Speaker

Professor Josh Lerner

Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking HBS

Josh Lerner graduated from Yale College with a special divisional major. He worked for several years on issues concerning technological innovation and public policy at the Brookings Institution, for a public-private task force in Chicago, and on Capitol Hill. He then earned a Ph.D. from Harvard’s Economics Department.

Much of his research focuses on venture capital and private equity organizations. (This research is summarized in Boulevard of Broken Dreams, The Money of Invention, Patent Capital, and The Venture Capital Cycle.) He also examines policies on innovation and how they impact firm strategies. (That research is discussed in the books The Architecture of Innovation, The Comingled Code, and Innovation and Its Discontents.) He co-directs the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Program and serves as co-editor of their publication, Innovation Policy and the Economy. He founded and runs the Private Capital Research Institute, a nonprofit devoted to encouraging access to data and research, and has been a frequent leader of and participant in the World Economic Forum projects and events.

In the 1993-1994 academic year, he introduced an elective course for second-year MBAs. Over the past two decades, “Venture Capital and Private Equity” has consistently been one of the largest elective courses at Harvard Business School. (The course materials are collected in Venture Capital and Private Equity: A Casebook, now in its fifth edition, and the textbook Venture Capital, Private Equity, and the Financing of Entrepreneurship.) He also established and teaches doctoral courses on entrepreneurship, teaches in the Owners-Presidents-Managers Program, and leads executive courses on private equity. He is the Jacob H. Schiff Professor.

Among other recognitions, he is the winner of the Swedish government’s Global Entrepreneurship Research Award and Cheng Siwei Award for Venture Capital Research.

Moderator

Jason E. Klein

Founder & CEO On Grid Ventures

Jason E. Klein is an experienced media CEO and builder of digital and traditional businesses who has led two successful turnarounds. He is founder and CEO of On Grid Ventures with a portfolio of 25+ early stage companies. Mr Klein is co-President of the HBS Alumni Angels Association, and Chairman of the largest chapter, HBS Alumni Angels of Greater New York. Mr. Klein was previously CEO of Newspaper National Network LP; and CEO of Times Mirror Magazines/Time4 Media, publisher of Golf Magazine, Field & Stream, and Popular Science. He began his career as a consultant with McKinsey. Mr. Klein is one of AlleyWatch’s “25 Angels Investors in NY You Need to Know,” a member of New York Angels, and a mentor at several NYC-area incubators. Mr. Klein has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an AB from Dartmouth College.

Moderator

John Reichenbach

Board Chair - Federation for Children with Special Needs

Board Chair – Federation for Children with Special Needs

Mr. Reichenbach, an engineer by training, has been CEO or CFO of six venture capital backed technology companies. He has raised $80mm in venture capital for these companies. The two biggest exits were e-Travel, which was sold to Oracle, and is now owned by Amadeus, and Amicas which was sold to a public company that assumed the Amicas name, and was eventually sold to IBM for $1 BB. He has also worked at United Technologies, Continental Airlines, and Becker Paribas at senior levels in nearly every function. He is an inventor on three issued US patents related to speech technology.

John led the relaunch of HBS Angels of Boston, which had been dormant for seven years. Since the February 2020 relaunch, HBS Angels of Boston has held eight pitch events and over a dozen educational events. 40 companies have presented, and Boston angels have made investments in 12 of them. HBS Angels of Boston has also teed up Smoodi, Beckon Ice Cream, BLDUP, Lupii and Moxie Scrubs for successful global syndication through HBS Angels.

In addition to his Harvard MBA, John holds a BS from Yale. He has been on the board of the Federation for Children with Special Needs since 2008, and currently serves as chair.