter what you have to pay attention to.”

Thoughts on Bosley
John Edwards, president, Adnexus

What sets her apart: “Katrine is extremely bright. She tries to think things through both strategically and practically. She looks at a company as a whole and is able to pull everything together. I think that’s ultimately what makes her a successful CEO.”
On work ethic: “She’s smart, passionate, caring, diligent, and just a pleasure to work with. She’s one of the hardest workers I know.”

COMPANY: Amgen Inc., Cambridge
TITLE: Executive Director of Research and Site Head
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley; Ph.D. in chemistry from Yale University.

Guiding drugs to market

Margaret Chu-Moyer

“I would describe my style as that of a teacher. I would like to teach them to fish rather than give them the answers.”

BY JAMES CONNOLLY, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: With a background in organic chemistry, Margaret Chu-Moyer spent 16 years with Pfizer Inc. in Groton, Conn., focusing on cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. She progressed from a lab researcher, into a manager/director role, helping to deliver 13 development candidates and bringing several to Phase 2 trials. Joining Amgen two years ago, she was named head of the company’s Cambridge site last year.

HER PATH INTO TECHNOLOGY:
“I grew up in the California culture, worked at Disneyland, that sort of thing when I started to have an interest in science. In high school I had a terrific chemistry teacher (Jeanne Carter) who I’m still in touch with. It was the sort of thing where she showed me that there’s chemistry in everyday life. How does chlorine keep a pool fresh? What are the chemicals in your shampoo bottle. When I started to think about medicine, it was about the chemical compounds. This medicine makes me feel better. What’s that all about? I originally thought about being a pharmacist, but I found that was about counting pills, not how pills work.”

MENTORS:
“I’ve been very lucky in terms of the mentors I’ve had.” She lists Jeanne Carter, Berkeley professor Stephen Rapoport and grad student Paul Feldman, who got her interested in organic chemistry. At Yale she worked with chemist Samuel Danishefsky, who helped her shape her management style through his ability to ask the right questions and guide young researchers through their work. “I would describe my style as that of a teacher. I would like to teach them to fish rather than give them the answers, to ask leading questions that get them to trigger their own ideas.”

HER ROUTE FROM CONNECTICUT TO BOSTON:
“My husband started a job at the Broad Institute. He was commuting by train every day. He never complained, but it was difficult. I got a call from a headhunter for Amgen for a position in Thousand Oaks. I explained that my husband was working in Boston, and it turned out that eventually there was a position in Cambridge.”

WHAT DRIVES HER:
“Being able to solve problems.”

Thoughts on Chu-Moyer
Samuel Danishefsky, a professor at Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute and Columbia University and consultant to Amgen

“She is highly creative, dedicated, accurate and extremely well focused. As one who has watched many generations of graduate students, I’ve seen that it is often the case that very high levels of creativity are compromised by a lack of attention to detail and a lack of concern over the fine points of a problem. What makes Margaret different is that she combines extraordinary creativity with full scholarship and meticulous attention to detail.”

COMPANY: Draper Laboratory Inc., Cambridge
TITLE: Division leader, Embedded Navigation & Sensor Systems
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Lowell; masters degree in electrical engineering from Tufts University.

Driving technology and change

Sharon Donald

“In 25 years I’ve never done the same thing twice. I love that about Draper.”

BY JILL GAMBON, Mass High Tech staff

NOTEWORTHY: Sharon Donald leads a group of some 75 engineers working on advanced navigation and control embedded software, robotics and communications systems for next-generation defense and intelligence programs. In more than 25 years at Draper Labs, Donald has played a key role in some of the company’s highest profile projects, such as the Trident missile system.

GETTING STARTED IN THE TECH:
Donald got a job working for a small electronics company in Lexington in high school and went to work for the firm after graduation. “I did everything — testing, debugging, field service and trade shows. It was a great experience. I was exposed to so much.” Over time, though, she realized the people making the decisions all had college degrees, so she went back to school. “My degree opened up new possibilities.”

IMPACTING DRAPER’S CULTURE:
Donald helps support the Women’s Leadership program at Draper to provide a forum where women can network, share concerns and mentor each other. She leads Draper’s Diversity and Inclusion Initiative to foster appreciation and understanding of different cultures and to help recruit and retain employees from diverse backgrounds.

WHAT SHE LOVES ABOUT HER JOB:
“In 25 years, I’ve never done the same thing twice. I love that about Draper.”

BEST ADVICE SHE EVER RECEIVED:
Early in her career she was worried about something that had gone wrong at work. Her father, also a Draper engineer, made a remark that she’s never forgotten. “He said: ‘The only people who don’t make mistakes are the people who don’t do anything.’ I’ve taken that to heart.” Donald offers similar guidance to others: “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Planning is important but it doesn’t replace experience.”

HOW ENGINEERING HAS CHANGED:
“With improvements in productivity, what an engineer can contribute has increased. Communications are faster, but not necessarily better. You have to be careful not to let electronic communication substitute for personal interaction.”

OUTSIDE THE OFFICE:
Time is spent with her husband and two sons, ages 11 and 17. She says of her children: “They are a joy. They remind you of the wonders of small things.”

Thoughts on Donald
Richard Russell, director of hardware design and development

“She’s a great mentor and a great team leader. She understands what motivates people. She has the unique talent that no matter what team you give her, she gets the most out of everyone. She’s a rare individual in that she’s technically excellent but can also relate to everyone in their own way. I have never seen her fail.”

COMPANY: Seeding Labs, Boston
TITLE: CEO
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Brown University; Ph.D. in molecular biology from Harvard University

Saving the world through science

Nina Dudnik

“I remember I was writing these grandiose essays for school about how this was going to help feed the world.”

BY LYNETTE CORNELL, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: Nina Dudnik leads Seeding Labs in overseeing the transfer of surplus biomedical laboratory equipment from the United States to developing countries. She is also a fellow with PopTech Social Innovation and TED. She is running a company that she says “there is no roadmap for,” and she found that even her mentors came from very different backgrounds, compared with what Seeding Labs is doing.

EARLY INTEREST IN SCIENCE:
“I can’t exactly remember not being interested in science. The first time that I definitely remember was when I was taking a class on the weekends in second grade, doing all these experiments at home, like planting radish seeds and putting them in each corner — north, east, south and west — and then one under a lamp in the basement in the dark and charting how fast each one of them grew.”

SAVING THE WORLD THROUGH SCIENCE:
In junior high, she learned about genetic engineering as part of a class assignment to write a report on a current event and rushed out to the library to read the one book it had on genetic engineering. “For school assignments, it kept popping back up again and I really got excited about this idea of the humanitarian aspects of this. I remember I was writing these very idealistic, grandiose essays for school about how this was going to help feed the world. I was completely fired up on both fronts, and it never went away. That’s what carried me through college and since, really.”

STARTING A BUSINESS:
“I have a phenomenal peer group of other people starting social enterprises and running them, and that helps a lot because any of us has already done or experienced some small part of what the others are going through at any given time. Starting an organization like Seeding Labs, there’s not a real field. We’re building it as we go. I feel like we are always changing the tires while we’re driving down the highway in a semi.”

MUST-HAVE TECHNOLOGY:
“Skype, hands down. It makes our work a lot easier. I can carry on meetings with people there (in Africa) and vice versa. I love it.

WHEN NOT WORKING:
“What I don’t do enough, but really love to do, is dance. I really love to dance. Ballroom, West African, drum-based, I’ve done it all. That’s my ideal. That or endlessly watching episodes of the West Wing. I am obsessed with that show.”

Thoughts on Dudnick
Pat Larrabee, Seeding Labs board member for two years

WHAT DRIVES HER: “Nina is absolutely committed to the mission of Seeding Labs and developing a worldwide scientific community. Nina lives and breathes a ‘science and research are for everyone’ approach to how she views the world and how she feels she can make an impact.”

COMPANY: Oneforty Inc., Cambridge
TITLE: CEO and founder
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in environmental science and public policy, Cornell University. She participated in the TechStars Boston program in 2009.

Driving Twitter in the business world

Laura Fitton

“You absolutely are going to hit walls, but I consider adversity a gift.”

BY JILL GAMBON, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: Back in the early days of Twitter when many people were likening it to the next coming of Citizens Band radio, Fitton was out front in seeing it as a business tool. She co-wrote “Twitter for Dummies” and then relaunched her consultancy to help companies like IBM, Johnson & Johnson and Ford Motor Co. figure out how to use social media. In 2009, she founded oneforty, a directory of Twitter apps and a hub for the Twitter user community. Despite starting up as the economy collapsed, Fitton raised more than $2 million in venture funding. With 76,000 followers (her handle is @Pistachio), she has established herself as a social media presence.

AS AN EARLY ADVOCATE FOR TWITTER:
“I was so ecstatic about Twitter. I sounded crazy, like Cassandra at Troy.”

ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
Fitton started using Twitter when she was working from home and raising two toddlers. Having recently moved to the Boston area from Pennsylvania, she felt her network of local business contacts was limited. “The strongest thing about it is that it helps overcome human isolation. Suddenly, I felt like I had all these colleagues and friends.”

THE STARTUP:
“I assumed going in I was totally incapable of doing this. I tried to get other people to do it. I’m shocked I am still doing it. I assumed I would be replaced by the VCs.”

TWITTER AS A BUSINESS TOOL:
Businesses are looking for tools to help integrate Twitter with enterprise applications to improve communication among employees and with customers and partners, she says. “Huge companies need Twitter inside them.”

ADVICE FOR OTHER ENTREPRENEURS:
“You are absolutely going to hit walls, but I consider adversity a gift,” says Fitton, who suffered a stroke and had two difficult pregnancies before founding oneforty. “You have to get close to an obstacle to see a way around it. Most people see an obstacle from a distance and give up.”

OUTSIDE OF WORK:
She is passionate about ice hockey — not just watching it, but playing it when she can find the time. Snowboarding, surfing and yoga are among her other interests.

Thoughts on Fitton
John Prendergast, oneforty board member and CEO of Blueleaf

“When I think of Laura, the word that comes to mind is ‘serendipity.’ She has a way of manufacturing serendipity like no one else I’ve ever seen. She can create relationships out of thin air. She has a knack for running into the right person at exactly the right time. She has a sense of knowing what other people want or need. It’s intuitive. Successful entrepreneurs are ready to take advantage of opportunity when it presents itself. Laura brings that to the table in spades.”

COMPANY: BioEngineering Group, Salem
TITLE: CEO
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in geology and geophysics, Yale University; masters degree in ecological land planning and design, Conway School of Landscape Design; masters degree in plant and soil science, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

A passion for sustainability

Wendi Goldsmith

“I thought early on that there would be a process of learning, and that the rest would be smooth sailing, but I learned you are never done learning about government contracting, cash flow and financing.”

BY JAMES CONNOLLY, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: When Wendi Goldsmith set out to build a company that provided sustainable landscape and construction designs in 1992, sustainability wasn’t the buzzword it is today. A geologist by training, she noted, “I saw a lot of scientific research being done, but very little was being turned into change on the ground.” Her firm took on a huge engineering project in a set of New Orleans flood control and navigation projects in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

HER PATH TO HER OWN COMPANY:
Coming from a family where entrepreneurship was accepted, she decided to start her own company. “The thought seemed natural enough and nobody intervened to say I shouldn’t start my own company. I always knew that I wanted to grow the business, and in the first year we had a half-dozen employees.”

GETTING BUY IN AT THE START:
“The reception couldn’t be more different than it would be today. We were constantly reminded that we were not the bread and butter of the industry. A lot of people thought we were crazy. The construction industry was often characterized as the bad guys when in fact they can be the very best agents for change in sustainability, restoration and resource management.”

THE LEARNING CURVE:
“When we started I had a very good handle on the science part of it. The pieces that I didn’t know anything about were things like taxes, labor laws, government purchase cycles and cash flow. I didn’t recognize how continuous the challenges would be. I thought early on that there would be a process of learning, and that the rest would be smooth sailing, but I learned that you are never done learning about government contracting, cash flow and financing.”

IN THE COMMUNITY:
She is a member of the National Women’s Business Council, which advises the president and Congress.

WHAT SHE’S MOST PROUD OF:
“The echo effect where people, including people who started out being skeptical or resistant, end up being allied and supporters of the company, and become true advocates for sustainable development practices.”

Thoughts on Goldsmith
Kathy Santoro, BioEngineering HR director

“She has the ability to juggle more balls simultaneously than any human being I have ever met. She is passionately driven to teach the world how to build things more sustainably and do it economically. She’s such a big thinker that while we may do recycling she doesn’t think about things at the recycling level — she thinks global change. She’s undaunted, and one of most optimistic human beings out there.”

COMPANY: Pixability Inc., Cambridge
TITLE: Founder and CEO
EDUCATION: Degree in business administration, University of St. Gallen (Switzerland); law degree, University of Constance (Germany); master’s degree, MIT where she was a Sloan Fellow.

Building an entrepreneurial community

Bettina Hein

“We are talking about a really huge market. Video is becoming ubiquitous. Any website worth its salt will have video.”

BY JILL GAMBON, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: Bettina Hein founded two companies during economic downturns: SVOX AG, a speech software firm based in Zurich that was formed in 2001; and Pixability, a provider of video editing services, in 2008. “I like to joke that I have impeccable timing for a launch: When Bettina starts a new company, sell all your shares.” As it turns out, the tough economy and fundraising environment were a blessing in disguise. “The market magnifies all the faults in your business plan,” forcing a discipline and focus that only strengthens the company in the long run, she said.

ON REFOCUSING A STARTUP:
Pixibility’s original business plan was to help consumers edit and polish their home videos. However, a year later, Hein shifted gears to focus on business customers seeking to add video content to their websites. “You have to have a maniacal focus but at the same time be able to understand the signals from the market, so you can pivot quickly.” Such moves require a balancing act. “You have to have a weird mix of single-mindedness and flexibility. You have to straddle those two things.”

BOSTON’S ENTREPRENEUR COMMUNITY:
Many of her female classmates from St. Gallen went into banking and insurance while she took the less traditional path of entrepreneurship. “At my last company, I was an exotic animal. Here, so many people have chosen that line of work — male and female — I have a lot more peers.” Hein founded She-E-Os, a network of Boston-area women CEOs that meet each month to share information and learn from each other. The group has grown to more than 100 members. “It’s a safe environment to ask questions. It’s all peers, with companies at all stages and industries,” Hein said.

ON PIXABILITY’S FUTURE:
“We are talking about a really huge market. Video is becoming ubiquitous. Any website worth its salt will have video. We want to do for video what Gail Goodman and Constant Contact did for e-mail.” Hein sees video as a cost-effective platform for customer support and a forceful means for businesses to communicate with prospective clients.

EXTRACURRICULAR:
Hein has been to more than 50 countries. She has a passion for hats — for both collecting and wearing them.

Thoughts on Hein
Angel investor Jean Hammond, who invested in Pixability

Keen intelligence, intense drive and a sense of fun are some of the characteristics that make Hein stand out among the entrepreneurs that Hammond has advised. “Bettina is more driven than most. She is driven to exceed her targets. Every month she comes in and tells us how she beat them.”

COMPANY: Putney Inc., Portland, Maine
TITLE: Founder and CEO
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree, East Asian History and Government and Legal Studies, Bowdoin College

New take on generic drugs

Jean Hoffman

“I like doing things that haven’t been done before and figuring out the first time what’s going to change an industry.”

BY MICHELLE LANG, Special to Mass High Tech

NOTEWORTHY: A serial entrepreneur, Jean Hoffman launched Putney in 2006 to fulfill a need for affordable generic pet drugs. In 1990, she founded Newport Strategies Inc., pharmaceutical intelligence firm that was sold to Thomson Reuters in 2004. She then founded consulting firm Q Street Advisors Inc., focused on the global generic industry, and helped found the Small Enterprise Growth Fund, a venture capital firm focused on Maine company investments.

HUMAN-ANIMAL CONNECTION:
“After selling (Newport), I was looking for the right niche market to apply my knowledge of how to pick products that would bring a benefit to customers and be above average in profits. Ninety-four percent of pet products have no FDA-approved generic. It’s a great opportunity to do what has been built on the human side.”

BIGGEST CHALLENGE:
“Recruiting people with experience in human generic drugs to come join a vet company in Portland, Maine.”

GOALS:
“Building Putney to a $100 million-plus animal health company. We were just under $10 million last year. We’re expecting our product approvals later this year. My current goal is making sure that I have more free time — especially to ski.”

WHAT MAKES HER TICK:
“Big intellectual challenges. I like doing things that haven’t been done before and figuring out the first time what’s going to change an industry. I like building a brand that has true value and lasts.”

SUCCESS AND HAPPINESS:
“The key to my success in business and happiness in life is relationships. I have many relationships in the industry from when I first started out in the China trade. Being able to get deals done for Putney is dependent on those relationships. I view myself as being part of various communities — Portland, the island (where she lives), the international pharmaceutical manufacturing community. It’s wonderful to be able to live on a small island in Maine and commute by boat to work, and yet I travel internationally. I hope I can inspire other people to start companies and be able to live in places they love, and yet be part of broader and stimulating communities around the world.”

Thoughts on Hoffman
Jeanne Hulit, New England Regional Administrator, Small Business Administration

“She is one of the smartest people I know. She has taken her experience with not only the pharmaceutical industry, but also her original industry in sourcing drugs in China... and developed an entirely new market.”
“She’s fearless. She works hard and expects the same from her staff. At the same time, she is equally committed to her relationships. She has a fearless energy to manage both sides of her life — personal and career.”

COMPANY: IBM Corp., Cambridge
TITLE: Senior Product Manager
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in business administration with a computer science concentration, University of Connecticut; MBA with a concentration in human factors design from Bentley University.

Turning social media into a product

Suzanne Livingston

“You can design the best system ever, but if people don’t know how to use it and aren’t interested in using it, what’s the point?”

BY RODNEY BROWN, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: Suzanne Livingston knew from an early age that she wanted to be in the business world, inspired by her businessmen grandfather and father and their path from Armenia through Syria to Rhode Island. She discovered a love of technology at an early age and has managed to keep those two interests balanced all the way through her degrees to her current role in charge of social software for IBM. The Cranston native and her husband Michael are expecting twins, their first children, early this summer.

MIXING BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:
“Even as young as elementary school, I had an interest in running small businesses. During junior high is when I can remember beginning my passion in technology. Technology came easy to me — what I learned from computer science classes, I found, were skills I could develop on my own. On the business side, however, I sought more education to build skills to analyze a strategy or to put a business plan together. I tried to focus my education on where I thought my strengths weren’t.”

HER GRANDFATHER AS A BUSINESSMAN:
“He taught my dad some of the fundamentals of what it means to run a business and how to treat your customers and how to really gain respect as a business owner. I feel like I have learned a lot from both of them.”

HUMAN-FOCUSED DESIGN:
“You can design the best system ever, but if people don’t know how to use it and aren’t interested in using it, what’s the point? I learned that the whole human side of this was just as important as what I was doing from the system side.”

ON THE EARLY DAYS OF BUSINESS SOCIAL SOFTWARE:
“In our first year in the market we were spending a lot more time convincing customers of the value than we were being brought in to accounts because we were just so hot. It was, ‘Why do I need this social stuff?’ In the very beginning we were definitely taking a risk. We were the first enterprise social product in the market.”

MENTORS:
“My husband is someone who inspired me to look at and solve bigger problems and to deepen my role in technology. Another was Ronnie Maffa, who is someone I respect and admire greatly. She is able to run the business at a very strategic level yet stay deeply in touch with the details of development all while having a family as well. She has taught me how to spend my time wisely. ”

Thoughts on Livingston
Ronnie Maffa, VP, Lotus, IBM Software Group, and 2009 Woman to Watch

“I have had the opportunity to work closely with Suzanne for nearly six years. The word ‘constructive’ comes to mind when I reflect on all of our interactions. The best part of working with Suzanne is knowing that you can always count on her to do her best and bring the best out of yourself and everyone around her.”

COMPANY: Cerahelix Inc., Orono, Maine
TITLE: CEO
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree, chemistry, College of William and Mary; Ph.D., chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Taking nanotech to the next level

Susan MacKay

“You have to focus on what you truly enjoy, and not be too motivated by whether there are going to be jobs in your field.”

BY JILL GAMBON, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: She is focused on a revolutionary filtration system designed to clean water. Commercializing technology developed at the University of Maine, she spun out Cerahelix from Zeomatrix LLC — which she co-founded with her husband Donald MacKay and UMaine researcher Karl Bishop. Cerahelix is developing a membrane filtration system that combines zeolite with DNA for applications such as purifying water in a biorefinery.

HER PATH INTO TECH:
“I guess it was that I had a very good chemistry professor at William and Mary. I was always interested in science and the environment though. Also, my father and my uncle were both chemists, so I was at least aware of the field.”

WOMEN IN SCIENCE:
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt restricted by being a woman. Because I got my degrees in the 1990s, it probably would have been different than if you had done it earlier. In fact, at Chapel Hill, my program was 50 percent women.”

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT:
“I’m most proud of getting my Ph.D. Most people will say that the research and thinking were the easy parts. You can understand what you are doing but taking it to the finish demanded a lot of different skills. You have to be good in classes, and in the lab, writing it up.”

MENTORS:
“One was my thesis advisor (Richard Linton). I still hear him in my head, advising me about not having too many irons in the fire but not saying no to an opportunity. Also, one of my very first bosses is my business development manager, Jim Burkstrand. He helps me with special skills: how to talk to the right person, and he gives me a lot of practical advice about business.”

ADVICE TO A HIGH SCHOOL GIRL:
“You have to focus on what you truly enjoy, and not be too motivated by whether there are going to be jobs in your field. Technology changes so rapidly that by the time you complete high school and college there may be jobs. And, don’t say no to a career because you are not good at math and science. What they call math at the early stages is really just about skills. No math or science career is based on how fast you can do multiplication tables.”

Thoughts on MacKay
James M. Burkstrand, president of Marketing APA and business development consultant for Cerahelix

“As an analyst, you have to be open to a wide variety of possible solutions to a problem. Susan has been able to do this quite well across multiple facets of her career. She has both created new materials and processing technologies, and has been able to visualize their use in different markets and products. Perhaps a good description of her is a visionary with no preconceived ideas or solutions to problems.”

COMPANY: Intel Massachusetts, Hudson
TITLE: Principal Engineer
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degrees in modern languages and electrical engineering, masters degree in electrical engineering, Ph.D., all from McGill University

Innovating with balance

Nevine Nassif

“If people are to do their best work, you have to give them a chance to be innovative and creative.”

BY RODNEY BROWN, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: Nevine Nassif made her mark at Digital Equipment Corp. working on the world’s first 64-bit server processor, the Alpha chip. But throughout her career at DEC, Compaq and Intel Corp., where she now leads an engineering team, Nassif was able to not only find time for her family, but to do much of the research that led to her many patents — while working part time. The Lebanese-born Canadian-American citizen is the mother of three college-age children.

ON HER DIVERSE HERITAGE:
“I’ve got a weird background. I was born in Lebanon and lived there until I was 12. My parents emigrated to Canada when I was 12 and we became Canadian citizens five years later. I lived in Canada until I moved to Boston when I was 27 and we have been here for 26 years. I’m really a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen. I have relatives in Lebanon. We are planning to visit this summer for the first time. I haven’t been back for 40 years. Hopefully things won’t get crazy. So far it’s looking OK.”

HOW TO BE A PART-TIME WINNER:
“When I started to work in industry I really liked it, so I decided early on that was where I wanted to stay but at the same time that I wanted to be able to be home with the kids when the kids were growing up. So after my first was born I started working part time. For a while when my kids were really small I wanted to quit. My husband was, ‘No you have to keep working. It will be much easier later.’ So I ended up working part time for what ended up being 15 years. During that time I did much of the work that led to my patents. I could do a lot of work on my own time, late at night when the kids were asleep. So it was a very flexible time of my life, and part of it was working at Digital that allowed that flexibility but it carried over into Compaq and then into Intel.”

HER LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY:
“I like to understand technically what’s happening and I like to allow people a certain amount of freedom, but we still have to realize that we have to get something done. If people are to do their best work you have to give them a chance to be innovative and creative. You have to allow them to bring their heart into the work.”

Thoughts on Nassif
Ellen Piccioli, senior engineering manager, Intel Corp., and 2008 Women to Watch honoree

“Nevine is not just an outstanding engineer, she is an amazing person to work with. When Nevine took over chip integration on a huge microprocessor design, she was asked to do this even though she worked in a different area of microprocessor design. She was handed this huge responsibility given her exemplary contributions in whatever areas she worked in.”

COMPANY: iCreate to Educate LLC, Boston
TITLE: Managing Co-Founder
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, Tufts University.

Focused on hands-on learning

Melissa Pickering

“I was nervous as all get out because I never started a company before. I love thinking of all the things that need to be done and crafting the day as I need to.”

BY LYNETTE CORNELL, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: Melissa Pickering is the co-founder of iCreate to Educate LLC, a startup that uses stop-action animation to teach STEM topics. While still in college, Pickering and a fellow Tufts student won a Disney contest to design a new element for the theme park, even though Pickering had never been to Disney before. Later, she became an intern at Disney, and eventually was hired as an engineer upon graduation. She is currently participating in the Kauffman Foundation’s Education Ventures Program in Kansas City.

EARLY YEARS:
“I really loved math and science growing up and then gravitated toward engineering because I liked building things, tinkering and doing things with my hands. My dad was a mechanical engineer and he did a good job of always explaining how things worked.”

MENTORSHIP:
“I absolutely loved any type of hands-on project that we had in school and my dad had a workshop so I always went above and beyond with every project, definitely the overachieving student. I did that because my family was very much hands on, and that’s part of what drove me into this field. We need more of that hands-on, problem-solving, inquiry-based learning (in the classroom).”

SOURCE OF INSPIRATION:
“I got involved with the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach at Tufts, and I got paid to play with Legos and kids. That sealed my understanding that we need these types of problem-solving activities in the classroom. It actually helped me stay in engineering.”

ON WOMEN IN A TECHNICAL FIELD:
“Obviously, when you start out as an intern or out of college, you have to prove yourself, but I felt like there was even a bigger gap of having to prove that I was capable of thinking in an engineering mindset. It is a bit intimidating when you’re 21 and sitting in a room full of 50-year-old males. I wouldn’t say it’s a particularly supportive environment to be in.”

STARTING A COMPANY:
“I love the process of the last six months. Spinning iCreate out from Tufts, I was nervous as all get out because I never started a company before. I love thinking of all the things that need to be done and crafting the day as I need to.”

Thoughts on Pickering
Brian Gravel, co-founder at iCreate to Educate

What makes her successful: “Melissa is intensely focused and incredibly savvy. Her penchant for innovation comes from this unique ability to recognize opportunity and truly take advantage of it.”
What drives her: “The substance of our work, changing the ways that teachers and students engage with STEM concepts, deeply motivates Melissa, as she’s aware of the power of innovative and creative teaching and the importance of supporting teachers’ efforts to achieve that goal.”

COMPANY: Graphene Laboratories Inc., Reading
TITLE: Founder
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree and master’s degree, both in physics and applied mathematics, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology; Ph.D., physical chemistry, University of Southern California

Breaking new ground with materials

Elena Polyakova

“I always wanted to be a businesswoman but I wanted to be involved in science.”

BY RODNEY BROWN, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: From her roots in Soviet Russia to her status as a teenage national chess champion, Elena Polyakova understands that when opportunity presents itself, you go after it. As a researcher on graphene, one of the most promising cutting-edge materials to be discovered in some time, Polyakova saw early on the opportunity to be a supplier of the material to researchers around the globe. So she and her colleagues from Columbia University founded Graphene Laboratories Inc. to do just that. After barely two years in business, the company is doing so well that Polyakova’s scientist husband can leave his research position and join her to handle R&D.

HOW SHE CAME TO BOSTON:
“Actually, it’s just my husband got a job in Boston. He is also a scientist and he just resigned from his current position and he will join me as vice president of research and development. We have been working together on this project on nights. My husband and I have worked together on seven or eight papers, so all those issues (of a family working together) have been solved a long time ago.”

HER PATH TO TECHNOLOGY:
“It’s kind of funny because when I was a teenager I played chess and I won championships for Russian school teams. I landed in a school for advanced mathematics and physics because of my involvement in the chess team. After that I went to the best Russian university and never left science. I always wanted to do some kind of experimental work. I have also always been interested in business — I always wanted to be a businesswoman but I wanted to be involved in science. I started Graphene Laboratories seven days after I got green card approved.

ON WOMEN IN MATERIALS SCIENCES:
“It is dominated by men. When I went to undergraduate school in Russsia, it was the first ranked technical university in the Soviet Union and it was 97 percent boys, and I was usually the only girl in my group. I long ago accepted that I was in a male dominated world and to prove yourself, you have to just work twice as hard.”

ON BEING A MENTOR:
“I think right now I have a long way to go, I have a lot to prove. Maybe in five years when I have more experience.”

Thoughts on Polyakova
Karlheinz Strobl, vice president of business development at graphene producer CVD Equipment Corp.

“Elena is very energetic and passionate about her business, and this energy helps her to overcome hurdles and to succeed in business where many failed before. She is one of the few who have figured out a way to make money with a nano-material business.”

COMPANY: TechStars Boston, Project 11 Ventures, Cambridge
TITLE: Managing Director
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in biology from Oberlin College; MBA from Yale University

A voice of innovation

Katie Rae

“Found a company early in your career. Don’t wait to do that, because you’re going to make all the mistakes anyway.”

BY GALEN MOORE, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: Katie Rae started getting things started in New England while she was in business school, in the mid-1990s, working on a startup called Lifestreams. Later, she worked on the web portal AltaVista at the CMGI incubator. It’s a far different world now at TechStars Boston, where Rae is the brand-new managing director at the accelerator program, as it kicks off its third year of operations in Cambridge.

ON BOSTON:
“What’s encouraging about Boston right now is the return of optimism in early-stage startups. I’m not talking about blind optimism. I’m talking about kind of the belief that it can be done. Boston has deep roots in that, but sometimes we lose our way a little bit on that topic, and it’s those communities that embrace that and have the talent pool. You have to have both of those. Boston has all of that going, and I think the optimism is building.”

HER PATH:
Rae has been a product manager at Microsoft’s NERD Center, and at Eons Inc. In both environments, she worked with Reed Sturtevant, another serial startup veteran. Now, she and Sturtevant are the founding partners of Project 11, an early-stage micro-VC fund that has made a handful of investments in early-stage companies since its founding last year. She is also a lecturer at MIT.

LOOKING AHEAD:
Rae said she hopes to increase the diversity of programs like TechStars, and the best way to do that is to get more women involved in technology startups. That’s done, she said, by increasing women’s activity and visibility in the startup community, through organizations of women’s business leaders, like the She-E-O’s. “What I can do is to reach out to all the communities and drum up interest there.”

ADVICE:
Rae’s advice for young women starting out in high-tech careers is not to shy away from science. Study technology, she said, to “understand the differentiator” in a startup product or service. More importantly, get started early on, starting companies. “Found a company early in your career. Don’t wait to do that, because you’re going to make all the mistakes anyway. Make them early on when you don’t have career and family responsibilities. All the guys have caught onto this.”

Thoughts on Rae
Reed Sturtevant, founder partner of project 11

On her ability: Keen intelligence, intense drive and a sense of fun are some of the characteristics that make Hein stand out among the entrepreneurs that Hammond has advised. “Bettina is more driven than most. She is driven to exceed her targets. Every month she comes in and tells us how she beat them.”
On her style: “She pays a ton of attention to what’s going on on the emotional side with the customer, and thinking about that in terms of engagement.”

COMPANY: Nexamp Inc., North Andover
TITLE: Senior project manager
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in anthropology, Harvard College; master’s degree in environmental policy, MIT

Shaping cleantech policies

Lori Ribeiro

“Now you can look at growth of clean energy in Massachusetts, and see that it’s really taking off in part because of the lessons learned on that project.”

BY KYLE ALSPACH, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: Lori Ribeiro developed the Brockton Brightfields, a 468-kw solar array mounted on a former brownfields site in the city of Brockton, which was the first project of its kind in the Northeast. She is credited with helping to remove major barriers for public solar projects in Massachusetts. Since December 2009, she has served as senior project manager at Nexamp. She is overseeing the largest public solar contract in New England’s history — 4.1 megawatts of solar capacity installed at a dozen water and wastewater treatment plants in Massachusetts. The last of the projects will finish in August.

THE BROCKTON CHALLENGES:
“Number one was that Massachusetts had a lot of arcane policy details that did not enable a project like that to move forward — we had to get two home-rule petitions through the state legislature. The second barrier was financing — the city needed financial support, and there were no existing grant programs or incentive programs at that time that enabled such a project. We had to string together 10 to 12 grants over the course of six years. The third challenge was just that because there were so many challenges, we had to have a lot of players involved.”

BREAKING GROUND FOR STATE:
“When the project was finished, I went to do a master’s at MIT within environmental policy, focused on renewable energy. For case studies I used Brockton’s project and other community clean energy projects. I wrote a policy memo that identified what the different barriers were for communities to do clean energy projects, and offered some solutions. Most of those solutions ended up being passed within the Green Communities Act, and so most of the policy barriers faced by the Brockton project got resolved within the act. Now you can look at growth of clean energy in Massachusetts, and see that it’s really taking off in part because of the lessons learned on that project, and in part because of the incentives opened up by Governor Patrick.”

CHANGES SHE SPARKED:
“Probably most significant ones were giving communities legal authority to finance and operate and maintain a clean energy facility, because that was not clear. One of the really frustrating things was that the projects were incentivized mostly through tax incentives, and municipalities are not taxable entities. Now there is the ability to a private third-party to develop the projects for a municipality and take the tax incentives.”

Thoughts on Ribeiro
Jack Yunits, former mayor of Brockton

“Lori has what I see as a very rare combination of sheer brilliance and common-sense persistence. It took us six years to do the Brightfields project ... She worked harder and has more integrity than anybody I’ve ever met in that field. (The Brightfields) never would’ve happened without her.”

COMPANY: CloudSwitch Inc., Burlington
TITLE: Founder and vice president of products
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University; MBA from Harvard Business School

The accidental entrepreneur

Ellen Rubin

“I just really enjoyed hanging out with the engineers and the creative process of starting something from scratch.”

BY JIM SCHAKENBACH, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: As founder of cloud computing software developer CloudSwitch Inc., Ellen Rubin has been responsible for the conception and development of a software appliance that enables enterprises to run their applications in a cloud computing environment. Rubin started her technology career in Israel where she worked for a multi-media company before starting her own real-time online shopping personalization software company, Manna, and moving it to Boston. Rubin served as vice president of marketing for Netezza Corp. in Marlborough and Wheelhouse of Palto Alto, Calif., before founding CloudSwitch and securing a first round of financing in 2009.

PATH INTO TECH:
“I’m an accidental entrepreneur. I actually have a liberal arts background and I found myself somewhat unexpectedly in the tech world. After business school I ended up moving to Tel Aviv for three years, working in an Israeli firm. I ended up starting my own company with some of the Israeli engineers. I just really enjoyed hanging out with the engineers, and the creative process of starting something from scratch.”

STARTUP CHALLENGE:
“Not knowing what you don’t know. For example, the Israeli company was a bunch of people who had never run a company before — it was just diving in and figuring it out on the spot. I guess sometimes that’s the best way to do it. If you thought about all the things that could go wrong, you probably wouldn’t do it.”

MENTORS:
“There are many, but the most constant mentor in my life is my former boss and the founder of Netezza, Jit Saxena. He’s still a mentor now — he’s on the board at CloudSwitch.”

WHAT GETS HER UP:
“I have two daughters, who are wonderful. They’re 14 and 11 and at an interesting stage so they keep me quite busy.”

A FAVORITE TOY:
“I’m addicted to my Blackberry. To tell you the truth, the thing I like to do most is just read a real book. I love to turn off technology and do something old-fashioned.”

MOST PROUD OF:
“I’m really pleased with being able to create a lifestyle where I can mix the personal things I like to do — my commitment to family and community — and be creative, have the entrepreneurial experience.”

Thoughts on Rubin
John McEleney, CEO, Cloudswitch

“She has a very sharp mind, she’s a quick study. She can look at the landscape of a problem and quickly get to the core issues, which enables us to spend time digging into the important areas of a problem and make good decisions. She’s unbelievably tenacious. When she sets her mind to something, she’s an absolute bulldog. When I go buy my next car, I think I’ll have her go with me to negotiate the deal.”

COMPANY: EMD Serono Inc., Rockland
TITLE: Global head of oncology-immunotherapy
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree, biology, and Ph.D., molecular biology, City University of New York

Offering a new view on cancer

Helen Sabzevari

“Instead of going with chemotherapy or targeted therapies that are very harsh on your system, you could use your immune system to battle and create equilibrium for the time being.”

BY KYLE ALSPACH, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: From 1999 to 2008, Helen Sabzevari’s team at the National Institutes of Health focused on cancer vaccines, recognizing shortcomings in clinical setting and adjusting trial designs. The NIH’s pox viral-based vaccines have been successful in Phase 2 trials and are moving into Phase 3 trials. In 2008, she received the National Cancer Institute’s Merit Award for Major Contributions to the Field of Cancer Immunotherapy. Sabzevari joined EMD Serono in 2008, where she is working to bring cancer vaccines to market.

A DIFFERENT FOCUS FOR CANCER CARE:
“Basically all of my research work from the Ph.D. to now has been in the field of immunotherapy, trying to understand how you can use your own immune system to recognize the cancer as sort of an internal enemy. Instead of going with chemotherapy or targeted therapies that are very harsh on your system, you could use your immune system to battle and create equilibrium for the time being, and turn cancer into a chronic disease similar to diabetes or HIV, as opposed to a lethal disease.”

A KEY REALIZATION:
“Throughout my education, one thing that I realized was that the majority of people in the field of cancer were cell biologists, who always looked from the perspective of the tumor. And a lot of people in the field of immunology only understand the perspective of what an immune system does at the very basic level. What we should be looking at is the whole system and how the tumor interacts with the body, the whole immunological system. This is what’s been missing — we need to have good understanding on both sides of the science. I basically decided to try to bridge these two.”

HER WORK AT NIH:
“We were able to design clinical trials that led to the understanding of how the cancer vaccines should be positioned with the standard of care, radiation, chemotherapy or other targeted therapies. We also changed the paradigm for these cancer vaccines. Up to this point, chemo and targeted therapies basically allowed you to reduce the size of the tumor in the patient. For the first time we were able to show that the end points should be different — they should be overall survival, and not necessarily the reduction in the tumors. We have not cured the tumor, but have stabilized it to the point where there is equilibrium between the immune system and the tumor cell. Patients can survive much longer with these treatments.”

Thoughts on Sabzevari
Roshanak Semnani, staff scientist at NIH

“She was an absolute pleasure to work with. She is a great role model for a lot of women, including myself. She was extremely enthusiastic and excited about science — her enthusiasm about science was just very, very encouraging.”

COMPANY: Bluefin Robotics Corp., Quincy
TITLE: System Engineer
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree, electrical and computer engineering, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Grasping a leadership role in robotics

Mikell Taylor

“What I really learned through FIRST was just asking for more stuff to do can be a dangerous thing, but then it makes people notice you and then you get responsibilities, so I think that served me pretty well.”

BY MICHELLE LANG, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: A leader in the robotics industry at just 26 years old, Mikell Taylor is the lead engineer for Bluefin Robotics’ Bluefin-9 and Bluefin-12 vehicles, and she’s serving her third year as volunteer president of the Boston FIRST Regional Competition. Taylor also blogs and writes for IEEE Spectrum robotics blog, IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine and the Robotics Business Review.

DESTINED FOR ENGINEERING:
“My parents decided I was going to be an astronaut before I was born. I knew that if you wanted to be an astronaut, you had to be an engineer.”

PIONEERING PARENTS:
“Both my parents were in the Air Force. My mom was a career officer and spent 22 years as a navigator, and so she was kind of my role model for working in a male-dominated environment.”

FIRST ROBOTICS INFLUENCE:
“My junior year of high school we started a (FIRST) robotics team. It really gave me insight into what an engineer actually does and it also solidified, yes, robotics, this is what I want.”

ACADEMIC DAREDEVIL:
“I don’t think I ever had to make the decision to go to Olin; I had to make the decision not to go to MIT. That had been my plan for so long. (Olin) changed my mindset about business and entrepreneurship, and I think a lot of that was osmosed into us because we were basically starting a new business.”

ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE:
“What I really learned through FIRST was just asking for more stuff to do can be a dangerous thing, but then it makes people notice you and then you get responsibilities, so I think that served me pretty well.”

CREDIT TO ENGINEERS:
“One thing that doesn’t come across to people is how creative engineering is. You’re literally creating something that did not already exist. You’re having to conceptualize and think of things that nobody else has done before.”

GOALS:
“I always have a plan. I would like to start a commercial robotics company. I like the idea of working on consumer robots that are in people’s lives every day. The plan after that is to be fantastically rich, retire, then start a coffee shop that’s sci-fi themed.

Thoughts on Taylor
Sherra Kerns, professor of engineering, and founding vice president, Olin College

“She knows what she’s going to do and why she’s going to do it, and she makes very good choices.”
“FIRST is a really good showcase for who she is today. She entered in an ancillary role and then she became president of the Boston Regional. That’s the kind of thing that people don’t ascend to very quickly. She’s genetically a leader.“

COMPANY: Comcast Corp., Lawrence
TITLE: Vice President of Engineering and Technical Operations
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in communications and public relations from Boston University

Finding excitement in engineering

Sue Wante

“I have to work hard to stay connected to the frontline teams. But I really enjoy getting out of the office and spending time in the field.”

BY JIM SCHAKENBACH, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: After joining Comcast 15 years ago, Sue Wante has risen through the ranks to become vice president of engineering and technical operations for the Greater Boston region, leading a team of 2,300 field, plant and engineering technicians. She has been involved in various aspects of the engineering and technical operations side of Comcast’s business. Prior to that, Wante had served as a strategic account consultant for MCI in Rochester, N.Y,, and Teleport Communications Group. Most recently she was Comcast’s North Area Vice President, Greater Boston region and responsible for end-to-end operations in more than 200 communities.

HER PATH INTO TECH:
“I started in telecom right when I first got out of college, designing networks for customers. I joined Comcast 15 years ago to take advantage of the technological explosion the company was about to go through. I’ve stayed on the technology and engineering side because every day is always different and exciting.”

TOUGHEST CAREER CHALLENGE:
“Staying truly connected to the workforce on the frontline. As I’ve grown through the organization and now have various levels reporting to me, I have to work hard to stay connected to the frontline teams. But I really enjoy getting out of the office and spending time in the field.”

GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY:
“I’m very involved with our local Lions Club and a number of their fundraising initiatives within the Salem, N.H., community. I feel fortunate to work for a company that dedicates one full day to community involvement through our Comcast Cares Day. Not just employees, but family and friends become involved in a day of service. It’s fantastic to have my children involved in that as well.”

SOMETHING THAT PEOPLE MIGHT NOT KNOW:
“I attended Boston University on a full athletic scholarship for field hockey and played in an NCAA Division One championship. I’m also in the Methuen High School Athletic Hall of Fame.”

Thoughts on Wante
Paul D’Arcangelo, senior vice president of customer operations for Comcast

On motivation: “She works all the disciplines so she can make sure the end result is the very best. She connects all the dots and knows all the touch points, so even if she doesn’t own those areas of responsibility on a project she makes sure she’s involved.”
On work ethic: “She is tireless — we get tired watching her. She has an incredible bandwidth of energy, there’s never really any downtime for Sue.”
On her personal side: “Sue’s an avid angler. She roams the coast of New Hampshire chasing striped bass with her kids and she’s really good at it.”

COMPANY: PureTech Ventures, Boston
TITLE: Founder and Managing Partner
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree, Northeastern University, College of Business Administration

Finding the biotech breakthroughs

Daphne Zohar

“A lot of life science discoveries that could have an impact on human health never get developed because they are stuck in the translational valley of death. I’m drawn to the challenge of bridging that valley of death.”

BY JILL GAMBON, Mass High Tech Staff

NOTEWORTHY: Daphne Zohar is founder and managing partner of PureTech Ventures, a firm that works to identify promising scientific discoveries in academic labs and then builds companies to advance those discoveries to commercialization. The company focuses on early-stage investments in novel therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics and research technologies targeting such health issues as obesity, hair loss and Alzheimer’s disease. PureTech has founded 15 companies. She was a driving force behind the creation of Enlight Biosciences, a Boston firm backed by big pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer, Merck & Co. and Eli Lily. Zohar is on the board of several PureTech-backed startups. She was the founding CEO of Libra Biosciences and Mandara BioSciences LLC.

HER ATTRACTION TO BIOTECH ENTREPRENEURSHIP:
“I find the creative process very exciting, the idea of creating something out of nothing. A lot of life science discoveries that could have an impact on human health never get developed because they are stuck in a translational valley of death. I’m drawn to the challenge of bridging that valley of death.”

ON BUILDING TOP-NOTCH TEAMS:
“We go through a process to identify the top people and build relationships with them. We look for people who are experts and who are passionate about what they do. We evaluate 800 academic projects each year, with a goal of starting two companies each year.”

MENTORS:
Zohar cites colleagues at PureTech as key mentors over the years, including Robert Langer, a co-founder and senior partner; John Zabriskie, a co-founder and senior partner; and Bennett Shapiro, senior partner and chairman of the board.

ADVICE TO BIOTECH ENTREPRENEURS:
“Think big. Solve important problems. Stay away from anything that’s ‘me too.’ Do something novel, something unique.”

EXTRACURRICULAR INTERESTS:
Zohar enjoys spending time with friends and family and she has an interest in Eastern philosophy. She is on the Technology Development Fund Advisory Board at Children’s Hospital Boston and the Tufts University School of Medicine Advisory Committee for Drug Discovery and Development.

Thoughts on Zohar
Raju Kucherlapati of Harvard Medical School and an Enlight Biosciences board member

“Daphne has sincerity and determination. When she founded PureTech, it was a very unique concept. It was a bold move. She was able to bring together an outstanding group of people. She has a fantastic ability to identify talent. She continues to come up with novel ways to build businesses. She is completely unafraid.“