Former MassChallenge CEO Siobhan Dullea Joins Boston University as Executive Director of Innovate@BU
[Boston, MA] – Innovate@BU, the Boston University-wide initiative to enable all BU students to become drivers of innovation, announced yesterday that Siobhan Dullea has been appointed to the role of executive director, effective April 3, 2023, following a rigorous national search.
Innovate@BU is a unique initiative amongst university entrepreneurial programs in that it focuses on increasing students’ access to education about innovation and entrepreneurship both within the academic curriculum and through a suite of extracurricular programs. Since its launch 5 years ago, this award-winning initiative has experienced tremendous growth in the number of students participating each year. Siobhan will lead the Innovate@BU team as they drive student engagement and equip all BU students with innovation skills and an entrepreneurial mindset, preparing them to create meaningful impact in their careers and communities.
“Innovation is coming up with a solution to a problem and executing it. It’s not just about having ideas; it’s about getting things done,” says Siobhan. “Every industry and career can use innovators. I want to help any BU student from any school or college learn about how they can innovate in their field of study, career, or passion area. That means that Innovate@BU needs to foster an inclusive environment in all its activities and connect students to the many resources available across BU. Innovation drives positive change in the world, and Innovate@BU will continue to inspire the next generation of multi-disciplinary innovators to multiply that positive change.”
A nationally respected business innovator, executive leader, and BU alum, Siobhan brings over three decades of private industry success to BU, mentoring and supporting startups, managing client services, and working collaboratively to grow and scale organizations through periods of significant change. She most recently served as president and CEO of MassChallenge, a Boston-based global network of zero-equity startup accelerators that since 2009 has connected over 4,000 rising innovator-entrepreneurs with more than $9 billion in funding – businesses that have, in turn, created hundreds of thousands of new jobs. Siobhan drove substantial growth and change at MassChallenge, building transformative new partnerships with private funders, dramatically streamlining its administrative structure, and successfully steering the organization and its startups through the pandemic-era shift to virtual work and services.
Siobhan was named a Boston Magazine “Visionary on the Rise” in 2019 and in 2021 was named to the FCW Fed 100, the most prestigious award in federal information technology.
In addition to MassChallenge, she has held executive roles at consumer product innovator The Grommet and global business consultancy C Space. She is a BU graduate (CAS’91), has engaged extensively as a business leader in innovation programs across numerous area universities including Harvard, MIT, and Tufts, and is a founding team member of Mass FinTech Hub, a public-private partnership fostering financial technology growth across the Commonwealth. She is a board member of Women in SportsTech and a founding member of Wage Equity Now.
Interim Executive Director Ian Mashiter commented, “We’re thrilled that such a recognized entrepreneurial leader like Siobhan is joining us. It’s a powerful endorsement of this initiative and its importance to BU and our students. I believe that Siobhan is the right person to lead us during this next period of growth.”
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