The Northeastern University Center for Entrepreneurship Education was created in 2010 with the vision and endowed funds of Alan McKim, the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Clean Harbors and Vice Chairman of Northeastern’s Board of Trustees. He asked faculty members Dan McCarthy and Marc Meyer, senior faculty who had also been entrepreneurs, to build an organization that helped young entrepreneurs to create new ventures based on innovative products, systems, and services. Professor Dan Gregory quickly joined as a pivotal founding member–leading the development of IDEA, Northeastern University’s venture accelerator.
Sharing Alan’s passion and commitment to Northeastern entrepreneurship, major donors have included Sam Altschuler, Robin and John Devereux, Lee Anne Dunton, Dan Gregory, Bob Lentz, Roy Liu, Alan Mateo, Dan McCarthy, Jeff McCarthy, Chris McGrath, Marc Meyer, John Pulichino, and Eric Young. With their support, NUCEE proceeded to launch and scale a variety of programs for Northeastern entrepreneurs.”
In more recent years, NUCEE evolved in important ways:
Entrepreneurs in Residence:
Bob Lentz became the first EIR in NUCEE and began a decade’s long journey of helping Northeastern ventures, often started by alumni. He was joined by Steve Golden, Greg Collier, Philippe Sommer, as well as Marc Meyer as the EIR team to provide direct consultation to ventures.
Mosaic:
Led by Dan Gregory, NUCEE began to invest heavily in the creation of entrepreneurship supporting student organizations across campus. These student organizations were formalized into the MOSIAC network in 2016. NUCEE has served as a primary financial supporter for all these organizations, currently chaired by faculty Emerita Susan Montgomery.
Deep Tech Ventures:
IDEA’s methods have been leveraged to help lab ventures in partnership with the Center for Research Innovation, Northeastern’s technology licensing office. Such ventures are typically started by Ph.D., Postdoc, and faculty entrepreneurs, applying their University IP into Life Sciences, AI, IoT, and Materials.
The Venture Mentoring Network:
Launched in 2015, led by Dan McCarthy and alum Jeff McCarthy. The VMN quickly grew to 150+ mentors who actively engage with new ventures, applying IDEA and other methods for startup, financing, and growth. The VMN’s Mentors are now being deployed across the Northeastern campus network.
International Entrepreneurship Education through Partners:
In 2017, NUCEE embarked on a journey to platform its core methods to other educational partners abroad. By the end of 2021, some 9000 students in Andhra Pradesh will have taken NUCEE’s Personal Discovery Through Entrepreneurship. Other partnerships are also being launched in the Philippines and South Korea.
Our team of professional staff, including: Gwen Corner (IDEA, Mosaic), Katie Hemphill and Wendy Eaton (VMN), and Susan Greeley (Events and Budget) run and grow our initiatives. Through their efforts we won the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Center’s top award for ‘New Venture Creation’ in 2020.
Alumni are also vitally important — as Gap Fund Judges, Venture Mentors, and Donors. While NUCEE’s spirit is recharged by the success of its ventures, it is the financial and mentoring contributions of our alumni which sustains us.
Please help us help the next generation.
Marc H. Meyer
Managing Director