Over the past two years, IDEA has progressed as one of the country's most successful venture accelerators. But without the guidance of Chris Wolfel - through his passion, humility, and spirit - IDEA would not be where it is today. As CEO, Chris' motivation and dedication has carried IDEA into the future, inspiring others and guiding them towards success. As many of you know, Chris will graduate from Northeastern this May and as we say goodbye, we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.

On behalf of IDEA’s former and present Management Team members, Ventures, Coaches, and all of our supporters, we are truly grateful for Chris’ tremendous commitment to the legacy of IDEA. Our gratitude is summarized below from IDEA's closest advisors:

YOU KILLED IT!!

Dear Chris,

The seeds of IDEA’s success are found in the concept that six graduating undergraduates presented to Tom Moore in 2009. Tom saw something and decided that it was worth pursuing. It is important to understand the genesis of a great idea (pun intended) and how it gains momentum and strength. Or not.

Nobody has played a greater role in translating a crude concept into a dynamic enterprise that is IDEA in May 2013. First you managed events. Then you took your turn as Marketing Officer. Finally, over the last 18 months you have, as you would say, “absolutely killed it” in your role as CEO.

Your tenure on the team is almost the entire span of IDEA’s life. Through this run, you have developed a long list of people who would do anything to make you successful. Your peers comment about your strength as a leader. There are no cliques. There is no sniping or claims that others could do your job better than you. They have wanted nothing more to have their input, to get your buy-in, and to work hard to do their best. It has been awesome to watch.

The strength of your leadership is not lost on the ventures, faculty, administration, and the board. The ventures sense they can get value from IDEA when they see it is well run. The constituencies that support IDEA with their time and money have only wanted you and IDEA to be successful. You are a huge part of that response.

While you get plenty of individual attention and credit for what you have done, you make sure it is never about Chris Wolfel. With you, it is always about making IDEA stronger, about sharing credit with a team, about working on something larger than you.

I thank you for taking the responsibility you have been given as an undergraduate seriously and absolutely killing it!!!

I have learned so much from you and expect to continue to in the years to come.

– Dan Gregory

Chris Wolfel is the most extraordinary student leader I have had the privilege to work with in my entire academic career. Under Chris’ leadership, the number of student ventures served by IDEA has more than doubled. Chris and his team have overhauled and professionalized IDEA’s processes, recruited new coaches and mentors, and created stronger links to the angel investor and venture capital communities. I have never before seen a student-led organization grow and mature so quickly and so effectively.

Chris is an extraordinary advocate and ambassador for IDEA and Northeastern University. He has worked with the President, key alumni, students, the media, the investor community, and faculty to build IDEA’s reputation, resources and impact within the Boston start-up community. Chris is mature, strategic, and refreshingly transparent when working with all of these stakeholders. His integrity, commitment and ability to get things done are evident to all he interacts with. He is comfortable working with budding freshman entrepreneurs as well as titans of industry like Rich D’Amore.

Perhaps most importantly, Chris knows how to build a great team. He has left IDEA in great hands and on the path to even greater future success.

We will all miss Chris. I’m thankful that he isn’t going far!

– Hugh Courtney

How fortunate we’ve been! For the past 18 months we’ve had the leadership of Chris Wolfel as IDEA’s CEO. As one of the original board members, I’ve been part of the incredible success of IDEA. IDEA is essentially a “start-up” and every venture capitalist would tell you they “bank” the entrepreneur with the reasoning that a good entrepreneur / CEO can make the difference. Chris is that type of CEO that the VCs talk about! He has shown tremendous leadership and under his tenure, we have seen incredible growth in every aspect of the IDEA program – from the number of ventures, to the number of programs and its reach within the NU community, to local and national media recognition. Today, IDEA is arguably one of, if not the top, university accelerators in the country.

Personally, it has been a thrill to watch Chris become such a strong leader and spokesman for IDEA and NU’s entrepreneurial programs to not only the NU community, but to the broader Boston entrepreneurial ecosystem. Chris will always be a great ambassador for IDEA and NU. He leaves IDEA in great position with a strong, capable team ready to make further strides in its development and future.

– Bob Lentz