Tufts Entrepreneurial Leadership Program

Abstract

Bio: Mark Ranalli, Associate Dean & Executive Director, Tufts Gordon Institute. Professor of the Practice, Entrepreneurship, Tufts University.

Mark Ranalli is an experienced executive and entrepreneur with a successful track record of building content and communications based businesses. Mark currently serves at an Associate Dean and Executive Director at Tufts University, were he is responsible for the Tufts Gordon Institute and the Entrepreneurial Leadership Program across the university. Prior to joining Tufts University, Mark served as the Managing Director of RR Donnelley’s Digital Solutions Group, where he was responsible for the strategic direction of RR Donnelley’s digital business strategy. Mark became a part of RR Donnelley after selling Helium Inc. to RRD in 2011. Mark founded Helium Inc. in 2006 with the vision of creating the first publishing meritocracy by applying a crowd sourcing filtering system to community-generated content. Helium attracted an editorial community of over 200,000 writers and editors and was considered the largest editorial community in the world. Under Mark’s leadership, Helium created a publishing platform that attracted over 11 million monthly visitor and launched a content marketing platform that produced content for thousands of publishers and brands.

Soon after launching Helium, Mark co-founded and launched OurStage Inc., an indie music discovery platform, based on the same underlying crowd-sourcing principals and relative ranking patents that are leveraged by Helium. Prior to Helium, Mark served as President of Fax International, a 700-person, global IP communications company that helped lead the telecommunications shift from the PSTN to IP-based networks. Mark also founded and served as CEO of BaseSix Inc., a marketing strategy firm that specialized in servicing Fortune 100 communications and media companies.

Mark currently serves as Vice Chairman for the Center for Responsive Politics, the premier nonpartisan, independent nonprofit research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. Additionally, Mark is actively involved with the Tuck School at Dartmouth, as part of their Entrepreneur in Residence program and as a guest lecturer on entrepreneurship. Mark has been a frequent guest on Fox Business News, and has spoken at numerous industry events and forums, including the AAP, SIPA, NCTA, and VMA. Mark earned an MBA from Tuck at Dartmouth and a BSEE from Stanford University. He is married with two children.