Mimi Macksoud
Partner, Partner Committee Chair, Uni/IP Practice Chair
Boston, MA
“One of my favorite business axioms is that there are three kinds of companies: those that make things happen, those that watch things happen, and those that wonder what happened. Leaders who beat the odds are not only market-driven but also market-driving."
"In my business career – as an entrepreneur, an adviser to senior executives and boards of directors, and a chief marketing officer – I have been privileged to work both with companies that make things happen and those that struggle to change, grow, or even survive. I am acutely aware of the importance of relationships – people do business with people they know – and the value of a fresh perspective on strategic problems. I’m excited to be a part of Sage Partners because we offer our clients a unique combination of experience and understanding to help make things happen.”
Mimi Macksoud brings over 45 years of experience in diverse industries and companies to Sage Partners. She is the leader of Sage Partners’ initiative with universities and other research-intensive institutions to help monetize their intellectual property more effectively. Some of her recent work includes advising Founder/CEOs through succession planning and the sale of their companies to strategic buyers, guiding a college president in the launch of a distinctive accelerator/incubator in a highly competitive higher education market, developing a new strategy for a medical foundation to realize greater value for its proprietary IP, and mentoring the CEO of an ag-tech startup.
Prior to Sage Partners, Mimi was CEO and Founder of Orion’s Belt, Inc., a pioneer in business applications of Social Network Analysis and relationship mapping. She raised financing, drove product and market strategy, and recruited the founding management team. She holds a patent based on the IP developed by the company. In 2006, she negotiated the combination of Orion’s Belt with a SaaS-based business intelligence and media services company. The combined entity was acquired by Dow Jones in 2008, netting a multiple return to investors.
Before starting Orion’s Belt, Mimi was associated with three leading professional services firms – Arthur D. Little, Price Waterhouse, and Ropes & Gray – and founded her own strategy consulting firm. She spent 13 years at Arthur D. Little, where she established and led the marketing and sales effectiveness practice. Her clients included leading companies in oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, medical products, pulp and paper, computer hardware, telecommunications, and chemicals. She was Client Relationship Executive for GTE and Du Pont.
At Price Waterhouse, Mimi was one of the first marketing directors in the firm. She was instrumental in PW’s success in winning R1 universities as clients. At Ropes & Gray, Mimi was the first chief marketing officer. She led the first formal strategic planning process and worked across the firm on growth strategy and marketing. She was the architect of a new sales approach to win some of the firm’s most significant clients, including a major west-coast university, and helped to focus the firm’s healthcare practice on academic medical centers.
Mimi holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where she was elected an Edward Tuck Scholar, and a BA in mathematics from Manhattanville College. She studied painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Mimi is an Honorary Trustee and former Board Chair of the Danforth Art Museum. She was instrumental in negotiating a formal affiliation between Danforth Art and Framingham State University. The transaction assured the future viability of Danforth and resulted in FSU’s becoming the first Massachusetts state university with an art museum. Mimi is also a member of the Governance Committee of Community Consulting Teams of Boston, where she was formerly a board member and chair of the client development committee.
