Jeffrey J. Bussgang is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School (HBS) and Co-Founder and General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm with offices in Boston and New York City. Flybridge manages over $1 billion across six seed funds and nine network funds, with "unicorn" portfolio companies including BitSight, Bowery, Chief, FalconX, Habi, MadeiraMadeira, and MongoDB. Jeff specializes in studying lean startups and addressing strategy and management challenges for founders. At HBS, Jeff teaches MBA courses on entrepreneurship and lean startups, including Launching Technology Ventures, Venture Capital Journey, and Scaling Minority Businesses. He has authored two acclaimed books: *Entering StartUpLand*, a guide for startup joiners, and *Mastering the VC Game*, which offers entrepreneurs an insider’s guide to venture capital and company-building. Both books have been praised by the *Wall Street Journal*, *BusinessWeek*, *TechCrunch*, and *The Financial Times* as essential reading for entrepreneurs. Jeff is deeply involved in his community, serving as board chair and co-founder of Hack.Diversity, a talent development program for Black and Latinx technologists, as well as a board member at the educational non-profit Facing History and Ourselves. He is also the co-founder and board chair of LEADS, an economic and leadership development program for diverse leaders in Gateway Cities. Jeff holds a BA in Computer Science from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Ben has spent his career building communities of leaders and impact-driven companies, and the institutions that support them. He is Founder of Southcoast Impact, a place-based investment venture that is architecting capital for Massachusetts’ South Coast, backing local entrepreneurs and growing shared ownership, prosperity, and stewardship of the region’s natural systems. He is also Managing Director of the Groundwater Institute, a systems-change consultancy focused on getting at the root causes of inequity. Ben serves on the Steering Committee of the Governing for All Business Coalition, which is advancing a policy agenda and business standards to ensure a democracy and economy that work for all people. He chairs the Board of New Bedford Research & Robotics (a STEAM-to-startup incubator) and is a board member of Social Enterprise Greenhouse (a social impact accelerator). Ben previously served as CEO of B Lab US & Canada, where he led the growth of the B Corp movement to over 3,000 Certified B Corporations and over 20,000 benefit corporations in the US and Canada. Earlier in his career, he was COO of Preserve, a sustainable, household product company. Ben also spent a decade founding, directing, and expanding a range of education programs in Boston, including at The Steppingstone Foundation and Citizen Schools. He received his BA from Williams College and an MBA from Babson. Ben lives on a farm in Dartmouth, MA.

Cindy Janower is an active angel investor; as a member of the Launchpad Venture Group, she invests in New England based startups. She also works as a consultant in business strategy and change management with experience in pharma, tech, education, and food service. She worked at The Boston Consulting Group until 2005 and has consulted independently since that time, though with a nearly two-year stint as business owner for ecommerce at Panera Bread. She also has experience in corporate training, worked briefly at a biopharmaceutical startup, and is an active non-profit lay leader with substantial experience in non-profit governance. Though she never practiced law, Cindy holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in English and a B.S.E. with a concentration in Management from the Wharton School. Cindy and her husband, AJ, have three adult daughters and two dogs and live in Needham. Cindy enjoys healthy cooking, fitness, and travel.

Jesse Mermell, President and Founder of deWit Impact Group, is a leading progressive voice with over twenty years of experience fighting for equity and social justice. She has been on the front lines of successful campaigns for equal pay, paid family and medical leave, increases in the minimum wage, and reproductive health care in Massachusetts and nationally. Her extensive background in communications strategy and implementation for progressive causes includes roles such as leading the Alliance for Business Leadership, a Boston-based socially responsible business organization; serving as Communications Director for Governor Deval Patrick; and heading communications and government affairs for Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. Mermell is also the former State Director of the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and has held positions as the Executive Director of FairTest and the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus. For over a decade, she has been featured as a political analyst on NECN and WGBH. In addition to her professional achievements, Mermell is an active community member. In 2020, she was a Democratic candidate for Congress in Massachusetts' 4th Congressional District. She was also elected to the Brookline Board of Selectmen in 2007, serving until 2013. Upon her election, she became the youngest Selectman in Brookline's history and helped create the first female majority on the Board since the town’s founding in 1705.

Mouli Ramani is President and CEO of Aviwell SAS, a biotechnology company headquartered in Toulouse, France, with U.S. operations in Lowell, Massachusetts. Aviwell operates at the intersection of life science and data science, applying advanced AI/ML and more than 30 years of pioneering research in metabolism, the gut-brain axis, and the intestinal microbiome to develop natural, sustainable solutions for animal health and nutrition. The company's mission is to help improve the efficiency and sustainability of global food production while substantially reducing the cost and time required to discover and develop new solutions. Mouli is a technology entrepreneur and executive with more than 30 years of experience building, financing, commercializing, and scaling technology companies. His career has spanned early-stage ventures and Fortune 500 companies across biotechnology, healthcare, telecommunications, consumer electronics, industrial instrumentation, and software. He has served on the executive leadership teams of Lilliputian Systems, Polychromix, Jasmine Networks, and Horsepower Technologies, and previously served as Vice President of Sales and Strategic Marketing for Nortel Networks' $10 billion Optical Networks division. Several of the companies he helped build were subsequently acquired, including Polychromix by Thermo Fisher Scientific. Over his career, Mouli has closed more than $2 billion in commercial contracts worldwide, participated in multiple M&A transactions on both the buy and sell sides, and helped raise more than $260 million in venture financing from leading U.S. and European investors. He has commercialized technologies and products across North America, Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia and holds several software and hardware patents. Mouli holds a degree in Computer Engineering from the Royal Military College of Canada and an MBA from Duke University. He was one of 50 recipients in his year of the Canada Scholarship and was runner-up at the 1992 World Universities Public Speaking Championship. Mouli is also active in the Greater Boston and Lowell communities. He serves on the Board of Dream Big!, a Boston-area nonprofit that helps girls and young women from economically disadvantaged communities participate in sports and physical activities by providing equipment, apparel, and leadership opportunities. He also serves on the Board of the Greater Lowell Community Foundation, a community-based philanthropic organization with approximately $75 million in assets supporting nonprofits, scholarships, and community initiatives throughout Greater Lowell and surrounding communities. In addition, he informally advises entrepreneurs and faculty at UMass Lowell, providing mentorship, strategic advice, and connections to help advance emerging ventures. An active kayaker, skier, and runner, Mouli recently completed his seventh marathon, the New York City Marathon, and is training for the 2027 Boston Marathon. He enjoys travel, physics, and science fiction and lives in Andover, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children.

Julieann M. Thurlow is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Reading Cooperative Bank, where she is responsible for the strategic leadership and stewardship of the $750 million mutual bank, founded in 1886 in Reading, MA. Julieann currently serves as Chair-Elect of the American Bankers Association (ABA). She is the immediate Past Chair of ABA’s Core Platforms Council and a member of both the Government Relations Administrative Committee and the Membership Council. She is a founding member of Alloy Labs, a consortium of banks formed nationally to innovate within the banking space, and is a Director of Atlantic Community Bankers Bank (ACBB). Locally, Julieann serves on the MA Fintech Hub and is a Board and Executive Committee member of the Lawrence Partnership, the Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation, and the Greater Lawrence Community Health Center. American Banker Magazine has repeatedly named Julieann among its Top 25 Women to Watch in Banking, and the Commonwealth Institute has included Reading Cooperative Bank on its list of the Top 100 Women-Led Businesses for the past six consecutive years. Julieann holds an MBA from the Charles F. Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University. She has also completed advanced studies at the Stonier Graduate School of Banking, Harvard Business School’s Division of Continuing Education, and the CEO Leadership Lab at Wharton’s Aresty Institute for Executive Education. She is a proud member of the first cohort of LEADS, MA (Leaders Engaged and Activated to Drive Systemwide Change), a cross-sectoral leadership program focused on innovation, civic engagement, and social responsibility.