Andrew Zacharakis is The John H. Muller, Jr. Chair in Entrepreneurship at BabsonCollege, Wellesley, Mass. He is the Director of the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference and past president of the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. He is also a past chair of the Entrepreneurship Department at Babson College and a past Director of the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson. His writings and research focus on two major areas of entrepreneurship: the venture capital decision-making process, and entrepreneurial growth strategies.

Zacharakis is the author of five books, Entrepreneurship (with Bygrave), Entrepreneurship: The Engine of Growth Volume 2 (with Spinelli), The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship, 3^rd Edition (with Bygrave), Business Plans that Work (with Timmons and Spinelli) and How to Raise Capital (with Timmons and Spinelli). His research has been published in numerous academic journals including: the Journal of Business Venturing; Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice; Journal of Private Equity Capital; International Trade Journal; Academy of Management Executive; Journal of Management; and Frontiers of Entrepreneurial Research. Moreover, his article, “Differing perceptions of new venture failure: A matched exploratory study of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs” was selected as the best article published by Journal of Small Business Management in 1999. Zacharakis is on the Advisory Board for the Journal of Small Business Management and also serves on the editorial review boards for Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Venture Capital: An International Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, and Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance and Business Ventures. His dissertation, The Venture Capital Investment Decision, received the Certificate of Distinction (1995) from the Academy of Management for outstanding research in the field of new enterprise development.

Professor Zacharakis has been interviewed in newspapers nationwide, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Boston Globe and The Los Angeles Times, and by several magazines, including Inc., Entrepreneur and Kiplinger’s. He has also appeared on television in the Bloomberg Small Business Report and radio on NPR Morning Edition. Prior to his work at Babson, he held investment banking/venture capital positions with The Cambridge Companies. He also previously held positions at IBM and Leisure Technologies.

Professor Zacharakis has taught seminars at leading companies, including Intel, Met Life, and Lucent Technologies. He has also taught executives worldwide in such countries as Costa Rica, Chile, China, Mexico, Australia, Turkey, Spain and Germany.

Zacharakis received a BS (finance/marketing), University of Colorado; an MBA (finance/international business), Indiana University; and a PhD (strategy and entrepreneurship/cognitive psychology), University of Colorado. Zacharakis is a consultant to entrepreneurs and small business start-ups and ventures.