Innovating for Impact (with Jason Jay and AJ Perez)

This open event is presented by the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship as part of the delta v accelerator. It is open to student entrepreneurs at MIT and beyond.

About Jason Jay:
Jason Jay is a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Director of the Sustainability Initiative at MIT Sloan.  

He teaches courses on leadership, strategy, and innovation for sustainable business. Jason engages students and alumni in hands-on projects with leading companies and organizations. These efforts help build a community of innovators for sustainability that includes MIT students and alumni, faculty and researchers, with partners in business, government, NGOs, and hybrid organizations. 

Jason’s research focuses on how people navigate the tensions inherent in the quest for sustainability, as they simultaneously pursue their own self-interest and the flourishing of human and other life. This work includes deep case studies of cross-sectoral collaboration and hybrid organizations that combine social and business goals. These case studies have been published in the Academy of Management Journal and California Management Review. He also contributes to the MIT Sloan Management Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and Greenbiz on the topic of sustainability-oriented innovation (SOI). A key finding of his research is that social innovation occurs through authentic conversations that hold the tension between divergent values and perspectives. With Gabriel Grant, he is the author of Breaking Through Gridlock: The Power of Conversation in a Polarized World.

As a facilitator and consultant, Jason has helped advance sustainability strategy with companies like Biogen, Novartis, and Bose. He is a research partner and facilitator for the EDF Climate Corps and its network of companies. He has contributed to the strategy and curriculum of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Social Innovation and Change Initiative as a faculty affiliate.

Prior to MIT,  Jay ran an internet startup, traveled around the world, taught kindergarten in a progressive preschool, and worked as a consultant with Dialogos International, where he consulted on leadership development and organizational change for major international corporations and NGO's including BP and the World Bank. 

Jay holds an AB in psychology and a Master's in education from Harvard University, and a PhD in Organization Studies from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

About AJ Perez:
AJ (Alfonso) Perez is an MIT alum and a serial entrepreneur. AJ serves as the President of Grow Clean which is an Organic farmland business designed to ensure the supply of healthy Organic food and strong financial returns. AJ also serves as both an ESG and deep tech advisor to family offices and institutional investors. In 2018, AJ co-founded IndustrialML, an MIT enterprise machine learning software spin-out optimizing efficiency of industrial manufacturers, where he served on the Board of Directors.

AJ was previously Chairman, CEO, and Founder of New Valence Robotics Corporation (NVBOTS.com), an MIT 3D printing spin-off which invented automated 3D printing, cloud 3D printing, and high speed multi-metal 3D printing. In early 2017, NVBOTS spun off and re-branded a portion of it’s metal 3D printing business unit as Digital Alloys (Series A by Khosla, Series B by G20, Boeing, and Lincoln Electric). In late 2017, NVBOTS was acquired by Cincinnati Incorporated, where AJ served as General Manager until his return to MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering as a Presidential Fellow.

AJ holds a BS '13 in Mechanical Engineering and Masters of Engineering in Advanced Manufacturing '14 from MIT. His academic interests, lectures, and research include 3D printing, mechanical design, manufacturing processes automation, robotics, medical devices, construction, entrepreneurship, and sustainability. AJ has developed and taught several courses during his career, including the first graduate level 3D printing / additive manufacturing course for the department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. Most recently, AJ worked with MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative’s Jason Jay to teach an MBA course called ‘Innovating for Impact’ and run a series of sustainability workshops in collaboration with MIT’s Trust Center for Entrepreneurship and Harvard Kennedy School’s Social Innovation and Change Initiative.

AJ was the final Lemelson-MIT Inventor Fellow, was selected as one of Boston Globe’s 25 under 25, and won the Lemelson-MIT “use it” student prize. AJ is the primary inventor of 30+ inventions in the fields of additive manufacturing, mobile manufacturing, industrial IoT, machine learning, computer vision, medical devices, and construction. AJ seeks leadership and investment opportunities that leverage his MIT engineering background, intellectual property expertise, management experience, international network of trusted investors, and sustainability mindset.