Babson President Schlesinger Receives "Entrepreneurial Leadership Award" from National Policy Forum on Innovation and Minority Entrepreneurship Education

WELLESLEY, Mass., April 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Babson College President Leonard Schlesinger received the "Entrepreneurial Leadership Award" as the nation's most Entrepreneurial University President at the "11th National Policy Forum on Innovation and Minority Entrepreneurship Education."

"I'm flattered and honored to receive this recognition for the great education we provide and my role in helping to make it happen. Babson's faculty and staff have created an enormously powerful living and learning laboratory that prepares our students with deep functional knowledge and the significant capability to take action in the face of uncertainty--an unusual combination that allows us to proudly say we're the only school in the world that does what we do," said Schlesinger.

Babson College is the top ranked college for the study of entrepreneurship of all kinds, ranked #1 by U.S. News & World Report, The Princeton Review, Entrepreneur magazine, and the Financial Times. Babson's Foundations of Managing and Entrepreneurship, named one of the top entrepreneurship courses in the U.S. by Inc. magazine, requires all students to start, operate, and liquidate a business during their freshman year.

Schlesinger served as a keynote speaker at the forum alongside Errol Davis, Chancellor of the University System of Georgia, and Dave West, President and CEO of The Hershey Company. In his presentation Schlesinger described how colleges can use the power of entrepreneurial thinking to inspire students and improve retention and graduation rates.

The Forum was hosted by the Opportunity Funding Corporation and participating Historically Black Colleges and Universities as a central part of their strategy to get academic, business, foundation, entrepreneurial, government, military and other leaders involved in the process of preparing African-American young men and women to become entrepreneurs.

Participants at the event held April 15-17, 2011 in Atlanta included presidents of select HBCUs, other university presidents, corporate senior executives, successful entrepreneurs, foundation executives, senior level federal agency representatives, top ranking military officers, and deans, professors and MBA and undergraduate students from twenty-five HBCUs.

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Leonard A. Schlesinger became the 12th president of Babson College on July 1, 2008--bringing to the College a blend of leadership experience in academia and industry, particularly in the retail and service sectors. He came to Babson from Limited Brands, based in Columbus, Ohio, where he served in executive positions from 1999-2007, most recently as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer. From 1985-1988, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Au Bon Pain.

His academic career includes twenty years at Harvard Business School where he served as the George Fisher Baker Jr. Professor of Business Administration, leading MBA and executive education programs. Courses he taught include organizational behavior, human resource management, general management, and service management. President Schlesinger is well-known for his pioneering research and publications on the "Service Profit Chain." He also was architect and chair of Harvard Business School's MBA Essential Skills and Foundations programs.

Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds™. The College is a dynamic living and learning laboratory, where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society--while at the same time evolving our methods and advancing our programs. We shape the leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to create economic and social value. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought and Action™ as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value.

Babson has a rich history in the field of entrepreneurship studies:

• First course in entrepreneurship - 1966
• First "hall of fame" for distinguished entrepreneurs - 1977
• First academic center for entrepreneurship - 1978
• First undergraduate entrepreneurship major - 1979
• First endowed entrepreneurship professor - 1980
• First entrepreneurship research conference - 1981.

Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., is recognized internationally as a leader in entrepreneurial management education. Babson grants BS degrees through its innovative undergraduate program, and grants MBA and custom MS and MBA degrees through the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College. Babson Executive Education offers executive development programs to experienced managers worldwide. For information, visit www.babson.edu.

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SOURCE Babson College