Founder, CEO 2123iX; Senior Partner Emeritus, McKinse

Nav is the Founder and CEO of 2123iX which he is currently building. He is a Senior Partner Emeritus from McKinsey’s Boston Office. Prior to McKinsey Nav was an Executive at General Electric. Over his 23 years at McKinsey, he has held multiple roles including serving as the Office Managing Partner for Boston from 2012-2021, leader of the State and Local practice in North America, leader of the Global Innovation practice, leader of McKinsey Center of Government and being a part of the Firm’s Knowledge and Technology Councils. He has also been intimately in the COVID-19 response work across multiple clients. He has also served as a sponsor for the Global Talent Attraction and as a member of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) council, which advises on MGI research for global economic, business, and technology trends. Nav brings deep business expertise in strategy, innovation, operations, transformations, M&A, business development, and risk to all his client engagements. 

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Outside McKinsey, he has served as the Chair of the Board for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. He is a Trustee at Museum of Science and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Mass High Tech Council and on the Dean’s Advisory Board for University of Minnesota. He also hosts Imagine Get-Togethers that convene cross-sector leaders on cutting-edge topics, such as synthetic biology, commercial applications of drones, the future of space exploration, and the impact of aging. He has been recognized as the Top Influential people in Boston three times by the Boston Business Journal. 

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Before joining McKinsey, in 2001, Nav was a laboratory manager at General Electric, where he helped to design manufacturing processes and to develop new polymetric materials and nanomaterials. Nav holds 20 patents from his work at GE. He has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Minnesota, MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Global Change Maker

Greg Van Kirk is a social entrepreneur, social innovation designer, consultant and educator. He is the principal designer of the award-winning MicroConsignment Model, now being applied globally. He has designed social entrepreneurial experiences, taught courses and led workshops for thousands of students and professionals through partnerships ranging from Duke University to Deloitte. Greg has worked in communities in over 20 countries designing and leading grassroots organizations. He has consulted for organizations such as Levi Strauss Foundation, Visa Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, USAID, VisionSpring, Inter American Development Bank, and Water For People, amongst many others.

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In addition, Greg was awarded Social Entrepreneur of the Year (by  WEF). And recently authored a book titled "It's What You Set In Motion: A Toolbox for Collaborative Changemaking".

Executive Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship

Paul Cheek is a serial tech entrepreneur, entrepreneurship educator, and software engineer. He is the Executive Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and a Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan.

Paul was MIT’s first Hacker in Residence and has since taught, mentored, and advised thousands of entrepreneurs around the world. Each year Paul teaches hundreds of undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students in the "New Enterprises" course and now leads a new advanced course he developed to help student entrepreneurs build their businesses called “Venture Creation Tactics”.

Paul is also a Co-Founder of Oceanworks, a for-profit company with a mission to end plastic pollution. Prior to Oceanworks, Paul co-founded Work Today, a venture-backed digital staffing and recruiting company.

Paul is also the author of the forthcoming book, Disciplined Entrepreneurship: Startup Tactics.