Linda A. Mason '76, president and co-founder of Bright
Horizons, the nation's largest worksite provider of child care, has been
named Cornell's 1997 Entrepreneur of the Year. Mason will be honored at
a dinner hosted by President Hunter Rawlings on April 10 at 7:30
p.m. in the Carrier Ballroom of the Statler Hotel on campus.
Mason also will give a public lecture, "Bright Horizons -- The Story of Pioneering the Worksite-Based Childcare Industry in the U.S.," on April 11 at 2 p.m. in the Carrier Ballroom.
Mason's honor is a highlight of the Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise (EPE) Celebration '97. This annual event attracts entrepreneurs from across the country to participate in a variety of seminars and discussions on wide-ranging topics, which this year include venture investing in service businesses, Cornell start-up companies and the inside perspectives of various successful Cornell entrepreneurs.
The Entrepreneur of the Year award, established in 1984 by Cornell and the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, recognizes the achievements and qualities of Cornell alumni who best exemplify the ideals of entrepreneurship. The Entrepreneur of the Year is selected by a committee composed of deans, faculty, students and alumni. Last year's recipient was David Duffield '62, CEO of PeopleSoft.
Created in 1986, Mason's company Bright Horizons operates 134 centers in 26 states for such clients as Mattel, Motorola, the United Nations, American Express, Dupont Pharmaceutical, Glaxo Pharmaceutical, IBM, MCA/Universal Studios, Beth Israel Hospital and John F. Kennedy Airport. The company has more than 4,000 employees and expects sales of $100 million in fiscal 1997.
Mason of Belmont, Mass., also co-founded The Horizons Initiative, a Boston-based organization that serves the needs of homeless children throughout the Boston area.
She earned a bachelor's degree in history from Cornell in 1976, a diplome de langue et civilisation Francaise from the University of Sorbonne, Paris, and a master of public and private management from the Yale University School of Management in 1980.
EPE Celebration '97's workshops include:
·"Going Against the Grain: An Entrepreneur's Escape from Corporate America" by Elliott Millenson '76, CEO of Direct Access Diagnostics, developer of the first FDA-approved home HIV test kit; April 11 at 10:30 a.m. in the Statler Hotel amphitheater.
·"Venture Investing in Service Businesses," a panel discussion featuring Mason and two venture investors. The moderator will be Jeff Parker '65, MS '66, MBA '70, founder and managing director of Private Equity Investments; 9 a.m., Statler Hotel amphitheater.
·"The Commercial Impact of Biotechnology: What's in Store for the Next 10 Years" by Samuel Fleming, president of Decision Resources Inc.; 9:15 a.m., Theory Center Training Room, fourth floor, Frank H.T. Rhodes Hall.
·"Cornell Start-Up Companies: Tackling the Private Sector" by Todd Krizelmann '96, co-founder of Web Genesis Inc.; 11:40 a.m., Statler Hotel amphitheater.
·"Back to the Future: What Entrepreneurs Should Know in 1997 about 2010" by Diane Crispell, executive editor of American Demographics magazine; 12:20 p.m., Carrier Ballroom, Statler Hotel.
·"Bright Horizons -- The Story of Pioneering the Worksite Childcare Industry in the U.S." by Linda A. Mason; 2 p.m., Carrier Ballroom.
Celebration '97 is sponsored by Cornell's EPE program, which was founded in 1992 as a combined initiative of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Johnson Graduate School of Management. EPE is the only multidisciplinary entrepreneurship program in the country.
For further information on EPE, contact the program office at 255-1576.