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Mentor. Advise. Invest.

The Upside is a private network focused on matching executives, industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors with opportunities to have meaningful economic and social impact. Our mission is to foster innovation that makes a difference in people’s lives.

OUR MEMBERS ARE FROM ORGANIZATIONS INCLUDING

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Receive private, curated introductions. Save time and let The Upside facilitate meetings with the most relevant people.

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Maximize your professional impact

Building your career means more than your title or next position. You have expertise, skills, and a desire to give back to other professionals.

We believe connecting the right people can unlock amazing possibilities. Get introduced to opportunities to help build companies, accelerate careers, and support causes.

Join The Upside to do more.

How it works

1. Create Private Profile

Describe your expertise, background, and interests. You can complete a questionnaire online or speak live with one of our specialists.

2. Review Matches

See a detailed profile of other members with complementary goals or interests. Accept, decline, or request more information about your match.

3. Meet Member

Get introduced to your match. The Upside can schedule the meeting after you both agree to connect—via phone, video, or in person.

Featured Professional Members

Amy Knapp has over twenty years of experience in recruiting and people operations. Currently, she is VP of People at Catalant Technologies where she leads recruiting and HR. More recently she led talent for the venture capital firm Redpoint Ventures where she partnered with portfolio companies on their talent and people programs and strategies.

Prior to joining Redpoint, Amy spent the first 10 years of her career in human resources roles in various manufacturing and medical-device companies before moving to Google as a recruiter in 2007. After Google, she joined Ning as its first recruiter and moved into a recruiting and human resources leadership role. More recently, she led talent acquisition for Chegg during its IPO.

Amy was the co-creator of OpenRec, an annual talent leadership conference held from 2016-2019 centered around thought leadership and knowledge sharing in the startup talent community. She is currently on the board of Operation Troop Support, a non-profit supporting deployed military troops and their families, and she is active as a Cub Scout leader.

Amy is a die-hard Boston Bruins fan, a foster-adoptive parent, and an avid road tripper, having visited all 50 states.

Amy Knapp

VP People at Catalant Technologies

Jeff has global experience in different Talent/HR and Organizational Change roles for B2B and B2C technology, media and creative agencies, and management consulting companies in the Boston, New York, London, and San Francisco markets – including Pandora Media, Cadreon, IPG/Mediabrands, Organic, Kenexa, State Street Bank, PwC and Burson-Marsteller.

Jeff is skilled at aligning, reorganizing and driving business transformation and global scale objectives while creating effective, inclusive and engaged organizations and company cultures. He has organizational realignment experience on multiple continents and in various industries.

As a Chief People Officer/Chief Talent Officer, Jeff's professional goal is to grow, scale and lead HR and talent management capabilities as strategic, results-focused functions while aligning and developing leadership teams, amplifying the employee experience, building authentic cultures and creating shareholder value.

He holds a B.A. in Political Science from St. John Fisher College. Jeff has lived in a variety of interesting places such as Boston, New York, Washington DC, London, Luxembourg, and Jamaica throughout the last 25 years, and he has traveled through Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean for work.

Jeff currently lives outside of Boston with his wife, two sons, and a golden named Ginger.

Jeff Belanger

Head of People

As the Executive Director of the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship, Debi works with students, alumni, and faculty, as well as the broader entrepreneurial community, to accelerate the practice of entrepreneurship. She leads the Blank Center’s strategy, new initiatives, and team to help develop the programs of the Butler Launch Pad and Babson’s highly-rated entrepreneur experiences, such as the B.E.T.A. Challenge and the Summer Venture Program. In addition, she has oversight of three of Babson’s major entrepreneurship academic research initiatives: the BCERC Conference, STEP and GEM.

Before coming to Babson, Debi was the Managing Director and Executive Vice President at Havas Media in Boston. Formerly, she was president of the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange (MITX), and an executive at C-space (formerly Communispace) for five years before its sale to Omnicom DAS. She has been an advisor to startups and an advocate for Boston’s innovation community for over 10 years and has mentored entrepreneurs at MassChallenge, Harvard’s iLab and TechStars Boston. Earlier in her career, she held marketing leadership roles at Procter & Gamble, Welch’s, and the Coca-Cola Company. Debi has a BS from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Debi Kleiman

Educator, Author, Business Advisor, Startup Mentor, Investor

What's next?

If you are a forward-thinking business executive, a rising star, or organization looking to connect with our members to achieve your goals, The Upside can help.

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