The Center will benefit enormously from their entrepreneurial and research experience as we continue to do research and create initiatives that support the growth and prosperity of all women business owners.
Margaret A. Smith, Chair, Center for Women's Business Research

The Center for Women's Business Research has named three new directors - Dr. Candida Brush, Dr. Jana Matthews, and Emily Stone. Their three-year terms will begin January 1, 2008.

Dr. Candida Brush is a full professor and the President's Chair in Entrepreneurship at Babson College. She also serves as the director of Babson's PhD program in entrepreneurship and division chair for entrepreneurship.

She is well known for her pioneering research in women's entrepreneurship. She conducted the first and largest study of women entrepreneurs in the early 1980's. With four other researchers she founded the Diana Project, a research consortium investigating women's access to growth capital. Their book, Clearing the Hurdles: Women Building High Growth Businesses, was published in 2004.
Her research is also published in management and entrepreneurship journals and is covered is popular media such as the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, and Inc. magazine.

Dr. Jana Matthews, founder and CEO of The Jana Matthews Group, is an international expert on entrepreneurial leadership and business growth. She is co-author of Lessons from the Edge, Leading at the Speed of Growth, Building the Awesome Organization and four other books.

Her company helps entrepreneurs and CEOs improve their company's leadership and effectiveness so that they can sustain long-term growth and profitability.

As a member of the original senior team of the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Kauffman Foundation, she designed programs to teach entrepreneurs to manage growth. Also while at the Kauffman Foundation, she developed the Kauffman Fellows Program. She has written for Entreworld.com, Dow-Jones' Startupjournal.com and is quoted regularly in Inc. magazine, Investor Business Daily, and other publications. She is a former member of the Advisory Council of the Center for Women's Business Research.

Emily Stone is the founder and president of Stone Group which provides strategic business and licensing services to fashion and consumer products companies. Her clients include Bausch & Lomb, Liz Claiborne, Kimberly-Clark, Revlon, Calvin Klein, and Karl Lagerfeld/Tommy Hilfiger among others.

She is a founding member of the Advisory Council of the Center for Women's Business Research. She is also an advisor to Aid to Artisans (From Maker to Market), and a member of The International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association.

"We are honored to welcome these exceptional women to our Board of Directors," said Margaret A. Smith, chair, Center for Women's Business Research. "The Center will benefit enormously from their entrepreneurial and research experience as we continue to do research and create initiatives that support the growth and prosperity of all women business owners.