Worcester Business Journal

6 Worcester Business Journal • March 28, 2016 www.wbjournal.com CHEFS CATERING TABLE 3 RESTAURANT GROUP Tapping Worcester's innovative potential Duane grew up in West Haven, Conn., the eldest of five siblings, and became the defacto head of the household and breadwinner at age 13 while her mother struggled with addiction. When it came time to go to college, she chose Northeastern University, where she had to work as many as four jobs at a time to make it through, but she still found time to create her own opera major. Those early experiences taught her to be a hustler and to develop innovative solutions to problems as they cropped up along the way. Duane is currently an entrepreneur-in-residence at Clark University, where she teaches entrepre- neurship classes with real-world applica- tions to undergraduate students. After getting her postgraduate degree from Boston University, Duane became a singer and took gigs around the world as they came. At the same time, she started her first company, Wild Women Entrepreneurs. Then the market crashed in 2008, and all of her singing gigs fold- ed within six weeks. Entrepreneurship then became her main focus. Fostering entrepreneurship Duane created Wild Women Entrepreneurs when she noticed key dif- ferences between male and female entre- preneurs. She noticed that at networking events, men had no problem meeting a BY LAURA FINALDI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer J a-Nae Duane is a serial entrepreneur, business consul- tant, professional opera singer and author with several passions, including helping entrepreneurs succeed and fostering economic development in secondary cities, like Worcester. Even if there is no traditional path to entrepreneurship, hers is notable. Ja-Nae Duane is a serial entrepreneur, opera singer and one of the entrepreneurs-in- residence at Clark University, where she teaches entrepreneurial design thinking. P H O T O / M A T T V O L P I N I

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