Speaker

William A. Sahlman

Professor at Harvard Business School

Baker Foundation Professor, Dimitri V. D’Arbeloff – MBA Class of 1955 Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus

From 2007 to 2016, Mr. Sahlman was Senior Associate Dean for External Relations. He is co-chair of the Rock Center for Entrepreneurship. He was co-chair of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit from 1999 to 2002. From 1991 to 1999, he was Senior Associate Dean, Director of Publishing Activities, and chairman of the board for Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. From 1990 to 1991, he was chairman of the Harvard University Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility. From 2009 to 2015, he was chairman of the Advisory Committee for Harvard Stem Cell Science. He is a member of the board of advisors or board of directors of several private companies.

In 1985, Mr. Sahlman introduced a new second-year elective course called Entrepreneurial Finance. (Read Who Wants to Be an Entrepreneur? The Business School’s new take on teaching management to get a lively description of Mr. Sahlman’s topics and classroom style.) In 2000, Mr. Sahlman helped design and introduce The Entrepreneurial Manager, a required course in the First Year MBA curriculum.

Mr. Sahlman received an A.B. degree in Economics from Princeton University (1972), an M.B.A. from Harvard University (1975), and a Ph.D. in Business Economics (1982), also from Harvard. He joined the Harvard Business School faculty in 1980.

In April 2011, the National Venture Capital Association gave Mr. Sahlman The American Spirit Award

Moderator

Ava Seave

Principal, Quantum Media

Ava Seave is a Principal of Quantum Media, a New York City based consulting firm focused on strategy and marketing for media, information and entertainment companies. At Quantum Media, she leads consulting engagements and provides senior-level management consulting services to many media companies and nonprofit organizations in a broad range of assignments. She founded Quantum Media with four others in 1998. In addition to being a consultant, Seave is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia Business School and Columbia Journalism School, teaching classes about media and entertainment strategy and management; she has written four cases for Columbia CaseWorks, and has co-authored two books about media strategy. Seave graduated from Brown University with an A.B. (Phi Beta Kappa) and Harvard Business School with an M.B.A. She is on the non-profit Boards of the De La Salle Academy and The American Poetry Review.