John J. Donovan

John J. Donovan (born February 12, 1942) is a former management professor at MIT, and the current president and chief executive of the Cambridge Technology Group, an executive training company.[2]

This article is about John J. Donovan, retired MIT professor. For Washington state businessman and politician, see J. J. Donovan.
John Joseph Donovan
John J. Donovan at MIT in 2015
BornFebruary 12, 1942 (1942-02-12) (age 78)
Lynn, Massachusetts, US
NationalityAmerican, Irish
CitizenshipUnited States
Alma mater
Known forEntrepreneurship, Information Technology, Philanthropy
Net worth$100 million[1]
Spouse(s)Linda Donovan
Scientific career
Doctoral advisor
Doctoral students
WebsiteProfessor John J. Donovan
Signature
Jay-Yong Lee, George H. W. Bush, and John Donovan at the opening of Samsung's chip factory in Texas
Donovan with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard B. Myers
Donovan with John S. Reed (Chairman, MIT Corporation) in MIT Building 10 (2015)

Academic career

Donovan attended Lynn English High School. He obtained two master's degrees - one in engineering and one in science, and a PhD - from Yale University.[3] He subsequently was a Ford Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),[3][4][5] In 1977, he became a tenured professor at MIT.[6]

He authored multiple computer science textbooks, including Systems Programming (1972) and Operating Systems (1974), and his research focused on early work in operating systems, databases, and later applications of IT to business.[7][8] He also wrote business textbooks such as Business Re-engineering with Information Technology (1994) and Business & Technology: A Paradigm Shift (1993).[9][10] Donovan and his son, John Jr co-authored a book titled The Second Industrial Revolution (1997).[11][12]

Donovan also served as an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine. Donovan later lectured on Strategic Computing in Government while at Harvard University.[13] He received the first Honorary Doctorate in Economics from the University of Economics, Prague since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Business career

Donovan started his business career by providing technical training for AT&T computer business personnel.[14][15] Later courses shifted towards sales and strategy training to executives. This led to Donovan devising a method of helping companies meet their customers' needs through workshops which he ran for various companies including.

Through these workshops Donovan founded many companies including: Cambridge Technology Group, One Wave, Open Environment Corporation, Cambridge Technology Partners, and CellExchange.[16][17][18]

Multiple individuals have had problems collecting money from loans that have been given to Donovan. Former student and associate Stuart Madnick sued for $1.4 million, then later settled.[19] Donovan and other executives from his company have also been taken to court by 10 subcontractors who claim that he was so eager to hire them for an important workshop for Citigroup that he asked them to begin working the very day he offered them the job; in their pending case, they alleged that Donovan's company failed to pay them a total of $181,000.[19]

A lawsuit was filed by Donovan's son, John Jr, who claimed that his father had owed him $4.8 million for repayment of a loan. When John Jr took legal action to force repayment, Donovan claimed he owed him nothing. An arbitrator in the case, a former federal judge, ordered Donovan Sr to repay the loan. “I find that John Jr. was a truthful and credible witness”, he wrote, “and I find the testimony of Donovan, Sr to be unworthy of belief and false in all material respects”.[19]

In court proceedings regarding the event in which Donovan shot himself, Judge Martin was quoted as saying Donovan "deliberately lied". Additionally, based upon the result of the proceedings "the grand jury not first to find Donovan challenged by the truth".[20]

It has been found that Professor Donovan has attempted to defraud his children and state record keepers by doctoring legal documents, an arbitrator overseeing the family's litigation has stated in a scathing opinion. The arbitrator, Judge Martin states in the opinion: “[H]e conceived a fraud that had him representing that all he wanted to do was fulfill John’s dying wishes, when in fact he was doctoring videotapes, audiotapes and legal documents in a manner that was so childish that even the least intelligent of us would never believe that what he was proposing was anything that John would have wanted”, [21] In an article published in the Salem News discussing the proceedings, Judge Martin issued detailed findings: "...the arbitrator overseeing the case, John Martin,... wrote, because of Donovan Sr's "history of misrepresenting and ignoring all that has gone before, his unwillingness to abide by the agreements he has made and his propensity for making unfounded allegations".[22]

In March 2016, a law firm "obtained a $1.2 million default judgment against him for unpaid legal fees".[22] He is also being accused of misusing funds raised for a startup called SendItLater, Inc. for personal use. The shareholder suit alleges that Donovan used "the firm to support his own lifestyle and not for the benefit of the company, in which he made no financial investment of his own".

Public service

In 1978, Donovan was a collaborator in the development of a birth defect information system for Tufts University School of Medicine.[23][24]

In 2001, Donovan established a $50,000 scholarship (John J. Donovan Family Scholarship) at Yale University.[25] Through his charitable organization Children's Potential Unlimited, he donated computers to Connery Elementary School in Lynn, Massachusetts.[26]

In 2009, Donovan was recognized by the Essex County Trail Association for his land conservation work.[27][28][29][30] Donovan has also done land conservation work in Vermont.[31]

Personal life
Donovan with US Senator Ted Kennedy (c. 2001)

Donovan was born in Lynn, Massachusetts to John J. Sr and Madeline Donovan. John J. Sr was an elementary school teacher and part-time police officer, and Madeline was a social worker. Donovan has mentioned that his father passed down a strong love for teaching. At Lynn High, a teacher noticed his unique ability to find patterns of mathematics and replicate them, and asked him to teach his peers. Inspired by the opportunity, Donovan credits this empowerment as life-changing.[32] His wife is Linda Donovan. One of his sons is Jim Donovan (banker).[33]

In a 2004 article, Professor Donovan's son, John Jr. was quoted saying, "What we have learned about dad is monstrous, and we should have nothing to do with him".[34]

In August 2007, Donovan was fined $625 for filing a false police report,[35] and was found guilty of staging his own shooting. Middlesex Superior Court Judge Kenneth Fishman was quoted as saying "Mr. Donovan's behavior . . . can be described as nothing short of bizarre and premeditated".[36] It was further determined that John J. Donovan purposefully altered the viewing angles of the surveillance cameras in the areas where the crime was committed. Video footage taken a few days before the attack showed Donovan redirecting a security camera in the car park, an indication, prosecutors argued, that Donovan had staged the shooting. According to Attorney General Martha Coakley and testimony at Donovan's trial, Donovan shot himself in the abdomen, shot up his own minivan, kept a spent bullet in his mouth, rearranged a surveillance camera to prevent the recording of his hoax, and laid out the entire plan in a form of shorthand on the dinner menu of the Algonquin Club to which he belonged. Police found the "to-do" list in his pocket.[36]

During these same proceedings the judge ordered Donovan to stay away from his four eldest children and their families. This was in part, due to the fact that one of John J. Donovan's daughters alleged she has been sexually assaulted by her father. She was joined by all but one of her siblings in seeking a separation agreement from their father. Even the son who did not join the action, John Jr, has said in court papers that he wants nothing to do with his father.[37][24]

John Donovan, Sr is subject to a lifetime Stay Away Order of the Massachusetts Superior Court dated July 9, 2009 as amended November 2, 2016. He must never be within 100 yards (91 m) of his children, their spouses and children (Donovan's grandchildren), and his daughter-in-law and her children (Donovan's grandchildren).[38]

Significant policing resources were required to investigate the allegations that someone had attacked John J. Donovan, when in reality he had shot himself. A spokesman for the Cambridge Police Department, Frank Pasquarello, was quoted as saying "There are a lot of people who worked hard that night (of the shooting,)". He went to say "Have him come over and rake their leaves".[39]

In court proceedings that have been adjudicated, many elements of Professor Donovan's personal relationships with his children have been brought to light. Specifically, his son, John Jr.had concerns in ensuring that his widow and children would be protected from his father. Specifically, John Jr. wanted to record his issues so that they could not be left open to interpretation. "So Donovan Jr., the owner of the Manchester Athletic Club and of millions of dollars worth of other holdings, carefully documented his final wishes, in writing and on video. What he didn’t know was that his father was also, secretly, recording him — recordings that Donovan Sr admitted during a hearing last fall that he had been 'cutting and pasting' together, newly filed court documents say." Professor Donovan then took the videos that he recorded and doctored them in such a way as to indicate that John Jr. desired to leave millions of dollars to his father, which was absolutely false.[22]

As part of these recordings, John Jr. even went so far as to indicate that he did not want his father to even attend his funeral, a true indication of the relationship between Professor Donovan and his children. This is specifically outlined in this quote: “The only references to Professor Donovan in John, Jr.’s estate planning documents concern John, Jr.’s wishes that Professor Donovan have no contact whatsoever with John, Jr.’s children, and that he not attend John, Jr.’s funeral”, wrote Martin, a former federal judge.[21] An arbitrator in the dispute proposed "an order barring Donovan Sr. from using his late son’s name and image under any circumstances — including a purported fundraising campaign he was allegedly conducting in his son’s name".[40]

On December 9, 2017, Donovan was indicted on "seven counts of forgery and single counts of attempted larceny" for faking "the signature of his late son, John J. Donovan III, to the codicil of his will. These charges are also indicative of the attempts of Professor Donovan to cheat his grandchildren and widowed daughter-in-law out of property. Professor Donovan is facing seven counts of forgery and single counts of attempted larceny, obtaining a signature key by false pretenses, and witness intimidation among other charges, according to a statement from the Essex district attorney's office. The elder Donovan’s actions allegedly allowed him to gain the titles of properties in Hamilton, Manchester, Beverly, and Essex, according to the DA’s office." [41]

July 2, 2020 BOSTON (AP) — A judge has found that a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and self-styled “business guru” is liable for nearly $3 million in damages, attorney's fees and interest for using funds invested in a now-failed startup for personal expenses. John Donovan Sr., 77, of Hamilton, was using investor funds to pay for country club membership, hair treatments, property tax bills, and other expenses, Judge Brian Davis wrote in his decision, according to a report Wednesday in The Salem News.

Bibliography
  • Systems programming. McGraw-Hill. 1972. ISBN 978-0-07-017603-4. OCLC 298763.
  • Madnick, Stuart E.; Donovan, John J. (1974). Operating systems. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780070394551. OCLC 815104.
  • Software projects : pedagogical aids for software education and research. World Cat. 1977. ISBN 9780070175914. OCLC 2695022.
  • Crisis in technology : the solution, strategic weapons and tactics for executives : handbook for implementing strategic advantage through technology. World Cat. 1990. ISBN 9780962179402. OCLC 22801844.
  • Business and technology : a paradigm shift : strategic weapons and tactics for executives : handbook for implementing strategic advantage through technology. World Cat. 1992. OCLC 26960141.
  • Business re-engineering with information technology : sustaining your business advantage : an implementation guide. Prentice Hall. 1994. ISBN 978-0-13-311028-9. OCLC 30079027.
  • The second industrial revolution : reinventing your business on the web. World Cat. 1997. ISBN 9780137456215. OCLC 42443281.

References
  1. Bermuda's world business leaders and their locally-registered companies
  2. Flynn, Laurie (21 August 1994). "Sound Bytes; Three Careers and Counting". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-03-06.
  3. Yale PhD
  4. Virtual Machine Communication for the Implementation of Decision Support SystemIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering,Vol. SE-3, No. 5, September 1977
  5. John J. Donovan David A. Schultz Award Certificate
  6. John J. Donovan Tenure Letter
  7. Systems programmingLibrary of Congress Online Catalogue
  8. Operating SystemsLibrary of Congress Online Catalogue
  9. Library of Congress On-line Catalogue
  10. Donovan Executive Seminar - About the Speaker
  11. Second Industrial Revolution,Library of Congress Online Catalogue
  12. Second Industrial RevolutionCover and Acknowledgments.
  13. The Oracle e-business Executive Seminar Series Brochure, www.oracle.com
  14. AT&T - Cambridge Institute Information Systems Brochure
  15. Cambridge Institute for Information Systems - Staff Members - 1986
  16. Listening is important, but leading is the main job The Boston Globe, January 11, 2004.
  17. Sound Bytes: Three Careers and Counting New York Times, August 21, 1994.
  18. Still battling the bullies As John Donovan rolls out companies, he leaves behind both admirers and enemies The Boston Globe, June 30, 1996.
  19. Professor Donovan’s Magnificent Entanglements, Boston Magazine, July 2006
  20. Boston Globe Archives The Nutty Professor, Boston Globe, May 26, 2006
  21. Arbitrator finds ex-prof attempted to defraud deceased son's widow and children, Boston Herald, March 09, 2017
  22. Manganis, Julie (2017-03-12). "Mediator: Hamilton man doctored videos trying to swindle son's widow, children". The Salem News. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  23. New Birth Defect Computer System DemonstratedTech Talk, June 14, 1978
  24. Conroy, Erin (August 15, 2007). "Son of MIT professor says his father tried to ruin him - The Boston Globe". archive.boston.com. Boston Globe. Associated Press. Retrieved 2017-01-21.
  25. Donovan Family ScholarshipYale University
  26. Brochure Children's Potential Unlimited
  27. John and Linda Donovan honored at Myopia Horse ShowHamilton-Wenham Chronicle, September 24, 2009.
  28. Local News Salem News, September 7, 2009.
  29. Donovan/Sagamore Hill temporarily closed Essex County Trail Association
  30. Run for the Trails Muddy Fun Essex County Trail Association, November 7, 2009
  31. Community Recognizes Pomfret CoupleVermont Standard, Volume 156 - Number 36,September 11, 2009.
  32. "Personal story of Professor John Donovan".
  33. https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/03/15/donovan/JK4ktud8NraxVqKBOsy94L/story.html
  34. Great divide A N.E. family of privilege is at war over money, property, and accusations of a father's abuse, The Boston Globe, February 22, 2004
  35. Salem News November 6, 2010 article by Julie Manganis
  36. Ellement, John R. (August 18, 2007). "Ex-professor found guilty of staging own shooting". archive.boston.com. Boston Globe. Retrieved 2017-01-21.
  37. MIT professor staged his own shooting, The Guardian, August 17, 2007
  38. Brown et al v Donovan, Sr et al. Docket Number: SUCV2003-04247
  39. IT Guru John Donovan Sentenced To Clean Up Horse Trails, Information Week, December 5, 2007
  40. Arbitrator: Hamilton man doctored videos trying to swindle son's widow, Salen News, March 12, 2017
  41. Ex-MIT professor indicted in property swindle, Boston Globe, December 29, 2017

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2020/07/02/former-mit-professor-from-hamilton-found-liable-for-misusing-startups-funds

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