Cristina Dolan
Cristina Dolan is an MIT Media Lab alumna and Internet pioneer with over two decades of experience building software, content, and Internet based products and businesses. She was a co-founder of OneMain.com, which grew to be the 10th largest ISP after a successful IPO (Acquired by Earthlink). Currently, Dolan serves as the Head of Content and Communication at TradingScreen, and is an MIT Enterprise Forum board member and part of the MIT Alumni Association Selection Committee.
Education
Cristina has a Master of Media Arts and Science from the MIT Media Lab, where she also took courses at Sloan and HBS. She also has a Master of Computer Science Engineering and a Bachelors of Electrical Engineering with concentrations in Computer Science, Communications Technologies and Business.
Career
As Geographic Communities Division President and Strategic Alliances Officer of OneMain, Cristina Dolan conceived and built the OneMain cornerstone, the Geographic Communities, into a profitable business in only five months. As the co-founder of OneMain, she led the company to a successful IPO, which was the largest internet initial public offering at its time, surpassing Amazon and eBay's IPOs. Later in her career, the board of venture-backed Wordstream brought Dolan in as President and CEO to commercialize the company, where she also raised financing and closed initial sales
Dolan also had executives roles at IBM and Oracle. At IBM and Oracle she led sales, business development and product marketing, where she won numerous leadership and sales awards. She was a senior executive in lead technology roles on the founding teams that launched the first Hearst Magazine site (HomeArts) and several ABC/Disney Internet properties. Currently, Dolan is leading content partnerships and the development of content, community, marketing, and communications products at TradingScreen, a Software company serving institutional financial traders. Dolan has been an investor and advisor to several startups and MIT spinouts and was a Rudyard Partners General Partner.
Cristina is a former member of the United States Bobsled and Skeleton team, placing first in the US nationals and 2nd for women in the World Championships.
Leadership and Volunteering
Currently Cristina serves on the MIT Enterprise Forum of New York City board and the MIT Alumni Association Selection Committee. She is the former President of the MIT Club of New York.
In 2014, Dolan was honored by Traders Magazine with a Charitable Works Award for her work with Dream it. Code it. Win it.
The table below outlines all of Dolan's various leadership and volunteer efforts.
Organization |
Role |
Duration |
Field |
|---|---|---|---|
Dream it. Code it. Win it. |
Organizer and Founder |
October 2013 – Present |
STEM, Education |
MIT Enterprise Forum of New York |
Officer and Secretary |
June 2010 – Present |
Education |
MIT Alumni Association Selection Committee Member |
MIT AA Representative, Elected by Alumni |
July 2012 |
Education |
MIT Enterprise Forum Global Board |
Board Member |
July 2014 – Present |
Science, Technology |
MIT Club of New York (MIT Alumni Association) |
President of the MIT Club of New York |
July 2006 – June 2008 |
Education |
MIT Club of New York (MIT Alumni Association) |
VP of Communications and EVP |
July 2003 – June 2006 |
Education |
MIT Enterprise Forum Global Board |
Director, Sponsorship Chair |
July 2005 – June 2008 |
Science Technology |
Kauffman Foundation |
Innovation Accelerator Foundation |
June 2007 – July 2009 |
Education |
MIT Council for the Arts |
Director and Member |
July 2008 – Present |
Education, Art |
Teaching Matters |
Director |
July 2009 – June 2012 |
Education |
New York Venture Capital Association (Formerly VIANY) |
Executive Director |
June 2009 – November 2010 |
Science Technology |
New York City Opera |
Member of Education Board and Internet Advisor |
June 1996 – June 2005 |
Education |
Convent of the Sacred Heart, Greenwich Connecticut |
Officer, Treasurer and Nominating Chair and Director |
June 1999 – June 2006 |
Education |
Convent of the Sacred Heart |
Alumnae Board Director and Officer (Secretary) |
July 2004 – July 2009 |
Education |
NFTE - National Association for Teaching Entrepreneurialism |
Mentor |
October 2001 – June 2003 |
Education |
Guggenheim Museum |
Co-Executive Producer |
June 1996 – September 1997 |
Art, Culture |
MIT Corporate Joint Advisory Council |
MIT Corporation Joint Advisory Council Member (Student) |
September 1992 – June 1994 |
Education |
MIT Athletics Board |
Board Member |
June 1992 – July 1994 |
Education, Sports |
IEEE |
Board Member - Computer Society and Communications Society Committees |
June 1988 – June 1990 |
Education |
Dream it. Code it. Win it.
In October 2013, Dolan launched Dream it. Code it. Win it., a "Create-A-Thon" to award high school and college students more than $70,000 in cash and prizes for their creations using computer science tools.
Dream it. Code it. Win it. held its inaugural "create-a-thon" at the Cooper Union Great Hall in New York City on the evening of April 30, 2014. The awards ceremony was preceded by a panel discussion, which included: Joi Ito from the MIT Media Lab, Mike Perlis the CEO of Forbes, Jeanne Sullivan the co-founder of StarVest Partners, Philippe Buhannic the CEO of TradingScreen, Erik Nordlander an Engineering Partner at Google Ventures, Teresa A. Dahlberg the Dean at Cooper Union, and Alex Diaz the Head of Product Development at Yahoo!.
The contest was sponsored by Cooper Union, TradingScreen, Silicon Valley Bank, MedAffinity EHR, SorinRand, and Richard Berman Publications. The prize money was sponsored by the MIT alumni community, Tekserve, TradingScreen, and other small organizations.
The Dream it. Code it. Win it. contest was positively received by the media and thought leaders in the Computer Science and STEM space. Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson wrote a piece about the contest on his blog, which was also featured on Business Insider. The Better (TV series) Show interviewed contest organizer, Cristina Dolan, and Ernie Anastos from Fox 5 News also covered the event as well. Winners were interviewed by their local school newspapers as well.