John J. Donovan (born February 12, 1942) is an American businessman. He was a management professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the former president and chief executive of the Cambridge Technology Group, an executive training company. On May 3, 2022, Donovan Sr. was convicted of a dozen felony counts of fraud and forgery in a jury trial, for attempting to steal assets from his son's widow and children.
Academic career/claims of military service 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. He subsequently was a Ford Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), In 1977, he became a tenured professor at MIT. In 2007, a MIT spokesperson said that Donovan "is completely and definitely not an employee of MIT. That is completely inaccurate." Reporting suggested that "As recently as September 2020, Donovan Sr.'s personal website described him as a Tenured MIT Professor and highlighted his MIT email address at the top of his resume. Donovan Sr. used his MIT email address to conduct business for one of his companies. And MIT still has an active webpage for Professor John J. Donovan Sr." As of 2022, MIT said about Donovan's role at the school, "We do not have any comment or information to share about former Sloan Prof. John Donovan Sr., who has not been employed by MIT for over two decades." The same article continued, "What is perhaps even more remarkable than the cover MIT provided Donovan is how long their relationship lasted. Back in 2002, the professor's daughter revealed that her father sexually abused her as a child, writing in an affidavit the following year, "The sexual abuse by my father has caused me tremendous pain, psychological trauma, and anguish, which continues to this day. Had Donovan been branded a criminal and a burden by the powerful institution he used in his sales pitches, that trail may have been a lot shorter." 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. He also wrote business textbooks such as Business Re-engineering with Information Technology (1994) and Business & Technology: A Paradigm Shift (1993). Donovan and his son, John Jr co-authored a book titled The Second Industrial Revolution (1997). 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. He received the first Honorary Doctorate in Economics from the University of Economics, Prague since the breakup of the Soviet Union. At the sentencing hearing of his criminal fraud trial, the prosecutor said he "was offended to read that Donovan's lawyer claimed his client was honorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force given that years earlier, Donovan himself had said—under oath—that he never made it through ROTC." At his trial, prosecutor Jack Dawley said, "You have read, Your Honor, about the defendant being honorably discharged from the Air Force," Dawley said. "In the 2003 CEE case he testified under oath that he didn't finish ROTC due to a problem with his eyes. He told this court he was honorably discharged- it shows his indifference to the court system and his lack of respect."
Business career According to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Donovan Sr. "cranked up a pretty elaborate "fraud machine" to attempt to create phony offsets for the (Brining) funds" in litigation brought by Jennifer Brining against Donovan for breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and unjust enrichment in Donovan's Send it Later failed startup. The court was also persuaded that Donovan Sr.'s "misconduct as managing director of [SendItLater] included manipulating the transfer of [SendItLater] stock in late 2016 and 2017 to certain investors, including his wife, Linda Donovan, Mr. Will Graylin, and Mr. [Navin] Fabiani, so as to unfairly benefit these investors". Donovan started his business career by providing technical training for AT&T computer business personnel. 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. Through these workshops Donovan founded many companies including: Cambridge Technology Group, One Wave, Open Environment Corporation, Cambridge Technology Partners, and CellExchange. 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. 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. In March 2016, a law firm "obtained a $1.2 million default judgment against (Donovan Sr.) for unpaid legal fees". On July 2, 2020, a judge found Donovan liable for nearly $3 million in damages, attorney's fees and interest for using funds invested in a failed startup for personal expenses. Donovan 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. He was also found to have misused funds raised for a startup called SendItLater, Inc. for personal use. The shareholder suit alleged 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".
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