Cynthia Cohen (left), vice chair of the BU Board of Trustees, with Siobhan Dullea, executive director of Innovate@BU, which works to equip students to become innovators. Photo by Austin Boyer

Innovation

New Gift Supports Innovate@BU Student Innovation Conference

Alum and entrepreneur Cynthia Cohen says the conference is an “accelerant” for collaborative thinking

“More than anything else, I think you need to make an impact in the world.”

Cynthia Cohen is so serious about impact, she named her strategic consulting firm IMPACT 2040—with an eye on the future, and on young founders in particular. An entrepreneur, a Metropolitan College alum, and vice chair of BU’s Board of Trustees, Cohen was one of the earliest supporters of Innovate@BU, drawn to its mission to equip as many BU students as possible to become innovators by providing mentorship, teamwork, skills building, and access to funding.

When Innovate@BU launched in 2018, Cohen made a significant gift to support the program’s Innovation Pathway, which guides students through the phases of launching and growing a new venture. Now, she has made a $1 million gift to sponsor Innovate@BU’s signature IDEA Con for five years, allowing its executive director, Siobhan Dullea, and the Innovate@BU team to expand and enhance the annual event, which is already the largest university-run multicollege innovation conference in the nation, drawing hundreds of students each year.

“I know the power and the alchemy of bringing people together to share ideas and learn,” says Cohen. “The conference is one packed day of great sessions. Because of all the exposure that these young people get, it’s an accelerant for their innovative and collaborative thinking, so they can innovate in everything they do, whether in the start-up, corporate, or not-for-profit world.”

The first IDEA Con funded by Cohen took place in October and welcomed students from BU and universities in the Northeast, including MIT, Babson, and the University of New Hampshire. Attendees heard keynotes from young founders, participated in networking workshops—including Networking for Introverts—and practiced business pitches.

Cohen, who has also endowed a scholarship at BU’s Questrom School of Business, says there was another factor in her decision to support IDEA Con: “I was thinking about how my name can show the next generation of young innovators that the start-up and innovation world is not just for one demographic profile. It may look imbalanced today, but there are people like me, of my generation, who are changing it. I want them to see that it’s not just the usual suspects funding and naming these things.”

Dullea (CAS’91) says Cohen’s support for Innovate@BU goes well beyond the financial.

“She also gives with her time and talent, and regularly holds face-to-face mentoring meetings that are always booked or overbooked,” Dullea says. “For Cynthia to make this new gift really shows what kind of leader she is. She said she wanted to make a big difference for as many young people as possible, even students at other universities—putting BU at the center, of course, but also acknowledging that innovation happens when you get rid of boundaries. I thought that was inspiring.”

Cohen’s new gift was the first of $1 million or more to be made since President Melissa L. Gilliam took office in July—something Cohen, who spoke on behalf of the Board of Trustees at Gilliam’s inauguration, intended. “There’s a symbolism in saying right away, ‘I support you and the new path we’re on,’” she says. “Sometimes I think you have to lead by example.”