Bid to win a meeting with Barbara Roberts, Entrepreneur in Residence at Columbia Business School and Hofstra University, via Zoom! Barbara is an Expert in all stages of entrepreneurship and family business.
Previously a Wall Street executive and then serial entrepreneur, Barbara Roberts is now Entrepreneur in Residence at the Columbia Start Up Lab and Hofstra University Idea Lab. She also is a well-known speaker and writer on innovation, all stages of entrepreneurship, family businesses and the economic and leadership progress of women.
Recognized as an expert in innovation and entrepreneurship, since 2008 Barbara has worked with Columbia University in many roles, including Adjunct Professor, teaching the Lean Launchpad methodology with Steve Blank and director Columbia’s Community Business Program, working with established businesses primarily located in Harlem. Since 2009 she has led Columbia’s Summer Start-up Lab, helping to launch over 100 companies. Since 2016, she also has taught workshops, mentored start ups and judge competitions for the Idea Hub at Hofstra University.
Barbara is the author of the Columbia Business School whitepaper entitled “Life after an Exit: How Entrepreneurs Transition to the Next Stage.” For this paper, she interviewed people who successfully sold their businesses for more than $25 million and identified steps they took or wished they had taken before, during and after the sale for better transitioning and wealth creation. Her second whitepaper for Columbia is entitled “The Owner’s Journey: Experiences shared and lessons learned from entrepreneurs who successfully sold to third parties or transferred their businesses to family members.” Her just released whitepaper is entitled “The Women’s Entrepreneurial Journey”, celebrating the baby boom and next generation women who have had the first legal, financial, educational and sports participation rights to create their own significant wealth.
Educated as an economist, Barbara started her career on Wall Street and held senior positions in securities research, investment policy and marketing at Blyth Eastman/Paine Webber and Dean Witter. Immediately before leaving Wall Street, she was Senior Vice President, Director of Capital Markets Marketing for Dean Witter and was the first woman on Dean Witter's Board of Directors. She also served on its stock selection, economic policy and investment strategy committees. When she was not given a position on the firm’s executive committee, she resigned and was then included in the Wall Street Journal article that coined the term “the glass ceiling.”
After Wall Street, she transitioned to entrepreneur. Over the next 15 years, she became best known as President and CEO of FPG International and then Acoustiguide. As President of FPG (formally the Freelance Photographer’s Guild), she took that company from a stodgy 60-year-old stock photography agency with revenues of $7 million to a $45 million world-renowned and technologically state-of-the-art company, known for its highly creative photography and first-rate client service. When she successfully sold the company in 1997 for $60 million, it employed 220 in New York, represented 1,000 photographers, and had 40 affiliated companies around the world. The company was sold to UK-based Visual Communications group and then to Getty Images. As FPG's President, Barbara developed one of the first Oracle databases and cd and on-line delivery systems for photographs and was recognized as an early champion of the portrayal of non-white and non-traditional models in commercial photography. For this, President Clinton presented her with Norman Lear's Business Enterprise Award for "acts of courage, integrity and social vision.” The story of how she led FPG is a Harvard socially responsible business case study.
As President of Acoustiguide, she once again restructured a 40 year old company to an award-winning audio content and state-of-the art technology developer, supplying audio services to museums, corporations and historic sites worldwide. She also chaired joint ventures with the Chinese government and the Japanese company, Denon, to bring high quality audio content and technology to Chinese and Japanese museums and historical sites, including the Forbidden City and the Shanghai Museum. In 2004 this company was merged with the Israeli company, Espro and continues as the Espro Acoustiguide Group.
Barbara is a known advocate for entrepreneurs, privately held businesses and farmers. She has served as Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Small Business and Agricultural Advisory Committee and was active in developing downtown Manhattan’s Silicon Alley as a member of the board of the Union Square Partnership, formerly the 14th Street Local Development Corp./Business Improvement District. Barbara served on Suffolk County’s Economic Development Board (Long Island, New York), the Suffolk County Planning Commission and co-chair of the County’s Farm Committee. She is a co-founder of Save Sag Harbor and an well known local advocate for farm to table, protection of maritime industry and the bays and waters surrounding Long Island.
Barbara has been especially active in the promotion of economic development for women worldwide, which has led her to serve on many boards and to help start many non-profits devoted to women’s advancement. She is a past president of the Financial Womens Association of New York and helped to found the New York Women’s Agenda and the New York Women’s Foundation. She also is or has been a member of the Committee of 200, the Women’s Forum, the Belizean Grove and the Women Corporate Directors. She has been presented with many community service awards including the Mayor’s Volunteer Award, the Cus D'Amato "Unsung Hero" Award, and the Chase Manhattan Small Business Leadership Award. She has been featured on NY1 as "New Yorker of the Week" for her work with inner-city schools and was chosen by the New York City Partnership to be a David Rockefeller Fellow in economic development.
In addition to her work as a teacher, writer and speaker, for ten years, Barbara was NY Chair for Tiger21, the peer learning group for high net worth people and entrepreneurs who have created liquid wealth of $10 million or more. She recently became a founding member, investor and advisory board member for The Spur-Southampton, the new community, club and working space for entrepreneurs and innovators. A former member of NY Angels and family business expert, she serves on the boards of several privately held companies. She is certified as a master coach by the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara and trained in facilitation and mediation. Barbara has an Economics and Philosophy degree from Goucher College and lives and works in New York City and Sag Harbor, NY.
