Get to WOW! Book
Get to WOW! Book
“Get To Wow!”
Finally, a SELF-GUIDING BOOK to take students, adult learners, businesspeople, makers, and searchers on the path to finding and activating their INNER SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR.
Social Entrepreneurs run economically sustainable businesses and non-profits with a “4 P” mission, addressing an entrenched social problem to benefit “People, Profit, Planet & Place”, making meaning, making money, and moving the world to a better place!
We invite you to join us and “GET TO WOW !” Written by Mike Caslin, with Tony DiMarco, Dennis Hanno, and Harv Hilowitz.
Becoming a Social Entrepreneur is a very possible, very practical endeavor, but challenging you to your very core. If you lack the tools, the confidence, or the resources to become one, this Guidebook will help you. GCSEN is in the life-changing learning business. We are here for you now and in the future. If after you go through the book, even if your path lies elsewhere, you will gain some valuable lessons about life, about career, about business, and about the planet’s interconnectedness and your place in it.
Mike Caslin is an internationally recognized thought leader and practitioner in Social Entrepreneurship, currently lecturing at SUNY New Paltz School of Business (NY), and Saint Peter’s University Business School (NJ). The Founder & President of GCSEN, the Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship Network Foundation, working closely with the innovative social entrepreneurship programs at Wheaton College (MA) and the Continuing Education Program at Rutgers University. Caslin attained an MBA in Entrepreneurship at Babson College’s Olin Graduate School of Business. Co-founder and CEO of NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship) from 1988-2008, Caslin is a past faculty member of Babson College, CUNY-Baruch, Marist College School of Business and Manhattanville College. Prof. Caslin has been a featured lecturer and speaker at the Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Dartmouth Tuck School of Business, the Columbia University Business School Eugene Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, and the Fund For American Studies (TFAS), among others. He has spent the last three decades studying, lecturing and facilitating efforts to promote social entrepreneurship on a global scale. Additionally, Prof. Caslin has been called in as a Subject Matter Expert for the United Nations, the U.S. Congress and The White House on social entrepreneurship. In co-authoring Get To Wow, he is sharing his experiences and the joy of social entrepreneurship for students, businesspeople, adult learners, and seekers.
Tony DiMarco is involved in entrepreneurship, startup incubation, business coaching, business strategizing, business plan and pitch deck development and funding. He has deep experience with new product development, brand management, marketing communications, consultative/solution sales, collaboration, and team building, business operations and financial management. Recently, he’s been leading an initiative to develop a ‘startup ecosystem’ across New York’s Hudson Valley region, in order to enhance the entrepreneurial foundation of the area. This work led to the formation of the Hudson Valley Startup Fund, an active seed-round fund, and HV Venture Hub, an initiative that brings together a sizeable network of regional entrepreneurs, service providers and investors to support new businesses. As Managing Director of the GCSEN Foundation, he’s found that being a Social Entrepreneur is a wonderful, practical experience, and a challenge requiring innovation. His degrees include a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA with a Marketing emphasis from Union College. He’s currently Adjunct Lecturer at SUNY New Paltz and instructor/coach for GCSEN’s Social Venture Experience programs at Wheaton College and Vassar College. His career experiences include 20 years with IBM, 6 years with Marist College, and 9 years as an entrepreneur, including the past 5 years as a Social Entrepreneur with GCSEN. These experiences have informed his co-authorship of "Get To Wow."
Dennis Hanno is the current President of Wheaton College (MA), appointed in 2014. His championing Wheaton’s position as a leader in integrating social innovation into a liberal arts and sciences education reflects his expertise in those fields. He was the founder and head of Idea4Africa, having two decades of experience educating, mentoring and incubating young entrepreneurs who are solving problems and improving regional economies. President Hanno serves on the board of the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative, a worldwide network dedicated to developing the next generation of responsible leaders, and is a commissioner of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges’ Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. He plays an active role in the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education movement, including contributing to several of its annual forums and publications. He came to Wheaton from Babson College, where he held several senior leadership positions, including the provost, senior vice president and President’s Endowed Professor of Accounting. Previously, he served as the associate dean for Undergraduate Matters in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was on the faculty of Boston College. President Hanno earned a Bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Notre Dame, a Master of Science degree in accounting from Western New England University, and a Ph.D. in management from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He invites his students, faculty, and others interested in Social Entrepreneurship to Get To Wow.
Harv Hilowitz has had successful careers in both the public and private sectors. After 20 years as a special education teacher working with disadvantaged youth, and as a placement officer and school administrator, he delved into the business world as a business consultant, grant writer, copy editor and contributing writer for various publications. He is currently a consultant for Mount Gulian National Historic Site in Beacon, NY, a consultant and contributing writer to GCSEN, the Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship Network; and has been a copy editor and contributing writer to Trends Journal, and a contributing writer for Hudson Valley Magazine. Mr. Hilowitz is also the Founder of the Lenape / Delaware Native American Organization of the Hudson Valley. He has written corporate research and white papers, press releases, grants, marketing & ad copy and web text for corporations, non-profits, and start-ups. An active lecturer and participant in numerous economic development forums, he is the author of the acclaimed history book, Revolutionary War Almanac & Chronology, and has written numerous pieces on regional economics, construction development, alternative energy, local history, and social entrepreneurism. As co-author and editor of "Get To Wow," he invites readers to take the journey and make money, make meaning and move the world to a better place.