The Orchard Group: Linda Kanner

Linda’s 30-year career includes senior positions in marketing and general management in large multi-divisional companies, followed by 10 years as either CEO of COO of three consumer/e-commerce venture-funded companies. She presently is an Executive-in-Residence and Adjunct Professor at Babson College, where she works with students starting new businesses and advises MBA student teams consulting with companies. She is also an active advisor/board member to several early and mid-stage companies.

She has a record of success bringing new products to market, repositioning old-line businesses, and starting new ones in industrial distribution, financial services, and retailing. As the Director of Marketing for Kendall Co., then a division of Colgate-Palmolive, she launched their veterinary and high-tech supply businesses; as the Senior Vice President for Retail Products and Consumer Credit for the Bank of Boston, she introduced their award-winning, segmented banking programs and the first affinity credit card program; and as the Executive Vice President at Bank of New England, she introduced the SNAPP account. At J. Baker, Linda was the Senior Executive Vice President for footwear, merchandise and operations where she managed 3000 licensed shoe departments and built an international sourcing organization in the Far East. As the President of Parade of Shoes, she revamped and grew the franchise.

In 1995, she moved into venture-funded Internet companies. Linda's first venture was as the CEO of First Business Financial (now OneCore.com) and most recently as the COO of edu.com, which she co-founded with her son, Adam and where she served as COO. In this venture they raised $40MM and grew the company to 125 people before it was sold to Student Advantage. In 200 she became CEO of HBN Shoe where she assisted in raising $6MM and successfully licensed proprietary shoe technology to large international manufacturers and brands.

She is on the board of the Commonwealth Institute where she started and facilitated the emerging CEO group - an intensive program of workshops and monthly group meetings for women CEOs of startup technology businesses.

Linda served on the MasterCard national marketing committee, the boards of Yankee 24, Marketing Sciences, the Footwear Retailers and Distributors of America, and the Two/Ten Association, as well as on several private startup technology companies. She is a trustee of the Huntington Theatre Company and the Commonwealth Institute, and an overseer of the Beth Israel-Deaconess Hospital/Care Group.

She holds an MBA from Harvard, a BA from Cornell, and an MSW from Simmons.

You can email Linda at lbkanner@theorchardgroup.net.