Babson President Kerry Healey and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh just announced that the school would be launching the first global entrepreneur-in-residence (GEIR) program to be offered by a private university. The program, which will kick off in the fall, will help a select number of international entrepreneurs graduating from institutions throughout the region remain in the U.S. to work on their viable ventures.
“Babson believes that entrepreneurship is the most powerful force for social and economic good in the world today,” Healey said in front of 100 High Street in the Financial District, where the school will be expanding its Blank Center for Entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurs accepted to the program will serve as mentors to Babson student startups at the Blank Center, working part-time for the college by organizing events, conducting research and garnering resources for ventures at 100 High Street. In return, Babson will “provide another pathway for international entrepreneurs to continue to bring innovation, jobs and values to the City of Boston and beyond,” Healey shared.
The school’s president continued to explain, “Each year, it’s estimated that more than a thousand entrepreneurs leave the Commonwealth of Massachusetts due to the cap on H1-B Visas.” However, people working part-time at institutions of higher education, like Babson, are exempt from this H-1B Visa cap. She said, “This exemption for colleges and universities provides a limitless opportunity for entrepreneurs with viable businesses to secure H-1B Visas.”
In addition to working as GEIRs for Babson, program participants will be able to work on their ventures, using the resources the Blank Center and Boston has to offer, according to Debi Kleiman, who will be running the GEIR program. Not only will enabling these international entrepreneurs to stay in Massachusetts and grow their ventures here enrich the local startup ecosystem, it will also make a statement to the rest of the country, as debates on immigration issues persist.
Mayor Walsh said:
I left no doubt where I stand: The diversity and the desire immigrants bring to Boston are a historic strength of not only Boston, but America as well. This program shows exactly that. We have people clamoring to be here, to invent things, to build new businesses, to make our world a better place. We have the opportunity to welcome them in and help them stay. We’re going to create jobs and build our innovation ecosystem down in downtown area, in our neighborhoods and all across our region.
People throughout the tech community in Boston have had a hand in Babson’s new GEIR initiative, including Flybridge Capital’s Jeff Bussgang, who has advocated GEIRs. "It is a fantastic development. Babson is consistently ranked as the number one school for entrepreneurship in the world," Bussgang told BostInno. "To have them launch a global EIR program is a tremendous endorsement and lends a huge amount of credibility to the initiative."
Healey said the school has also had help from individuals at MassTech Collaborative and the Global EIR Coalition, and that there's been broad support from organizations throughout the community.
Babson is now taking applications for the fall pilot of its GEIR program. The school will be looking for international entrepreneurs who have completed at least their undergraduate degrees and whose startups are “well under way,” as Kleiman put it. There will be up to ten entrepreneurs accepted into the program.