Heidi M. Neck, PhD, is a Babson College professor and the Jeffry A. Timmons Professor of
Entrepreneurial Studies. She has taught entrepreneurship at the undergraduate, MBA, and executive
levels. She is the academic director of the Babson Academy, a dedicated unit within Babson
that inspires change in the way universities, specifically their faculty and students, teach and learn
entrepreneurship. The Babson Academy builds on Neck’s work starting the Babson Collaborative, a
global institutional membership organization for colleges and universities seeking to increase their
capability and capacity in entrepreneurship education, and her leadership of Babson’s Symposia for
Entrepreneurship Educators (SEE), programs designed to inspire faculty from around the world to
teach more experientially and entrepreneurially. Neck has directly trained more than 3,500 faculty
around the world in the art and craft of teaching entrepreneurship. An award-winning teacher, Neck
has been recognized for teaching excellence at Babson for undergraduate, graduate, and executive education.
She has also been recognized by international organizations, the Academy of Management and
USASBE, for excellence in pedagogy and course design. In 2016, The Schulze Foundation awarded her
Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year for pushing the frontier of entrepreneurship education in higher
education. She was again recognized as Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year in 2022 by the United
States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) for her contributions that have
substantively advanced how scholars think and approach entrepreneurship teaching and learning.
Most recently, Neck was the recipient of the 2023 Karl Vesper Pioneer Award from the Experiential
Classroom at Notre Dame for her work to expand the reach and impact of entrepreneurship education.
Her research interests include entrepreneurship education with a specific interest in building entrepreneurial
mindsets. Neck is the lead author of Teaching Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach,
Volumes 1 and 2 (Elgar), books written to help educators teach entrepreneurship in more experiential
and engaging ways. Additionally, she has published 40+ book chapters, research monographs, and
refereed articles in such journals as Journal of Small Business Management, Entrepreneurship Theory &
Practice, and Entrepreneurship Education & Pedagogy.
Neck speaks and teaches internationally on cultivating the entrepreneurial mindset and espousing the
positive force of entrepreneurship as a societal change agent. She consults and trains organizations of all
sizes on building entrepreneurial capacity. She is the cofounder of VentureBlocks, an education-technology
company, and achieved a successful exit with FlowDog, a canine aquatic fitness and rehabilitation center
located just outside of Boston. She also served on the board of a 100% family-owned, seventh-generation
land-management company in Louisiana, A. Wilbert’s & Sons. Heidi earned her PhD in Strategic
Management and Entrepreneurship from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She holds a BS in
Marketing from Louisiana State University and an MBA from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
