Appointment of Ian Mashiter, Master Lecturer of Strategy and Innovation, as Interim Executive Director of Innovate@BU
From Dr. Jean Morrison, University Provost and Chief Academic Officer
Last spring, as you may remember, we launched a national search for the next executive director of Innovate@BU, a state-of-the-art laboratory and training ground for future entrepreneurs on the BU campus. As this search process continues, I am writing to announce the appointment of Ian Mashiter, master lecturer of strategy and innovation in the Questrom School of Business and curriculum director of Innovate@BU, as interim director, effective Friday, April 15.
Ian has been among BU’s most respected entrepreneurial voices and instructors for over 12 years, teaching strategy, entrepreneurship, and business management to MBA and undergraduate students in Questrom and the College of Engineering. Ian joined Innovate@BU in 2017, first serving as managing founding director of the BUild Lab IDG Capital Student Innovation Center, an incubator and collaboration space where BU students work with leaders from Boston’s business community to translate their ideas into tomorrow’s business and societal solutions. Since January 2020, he has served as curriculum director for Innovate@BU, managing the innovation and entrepreneurship minor and working to promote teaching in those critical emerging areas across the BU campus. Ian is a past recipient of Questrom’s Broderick Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. He is also a veteran of private industry, having raised over $100 million in venture funding over the last 25 years and held senior management, corporate board, and advisory board positions at numerous successful high-tech start-ups. Ian’s experience and effectiveness as a leader at Innovate@BU, in combination with his extensive teaching and private industry portfolio, make him an ideal fit for interim director during this period of transition. We thank him for his willingness to serve in this role.
We also want to give special thanks once again to Professor Gerald Fine, professor of the practice of mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering, founding executive director of Innovate@BU, and director of the Engineering Product Innovation Center, for his extraordinary leadership and contributions at BU over the last decade as he retires at the end of March. Professor Fine’s model for experiential learning and for preparing aspiring engineers, inventors, and entrepreneurs for postgraduate success will be with BU for a long time to come. We wish him well and are grateful for his service.
We will be continuing the search for a permanent executive director of Innovate@BU throughout the coming months.