Dr. Stephen Brand has extensive new venture creation and economic development experience working with small business start-ups, corporate, academic, regional, and non-profit sectors. He is currently the Executive Director of Global Learning and Development at Bay Path University where he is launching a corporate learning division. He also teaches entrepreneurship for Babson College’s Executive Education division that includes working with emerging entrepreneurs from around the world – including Latin America, South America, Kuwait and more.

Stephen has taught entrepreneurship and marketing at Olin College of Engineering, Babson College, University of Massachusetts, Case Western Reserve University and served as the co-director of the Babson Summer Venture Program. He has coached many start-up founders around the world and is especially proud of one, a drone training company who recently received a $300K investment from Mark Cuban when she was on Shark Tank. He is a regular mentor and advisor at Venture Valley Mentors, an organization that is sparking an entrepreneurial renaissance in Western MA.

As a consultant he has worked on start-up ventures with the Jim Henson Company, Creative Education Foundation, US Olympic Committee, WGBH TV, Ford Motor Company, Center for Medical Simulation, Strategic Air Museum, Xenon and many others. Stephen was the opening President of the National Inventors Hall of Fame where he worked closely with the inventors of fiber optics, personal computer, respirator and more. These relationships led him to his research to understand the environments, experiences and support systems innovators need in their developmental stages.

Stephen was the Innovation Fellow at NorTech, an economic development non-profit in Cleveland as he designed and launched the Innovation Accelerator, a program designed to infuse entrepreneurial thinking and new ventures in small businesses – mostly manufacturing.  He was also the Chief Imagination Officer at OneCommunity, a team that was charged with innovating on and expanding the use of an underutilized fiber optic network in NE Ohio to universities, governments, schools, hospitals and other non-profits.  In addition to working with early stage entrepreneurs, he was a chair and coach of a Vistage (formerly known as TEC) group of small business owners whose revenue ranged from $5 – 500 million.

When working with entrepreneurs, Stephen is known to provide strong direction while being welcoming and supportive, asks hard questions to push founders to reach higher levels of success, and thrives when challenges arise.