11th Effectuation Conference - The Next 25 Years

Keynote Speaker Biographies

Teaching Keynote

Heidi Neck is the Jeffry A. Timmons Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Babson College and Academic Director of the Babson Academy, where she works at the forefront of practice-based, experiential entrepreneurship education and faculty development around the world.

A defining feature of Heidi’s work is her conviction that entrepreneurship is learned through action. Her scholarship and teaching have helped shape environments in which students and educators build entrepreneurial skills through iteration, interaction, and real-world engagement.

Heidi is also a true field-builder. She has played a major role in scaling entrepreneurship education globally through the Babson Collaborative, which connects universities worldwide in order to strengthen entrepreneurship education ecosystems.

Her influence extends through widely adopted teaching resources and an ongoing commitment to making entrepreneurship education more effective, inclusive, and actionable.

Beyond academia, Heidi has also founded ventures, including VentureBlocks and FlowDog, and has served in board roles that reflect her deep engagement with entrepreneurial practice across diverse settings.

We are thrilled to welcome Heidi to Antwerp and eager to hear her perspective as our community explores new directions for effectuation teaching and entrepreneurship education over the next 25 years.

Research Keynote

Jeff McMullen is is currently Professor in Entrepreneurship at Imperial Business School. His scholarship has made a major contribution to how we understand entrepreneurial action under uncertainty and the broader consequences of new ventures for society across commercial, social, and sustainable contexts.

A defining feature of Jeff’s work is its ability to connect rigorous theory with lived experience. He is known for pushing conceptual boundaries and for drawing inspiration from literature to examine the ethical dimensions of entrepreneurship, including what responsible value creation can look like in practice.

His influence on the field has been widely recognized. Notably, his article on entrepreneurial action and uncertainty received the Academy of Management Entrepreneurship Division’s Foundational Paper Award in 2018. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Business Venturing, helping shape the trajectory of entrepreneurship research worldwide.

We are thrilled to welcome Jeff to Antwerp and eager to hear his perspective as our community explores new directions for effectuation research over the next 25 years.