BOSTON— TiE Boston, the local chapter of TiE, one of the world’s largest not-for-profits dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship, announced that it will honor MIT Professor and edX CEO Anant Agrawal with the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2019. It will also present 2019 Entrepreneurship Awards in 10 categories at this year’s annual gala.
The glittering awards gala will be held on Saturday, December 7, 2019, at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA.
The black-tie event honors and celebrates the achievements of entrepreneurs. The nominating committee selects individuals who through their remarkable contribution have moved the needle forward in creating or redefining the industry by means of investment, mentoring, education and business creativity. Awards are presented across several categories such as venture capital, innovation, healthcare, B2B solutions, philanthropy, and value creation.
In recognition of his extraordinary journey and his invaluable contribution in the fields of education, science, and technology this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award will be conferred upon Prof. Anant Agrawal, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of edX, the trusted platform for learning founded by Harvard and MIT.
Past awardees of TiE Boston Lifetime Achievement Award have included Venkat Srinivasan, Amar Sawhney, Ashraf Dahod, Ed Anderson, Mukesh Chatter, Jit Saxena, Desh Deshpande and Anil Singhal.
“It has been my pleasure to be a member of TiE Boston over the years and to see its growth as a vibrant community that actively fosters the next generation of entrepreneurs in New England. I am incredibly honored to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award this year,” said Agarwal.
Over the course of his career, Professor Agarwal founded companies such as Virtual Machine Works Inc., InCert Software, Determina, and Tilera Corporation and served as the director of CSAIL, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In addition to being a successful entrepreneur, he is also a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, a Board Member at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and author of the textbook “Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, he went on to earn a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Stanford University.
Professor Agarwal is the recipient of several national and international awards. In 2018, he earned one of the most distinguished awards in the field of education when he was named the Yidan Prize Laureate for Education Development. In 2017, he was bestowed with the Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian awards in India. In 2016, he received the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize for Higher Education, which recognized his work in advancing the MOOC movement. In 2012, he was named in the Forbes’ list of top 15 education innovators. In 2011, his work on Organic Computing was selected by Scientific American as one of 10 World-Changing Ideas. He also holds a Guinness World Record for the largest microphone array.
2019 TiE-Boston Entrepreneurship Awardees also include:
Healthcare Leadership Award
Reshma Kewalramani, MD
CEO Vertex Pharmaceutical
Value Creation
Praveen Tiperneni, MD
CEO Morphic Therapeutic
AI Company to Watch
Prof. Hari Balakrishnan, PhD,
Co-founder and CTO
Cambridge Mobile Telematics
Making Waves in Venture Capital
Michael Skok
Co-founder and General Partner
Underscore VC
Rethinking Innovation
Reshma Shetty, PhD,
Co-founder
Gingko Bioworks
Rethinking Patient Care
Jamie Heywood
Co-founder & CEO
PatientsLikeMe
Rising Star Award
Adeel Yang, MD
Co-founder & CEO
Medumo (a Phillips Company)
Extraordinary Contribution to Community
Subu Kota
Founder & CEO
The Boston Group
TiE CM Achievement Award
Sanjeev Jain, Founder & CEO
Internet Media Corporation
Purnanand Sarma, PhD,
President & CEO
Taris Biomedical
This year’s TiE Boston Gala will feature a new award, the SEEMA award, in collaboration with SEEMA Magazine to recognize an outstanding Female South Asian Entrepreneur. The award will spotlight hidden figures in today’s entrepreneurship ecosystem – the best, boldest, brightest South Asian female founders in all sectors – from STEM to fashion, food, film, philanthropy and more.
“This year’s winners inspire us with their vision and leadership” said Nilanjana Bhowmik, President of TiE Boston. “Their achievements embody TiE Boston’s core values of fostering an entrepreneurial spirit while giving back to the community. Through meaningful partnerships and collaboration, these visionaries pave the way for not only developing a sustainable business ecosystem but also creating a nurturing environment for other entrepreneurs in the community.”
TiE Boston connects tomorrow’s founders with today’s entrepreneurs, executives and venture capitalists. Founded in 1997 by entrepreneurs who immigrated from the Indus region, TiE Boston champions inclusion in innovation by blending the fundamentals of entrepreneurship with traditional Indian values that place importance on community, mentorship, and long-term relationships.
TiE Boston is one of the region’s largest and oldest organizations supporting the Massachusetts entrepreneurial ecosystem, focused on supporting entrepreneurs throughout their lifecycle — from ideation to creation, through growth, wealth creation and ultimately, support of future founders.
The TiE Boston community encompasses students, founders, experienced entrepreneurs, angel investors, and venture capitalists. Its programs foster trusted, long-term relationships between its participants — span education, mentoring, networking, and funding.
