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Hi, I’m an entrepreneur passionate about the power of technology, social networks and innovation to change lives. Back in high school I ranked in the upper 10% nationally boys & girls in process engineering, and in 2014, my Catalyst personality archetype - developed by New York Times bestselling author Sally Hogshead of How The World Sees You - Advantage score ranked in the upper 10% globally in Passion and Innovation.
My paternal great-grandmother Elizabeth Ball fled Wales during the potato famine crossing the Atlantic as steerage with one, five pound cast flat iron for clothes pressing. My maternal great-grandfather escaped Palermo, Italy mafia to work the steel mills in Buffalo, New York bringing each of his eleven children and wife to America one by one. Early maternal relatives were homesteaders in the Civil War, and another, educated as a medical doctor, was once the largest landowner in the State of Connecticut. |
My father Robert Mason O’Hagan served first as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Coast Guard for 19 years under auspices of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute of Massachusetts and later, USCG Research and Development Center in Groton, CT where he specialized in the coordination of navigational applications. He was lead inventor on the first anti-tracking patent (used to land airplanes, navigate shipping lanes and now, park your car) and a serial entrepreneur generating patents in areas such as ocean wave action, solar energy and fuel cell storage.
Mother Jeannette LoBuglio O’Hagan was an administrative and therapeutic dietitian and advocate for quality hospital food and healthy diets for diabetic, dialysis and AIDS patients. Mom was also an amazing quilter, camper and canoeist, cook, and gardener!
I earned a Master of Music degree in Harp performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music. There, I established the Preparatory Harp Department and under the leadership of President David Cerone, co-led CIM’s first efforts to establish program partnerships with Cleveland's Chinese community. In the 1980’s I was invited to perform and teach as a guest of the People’s Republic of China accompanying mentor and Cleveland Orchestra harpist, Alice Chalifoux. I brought Shanghai Conservatory colleagues their first student model Troubadour Harp, produced by the American harp manufacturer, Lyon-Healy based in Chicago, Illinois. Professionally, I collaborated with chamber music artists and composers from all over the world.
Over the years as a Co-Founder & Director at the Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open), I’ve developed a worldview based on principles and practices in Open Source Economic Development (OSED), an appreciative approach to technology driven strategies in emerging economies. I’ve published about OSED under the auspices of MIT’s Center for Collective Intelligence, Savannah College of Art & Design, and Wayne State University College of Engineering at ScienceDirect.
I apply what I learned in music - technical excellence, reverence for process protocols, and collaborative high risk small team performance - to business development and as I'm able, to life.
Mother Jeannette LoBuglio O’Hagan was an administrative and therapeutic dietitian and advocate for quality hospital food and healthy diets for diabetic, dialysis and AIDS patients. Mom was also an amazing quilter, camper and canoeist, cook, and gardener!
I earned a Master of Music degree in Harp performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music. There, I established the Preparatory Harp Department and under the leadership of President David Cerone, co-led CIM’s first efforts to establish program partnerships with Cleveland's Chinese community. In the 1980’s I was invited to perform and teach as a guest of the People’s Republic of China accompanying mentor and Cleveland Orchestra harpist, Alice Chalifoux. I brought Shanghai Conservatory colleagues their first student model Troubadour Harp, produced by the American harp manufacturer, Lyon-Healy based in Chicago, Illinois. Professionally, I collaborated with chamber music artists and composers from all over the world.
Over the years as a Co-Founder & Director at the Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open), I’ve developed a worldview based on principles and practices in Open Source Economic Development (OSED), an appreciative approach to technology driven strategies in emerging economies. I’ve published about OSED under the auspices of MIT’s Center for Collective Intelligence, Savannah College of Art & Design, and Wayne State University College of Engineering at ScienceDirect.
I apply what I learned in music - technical excellence, reverence for process protocols, and collaborative high risk small team performance - to business development and as I'm able, to life.
"Betsey is an unparalleled visual systems thinker and a graceful boundary spanner connecting across disciplines, and creating the yet unknown path into the future." - Ralf Lippold, Lean Thinker & Futurist, Dresden, Germany
“Betsey Merkel is a one-woman literacy program in digital networking. I am not technology-fluent, but Betsey was willing to take considerable time out of her day to explain to me how online networks can be created, why they are valuable and how she could continue to help me become adept at using them. Her skill and generosity are spectacular, but what especially amazed me was the supportiveness she showed for me as an entrepreneur and the passion she demonstrates for creative economic development and the power of connectedness. Betsey is one of the people who will pull Northeast Ohio onto the cutting edge of the technology economy.” - Carolyn Jack, Writer/Communications Consultant
Betsey Merkel Phone: +1 216-246-2447 Email: betseymerkel@gmail.com
Location: Cleveland, Ohio U.S.A. Site design by Betsey Merkel.
Location: Cleveland, Ohio U.S.A. Site design by Betsey Merkel.
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