Debi Kleiman

Kleiman comes to Babson after serving as Managing Director and Executive Vice President at Havas Media, where she led both the Boston office of 170 media professionals, as well as a startup office in San Francisco, building strong client relationships and invigorating team performance.

Previously she was president of MITX (Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange), the state’s premier industry association for web and mobile innovators, serving as the organization’s chief strategist, community builder, evangelist, and business leader. Kleiman created a groundbreaking mentorship program called MITXUP that connected marketing experts and startups in a hackathon environment to help these young companies brand, communicate, and acquire customers and funding.

In 2013, she was recognized by VentureFizz as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Boston's Tech and Innovation Community .

Kleiman is on the advisory board for several local startups and has mentored entrepreneurs at MassChallenge, Harvard's iLab, and TechStars Boston.

Prior to MITX, she spent five hyper-growth years at Communispace as VP of Product Marketing and helped to facilitate its sale to Omnicom DAS. She began her career in business as a marketing leader for major CPG companies such as Coca-Cola, Welch’s, and Procter & Gamble.

Kleiman has a BS from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She spends most of her free time with her husband (a serial entrepreneur) and two sons (both budding entrepreneurs) - cooking, playing, cheering, and trying not to get hit by a lacrosse ball or hockey puck.