Mary Shepard Spaeth

 Mary Spaeth is a retired professor of innovation and entrepreneurship with specializations in economic development and international business. She is president and founder of Transmera AB formed in 2002 to support national and regional ecosystem development, analysis, and policy, including startup provision and networks. 

She was the director of marketing for the Northwestern University/Evanston Research Park, Executive Vice President of ANGLE Technology, Senior Advisor at Mjärdevi (now Linköping) Science Park in Sweden and  as the executive director of the East Sweden Development Agency where she worked principally in attracting FDI to the region. Mary has also taught, among other subjects, entrepreneurship and innovation studies and international business at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Texas State University, Tecnologico de Monterrey-Toluca, Royal Institute of Technology, Linkoping University, University of the West of Scotland, and has also taught at Southern Methodist and Loyola Universities as a full time lecturer in English, and as adjunct professor in Marketing Communications at National Louis University in Chicago. 

Mary has started and managed three companies, including an advertising agency in Chicago and a technology commercialization management firm in Sweden through which she assists companies and governments on questions regarding new business development. She has published academically and professionally and is an active mentor for the Women's Foreign Policy Group in Washington DC, for Entrepreneur Futures Network in Silicon Valley, and is a judge for several university business plan competitions including Rice University and Baylor University. 

She currently serves on several boards of advisors: SXSW Pitch Competition Board in Austin, Texas; TauMat (providing dynamic thermal management soft and hardware solutions); Entrepreneur Futures Network, and has formerly served on boards for Swedish Academy of Realist Art, Institute of Arts Entrepreneurship in Chicago, and for Scrive, an e-contracting start-up in Stockholm. She currently serves on the board of VärldensMammor in Sweden, and was a member of the board of directors for the Swedish Fulbright Commission for 7 years. Mary has a BA in Creative Writing and an MA in literature from SMU in Dallas, an MSc in international child studies from Linköping University and a PhD in business with a specialization in entrepreneurship in the creative industries from the University of the West of Scotland. She is a dual US-Swedish Citizen. She has two grown children, both entrepreneurs