Gene Keselman wears a lot of hats. He is a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, the executive director of Mission Innovation Experimental (MIx), and managing director of MIT’s venture studio, Proto Ventures. Colonel in the Air Force Reserves at the Pentagon, board director, and startup leader are only a few of the titles and leadership positions Keselman has held. Now in his seventh year at MIT, his work as an innovator will impact the Institute for years to come.
Keselman and his family are refugees from the Soviet Union. To say that the United States opened its arms and took care of his family is something Keselman calls “an understatement.” Growing up, he felt both gratitude and the need to give back to the country that took in his family. Because of this, Keselman joined the U.S. Air Force after college. Originally, he thought he would spend a few years in the Air Force, earn money to attend graduate school, and leave. Instead, he found a sense of belonging in the military lifestyle.
Early on, Keselman was a nuclear operations officer for four years, watching over nuclear weapons in Wyoming; while it was not a glamorous job, it was a strategically important one. He then joined the intelligence community in Washington, working on special programs for space. Next, he became an acquisition and innovation generalist inside the Air Force, working his way up to the rank of colonel, working on an innovation team at the Pentagon. Meanwhile, Keselman started exploring what his nonmilitary entrepreneurial life could look like. He left active duty after 12 years, entered the reserves, and began his relationship with MIT as an MBA student at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
At MIT Sloan, Keselman met Fiona Murray, associate dean of innovation and inclusion, who took an interest in Keselman’s experience. When the position of executive director of the Innovation Initiative (a program launched by then-President L. Rafael Reif) became available, Murray and MIT.nano Director Vladimir Bulovic hired Keselman and became his managers and main collaborators. While he was unsure that he would be a natural inside academia, Keselman credits Murray and Bulovic with seeing that his skill set from working with the Department of Defense (DoD) and in the military could translate and be useful in academia.
As a military officer, Keselman focused on process, innovation, leadership, and team building — tools he found useful in his new position. Over the next five years at MIT — a place, he admits, that was already at the forefront of innovation — he ran and created programs that augment how the Institute’s cutting-edge research is shared with the world. When the Innovation Initiative became the Office of Innovation, Keselman handed off executive duties to his deputy. Today, he oversees two programs. The first, MIx, focuses on national security innovation, defense technology, and dual-use (creating a commercial product and a capability for the government or defense). The other, Proto Ventures, is centered around venture building and translation of research.
With MIx and Proto Ventures established, it was time to build a teaching component for students interested in working for a startup that the government might want to partner with and learn from. Keselman becoming a lecturer at Sloan seemed like a clear next step. What started as a hackathon for MIT Air Force, Army, and Navy ROTC students to introduce the special operations community to those who were planning to become military officers turned into a class open to all undergrad and graduate students. Keselman co-teaches innovation engineering for global security systems, a design/build class in collaboration with U.S. Special Operations Command, where students learn to build innovative solutions in response to global security problems. Students who do not plan to work for the government enroll because of their desire to work on the most interesting — and difficult — problems in the world. Enrollment in these courses sometimes changes the career trajectory of students who decide they would like to work on national security-related problems in the future. While teaching was not an initial part of his plan, the opportunity to teach has become one of his joys.
Q: What project brings you the most pride?
Keselman: Proto Ventures is probably what I will look back on that will have made the most impact on MIT. I’m proud that I’ve continued to sustain it. Building a venture studio inside MIT is unique and is not replicated anywhere.
I’m also really proud of our work with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA). DIANA is NATO’s effort to start its own accelerator program for startups to encourage them to work on solving national security questions in their country, based on the model at MIT. We built the curriculum, and I’ve taught it to DIANA startups in places including Italy, Poland, Denmark, and Estonia. The fact that NATO recognized that we need to promote access to startups and that there is a need to create an accelerator network is amazing. When it started, MIT was probably one of the only places teaching dual-use in the country. The fact that I got to take this curriculum and build it to scale in 32 countries and hundreds of startups is really rewarding.
Q: In recognition of their service to our country, MIT actively seeks to recruit and employ veterans throughout its workforce. As a reservist, how does MIT support the time you take away from the Institute to fulfill your duties?
Keselman: MIT has a long history with the military, especially back in WWII times. With that comes a deep history of supporting the military. When I came to MIT I found a welcoming community that enables me to run centers, teach, and have students work on problems brought to us by the government. The magical thing about MIT is an openness to collaboration.
[At MIT,] Being an officer in the reserves is seen as a benefit, not a distraction. No one says, “He’s gone again for his military duties at the Pentagon. He’s not doing his work.” Instead, my work is viewed as an advantage for the Institute. MIT is a special place for the veteran and military community.
Keselman: The ERG once again underscores the uniqueness of MIT. Recruiter Nicolette Clifford from Human Resources and I had the idea for the group, but I thought, “Would anyone want this?” The reception from MIT Human Resources was positive and reinforcing. To put veterans and military into a supported group and make them feel like they have a home is amazing. I was blown away by it. We don’t usually get this kind of treatment. People thank us for our service, but then move on. It sends a message that MIT is a very friendly place for veterans. It also shows that MIT supports the people that defend our national security and support our way of life.