Workshops

Geralyn McClure Franklin is an innovative and experienced academic leader, serving as dean of business at three American institutions for 11 1/2 years and interim dean at another for two years, before retiring in the State of Texas in 2014.  From 2014-2016, she led the College of Business and Economics at the United Arab Emirates University. With more than 30 years of academic and entrepreneurship experience as a dean, associate dean, department chair, faculty member, and advisor, Dr. Franklin is now consulting with business schools and universities in the United States and globally as well as supporting several entrepreneurial ventures through her own start-up GMF Academic Advisors, LLC.  As an academic, Dr. Franklin has published more than 80 journal articles and 50 conference proceedings on human resource management, employment law, and small and entrepreneurial issues. Professionally, she remains active in AACSB International, previously serving two elected terms on the board of directors and currently serving as a mentor for schools in the initial business accreditation process. Since June 2012, Dr. Franklin has been the senior vice president of finance and control for the International Council for Small Business (ICSB).  As of July 1, 2017, she will become ICSB’s president-elect.

Helena Estrada serves as Adviser to the Center for the Economic Development of Women in the Department of Small and Medium Sized Businesses in the Ministry of Production, Argentina. The Center aims to motivate to motivate the economic autonomy of women and promote greater participation and equity for women within the economy. Prior to this position, Helena. participated in the G25, an organization that advocates ethical and capable people in the private sector to go into public careers. She later created the Women G25 organization to inspire women to participate in politics. It now has 8,500 members. Ms. Estrada received a law degree from the Catholic University of Argentina in 2009. She also holds Master’s Degree in Capital and Finance at ESEADE.

Vesna Mandakovic is the Academic Director of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in Chile and an Assistant Professor in the Entrepreneurship Institute of Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile. She holds a PhD in Economics from the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile. Her research interests are in the study of entrepreneurial activity and the analysis of how public policy and programs influence the creation of new business ventures in developing economies, trying to identify which policies are actually successful in stimulating rates of entrepreneurship from an empirical perspective.

Donna Kelley is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at Babson College, and holds the Frederic C. Hamilton Chair of Free Enterprise. Prof. Kelley is a board member of the Global Entrepreneurship Research Association (GERA), the oversight board of GEM, and leader of the GEM US team. She has co-authored GEM reports on global entrepreneurship, ambitious and innovative entrepreneurs, women’s entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education and training, and entrepreneurship in the US, Korea, Europe and Africa. She is a frequent presenter on the topic of global entrepreneurship for executive, policy and academic audiences around the world, including the United Nations, the US State Department, the World Bank, and many other organizations. Her current research interests include examining the impact of policy and other ecosystem conditions on the rate and nature of entrepreneurship in a society. Prof. Kelley’s early career involved work as a chemist and in entrepreneurship ventures in the health/fitness, computer data storage and education fields.

Simara Greco has been the Coordinator of Programs at the Brazilian Institute of Quality and Productivity (IBQP) since 2000, having original and main responsibility for conducting the GEM Project. The GEM Team in Brazil has been very successful during an uninterrupted 14 years of participation when 13 national reports were published and released to representative sectors of the Brazilian community. Before working for IBQP, Simara completed 25 years of professional experience, most of which was managing social programs and research aimed to the productive sector.  She graduated in Social Science from the Catholic University of Paraná, in Statistics from the Federal University of Paraná, and as a post graduate in Management with emphasis in Economic Engineering from FAE.