ABOUT Birthing of giants
ARE YOU READY TO BE THE
GIANT YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS?
Ask Yourself These Questions
EVERY BUSINESS
NEEDS A GIANT
Are you the right fit for Birthing of Giants?
Watch a quick interview with Executive Director, Lewis Schiff.
NOT SURE HOW TO ANSWER THOSE QUESTIONS?
FIND OUT HOW 1,000’s of Other CEO’s answered the same questions.
BIrthing of giants HAS THE ANSWERS

History of
Birthing of Giants
Incubated in the halls of M.I.T., with the partnership of Inc. Magazine, Birthing of Giants has had several of the leading entrepreneurs of its day pass through its doors.
Today, the tradition has been passed to founders of The Business Owners Council, founded in partnership with Inc. Magazine in 2010.
MEET THE BOARD OF EXPERTS

Norm Brodsky
Entrepreneur-In-Residence
Norm Brodsky is a senior contributing editor for Inc., a veteran entrepreneur who has had 3 separate companies chosen for Inc. Magazine's Inc. 500 list. In 2007, he sold CitiStorage for $110 million (detailed in Inc. Magazine... link). In 2017, he sold another company for $160 million. For the past four decades, Norm's greatest success has been mentoring thousands of entrepreneurs and instructing millions through his columns in Inc. Magazine and his book, Street Smarts: An All-Purpose Toolkit for Entrepreneurs.

BO BURLINGHAM
Bo Burlingham is the author of five books,the most recent being Finish Big: How Great Entrepreneurs Exit Their Companies on Top (Portfolio/Penguin, 2014). A previous book, Small Giants: Companies That Choose To Be Great Instead of Big (Portfolio/Penguin, 2006), was one of five finalists for the 2006 Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year award.

GEORGE GENDRON
Founding editor-in-chief, Inc. Magazine (20 years). Innovator of the seminal Inc. 500 ranking, focusing public attention on young, emerging-growth companies for the first time (led to the creation of Euro 500, AllWorld’s growth-company rankings in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, and partnership with Michael Porter of Harvard B-School to create the Inner City 100). Inventor of Clark University Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program. Long-time national leader in social sector directorships and fellowships at City Year, Kaufmann Foundation, Community Wealth Ventures, Initiatives for a Competitive Inner City [ICIC].

JIM MCCANN
Jim McCann started his merchant career as a florist and then as the founder of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM (NASDAQ: FLWS), A consummate entrepreneur, McCann has shown a knack for making businesses grow and prosper. From its roots in 1976 as a single flower shop in Manhattan, NY, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM has become the world’s largest florist with revenues expected to exceed $1 billion. In the process, McCann changed the way flowers and other gifts are marketed for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and special occasions while helping to expand the definition of retailing – positioning his company to help customers express themselves and connect with the important people in their lives.

VANESSA NORNBERG
Vanessa Merit Nornberg is the owner of Metal Mafia, a jewelry manufacturer and distributor which has twice been named to the Inc 5000 list of America’s fastest growing privately-owned companies. Vanessa’s calling has always been selling—and she believes that every move an entrepreneur makes, from starting-up to exiting, should be about making the sale. She is the author of the weekly In the Trenches, column on Inc.com, and her writing has also been featured on the Huffington Post, Forbes.com, and others. Vanessa believes that entrepreneurship is the last avenue of class mobility, and thus, regularly speaks with high school students across the country.

BILL ROARK
Bill Roark is the co-founder/CEO of Torch Technologies, with 30+ years of Department of Defense-related experience. Roark has guided Torch to local and national recognition including being named one of Entrepreneur’s Fastest Growing Companies in America, one of Great Place to Work and Fortune’s Best Small & Medium Workplaces, one of Forbes’ Best Small Companies in America, and eleven consecutive selections on the Inc. 5000 list. Roark earned an M.S. in Physics from the University of Kentucky and a B.S. in Mathematics from Cumberland College.

Lewis Schiff
Chairman
Lewis Schiff is the chairmain of the Board of Experts for Birthing of Giants. He founded Inc. Magazine's Business Owners Council where he interviewed some of the most accomplished entrepreneurs in the world. He has authored or co-authored several books on success, including The First Habit: The One Technique That Can Change Your Life andBusiness Brilliant: Surprising Lesson from the Greatest Self-Made Business Icons. Over the past two decades, he built and sold two media businesses to publicly-traded companies, iVillage and TheStreet.com.

DOUG TATUM
Chairman of Newport Board Group, a national partnership of CEOs who advise emerging middle market companies. Doug serves as an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship at Florida State University. He is Advisory Board Chairman for the Business Dynamics Research Consortium, a national research institute funded by the NASDAQ Foundation and the University of Wisconsin - Extension. Doug is the author of No Man's Land, a leading text about growth companies that has been translated into many languages and won four National Best Business book awards. As CEO of Tatum LLC, Doug built a national professional service firm that was sold to Spherion (now SFN Group) in 2010.
PRESS RELEASES
2018
- 2018-05-07 (NY, NY) 90 Entrepreneurs To Be Selected for The Birthing of Giants Fellowship Program in 2019
- 2018-06-01 (NY, NY) Vanessa Nornberg, owner of Metal Mafia Jewelry, Joins Birthing of Giants Board of Experts
- 2018-06-08 (NY, NY) Bill Roark, Co-Founder/CEO of Torch Technologies, Joins Birthing of Giants Board of Experts
2017
- 2017-07-12 (NY, NY) 1-800-Flowers.com Founder, Jim McCann, Joins Birthing of Giants Board of Experts
- 2017-05-01 (NY, NY) 90 Entrepreneurs To Be Selected for The Birthing of Giants Fellowship Program 2018
- 2017-01-18 (NY, NY) Doug Tatum, author of No Man’s Land, Joins Birthing of Giants Board of Experts
2016
- 2016-11-6 (NY, NY) Bo Burlingham and George Gendron Announced as New Additions to Birthing of Giants Board of Experts
- 2016-10-28 (NY, NY) 40 Entrepreneurs To Be Selected for The Birthing of Giants Fellowship Program in 2017
- 2016-10-10 (NY, NY) With Recent Acquisition, NY Entrepreneurs Carry On “Birthing of Giants” Tradition
OUR BOARD OF EXPERTS & FACULTY HAVE APPEARED IN:






