Skip to Content
MIT News magazine

Alumni Share the "View from the Top"

Entrepreneurs offer economic insights

As a student, Nate Ball ‘05, SM ‘07, won the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for a powered rope ascender that could lift a 500-pound load 10 feet per second. As an alumnus, Ball attended the Boston-­area View from the Top event October 14 to talk to fellow alumni about his startup, Atlas Devices, and to learn from experienced business leaders. “The challenges my company faces are not new,” Ball says. “These people have been through it before, and it’s easy to talk to people here.” (Learn about Ball’s role in the PBS show Design Squad in “Engineering TV Careers.”)

SUCCESS STORY Professor Yet-Ming Chiang addresses the View from the Top audience.

Karl Buttner ‘87, chair of the financial software firm 170 Systems, came for a glimpse into the future of the economy. He appreciated the relatively small scale of the event–about 150 people–and the opportunity to meet “people who are hard to get access to.”

View from the Top, an MIT Alumni Association panel series launched in 2007, invites MIT graduates who are leaders in business, research, and academia to share their observations about trends and challenges. Events in Boston, London, and New York drew standing-room-only crowds last year.

Speakers at the Boston Metro West event included Yet-Ming Chiang ‘80, ScD ‘85, cofounder of battery company A123 Systems and MIT’s Kyocera Professor of Ceramics, who talked about MIT’s thriving entrepreneurial community. James Shields ‘71, SM ‘72, president and CEO of Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, provided an update on the business of research and the flow of federal funds to energy and green tech. Alan Spoon ‘73, SM ‘73, managing general partner of Polaris Venture Partners, shared insights into venture capital, citing Warren Buffett’s praise of “transparency and hustle” as fundamental to business success. Sheryl Handler, PhD ‘85, CEO of Ab Initio Software, moderated the panel.

To learn about upcoming alumni education events, visit alum.mit.edu/learn/.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

DeepMind’s cofounder: Generative AI is just a phase. What’s next is interactive AI.

“This is a profound moment in the history of technology,” says Mustafa Suleyman.

What to know about this autumn’s covid vaccines

New variants will pose a challenge, but early signs suggest the shots will still boost antibody responses.

Human-plus-AI solutions mitigate security threats

With the right human oversight, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence can help keep business and customer data secure

Next slide, please: A brief history of the corporate presentation

From million-dollar slide shows to Steve Jobs’s introduction of the iPhone, a bit of show business never hurt plain old business.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.