Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR)

Each year, the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship invites experienced entrepreneurs to serve as Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIRs). These professionals offer valuable mentorship to teams at various stages of their entrepreneurial journey.

While their backgrounds are diverse, our EIRs provide essential guidance (refine your business model, bottom-up research, scaling, etc). They hold regular office hours, offering one-on-one mentorship and networking opportunities. Students can schedule meetings with EIRs using the provided calendar links or by emailing them directly. 

Meet the 2026 Entrepreneurs in Residence

  • Chris Masto

    Chris Masto ‘89, P’21, P’22, P’24

    Chris Masto is an investor, advisor and board member in entrepreneurial growth companies.  He is Co-Founder and Senior Advisor at FFL Partners, a private equity firm, which he co-founded in 1997 and where he served as a Partner, member of the Investment Committee, and member of firm leadership until transitioning to a Senior Advisor role in 2017.  Previously, he worked as a management consultant with Bain & Company and an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley & Co.  Chris currently serves on the Board of Directors of Idealist.org and is an Advisory Board Member of Valo Ventures.  He was previously the Chairman of the Board at Resident Home, CURO Group Holdings Corp. (NYSE: CURO) and TriTech Software Systems, and a Director of Tempur Sealy International (NYSE: TPX), Katapult (NASDAQ: KPLT) and VolunteerMatch.org.  He graduated magna cum laude from Brown University with an Sc.B. in Electrical Engineering and received an MBA from Harvard Business School.

  • Jen Todd '95

    Jen Todd '95

    Jen currently serves as Senior Vice President for the Boston Celtics, where she leads strategy and execution for the Celtics’ diverse corporate partnership portfolio, as well as managing Jr. Celtics, the team's youth basketball platform. She joined the Celtics from The Tournament (TBT / TST), where she served as Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of the groundbreaking, $1 million, winner-take-all tournament. She has alternatingly explored entrepreneurial and established ventures throughout her career, also spending time at Super Soccer Stars, Octagon, and at various boutique and established management consulting firms.

    A lifelong athlete, Jen was a plaintiff in a precedent-setting Title IX case as a college gymnast, an experience she credits with helping her to understand that access and opportunity, in sports and otherwise, are not a given. She has been an advocate for the underrepresented since. 

    Jen currently or has served on the boards of Becket-Chimney Corners Camp, The Resiliency Group, Women in Sports and Events (WISE) and the One Love Foundation. 

    She earned her undergraduate degree from Brown University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Past EIRs

The Entrepreneurs in Residence program has welcomed countless EIRs who have contributed to the growth of student ventures. Thank you to our past EIRs.

  • 2025: Liz Hamburg '86 and David Ronick '89
  • 2024: Yuri Tomikawa ‘12 and David Ronick ‘89
  • 2022 + 2023: Jayna Zweiman ‘01 and Troy Henikoff ‘86
  • 2021: Riche Holmes Grant ‘99, Ben Chesler ‘15 and Lorine Pendleton ‘91
  • 2019 + 2020: Laura Thompson ‘09 and Arnell Millhouse
  • 2018: Jessica Kim ‘00