A fourth-generation entrepreneur, Carol Bowen can’t remember a time when she wasn’t involved with start-ups and small businesses. After receiving a B.A. in psychology and a Ph.D. in social science, she worked at two consulting firms before starting her own company, Bowen Marketing Consultants, in 1985, as a provider of strategic marketing consulting and market research services. Healthcare was a company specialty area, and projects were completed for medical products manufacturers, hospitals and healthcare systems, major medical journals, and pharmaceutical companies. She successfully sold the company in 2016.

 

Seeing a need in the children’s product market in the early 1990s, Carol and a partner founded Come Alive Publications, an award-winning children’s book, and accessory products company. They sold the company a few years later to a publisher.

 

In late 2012, following the death of her husband and fellow entrepreneur, Carol became the President of Materials Systems Inc. (MSI), a company that designs and manufactures sonar transducers for applications such as mine hunting, torpedo homing, medical devices, and oil and gas exploration. After managing the company for 2 years, Carol successfully sold MSI to Channel Technologies Group in late 2014.

 

Carol is an Advisor at the Museum of Science in Boston and serves or has served on the board of directors of several nonprofit organizations. She is an active angel investor as a member of Boston Harbor Angels and serves in an advisory capacity to several companies in which she has invested. Carol loves traveling; the Red Sox and Patriots (in good times and bad); hiking, biking, yoga & tennis; and can often be found in her garden in Massachusetts during the summer.