Theme: SAILING THE STORM

Name: TEDxBabsonCollege 2024
Theme: Sailing the Storm
Date: Saturday, March 23, 2024
Venue: Knight Auditorium, Babson College, Wellesley, MA
Time: 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM ET

Knight Auditorium
Babson College
231 Forest Street
Babson Park, Massachusetts, 02457
United States

Aric Flemming Jr.

Assistant Director of Doctoral Programs at Harvard Business School, Harvard Business School

Aric B. Flemming, Jr. is a native of Decatur, Georgia and graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta. After graduating from Morehouse with a Bachelor of Arts in Religion and English, Aric received his ordination and matriculated at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. He graduated with a Master of Divinity Degree in 2019. While at Harvard, he served the Memorial Church of Harvard University as the 1st Master of Divinity Seminarian for Black Student Ministries at Harvard. He is also the former Vice-President of the Harvard Graduate Council for the University (2017-18). He's a class of 2020 Harvard University Administrative Fellow and Program Manager for the Graduate Commons Program with Harvard University Housing.

Arlene Cummings

MBA Candidate ’24, Babson College

Arlene Cummings has dedicated almost three decades advocating for fair and equitable access to education and subsequent employment opportunities for individuals in underrepresented communities. She’s had the privilege of serving as a trustee on the boards of prestigious educational institutions, and was the Special Advisor to the Interim President at a Historically Black College/University (HBCU) before starting her 1-year MBA journey in Spring ’23. Beyond Babson, this mother of three—two of whom are also Beavers—intends on using her MBA to continue her mission in the Ed-tech space as a consultant or strategist.

Didem Önem

Global Talent Acquisition Operations Leader, Eaton

Didem is the Global Talent Acquisition Operations leader at Eaton Corporation. She is a passionate talent acquisition leader in growing capabilities of recruiting teams in every possible way and helping businesses to succeed through the acquisition of great talent. Throughout her career, she has served in several functions and industries including pharmaceutical, recruiting, and higher education; she holds an MBA degree from Koc University, Istanbul. Didem’s motivation to share her learnings and observations to make a difference in others’ experience, led her to take mentor and coach seats in numerous talent and career development initiatives.

Dom Capossela

Writer

Dom Capossela, an editor of the weekly magazine existentialautotrip and curator of the website Questo North End!, encapsulates the spirit of the 1950s. Growing up in Boston’s working-class Italian North End, he witnessed a transformative era marked by technological advancements, cultural shifts, and social changes. Dom recently edited and published Do You Believe in Magic, an anthology capturing the stories of thirty North End residents. Rooted in the ethos of his upbringing, Dom emphasizes the importance of active engagement in daily life and the world at large. In a world still grappling with turmoil, his wisdom echoes Voltaire’s call to “cultivate our garden.”

Elyssa Smith

Trauma-Informed Life Strategist, Your Best Moment

Elyssa Smith is a trauma-informed life strategist who specializes in empowering women to overcome self-sabotage and trauma, enabling them to break free from procrastination, people-pleasing, and overwhelm. Her expertise lies in reprogramming the effects of trauma, unlocking increased productivity and inner calm. Her innovative self-compassionate time management model has been featured by Forbes Magazine, Thrive Global, and Fox59 Morning News. Elyssa has also shared her knowledge with audiences worldwide through speaking engagements. When not working, she enjoys spending time with her family on their Indiana farm, where she keeps up with her energetic nine-year-old and her furry loyal small-but-mighty companion.

Jim Osman

CEO & Founder, The Edge Group / London Business School

With over 18 years of experience as the Founder and Chief Vision Officer of The Edge Group LLC, Jim Osman is a recognized expert and thought leader in global special situation investments. The Edge is a research boutique that provides its clients and investors with access to hidden corporate value from spinoffs, demergers, and distressed credit opportunities, using a rigorous and proprietary analysis process.

Leyi (Adele) Shen

Current Babson Undergraduate Student, Babson College

Adele is a music composer interested in the intersection of creative storytelling and cognitive science. Her narrative music can be found on the NYTimes (as a winner of the “Coming of Age” youth Multimedia Contest). She also wrote a 26-page research paper, “Effects of Film Music on the Female Gaze,” under Pioneer Academics. As a Babson undergraduate student, she is the VP of Events for Project W (a club connecting the BOW colleges of Babson, Olin, and Wellesley). The key theme in almost everything she does is being a lifelong learner and adventurer—and for the winter break before TEDx, she is traveling solo from coast-to-coast of the United States by train.

Marcella Brebaum

Founder & Coach, Modern Couples Coaching

Marcella founded Modern Couples Coaching, an online platform for entrepreneurs and purpose-driven couples. Her focus intertwines personal and business realms, proactively aiding leaders to develop relationship skills, aiming to prevent conflicts and create more authentic and resilient connections. Recently, she launched her first annual Modern Couples Online Summit, drawing 9,000+ viewers and featuring 40 speakers discussing evolving relationship dynamics. Marcella is systemic & agile coach, Gottmann certified couples’ therapist, with various further trainings. She is a Babson graduate and her next endeavor is a Ph.D. to scientifically underpin her idea worth spreading.

Mark Magnacca

Co-founder and President, Allego Inc.

Mark Magnacca is President and Co-Founder of Allego. Prior to Allego, Mark was President of Insight Development Group, a sales enablement and consulting firm that specialized in financial services. During this time, Mark helped his clients enable their sales teams more effectively and scale their efforts using technology. Mark is also the co-author of Mastering Virtual Selling: Orchestrating Sales Success with Yuchun Lee and Tony Jeary. The book redefined virtual selling for sales executives and their teams in financial services, medical device, high tech, and manufacturing. Mark hosts The Adapter’s Advantage podcast, in which sales and training leaders across industries share stories of overcoming challenging situations.

Mike Grandinetti

Lecturer, Harvard

Mike Grandinetti has a uniquely multi-disciplinary career. He’s a successful serial tech entrepreneur with 2 NASDAQ IPOs & 7 exits, an award-winning professor at Harvard, Brown, Berkeley ELPP & Babson Exec Ed, teaching courses on AI & Machine Learning, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Creativity & Design. Formerly with McKinsey, he’s now an AI, innovation & design consultant whose clients include Microsoft, IBM, Samsung, Capital One & Stellantis. He’s led 200+ design sprints & hackathons globally. He's been published in HBR Italy, California Management Review, Wharton at Work & Forbes under his byline. He was one of 3 finalists in the Berkley Haas Case Study Series in 2022 He’s delivered keynotes & moderated panels on GenAI at the MIT CI.

Mikhail Papovsky

Founder and CEO, Massaro

Mikhail Papovsky is a visionary leader in management consulting, celebrated for his innovative, partnership-based delivery approach. With a career spanning operations, IT, strategy, and business development, Mikhail excels as a transformative leader. He's adept at building teams that deliver tangible results and advance organizations towards their visions. In 1996, Mikhail founded Abraic, now Massaro, dedicated to optimizing technology investments. His deep understanding of applications and operations aligns business value with technology solutions for seamless strategy execution. Proficient in managing diverse, large-scale projects, his leadership shines in ambitious high-risk initiatives.

Shawn French

Founder & CEO, The Determined Society LLC

Shawn French, a beacon of resilience and determination, stands at the intersection of triumph and adversity. As the founder of The Determined Society LLC and a revered mental performance coach, Shawn’s journey is an odyssey of conquering personal battles, channeling adversity into strength, and illuminating paths for others seeking mental fortitude. Born with an innate passion for sports, Shawn’s life was synonymous with baseball from an early age. His unwavering dedication propelled him to the pinnacle of athletic achievement as a top division baseball player. However, behind the roaring success lay a silent struggle—a battle not fought on the field but within the labyrinth of his mind.

Stephen Brand

Assistant Professor of Practice in Entrepreneurship, Babson College

At Babson since 2014 he has been a professor, mentor/co-director of the Summer Venture Program, in the Summer Study Program, and working with Babson Global and Executive Education. His doctoral dissertation explores what inspires great innovators. As an innovation strategist/educator, he uses entrepreneurship and design thinking helping innovators launch new ventures and scale existing ones. He has worked on initiatives in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Macedonia, Egypt, Jordan, and Afghanistan. He was the Pres of the Nat Inventors Hall of Fame, Chief Imagination Officer at the New Enterprise Factory, experience consultant for Ford, worked with the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, and Educ Advisor to the Jim Henson Company’s Doozers series.

Tara Shuman

Founder, Chief Learning Officer, Wildewood Education

Tara Shuman is a teacher, a writer, and an entrepreneur who tries to surround herself with great books, creative projects, and inspiring people. As an avid appreciator of time, Tara believes in Francis Bacon’s idea that “hope is a good breakfast” and after she got cancer at age 32, she wrote a memoir titled just that. She then left her job as an attorney and returned to a career in education. Today Tara works with students, schools, non-profits, and businesses to help them ask the right questions so that they can build more curious, collaborative, and productive teams. If she had to describe herself as a punctuation mark, she would be an ellipsis. She lives with her family near Boston.