Join us for a 30-minute discussion with the innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists who help shape our graduate programs. You'll hear some great D'Amore-McKim graduate student and alumni stories about their entrepreneurial efforts as part of the D'Amore-McKim Graduate Programs' inaugural Innovation Spotlight Series.
Pedro Gomes was working as a partner in a Brazilian law firm when he discovered the word “entrepreneurship.” As his firm had started to scale, they were experiencing the same challenges every early company encounters.
– If you grow too quickly, it's a problem. If you don't have enough clients, that's also a problem.
– How do you approach and manage your clients?
– How do you maintain positive relationships with stakeholders?
– How do you handle revenue?
Long story short, the law firm was successful—but it's obstacles were something he wanted to master. So Pedro came to D'Amore-McKim to earn a Graduate Certificate in Technological Entrepreneurship, and then would later earn an MBA with the same concentration, all while serving as a Venture Coach for IDEA.
Today, Pedro will speak with Northeastern's Professor of Practice, Greg Collier, about his journey as an entrepreneur and how the entrepreneurship ecosystem at Northeastern prepared him for a career path of innovation.
Spotlight:
Pedro Gomes started out his career in Brazil, as a lawyer working with small businesses and an entrepreneur working on a helipad management company. He has over nine years of experience with early-stage start-ups, legal and business strategy. Pedro describes himself as passionate about building and finding innovative and scalable solutions to big problems. Pedro's most recent start-up, Elixir, launched in 2020 with the goal of creating high-quality, natural cognitive-enhancement supplements.
Pedro earned his Bachelor of Law and a Certificate of Innovation Management from Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado. He holds a Graduate Certificate in Business Administration and an MBA from Northeastern University.
Moderator:
Greg Collier is a seasoned business development executive. He has held management positions with Electronic Data Systems (now HP), Fidelity, and General Motors. He led sales and business development for EDS in AsiaPac for a decade and services commercialization for Fidelity in the U.S. Greg has extensive global business experience and is most interested in business model design, validation, and scale.
Greg holds degrees Eastern Michigan University and Purdue, has been a professor of practice at Boston University, and is now a professor of practice of entrepreneurship and innovation at Northeastern University.