Jack Derby

Jack Derby is a Professor of the Practice teaching one course in entrepreneurial Marketing and another in The Science of Sales and has taught at Tufts since 2007. Additionally, he teaches 2-4 capstone courses with startup teams each academic year. He served as Director of the Entrepreneurship Center from February 2019 until December 2019 stepping down due to family health reasons. in 2021, Jack and his wife, Jan, provided a $10 million gift to name the Derby Entrepreneurship Center and the entrance lobby of the Joyce Cummings Center. Jack has founded or co-founded nine companies and is currently starting one more in combination with Simin Meydani, Senior Scientist of Nutrition and prior Vice Provost of Research at Tufts. He has received the Henry and Madeline Fisher Award, awarded annually to a School of Engineering faculty member judged by graduating seniors to be "Engineering's Teacher of the Year." He was the first faculty member from the Entrepreneurship Center to receive this recognition. Jack is also a lecturer at MIT, where, for the past 20 years, he has taught classes in business planning and marketing to undergraduate and graduate students in the Mechanical Engineering Department. He is the president of Derby Management providing strategic planning and sales and marketing productivity consulting to emerging and middle market companies. Jack is a General Partner at Converge Ventures and is a director on six corporate boards. Prior to forming Derby Management, Jack served as CEO of Mayer Electronics, president of CB Sports, president of Litton Industries Medical Systems, CEO of Datamedix, and EVP of Becton Dickinson Medical Systems. He has been the chairman of the MIT Enterprise Forum receiving the Vincent Fulmer Achievement Award, the chairman of the Association for Corporate Growth of Boston receiving their Lifetime Achievement Award and chairman of Common Angels.