Board & Advisors
Board of Directors
JANET KRAUS has been involved in every stage of the entrepreneurial process, including idea generation, product development, team building, fund raising, sales and business development, operational scaling, buying and exiting companies.
In 1997, Janet co-founded Circles, a concierge and events company that helped its clients cultivate powerful bonds with their employee and customers, Circles quickly grew to be a $50 million company, with nearly 1000 employees in both Boston, MA and Burlington, Ontario. Circles was sold to Sodexo in October 2007 and has since expanded its base of operations into 5 countries.
In November 2007, Janet left Circles to lead Spire, a company designed to create social resource sharing platforms specializing in travel and leisure. Janet sold Spire to Perfect Escapes in 2010.
In January 2010, Janet joined the Harvard Business School as an Entrepreneur in Residence and then in July joined the faculty in the Entrepreneurship Unit.
She and the companies she has lead have been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Fortune Small Business, the New York Times, among others. Janet is a recipient of Boston’s 40 under 40 and was a finalist of Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year and Circles was awarded the Small Business of the Year Award by the Chamber of Commerce. She is passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation, building teams, as well vision, values, culture and leadership.
Janet sits on advisory boards of six start-up companies and in on the Board of The Capital Network (TCN) a non-profit that helps companies raise early stage capital. She is also on the Board of Big Sisters Association of Greater Boston, Massachusetts. She currently lives outside of Boston with her husband and twin 3 year old daughters.
Janet received her MBA at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and her undergraduate from Yale University.
Pam lives in NYC with her husband and her two children.
Specialties
Startup, turnarounds, new business expansion online and offline. General management with an emphasis on growth through the digital and ecommerce sectors.
Mr. Pomerantz holds a B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an M.A. from the London School of Economics/USC, and an M.B.A from New York University. He is currently a Director of Alamo Orchards, Inc., PingMD Inc., Service Repair Solutions Inc., Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy, MedicaMetrix Inc., Atentiv Inc., and Gracious Eloise. He is also a Director of Phoenix House Foundation.
ROGER SMITH held a variety of executive positions in the entertainment industry in the 23‐year period from 1974 to 1996, including eleven years with Warner Communications (now Time Warner.) At Warner, Smith’s duties included chairing Warner’s Acquisitions Committee and overseeing its strategic planning. He also headed Warner’s charitable Foundation and served as Chairman of Warner Theatre Productions, mounting fifteen Broadway and off‐Broadway productions. He was closely involved with the acquisition of the first video games company, Atari, in 1976 and in its subsequent management and in 1981 of The Franklin Mint. From 1996 to the present, as the Principal at Roger Smith & Co., he has been a consultant and advisor to numerous financial institutions and media companies, the latter ranging in size from small Internet start‐ups to Warner Bros. From 1966 to 1974, he spent eight years on Wall Street as a financial analyst and portfolio manager.
He frequently writes about the media field for a number of publications, including Film Comment, New York Observer, The Huffington Post and, from 1999‐2001, he wrote a bi‐weekly column about the business side of show business for Variety. From 2001‐3, he discussed media events every other week on CNBC’s Morning Call and Squawk Box.
Helping drive the support ecosystem by matching entrepreneurs with investors and other resources, Jean meets with hundreds of entrepreneurs a year. As a part-time entrepreneur-in-residence at the E Center and an active mentor at TCN, TechStars, and MassChallenge, she has directly or indirectly helped dozens of startups, moving them from “idea stage” to “funding-ready” to eventual launch to become vital members of the Massachusetts innovation economy.
A serial entrepreneur, she co-founded AXON Networks, which was acquired by 3Com. She led 3Com’s first VC deal and other acquisitions and led the WAN strategy. Jean founded Quarry Technologies, spinning out the BBN Super-router group.
Jean is frequent speaker on entrepreneurship and angel investing at colleges, universities and at many organizations. She serves on the board of The Technology Capital Network (TCN), teaching entrepreneurs about the investment process.
Jean was recently named to the Alley-to-the-Valley investors group, bringing together the 50 most influential women investors in the country. She will be addressing the We Own It Conference in London, on women roles and behaviors in technology commercialization.
Jean is the 2011 recipient of the prestigious Monosson Prize for Entrepreneurship Mentoring, awarded by the MIT Sloan School of Management.
On the board of Thompson Island Outward Bound and Boston Rising Jean supports the growth of science education and entrepreneurial jobs in the inner city. She earned a M.S. from the MIT Sloan School of Management and BS in Biology at MIT.
Advisory Board
When not working hard, Sean loves spending time with his family and friends, watching foreign films, snowboarding, cycling (Cannondale CAAD 9), swimming, working out, eating (now you know why all the exercise) and traveling the globe.
