John Harthorne

John Harthorne is the Founder and CEO of MassChallenge, a venture funds competition designed to catalyze a startup renaissance by attracting, strengthening and funding the best new businesses from around the world. The first competition will launch in Spring 2010 and has already received commitments for funding and support from a number of experienced and influential leaders, including Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, MIT President Susan Hockfield, UMASS President Jack Wilson, Desh Deshpande, the Kauffman Foundation and the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center.

Prior to launching MassChallenge, John was a Senior Strategy Consultant with Bain & Company where he worked primarily in the Private Equity Group. John has an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management where he graduated with a GPA of 4.9/5.0. John also won the 2007 MIT $100K Business Plan Competition along with two MIT engineers, and was granted the 2007 Patrick J. McGovern Award for his impact on the quality and visibility of entrepreneurship at MIT. While at Sloan, John ran the MIT Global Startup Workshop – the world’s premier conference on how to foster entrepreneurship via supportive infrastructure and catalytic events.

Before attending Sloan, John was the Director of Training at @stake, a digital security startup later acquired by Symantec. John received an AB from Bowdoin College with High Honors in German Literature, and received an MA in European Political Culture from the Humboldt Universität Berlin.

John has helped found several companies and is passionate about strategy, technology, entrepreneurship, emerging markets, and grassroots empowerment.