Harvard Business School Association of Boston Announces Diane Hessan, Chairman of C Space and CEO of Salient Ventures, as its 2019 Business & Community Leader of the Year
2nd Annual Business & Community Leadership Dinner to be held on October 1, 2019 at the Harvard Club of Boston
BOSTON, Feb. 27, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Harvard Business School Association of Boston (HBSAB), one of the largest alumni clubs of Harvard Business School (HBS), will present Diane Hessan, Chairman of C Space and CEO of Salient Ventures, and HBS MBA Class of 1977, as its Business & Community Leader of the Year on October 1, 2019 at the Harvard Club, Back Bay, Boston, MA.
With great success in 2018, the 2nd Annual Business & Community Leadership Dinner event will bring together more than 250 top business and community leaders along with HBS alumni to celebrate the Business & Community Leader of the Year. The event will also highlight the mission of the club, to connect leaders who make a difference in the world, with more than 8,000 HBS alumni in the Greater Boston community. Lisa Hughes, award-winning WBZ-TV journalist, will return as emcee for the event.
"We are elated to honor Diane as our Business & Community Leader of the Year. Her decades of leadership commitment and contribution to numerous start-up businesses have been instrumental to our community and around the world," said HBSAB President Stephen Pittman.
Diane Hessan was the founder, president and CEO of C Space, formally Communispace, and currently serves as its chairman. She then joined the Startup Institute as CEO to help educate the next generation of entrepreneurs and key hires for new ventures. Currently, Diane leads Salient Ventures as CEO, where she invests in and advises many entrepreneurs and their startup ventures in the Greater Boston ecosystem. In addition, Diane serves on the boards of Eastern Bank, Brightcove (BCOV), Tufts University, Mass Challenge, CoachUp, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Panera (PNRA). She is also Special Advisor to Datapoint Capital, a leading early-stage venture firm. In 2017, the Boston Globe appointed her to its Editorial Board.
"It's hard to find an entrepreneur in Boston who hasn't been helped by Diane Hessan in some way," said Len Schlesinger, Baker Foundation Professor at HBS. "She is tireless in her dedication to helping people in growth companies realize their dreams and she does that everywhere, from her work with Mass Challenge to her meetings with hundreds of entrepreneurs every year, to her regular visits to our HBS classrooms. She is truly a gem of a resource in an already robust entrepreneurial ecosystem."
The event will include several recognitions along with a personal fireside chat between Lisa Hughes and Diane Hessan, during which they will discuss the important role leaders need to take in shaping and impacting our communities.
HBSAB's charter consists of three core pillars, including Leadership, Social Enterprise, and Entrepreneurship. Community Action Partners, under the Social Enterprise pillar, harnesses HBS and Harvard Kennedy School alumni to channel their business expertise to create impact in the nonprofit sector through pro bono consulting. The Entrepreneurship pillar includes the New Venture Competition and StartUp Partners, a platform through which HBS alumni share their industry knowledge and business building experience with local entrepreneurs.
For more information on the 2nd Annual Business & Leadership Dinner, including corporate engagement and sponsorship opportunities, please visit: https://leadership-hbsab.org or contact Christina E. Thirkell at 617-515-3241. For more information on the Harvard Business School Association of Boston, please visit: http://www.hbsab.org.
SOURCE Harvard Business School Association of Boston
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