A little over a year after leaving MassChallenge, Siobhan Dullea is stepping into a new role.
Dullea, the former CEO of the startup accelerator, will be the new executive director of Innovate@BU, a Boston University-wide initiative to help all students become drivers of innovation. Her start date is April 3.
Dullea joined MassChallenge in 2016 as chief operating officer and was appointed chief executive in 2019, replacing founder John Harthorne. She left the organization at the start of 2022 "in order to care for her mother who requires full-time support," according to a public statement from the MassChallenge Governing Board. Cait Brumme, who worked as executive vice president at MassChallenge, stepped into her place.
Prior to joining MassChallenge, Dullea served as the chief growth officer at The Grommet, an e-commerce company that shut down last year, and was a founding member of C Space.
Dullea is a 1991 BU graduate of the College of Arts & Sciences.
Innovate@BU is a program that aims to educate students about innovation and entrepreneurship through academic study and extracurricular activities. The program launched five years ago and is housed in the BUild Lab IDG Capital Student Innovation Center. Since launching, some of the program’s core activities have been creating a minor in innovation and entrepreneurship available to all undergraduates and hosting experiential learning programs in innovation, communication and collaboration skills.
“Every industry and career can use innovators. I want to help any BU student from any school or college learn about how they can innovate in their field of study, career, or passion area,” Dullea said in a statement. “That means that Innovate@BU needs to foster an inclusive environment in all its activities and connect students to the many resources available across BU. Innovation drives positive change in the world, and Innovate@BU will continue to inspire the next generation of multi-disciplinary innovators to multiply that positive change.”
Innovate@BU said it conducted a “rigorous national search” for its new leader.
“We’re thrilled that such a recognized entrepreneurial leader like Siobhan is joining us. It’s a powerful endorsement of this initiative and its importance to BU and our students. I believe that Siobhan is the right person to lead us during this next period of growth,” said Ian Mashiter, interim executive director.
Dullea was recognized by Boston Magazine as a “Visionary on the Rise” in 2019. In 2021 she was named to the FCW Fed 100, an award in federal information technology. She was also a founding team member of Mass FinTech Hub.
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