Daniel Isenberg (@danisen) is founding executive director of the Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Platform and Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School. From 1981-1987 and 2005-2009 Dan was a professor at the Harvard Business School, and in the interim (1987-2005) was an entrepreneur and venture capitalist in Israel.
From 2015-2017 Dan was an Associate of the Growth Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School. Dan has authored one book “Worthless Impossible and Stupid: How Contrarian Entrepreneurs Create and Capture Extraordinary Value” (Harvard Business Review Press 2013), published over 35 digital and print articles on entrepreneurship in the Harvard Business Review, and has been featured in publications such as the Economist, Forbes, Bloomberg, Quartz, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times.
Dan has been a pioneer in the concept and development of entrepreneurship ecosystems and created the Scalerator and Scale Up Ecosystem methodologies. Between 2009-2013 Dan conducted World Economic Forum events at Davos, Africa, Europe, and China. In 2012 Mikhail Gorbachev awarded Dan the Pio Manzu Award for “Innovations in Economic Development.” Dan created and directs the 3-day program, Driving Economic Growth Through Scale Up Ecosystems. Dan is an active investor in early and late stage ventures. He holds the Ph.D. degree in social psychology from Harvard University.