Entrepreneurship panelist bios
Panel Moderator:
Rob Hannemann
Rob Hannemann is the Director of the Tufts Gordon Institute. In this role, he is responsible for the Engineering Management and Entrepreneurial Leadership programs, which serve more than 100 graduate students and 400 undergraduates annually. He is also Professor of the Practice in the Mechanical Engineering department.
Dr. Hannemann earned advanced degrees in Mechanical Engineering from New York University (MS '72) and MIT (Sc.D.'75) after receiving his BS degree from Illinois Institute of Technology. He has experience as an engineer, manager, and entrepreneur.
Prior to joining Tufts he co-founded an energy-efficient electronics cooling firm, Thermal Form & Function, Inc., where he is a director and management and technology advisor. Previously, he was a senior executive at Corning, Inc., Lasertron, and Digital Equipment Corporation. Early in his career, he was on the faculty at the University of Maryland at College Park and a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories.
Kirk Loevner, E79
Kirk has over twenty five years of experience in the technology industry. He has been CEO of four internet companies, including Internet Shopping Network, an early e-commerce company acquired by Home Shopping Network; PublishOne, an online publishing company acquired by InterTrust Technologies; Screaming Media, a public online media company acquired by CBS; and most recently, Epocrates, a healthcare technology company providing clinical information to healthcare professionals. Kirk was a marketing executive at Apple for ten years where he led the introduction of many hardware and software products. He has a B.S.E. in Computer Science from Tufts University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Jeff Stibel, A95
Jeff Stibel is the author of Wired for Thought: How the Brain is Shaping the Future of the Internet (Harvard Business, Sept. 2009). He was most recently the President and CEO of Web.com. Prior to Web.com, Stibel was General Manager and SVP at United Online, a technology company that owns and operates leading web services, including NetZero, Juno, and Classmates.com. Prior to United Online, Stibel founded Simpli.com, a search engine marketing company currently owned by ValueClick. He serves on the board of directors for Web.com, Autobytel, and several private companies, including BrainGate, The Search Agency, and EdgeCast. He also serves on the Board of Brown University's Entrepreneurship Program and Tufts University's Gordon Center for Leadership.
Stibel currently writes for Harvard Business School Publishing and has authored numerous articles and books on a variety of subjects. He is the named inventor on the US
patent for search engine interfaces. Stibel received his Master's degree from Brown University and was the recipient of the Brain and Behavior Fellowship while studying for his PhD at Brown University and studied business at MIT’s Sloan School of Business
Ron Croen, A76
Ron is founder of Nuance Communications, Inc. He is currently Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Tufts Gordon Institute's Entrepreneurial Leadership Program.
Dr. Melina Jampolis J92, M96
Dr. Jampolis is a board certified internist and physician nutrition specialist (one of only 200 in the country). She specializes exclusively in nutrition for weight loss and disease prevention and treatment.
A graduate of Tufts University as well as Tufts School of Medicine, she completed her residency in internal medicine at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, a Stanford University teaching hospital. In 2005, Dr. Melina hosted a 10 episode diet program on the Discovery Network's FIT TV titled "Fit TV's Diet Doctor" and she currently serves as the diet and fitness expert for CNNHealth.com. She is the chief medical officer of smartnow. She serves as a member of the advisory board and a regular contributor to www.vivmag.com and Heart Healthy Living (Meredith Corporation). In January 2010, she joins the medical advisory board of Better Homes & Gardens.
Dr. Jampolis maintains a small private practice in San Francisco and Los Angeles. She believes whole-heartedly in the role of nutrition in preventative medicine and achieving optimal health. She teaches a balanced and sustainable lifestyle based eating and exercise program and has helped thousands clients over the past eight years improve their health and well-being.
