These three pre-MBAs will be embedded in Dare to Innovate and our portfolio companies for a summer-long immersive internship.
We all have a mentor who came in and offered a fresh perspective, gave us a hard time, or just made sure that each time we got knocked down, we bounced back up again. I can think of mentors I’ve had throughout my career who fit into each one of those categories. Serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I also had the enormous privilege of mentoring many entrepreneurs. I wasn’t smarter than them. In many cases, I was less experienced. But what I could do is offer a fresh perspective — pose countless “how might we…” questions and share examples of business model innovations from around the world. And I came away from that experience an intense advocate for supporting business in West Africa. That’s the experience we hope to create for our Fellows who are on the cusp of the next phase of their careers. So without further ado…
Becky Allen is thrilled to join Dare to Innovate as a Venture Fellow. Through this role, she looks forward to learning more about the intersection of business and international development, including how human-centered design can advance sustainable development. Prior to this role, she served as a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, where her portfolio focused on strategies for boosting women’s economic opportunity in emerging markets. Previously, she also worked as the communications and development associate at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Becky received her BA in Middle Eastern Studies from Tufts University. She will be starting her MBA at MIT Sloan this fall.
Todd Hummel joins us after 5 years at Microsoft where he spent the majority of his time working in product strategy across both the Windows and Office teams. While in strategy, he worked alongside engineering, marketing, finance, and sales teams to help drive long term revenue growth, evolve business models, and identify new product opportunities. This summer at Dare to Innovate, Todd is excited to use his experience in product strategy to help startups develop and grow while quickly learning from and adapting to the business environment and customer needs in West Africa! Todd graduated from the Boston College Carroll School of Management’s Honors Program with a BS in Finance. Following the summer, Todd will pursue his MBA at the Yale School of Management.
Brian Yi is a global professional with experiences bringing together cross-cultural teams. He earned his B.A. in Economics from Tufts University and completed exchange semesters at Seoul National University (South Korea) and the University of Hong Kong. After graduation, Brian pursued the global internship program at Hyundai Card/Capital, where he was a Marketing Innovation Strategy intern at global headquarters (Seoul, South Korea) and Sales Strategy intern at U.S. headquarters (Irvine, California). With global work experience in hand, Brian joined IBM as a consultant, where he has been since. At IBM, Brian focused on data and analytics, serving clients in the financial services sector. During his summer in Guinea with Dare to Innovate, Brian hopes to gain first-hand experience in entrepreneurship, as he is pursuing graduate studies to learn more about this field. He hopes to leverage his strategy, program management, and implementation/operations skills to support the organization and its member companies to tackle youth unemployment. After Dare to Innovate, Brian will pursue his MBA at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
If you are interested in supporting the Venture Fellows Program, consider making a small contribution here:http://www.youcaring.com/daretoinnovate-1097918