Board of Advisors

Chair

Mike Kennealy, Secretary of Housing and Economic Development for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Secretary Kennealy is responsible for advancing the Baker-Polito Administration’s agenda to create economic opportunity for residents, collaborative leadership in communities, an environment that supports job creation and business growth, and new housing for residents through targeted investments. In early 2015, Kennealy joined the Administration as Assistant Secretary for Business Growth. As Assistant Secretary, Kennealy played an integral role in advancing the administration’s strategy for job creation and business development across the entire Commonwealth and provided leadership in key sectors, including serving as co-chair of the board of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.

He began his career in private equity at TA Associates, a Boston-based firm. In 1997, he joined Spectrum Equity, a private equity firm founded in 1994 with offices in Boston and San Francisco. During his more than 15 years at Spectrum, he helped grow the firm to become an established market leader with nearly $5 billion in assets under management and investments in over 100 high-growth internet, software and information services companies. After his career in private equity, Kennealy spent two years as Special Advisor to the Receiver at Lawrence Public Schools, where he worked with the state-appointed superintendent/receiver on strategic and financial initiatives to support the school district’s turnaround plan.

Members

MassVentures (TBD)

John L. Brooks, III

John L. Brooks is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Joslin Diabetes Center located in Boston, the world’s leading diabetes research, clinical care, and education organization. Joslin’s global mission is to prevent, treat, and cure diabetes and its complications. Our efforts improve the lives of people with diabetes or at risk of diabetes worldwide, and we actively work with collaborators across the world to deliver impactful and transformational solutions.

Mr. Brooks is a well-known life sciences executive. He has co-founded four life sciences companies, including Insulet, a disruptive insulin delivery company. He had been a principal of Healthcare Capital Consulting LLC, which advised early-stage life sciences companies, and he was a founder of Prism Venture Partners, a venture capital firm.

Previously, Mr. Brooks was a general manager at Pfizer/Valleylab, where he was responsible for Pfizer’s Hospital Products Group’s minimally invasive surgery and new medical technologies business. As President/General Manager at Pfizer/Strato, he led the growth of a rapidly evolving vascular access medical device business.

A native of Massachusetts, he holds an M.S. in Business and a B.B.A. cum laude from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and he is a Certified Public Accountant.

 Holly Flesh

Holly Flesh is Chief of Operations at CIC (f/k/a Cambridge Innovation Center), the largest cluster of startups in the world. Prior to this, she was Principal with Cleantech Catalyst Advisors, a consulting firm, and President of Innoventé USA, a biomass-to-energy company. She co-founded GreenFuel Technologies, the first algae-to-biofuels company, and led the company’s business operations from inception to exit. Holly’s interest in cleantech was kindled by her wish to help the US achieve energy independence. Holly’s BA and MPH degrees are from UCLA.

Marty Jones

After spending decades in the real-estate industry, Marty Jones became MassDevelopment’s first female president and CEO in May 2011. She has set new priorities for the Agency, the Commonwealth’s quasi-public economic-development authority, to leverage its investments in focusing on promoting affordable housing, protecting the state’s six military installations, and creating new opportunities in advanced manufacturing. At the same time, Jones serves as an inspiration for women in the finance and real estate industries.
During her tenure, Jones has spearheaded development of several new loan products at the Agency, including financing to support hiring at manufacturing and emerging technology companies; played a key role in the Patrick Administration’s Military Asset and Security Strategy Task Force; and overseen more than $5 billion in investment in the Massachusetts economy. Jones has also overseen a new signature real estate project at the Agency: an expansion of the Myles Standish Industrial Park in Taunton with a focus on the Commonwealth’s vital life sciences industry. Finally, under her leadership, MassDevelopment has organized a series of first-in-the-state regional academies for local officials and leaders to discuss best practices in economic development.
Prior to MassDevelopment, Jones was president of Boston building, development, and property management company Corcoran Jennison where she managed staff and project teams for new development projects that transformed communities, directed asset management for multifamily portfolios, chaired a joint venture between Corcoran Jennison and Beacon Communities, and directed all aspects of the Westminster Company, a 175-employee operation with 66 properties and 5,000 apartment units in North and South Carolina.
Jones got her start at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in both the Washington and Boston offices. A member of the Board of Directors of MassEcon and the New England Council, and a national trustee of the Urban Land Institute, Jones graduated from Brown University and resides in Winchester.

Patrick J. Larkin

Patrick Larkin is Founder and Director of the Innovation Institute, the economic development division of the MassTech Collaborative (MassTech), one of the nation’s first state agencies to focus on innovation-based economic development. The Innovation Institute at MassTech collaborates across sectors and regions to support the Commonwealth’s Innovation Economy, by creating conditions for the ecocnomic growth which drives jobs, startups, and business expansion.

A nationally recognized economic development organization, the Innovation Institute’s efforts include playing a leading role in facilitating innovation-driven economic growth in Gateway Cities through nimble public sector investments and customized, on-the-ground intervention to seed the conditions for sustainable economic growth. The Innovation Institute has been chartered since 2012 by Governor Deval Patrick with leading the Massachusetts’ Big Data Initiative which focuses on expanding the Commonwealth’s Big Data ecosystem, exploiting the local research and university resources through novel collaboration, and developing the big data workforce of the future.

As innovation Institute Director, Pat also oversees many technology and research cluster development projects on behalf of MassTech, including the Collaborative Research Matching Grant Program, a $50 million matching grants fund that supports key opportunities to strengthen and expand the state’s innovation economy, with a focus on industry clusters and improving competitive positions.

Travis A. McCready

Travis McCready is the President and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, a $1 billion public–private partnership with the mission of advancing the life sciences sector in Massachusetts. He directs and oversees the center’s investment strategy, along with the agency’s operations, programs, and partnerships. Previously, Mr. McCready served as the Vice President for Programs at The Boston Foundation, directing the Foundation’s grants and community investment strategy to benefit the people of Greater Boston. Prior to that, he was the first Executive Director of the Kendall Square Association, responsible for growing the innovation economy of Kendall Square, one of the Commonwealth’s most economically robust districts. He has also held the Chief Operating Officer and CFO positions at the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, overseeing the operations and finances for the three convention centers in Massachusetts.

Mr. McCready serves on the Boards of the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the Conservation Law Foundation, Life Science Cares, and WBUR. He has served on the Economic Development Planning Council under two governors, including co-chairing the subcommittee on innovation and entrepreneurship. In 2009, he was named one of Boston’s top “40 under 40” young business leaders by the Boston Business Journal. Mr. McCready is a frequent speaker on economic development strategy as it relates to the convergence of private, public, and not-for-profit interests, and his blog, Life Sciences Discourses, has been recognized by The Boston Globe.

Mr. McCready received his B.A. from Yale University and J.D. from the University of Iowa, and began his law career as a corporate attorney in Minneapolis, MN.

Lita L. Nelsen

Lita Nelsen is the retired director of the Technology Licensing Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she has been since 1986. The office manages over 400 new inventions a year from M.I.T., the Whitehead Institute, and Lincoln Laboratory. Typically, they negotiate more than 100 licenses and start over 20 new companies annually.

Prior to joining the M.I.T. Technology Licensing Office, Ms. Nelsen spent 20 years in industry, primarily in the fields of membrane separations, medical devices, and biotechnology at such companies as Amicon, Millipore, Arthur D. Little, Inc., and Applied Biotechnology.

Ms. Nelsen was the 1992 president of the Association of University Technology Managers. She serves on the board the Mount Auburn Hospital and on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Foundation. She is the intellectual property advisor to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and is a founding and current board member of the Center for Management of Intellectual Property in Health Research.

She is widely published in the field of technology transfer and university/ industry collaborations. She was a CMI Fellow at the University of Cambridge with the Cambridge MIT Institute, studying university/ industry/ government partnerships in technology transfer and local economic development. She is a co-founder of Praxis, the UK University Technology Transfer Training Programme.

Ms. Nelsen earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemical engineering from M.I.T. and an M.S. in Management from M.I.T. as a Sloan Fellow.

Kevin O’Sullivan

Kevin is the President and CEO of Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, a private economic development organization that promotes the growth and expansion of the Biotechnology, Medical Device and Bioinformatics industry. MBI operates four life science business incubator facilities in Worcester home to over twenty companies with approximately 100 employees, providing cost effective laboratory space and high quality business development and commercialization services. He previously served as Vice President and Director of Marketing in a combined public/private partnership position with the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce and the City of Worcester where he instituted a comprehensive business and industry development and recruitment plan and was also charged with the opening of the new Convention Center at the DCU Center.

From 1986 to 1994 he was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. While serving in the Legislature, he chaired the Committee on Redistricting, was Vice Chair of Ethics, and sat on the Ways and Means Committee. In the Legislature, he championed the Biomedical industry and was a co- sponsor in enacting the Emerging Technology Fund, Investment Tax Credit, and Tax Increment Financing legislation. He was also the Co-Founder and Chair of the Central Mass Legislative Caucus.

He served on the Worcester Business Development Corporation and was part of the development team which created the highly successful one million square foot Massachusetts Biotechnology Research Park. Kevin is the former Chair of the City of Worcester’s License Commission and is a member of the Reliant Medical Group Board of Trustees. Kevin, who lives in Worcester, is also active in many civic and community activities, serving as the volunteer Chair of the 2012/2013 Central Mass United Way Fundraising Campaign.

Tibor Toth

Tibor is a Managing Director of Investments at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and Adjunct Professor at the Brandeis International Business School.
Mr. Tibor has a successful record investing over $250 Million across key private equity sectors: venture capital, buyouts, mezzanine debt, growth equity & energy infrastructure, in transactions totaling over $1 Billion. He is clean energy entrepreneur and investor, focused on developing & investing broadly across energy technologies & power projects. His extensive experience is in the raising debt and equity capital for start-up & growth capital, acquisitions, energy projects and private equity funds. Tibor has a substantial experience in the integration and monitoring of acquisitions and investments, managing investment performance reporting, sitting on portfolio company boards, sitting on private equity fund advisory boards, advising portfolio company management teams on strategy development and financial planning and taking interim executive positionsHis broad network of relationships includes PE/VC firms, limited partners, investment bankers, lenders, entrepreneurs, executives and service providers. Currently Tibor co-manages over $5 billion in private equity investment funds.