Scott Bailey, Senior Director of Partnerships, MassChallenge

In Scott Bailey’s role at MassChallenge, he develops annual fundraising strategies, builds partnerships with public and private organizations and investigates new expansion initiatives. He also plays a critical role in the day-to-day operations of the accelerator program and competition. He connects finalists with key stakeholders, partners and sponsors, and manages the competition judging logistics and the annual awards ceremony. Bailey supports local and global entrepreneurship by frequently hosting international delegations at MassChallenge and volunteers his time to work with entrepreneurs, speak on panels, and mentor college students in the Boston startup community. After graduating from the University of Vermont in 2009 with a degree in Business Administration and Entrepreneurship, he served as the Director of Client Programs at the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies (VCET), a non-profit technology business incubator. During his time at VCET, Bailey prospected early stage companies for the $5 Million Seed Capital Fund, founded the Entrepreneurship Club, and joined a student run startup, BlirpIt, as Director of Sales & Marketing.

Kevin T. Byrne, MBA, AURP President; President, The University Financing Foundation, Inc.

Kevin Byrne spent his early career at Arthur Andersen with a primary focus in the real estate and financial services industries. In 1997, Byrne founded Byrne & Associates, which focused on providing investment-banking services to small and middle market companies. After earning his Master of Business Administration with honors from the Wharton School of Business in 2001, Byrne joined a real estate development firm as the chief financial officer, managing a balance sheet of over $200 million and leading new transactions of over $150 million in just two years. Byrne joined The University Financing Foundation (TUFF) in 2003 and has managed all aspects of the firm including its new investments in education and research projects, which total over $800 million. Byrne oversees the operations of the firm and, through Byrne’s leadership, the firm is involved in all aspects of research park creation and ongoing operations including the development of facilities. He has crafted full-scale park business plans, assisted in the strategic and master planning of research parks and has helped several global parks with the creation of innovative investment structures that enable parks to maximize the efficiency of their limited resources. Byrne is an honors graduate from Furman University, and currently serves as the immediate past president of the Association of University Research Parks Board of Directors.

Charles Day Dilks, President, DilksConsulting, Inc.

For over 35 years, Charlie Dilks has served in various senior officer positions (most recently as Executive Vice President) at The University City Science Center and managed the development and operation of the nation’s first urban research park in Philadelphia.  He negotiated the financing, legal and development structures for twenty buildings totaling nearly two million square feet of space, organized and managed the real estate marketing program for the Science Center, and created the property management company, Research Park, Inc., for the Science Center’s facilities.  He pioneered the concept of a business “incubator” by providing a comprehensive package of space, equipment, and services for over 400 startup organizations.  Dilks was responsible for maintaining corporate records and coordinating Science Center legal affairs, which involved nearly twenty partnerships, joint ventures, and subsidiaries.  Together these ventures generated over $30 million in annual revenues and employ a staff of 75 people. Since his retirement in 2000, Dilks has conducted numerous consulting assignments in technology-led economic development as President of DilksConsulting, Inc. Dilks’ primary consulting work is with Wexford Science & Technology, LLC, a BioMed Realty Company assisting them in winning opportunities to develop research parks, incubators and other clinical and research facilities such as the development of nine research parks, over 1.6 million square feet of space and invested over $1 billion. Dilks has been actively involved with the Association of University Research Parks (AURP), serving on its Board, various officer positions, and eventually as its President from 1998-2000.  In 2001, he received the Association’s “Career Achievement Award” for an outstanding career in technology based economic development.

Michael J. Donovan, Vice President of Real Estate & Facility Services, Boston University

Ranch Kimball, Managing Director, Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC)

Ranch Kimball is Managing Director at CIC. CIC was founded in 1999 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and today is the largest cluster of startups in the world, housing 800 companies in 354,000 square feet of premium office and co-working space across 7 facilities. Companies started at CIC have included Google Android, Greatpoint Energy and Hubspot, and have attracted a total of over $2B in venture capital with more than $3B in publicly disclosed exit value. Prior to CIC, Kimball was the President and CEO of the Joslin Diabetes Center, a Harvard teaching hospital, and was Secretary of Economic Development for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with overall responsibility for the state’s economy and the management of 22 state agencies. He was also the managing partner of Kissinger McLarty Capital Group, a private equity firm in partnership with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former White House Chief of Staff and Fortune 500 CEO Thomas “Mack” McLarty. He began his career at the Boston Consulting Group, where he was a long-time partner with leadership in Boston, London, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. Kimball has broad experience in real estate and facilities projects. While running the Joslin, he led a $400 million, 340,000 square-foot wet lab project in the Longwood Medical Area. As the Commonwealth’s economic secretary, he led the effort to develop a $600 million biomanufacturing facility for Bristol Myers Squibb, and drove a comprehensive overhaul of the state’s real estate development permitting process. He chaired the board of Mass Development, the state’s finance and redevelopment authority, and chaired the board of Massport, the state’s airport and seaport authority, overseeing the financing of approximately $10 billion in projects.

Chris Leary, AIA, LEED AP, Principal, Jacobs

A registered architect and Principal, Chris Leary has been a project director and project architect on many of the firm’s LEED® certified projects including the LEED® Platinum Certified Autodesk AEC Headquarters, LEED® Gold Certified AstraZeneca R&D Boston Expansion, and LEED® Silver Certified MITRE Center. His particular passion is in the area of building performance and sustainable design, and he frequently presents and writes about the subject. In addition, he is a leader in KlingStubbins’ Sustainable Design Group. Chris Leary joined Jacobs (formerly KlingStubbins) in 1992, after earning his Bachelor’s in architecture from Syracuse University.

Sarah Jane Maxted, Manager, Harvard Business School, Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness - US Cluster Mapping Project

Sarah Jane Maxted is the Manager at Harvard Business School's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness (ISC), focused on clusters and competitiveness with an emphasis on domestic regional economic growth. She has a diverse background in cluster development with a specific expertise in the energy space. She has worked for both the private and public sector, at both Federal and state levels, throughout her career ranging from pure policy to technology commercialization and impact investing to developing prizes and challenges. Previously, Maxted worked at Deloitte Consulting where she focused on strategic growth and investment on the public side for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its 17 National Laboratories, U.S. Agency for International Development, international entities such as Japanese Ministry of Economic, Trade and Industry, and on the private side for primarily utility clients. While her focus was on industrial partnerships, tech transfer, and innovation, she also led research around crowdfunding and other forms of impact investing both domestically and internationally. Prior to that, she worked for the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. One of several programs she developed and ran was the inaugural U.S. Department of Energy National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition where 500+ start-up companies have formed. While at the DOE she ran over $35 million dollars of grants to support the development of energy ecosystems and clusters across the U.S. She also worked for CGI Consulting where she specialized in the environmental service industry for clients such as 3M, Chevron, ExxonMobil. She has experience working at the state policy level for (now) Secretary of State John Kerry (former Senator-MA) with a focus on energy and health care. Originally from Colorado, Maxted attended Duke University where she focused on Public Policy and Cultural Anthropology.

Scott Simpson, FAIA, LEED AP, Jacobs

Scott Simpson is an award-winning architect and Senior Director of Jacobs (formerly KlingStubbins), a global design firm. He is a Richard Upjohn Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, a Senior Fellow and board member of the Design Futures Council, a founding board member of the Rice Building Institute, and an Overseer of the Boston Children’s Museum. Simpson is an acknowledged industry leader in applying BIM technology to the design/delivery process. His projects have won numerous honors, including the AIA Technology in Practice and the Business Week/Architectural Record awards. He has published more than 115 articles on innovation in the design professions and has co-authored two books, How Firms Succeed and The Next Architect—a New Twist on the Future of Design. He has lectured at the Harvard, Yale and Rice schools of architecture.

Eileen Walker, MIM/MBA, Chief Executive Officer, Association of University Research Parks (AURP)

Eileen Walker is the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of University Research Parks (AURP), which fosters innovation, commercialization and economic growth in a global economy through university, industry and government partnerships. The organization is comprised of university research, science and tech parks from all around the world. Walker regularly consults with universities and their research parks regarding best practices. Recently, Walker was tapped by the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board to serve as a Fulbright Specialist, to advise universities across the world on their university research park planning. Her initial assignment was with the Universidad de Antonio Narino in Bogota, on the planning for their new research park in Usme, Colombia. Walker directed the Arizona State University Research Park in Tempe, Arizona, a university research park comprised of over 2 million square feet of developed space for many years, and has served as a member of the Board of Directors of AURP, as an executive officer of the Arizona Bioindustry Association, and on the Board of Directors of Habitat for Humanity Tucson. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder, and holds a Master of International Management/Master of Business Administration degree from the American Graduate School of International Management. Additionally, Walker was designated a Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) of the National Real Estate Institute in 2002.