Speakers

KENNETH P. MORSE and LAURA BARKER MORSE

KENNETH P. MORSE

  • Serial Entrepreneur
  • Visiting Professor, ESADE Business School
  • Chair in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Competitiveness, Delft University of Technology
  • Founding Managing Director, MIT Entrepreneurship Center
  • MIT Enterprise Forum Global Board
  • Chairman, Entrepreneurship Ventures, Inc.
  • National Advisory Council on Innovation & Entrepreneurship (USA)
  • Member, Telefónica Disruptive Council
  • Member, Citi SFS Advisory Board
  • Commercialisation Advisor, Scottish Enterprise
  • New Zealand GNS Science External Expert Panel
  • Commercialization Advisor, Dynasil Corporation
  • MassChallenge Board of Advisors
  • Member, Barcelona HiT: The Hothouse of Innovation & Technology
  • Board of Advisors of several ambitious start-ups
  • Bachelor of Science, MIT
  • MBA, Harvard Business School

Ken has been a high performance leader in global high tech sales and sales management for over 35 years.

Ken Morse was a co-founder of six high-tech companies, together with MIT friends and classmates. Five of these ventures had successful IPOs or mergers; one was a disaster. They included 3Com Corporation, Aspen Technology, Inc., a China Trade Company, a biotech venture, and an expert systems company. Ken was either the CEO or responsible for part or all of the Sales organization in each of these new enterprises. During his 4+ years as Managing Director of AspenTech (AZPN) Europe SA/NV, Ken's team achieved 18 consecutive quarters of on-target sales performance by building close strategic relationships with the leading chemical and pharma companies throughout the region. He grew the AspenTech EMEA organization from 22 to 200+ employees with basically zero staff turnover, and expanded sales revenue 600% - 900% with key client relationships.

Ken's interest in international high tech ventures began at MIT, where he graduated with a BS in Political Science in 1968 followed in 1972 with an MBA from Harvard Business School. Upon graduation, he joined Schroders, the UK-based merchant bank, where he worked directly for Jim Wolfensohn, former President of the World Bank.

In 1975 Ken formed a trading advisory company under the aegis of Chase Manhattan Bank to assist U.S. technology-based companies such as IBM, General Motors, Gillette, Hughes Aircraft, Mine Safety Appliances, Waters Associates, and others to enter the China market. Ken was based in Beijing for five years during the latter half of the Cultural Revolution. In 1980, Morse relocated to Silicon Valley as a founding member of 3Com Corporation.

In the thirteen years that Ken served as Founding Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center (1996 – 2009), the number of students taking Entrepreneurship Courses increased from 220 to 1,600 per year while the number of professors grew from 3 to over 36. Ken was named "Education All Star" by "Mass High Tech" magazine, and is a member of the MIT Enterprise Forum Global Board.

Ken was appointed to the recently-created National Advisory Council on Innovation & Entrepreneurship by Secretary Locke and President Obama (Washington), and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (New York City).

Ken is a member of the Telefónica Disruptive Council, Citi SFS Advisory Board, Barcelona HiT: Hothouse of Innovation & Technology, and the New Zealand GNS Science External Expert Panel. He is also a Commercialisation Advisor to Scottish Enterprise.

Ken serves on the Board of Advisors of several ambitious start-ups, including Denkwerk GmbH in Germany; iMotions - Emotion Technology ApS and Zylinc A/S in Denmark; The Little Engineer in Lebanon; Aifos Solutions SL, Indisys and Invenio in Spain; Izon Science Ltd in New Zealand; Naseeb Networks and Sofizar in Pakistan; Dynasil Corporation, and several MIT spin-offs in the US, including Cogito, FloDesign Sonics, IntAct, Terrafugia, and UkuMi.

Ken is Visiting Professor at the ESADE Business School in Barcelona and holds a Chair in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Competitiveness at the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.
He has been teaching the Entrepreneurial Skills Development workshops in Europe, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Québec, and the US for more than 8 years.

Ken speaks fluent French and some Chinese. He is a member of the Cercle Royal Gaulois Artistique & Littéraire in Brussels. When he is not helping young companies to succeed, Ken enjoys sailing his 50-year old wooden boat with his family around Cape Cod.

He is in the early stages of writing a book about global entrepreneurs who built great companies far from Silicon Valley and Route 128. The working title is "Making it Happen Globally".

LAURA BARKER MORSE

  • Managing Director, Entrepreneurship Ventures , Inc., Boston, MA, USA
  • Co-instructor with Professor Diana Burton (2009) at MIT Sloan School: "Designing & Leading the Entrepreneurial Organization"
  • Former Human Capital Partner, Atlas Venture London, Paris, Munich, and Boston
  • Former senior executive with S.W.I.F.T. sc, Belgium
  • Prior twenty years as a Partner with Leading Global Executive Search Consultancies, Russell Reynolds Associates and Heidrick & Struggles in Chicago, Boston, and Brussels
  • B.A. and graduate work, University of Iowa, Elected to Mortar Board

Laura Barker Morse has deep experience in strategic human capital issues including recruitment, organizational development, and total reward and compensation systems.

Laura Barker Morse started Entrepreneurship Ventures, Inc., a consulting and coaching practice, in 2008, in response to requests from startups in Scotland, Spain, Québec, and the Boston area.

From 1999 till 2008, Laura was Human Capital Partner at Atlas Venture, the largest transatlantic early stage technology venture capital firm. She worked closely with Atlas portfolio companies on strategic human capital issues including recruitment, development, and reward systems. She acted as her firm's senior human resource professional and as liaison with consultants and preferred providers of recruitment, compensation, and human resources.

Prior to joining Atlas Venture, Laura worked in Brussels for S.W.I.F.T. sc, the global financial telecommunications consortium, where she reported to the CEO during a strategic reorganization and led management planning, worldwide recruiting and expatriate services. Laura recruited over 250 European and Asian executives.

Before that, Laura spent twenty years in technology executive search with Russell Reynolds and Heidrick & Struggles. She joined Russell Reynolds in 1977 in Chicago and helped open their Boston office in 1981. As Managing Director and global Practice Leader of the Venture Capital practice, she worked worldwide with venture firms and their portfolio companies. In 1991, she joined Heidrick & Struggles as a Partner in their Technology practice, relocating to their Brussels office in 1992.

Laura is a graduate of the University of Iowa where she was elected to Mortar Board. She is a frequent speaker on recruiting, team building, and career planning at workshop around Europe, and also leading business schools including Solvay (Belgium), Harvard Business School, and MIT/Sloan.

Laura served for ten years as a Trustee of The Computer Museum, and is currently both a Trustee and Chair of the Overseers Nominating Committee of the Museum of Science (Boston). She is a member of Hestia, a charitable giving circle and the Steering Committee of the Women's Cancers Program Executive Council of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Laura currently serves on the Board of Advisors of Aura Biosciences, a Madrid-based oncology start up.