Welcome, Diane Hessan: Our new CEO

Today is a special day for Startup Institute, for our alumni, and for all of the communities we impact across the world. Over the past 2.5 years we’ve discovered a global need for our style of education and approach to talent development. We made it our mission to expand our community, to find, foster, and fuel innovative ecosystems across the world, and to that end, last month we successfully closed our three-million-dollar Series A funding round, led by our wonderful partners at Silicon Valley Bank. And now it’s time we take the company to the next level. It’s time to take that validation, that encouragement, and all of our know-how and resources, and use them to continue growing the Startup Institute, helping people from all walks of life to find jobs that they love, and fueling growth in the innovation communities that we call home.

So, we ask you to please join us in welcoming Startup Institute’s new CEO, Diane Hessan.

Diane has an incredible passion for growing people, and a true love for the chaos that comes with a growing organization. Her track record of turning something good into something great is phenomenal, but more than that: Diane has been there since we were still called Boston Startup School. She hosted some of our first classes at her last company (which she founded), Communispace, and has been a present and vocal supporter of our cause ever since. Meeting someone who embraces the humanity of what we do, embodies growth and integrity and cares deeply about every individual we impact seemed like a nearly impossible feat, but Diane is all of those and so much more.

Our extended family is the strongest community of difference makers in the world. Today we’re writing to say thank you to all of you who have been a part of our journey, and to make a simple promise: that we will continue to learn and evolve, that we will keep our mission pure and true, and that we will continue changing the lives of our students, and improving the world we live in, one job at a time, with our new CEO leading the way.

Welcome Diane, we’re incredibly excited to have you.

- Aaron, Katie, Shaun & Reed