Martina Marrali

Babson College, F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business

“Scientist-turned-entrepreneur developing technology to advance women’s hormonal health.”

Hometown: Licata, Sicily, Italy

Fun fact about yourself: My father and I once tried to make wine but accidentally produced vinegar instead, so now we stick to our much more successful family limoncello.

Undergraduate School and Degree:

University of Lincoln (UK), BSc in Biomedical Science

University College London (UK), MSc in Human Tissue Repair: Transplantation Science

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? I worked as a scientist on the Clinical Immunology team at Gritstone Bio, a biotechnology company developing cutting-edge cancer immunotherapies.

Where did you intern during the summer of 2025? I interned at Ateklo, a venture studio in Portland, Maine.

Where will you be working after graduation? After graduation, I will continue as CEO of EliVive, the femtech company I co-founded with Dr. Liza White to advance women’s hormonal health.

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

* Co-Chair, Global Entrepreneurial Leadership Forum 2026 – Led Babson’s flagship entrepreneurship conference uniting founders, investors, and innovators to explore how ventures thrive in complex, rapidly evolving markets.

* Director, Graduate Healthcare & Biotech Club – Spearheaded programming connecting MBA students with leaders across biotech, venture capital, and digital health to bridge scientific innovation and business insight.

* Price Babson Fellow – Selected for a merit-based fellowship recognizing exceptional leadership, academic achievement, and entrepreneurial impact.

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? Co-chairing Babson’s Global Entrepreneurial Leadership Forum has been the extracurricular achievement I am most proud of during business school. Working alongside my co-chair and a team of 13 students, I helped strengthen the conference by bringing together speakers across entrepreneurship, technology, and industry leadership. Our goal was to create a forum where students could engage directly with accomplished leaders and gain insight into how to navigate uncertainty and thrive in a rapidly changing environment.

I also had the opportunity to moderate a health technology panel, which pushed me beyond my comfort zone and became one of the most rewarding aspects of the experience. In addition, I organized venture workshops where students pitched their ideas to an experienced product strategist from Meta. The strong response from speakers and attendees confirmed the impact of the event.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? Co-founding EliVive during my MBA has been the most meaningful achievement of my professional career so far. We are developing wearable biosensing technology that enables women to track and better understand their hormonal health.

This work is especially significant to me because my co-founder and I are addressing challenges we have experienced personally and that resonate far beyond our own lives. Building EliVive has allowed me to bring together my scientific training, entrepreneurial ambition, and enduring commitment to improving health and well-being. That sense of purpose has been a consistent thread throughout my career, and this venture has given it its clearest expression.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose Babson College because of its distinctive commitment to entrepreneurship as both a mindset and a practice, rather than merely an academic discipline. I wanted to be in an environment where building companies and testing ideas were embedded in daily life rather than treated as exercises confined to the classroom. Babson’s emphasis on learning by doing made it the ideal place to pursue venture creation within a community that genuinely embodies the spirit of “Never Try, Never Win.”

Who was your favorite MBA professor? Professor Christopher Payton, who teaches Finance for New Ventures, has been the most influential professor in my MBA experience. His course struck a rare balance between rigorous financial analysis and practical insight for founders. It taught me how to evaluate opportunities from both the founder’s and investor’s perspectives and how to approach financing decisions with confidence and clarity.

The lessons were immediately relevant as I began building my own venture, which made the course especially meaningful. Beyond the classroom, Professor Payton has been remarkably generous with his time and guidance, even serving as an advisor to my company. His combination of financial expertise, practical judgment, and genuine investment in his students left a lasting impression on me.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? Leader Development with Professor Scott Taylor was my favorite MBA course because it invited a depth of reflection that few courses achieve. It challenged me to think carefully about the kind of leader I aspire to become, the values that shape my judgment, and the responsibility inherent in leadership. Through structured exercises, thoughtful feedback, and guided reflection, I came to understand more clearly how my personal values should inform my leadership practice and define the impact I hope to have. The course stood out by connecting professional development with personal purpose in a way that was both intellectually rigorous and personally transformative.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? The International Dinner stands out as one of Babson’s most meaningful traditions. Each year, students gather in Knight Auditorium to celebrate the cultural richness of the graduate community. Students from across the globe represent their home countries through food, traditional attire, and sometimes music or dance performances. The event captures the deeply international character of Babson and creates one of the most joyful and memorable moments of the year.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? Looking back, I would have devoted more time to exploring areas beyond my immediate professional interests. While I focused on entrepreneurship and health technology, Babson offered perspectives across many industries and disciplines. In retrospect, I would have become more involved in additional clubs or consulting projects to learn from unfamiliar fields and challenge my assumptions. Some of the most valuable aspects of my MBA emerged from unexpected conversations and collaborations, and I would have sought out even more of those opportunities.

What was the most impactful case study you had in business school and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it? One of the most impactful case studies in my MBA experience was the FluMist case in Professor Anirudh Dhebar’s Marketing High Tech Products course. The case examined the challenges MedImmune faced in launching FluMist, the first nasal spray influenza vaccine, and how positioning decisions could shape the commercial trajectory of a novel medical product. The central lesson I drew from it was that successful commercialization depends on a disciplined understanding of customer behavior. The case showed that FluMist’s success depended on understanding why many people avoided flu vaccines. It underscored for me that introducing a novel product is not enough. Success also requires rigorous market insight, thoughtful segmentation, and strategic positioning.

What business leader do you admire most? One business leader I admire is Melanie Perkins, co-founder and CEO of Canva. She developed the idea for Canva after teaching students how to use complex design software and realizing how inaccessible those tools were for most people. Despite being rejected by investors more than 100 times, she continued pursuing the idea until Canva became one of the most widely used design platforms in the world. What I respect most about her leadership is the persistence and discipline she demonstrated in turning a simple observation into a global company. Her story is a reminder that meaningful innovation often begins with identifying a practical problem and continuing to pursue a solution even when others initially dismiss the idea.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? Babson has integrated AI into the curriculum both through dedicated coursework and through the ways faculty incorporate it into classroom discussions and assignments. Several professors encourage students to experiment with AI tools while also evaluating their outputs with care and skepticism. One approach that stood out to me involved dividing the class into groups to solve the same problem, with one group using AI as a tool and the others relying solely on their own reasoning. Comparing the results prompted thoughtful discussion about the contexts in which AI can enhance analysis and the points at which human judgment remains indispensable. The experience reinforced for me that AI is most effective when used to augment critical thinking rather than replace it.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? The classmate I admire most is Ashaa Murali. Together, we served as co-chairs of the Global Entrepreneurial Leadership Forum, and she also serves as president of the Graduate Student Council. What I admire most about Ashaa is her ability to balance multiple leadership responsibilities while maintaining a strong sense of purpose and a genuine commitment to the community around her. In addition to leading major student initiatives at Babson, she is building her own fashion venture in India focused on creating personalized dresses and clothing, which I have also had the pleasure of experiencing firsthand. Despite her many commitments, she remains deeply attentive to her friends and classmates and brings energy, organization, and thoughtfulness to every project she undertakes. Her drive, leadership, and ability to bring people together make her someone I greatly admire.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?

1) Build and scale a company that advances women’s hormonal health through technology and data-informed insights.

2) Help bridge the gap between scientific discovery and entrepreneurship by enabling more scientists to translate research into meaningful ventures.

What made Martina such an invaluable member of the MBA Class of 2026?

“Every year there are a few students who elevate the learning experience for everyone around them; in my Finance for New Ventures course, Martina Marrali was unmistakably one of those students. Martina Marrali represents the very best of Babson’s mission to develop entrepreneurial leaders who create both economic and social value. I had the opportunity to teach Martina in my finance course, where she distinguished herself as one of the most intellectually rigorous, thoughtful, and purpose-driven students in the class. In a course centered on venture finance and founder decision-making under uncertainty, Martina consistently demonstrated the rare ability to combine analytical discipline with entrepreneurial imagination and bias for action.

What stood out most about Martina was not simply the quality of her work, but the perspective she brought to the classroom. With deep experience as a scientist in biotech startups, she approached venture finance from the vantage point of someone who understands both the scientific and commercial sides of innovation. When analyzing venture financing strategies or evaluating startup business models, Martina was able to bridge technical, clinical, and business considerations in ways that elevated the discussion for the entire class. Her contributions regularly pushed classmates to think more holistically about the realities of building and funding breakthrough technologies.

One small but telling example of Martina’s character came during our team-based assignments. When unassigned students needed to be integrated into project teams, Martina consistently volunteered to bring them into her group. She did this not because it was convenient (if anything, it added complexity) but because she cared about making sure that everyone in the class had a place to contribute. That instinct to include others while still maintaining high standards for the team’s work reflected the kind of leadership that builds strong organizations.

Martina is also actively applying these skills in practice as the co-founder and CEO of EliVive, a FemTech venture developing an AI-enabled wearable that provides insights into hormonal health and fertility. Even while managing the demands of launching a venture, she has maintained exceptional academic performance and consistently brought real-world insights from customer discovery, venture strategy, and fundraising into the classroom. This integration of theory and practice is precisely what Babson’s entrepreneurial philosophy is designed to cultivate.

Beyond her academic and entrepreneurial work, Martina has played a meaningful leadership role in the Babson community. As Co-Chair of the Global Entrepreneurial Leadership (GEL) Forum, Babson’s flagship entrepreneurship conference, she has led a team of student organizers to design programming that brings together entrepreneurs, investors, and industry leaders across fields such as AI, health technology, and venture creation. Through this work, she has helped strengthen connections between students and practitioners while expanding the reach and impact of the conference.

What makes Martina particularly distinctive, however, is the spirit with which she approaches leadership. She brings intellectual curiosity, generosity toward her peers, and a strong sense of purpose to everything she does. Whether mentoring fellow students interested in biotech careers or organizing events that connect the Babson community with leaders in innovation, Martina consistently looks for ways to create opportunities for others.

Martina embodies the interdisciplinary, entrepreneurial mindset that defines Babson’s most exceptional students: a scientist who understands venture finance, a founder building technology that addresses real human needs, and a community leader committed to advancing innovation in healthcare. I have no doubt that she will continue to build ventures and communities that have meaningful impact.”

Christopher Payton
Adjunct Faculty, Babson College

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