Board of Directors

The Board of Directors meets twice a year in November and May. Finances, sponsorship, expense overview, partnerships and organization are all managed through the Board of Directors. Only past lead organizers are eligible for the Board.

Sombit Mishra

Sombit is the Founder and CEO of EveryFit, a patent-pending fitness analytics and CRM platform that enables health clubs and employers keep members engaged in their workout experience. As Managing Director of the $100K from 2008-2009, Sombit received the 2009 Patrick J. McGovern Award for his contributions to entrepreneurship at MIT. He has 5+ experience in fundraising, business development, eCommerce and product management at both large companies and startups. Sombit holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a BA in Economics/History from Northwestern University.

You can connect with Sombit on Twitter and stay informed about EveryFit via the EveryFit blog .

Brian Cantwell

Brian is a management consultant for Accenture, helping clients use technology to improve customer relationships and inbound marketing strategies. Brian is a published author of the white paper “Why Technical Breakthroughs Fail: A History of Public Concern with Emerging Technologies,” written for the MIT Auto-ID Center. He loves taking photos, reviewing movies, rooting for the Red Sox, and learning about wine. Connect with Brian on Twitter or his blog, B-School with Brian.
Brian earned a BA in History from Harvard University and an MBA in Entrepreneurship & Innovation from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

J. Frederic Kerrest

Frederic is passionate about enterprise technology and has spent the last 12 years helping companies improve their operations by embracing software solutions. In early 2009, Frederic co-founded Okta with the vision of empowering businesses to transform their web applications into intelligent, integrated Cloud Area Networks.From 2007 to 2009, Frederic attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management where he was the 2008 MIT Patrick J. McGovern, Jr. Entrepreneurship Award recipient and Managing Director of the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. During this time Frederic also worked at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, where he evaluated investment opportunities and worked with existing portfolio companies to strengthen their offerings and distribution strategies.  Frederic also has over 11 years of business development and software experience at SalesForce.com, Sun Microsystems, and Applied Materials.

Frederic earned a BS in Computer Science from Stanford University and an MBA in Entrepreneurship & Innovation from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Jeff Sabados

Jeff was the 2007-2008 Lead Organizer where he graduated MIT Sloan School of Management in 2008. At Sloan, he was a member of the inaugural Entrepreneurship and Innovation (E&I) program and was a co-founder of Avanti Metals Company, a 2006 MIT Entrepreneurship Competition runner-up winner out of 109 teams. Jeff also graduated from Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Jeff is currently involved with starting a company in the Cleantech industry after he left the MIT-Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy(CSE) where he was managing Operations, Strategic Marketing and Business Development for labs dedicated to Photovoltaics, Building Energy Efficiency and the Smart Grid.  During school, he worked as a consultant to two Cleantech battery companies: A123Systems and Firefly Energy.

Prior to the start of his graduate school experience, he served as a U.S. Navy SEAL where he planned, coordinated and led highly successful clandestine mini-submarine missions against trans-national terrorism and illegal arms smuggling.  After graduate school, he was mobilized back into the Navy where he led a task unit of 75 Special Operations personnel.

Karina Drees

Karina Drees is the CFO of the Washington DC based startup TRX Systems, developing the most reliable and comprehensive indoor tracking system. Prior to TRX, Karina ran finance and operations for a number of startup technology companies. She successfully co-founded a network vulnerability assessment company, which is still operating today. Karina has a BS From Arizona State University and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where she ran the MIT $100K from 2006-2007.

Jason Fuller

Jason is a senior associate at Third Rock Ventures, a Boston based venture firm focusing on building early stage life science companies. Prior to Third Rock, Jason completed his PhD in Chemical Engineering at MIT under Robert Langer. While at MIT he was a member of the 2007 MIT $100K runner up team, ImmuneXcite.

He was co-president of the MIT $100K (with Lawrence Walmsley) during 2005-2006. While in office they founded the Developmental Entrepreneurship track and doubled prize money (formerly $50K). Prior to MIT, Jason was a Churchill Scholar at Cambridge University where he earned an M.Phil. in Engineering and holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University.

Lawrence Walmsley

Lawrence is an Associate at McKinsey in New York City where he works with the Financial Institutions and Energy sectors. Lawrence is passionate about clean energy entrepreneurship and writes a blog at http://energycubed.blogspot.com.

He was co-president of the MIT $100K (with Jason Fuller) during 2005-2006. They founded the Developmental Entrepreneurship track (doubling the prize money) and took the Global Start-Up Workshop to Buenos Aires. Lawrence has an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a BSE from Princeton University.

Brian Curtis

Brian is an Entrepreneur in Residence with Qiming Ventures in Shanghai and its sister fund Ignition Partners in Seattle. He focuses on energy, environment and resource investments. Brian also acts as an independent consultant and advisor to clean energy start-ups and the US Department of Energy. Recent cases include cellulosic ethanol, electrification of cars, synthetic biology for biofuels, nano-materials for clean catalysts and food/air/water quality. Brian came to Qiming from Shanghai New Margin Ventures where he was a Venture Partner.

Brian first came to China in 2003 as founding General Manager for Heritage Technologies Asia, which operates a series of environmental protection joint ventures in South China. Under his management, the company structured its partnerships, built a chemical plant and established a Chinese distribution network. Brian works from a foundation of 2 formative experiences early his career: first, as a hydrogen and alternative fuels engineer for Chevron and, then, as an IT entrepreneur whose company was acquired in pre-bubble popping 2000.

Brian holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and remains active in the global MIT community. He is a judge for the MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize and recently co-founded the Shanghai chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum. During school, he was the Lead Organizer for the MIT $100K Business Plan Competition and dedicated much of his time to developing entrepreneurial programs across campus. He received the Patrick J McGovern, Jr Award for outstanding contribution to entrepreneurship at MIT and the Sloan Senate Award for leadership in the MIT Sloan community. Brian holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA.

Brian is a native Californian splitting time between Shanghai and San Francisco.

Joost Bonsen

Joost studies Innovation Everywhere, from invention in research labs through action in entrepreneurial startups and innovation ecosystems generally. He most recently finished the Management of Technology program at MIT Sloan with his thesis The Innovation Institute: From Creative Inquiry Through Real-World Impact at MIT. Prior to MIT Sloan, Bonsen ran the MIT Founders Project which quantified the economic impact of MIT-related entrepreneurs, findings ultimately published by BankBoston as MIT: Impact of Innovation — http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/founders Formerly an entrant, mentor, judge, and Lead Organizer of the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, Joost has been instrumental in the growth of and recent doubling of the prize fund to include a Development and Social Impact Track.