Heidi M Neck

Heidi M. Neck, PhD, is a Babson College professor and the Jeffry A. Timmons Professor of

Entrepreneurial Studies. She has taught entrepreneurship at the undergraduate, MBA, and executive

levels. She is the academic director ofthe Babson Academy, a dedicated unit within Babson

that inspires change in the way universities, specifically their faculty and students, teach and learn

entrepreneurship. The Babson Academy builds on Neck's work starting the Babson Collaborative, a

global institutional membership organization for colleges and universities seeking to increase their

capability and capacity in entrepreneurship education, and her leadership of Babson's Symposia for

Entrepreneurship Educators (SEE), programs designed to inspire faculty from around the world to

teach more experientially and entrepreneurially. Neck has directly trained more than 3,500 faculty

around the world in the art and craft of teaching entrepreneurship. An award-winning teacher, Neck

has been recognized for teaching excellence at Babson for undergraduate, graduate, and executive education.

She has also been recognized by international organizations, the Academy of Management and

USASBE, for excellence in pedagogy and course design. In 2016, The Schulze Foundation awarded her

Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year for pushing the frontier of entrepreneurship education in higher

education. She was again recognized as Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year in 2022 by the United

States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) for her contributions that have

substantively advanced how scholars think and approach entrepreneurship teaching and learning.

Most recently, Neck was the recipient of the 2023 Karl Vesper Pioneer Award from the Experiential

Classroom at Notre Dame for her work to expand the reach and impact of entrepreneurship education.

Her research interests include entrepreneurship education with a specific interest in building entrepreneurial

mindsets. Neck is the lead author of Teaching Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach,

Volumes 1 and 2 (Elgar), books written to help educators teach entrepreneurship in more experiential

and engaging ways. Additionally, she has published 40+ book chapters, research monographs, and

refereed articles in such journals as Journal of Small Business Management, Entrepreneurship Theory &

Practice, and Entrepreneurship Education & Pedagogy.

Neck speaks and teaches internationally on cultivating the entrepreneurial mindset and espousing the

positive force of entrepreneurship as a societal change agent. She consults and trains organizations of all

sizes on building entrepreneurial capacity. She is the cofounder of VentureBlocks, an education-technology

company, and achieved a successful exit with FlowDog, a canine aquatic fitness and rehabilitation center

located just outside of Boston. She also served on the board of a 100% family-owned, seventh-generation

land-management company in Louisiana, A. Wilbert's & Sons. Heidi earned her PhD in Strategic

Management and Entrepreneurship from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She holds a BS in

Marketing from Louisiana State University and an MBA from the University of Colorado, Boulder.