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 worldwide.  Her work emphasizes that entrepreneurship is learned through action—designing environments where learners build skills through iteration, interaction, and real-world engagement. 
Neck is also a field-builder. She helped scale entrepreneurship education globally through leadership in Babson’s educator development initiatives and by founding the Babson Collaborative, a membership organization connecting universities around the world to strengthen entrepreneurship education ecosystems.  Her influence extends through widely adopted teaching resources and an ongoing commitment to making entrepreneurship education more effective, more inclusive, and more actionable.  
Outside academia, Neck has founded and co-founded ventures, including VentureBlocks (entrepreneurship education technology) and FlowDog (canine aquatic fitness and rehabilitation), with a successful exit, and she has served in board roles that reflect her engagement with practice across diverse settings.  When she’s not teaching or working with educators, she also enjoys one of her newer passions: pickleball.
Official profile: https://www.babson.edu/about/our-leaders-and-scholars/faculty-and-academic-divisions/faculty-profiles/heidi-neck.php

Research Keynote

Jeffery S. McMullen is Professor of Entrepreneurship at Imperial Business School (Department of Management & Entrepreneurship). His scholarship centers on entrepreneurial agency under uncertainty and the consequences of entrepreneurial action for society, across commercial, social, and sustainable contexts.  
A defining feature of McMullen’s work is its ability to connect rigorous theory with lived experience. He is known for pushing conceptual boundaries by drawing inspiration from literature and cinema to examine the ethical dimensions of entrepreneurship (including what responsible value creation can look like in practice).  In recognition of his influence on the field, his paper on entrepreneurial action and uncertainty received the Academy of Management Entrepreneurship Division’s Foundational Paper Award (2018).  
Beyond academia, McMullen brings deep engagement with entrepreneurial practice—as a consultant, venture creator, and a Certified Public Accountant at KPMG (Denver).  He also served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Business Venturing, helping shape the trajectory of entrepreneurship research worldwide.
Official profile: https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/j.mcmullen