IDEXX Founder David Evans Shaw draws crowd at University of New England’s inaugural Spark Conversation

More than 50 attendees packed into the first-floor atrium of the Danielle N. Ripich Commons on Wednesday, Nov. 5, for the inaugural Spark Conversation, the third event in the University of New England College of Business Spark Series. 

The standing-room-only event featured a dynamic conversation between entrepreneur David Evans Shaw, HON ’22, and UNE President James Herbert, Ph.D., on entrepreneurship, innovation, and creating meaningful impact through business. 

Shaw, CEO of Black Point Group and author of “Wave Making,” shared insights from his career building technology companies while championing environmental conservation and challenging conventional business wisdom.

“You need to develop great listening skills,” Shaw, founder of IDEXX Laboratories, told the audience. “You need to develop great critical thinking and innovation skills. You need to be a great organizer and communicator of information and a great facilitator of high-performance teams. And you don't need to be the smartest person in the room in terms of domain knowledge.”

Shaw challenged students to embrace risk and failure as essential components of innovation.

“You have to have conviction that overcoming that adversity, embracing struggles will be beneficial to you,” Shaw said. 

Shaw noted that the first product launched by IDEXX failed but that the experience was a great team-building exercise, and employees used it as an opportunity to grow the company into what it is known for today —  a high-performance organization a global leader in its industry 

“No good things happen without great struggles, and the human brain is superbly capable of delivering better results through struggles than without struggles,” Shaw added. 

The conversation covered topics ranging from environmental sustainability, cultivating curiosity and passion, and building high-performance teams and finding opportunities in adversity. Students engaged directly with Shaw through a Q&A session, with the first 20 students receiving complimentary copies of “Wave Making.”

President Herbert emphasized that Shaw’s contributions to UNE extend well beyond the evening, particularly his support of the Shaw Innovation Fellowship program. 

“He truly is an inspiration,” Herbert said, encouraging attendees to read Shaw’s book. “He doesn’t just tell his own story, but he really relates it to life lessons that we could all benefit from.”

Shaw’s philosophy of challenging convention and embracing out-of-the-box thinking is embodied in the UNE Shaw Innovation Fellowship, launched in 2021 through the University’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The program offers students hands-on experience developing marketable products and addressing planetary and human health challenges through campus and community partnerships.

The fellowship deliberately brings together students from diverse disciplines to collaborate on real-world projects, creating what Shaw calls “escape velocity,” from conventional academic boundaries. Students experience a complete innovation cycle within one year, from initial concept through team building to results, developing skills in creative problem-solving, risk-taking, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Shaw serves as a visiting senior fellow at UNE and has said the fellowship has “lifetime value” by creating mindsets and approaches that benefit students throughout their careers. Fellows have gone on to pursue new internships, leadership roles, original research, and entrepreneurial ventures earlier than they would have otherwise.

Wrapping up the evening, Shaw emphasized the importance of exploration, experiential learning, and stepping outside your comfort zone. 

“Look at many different options,” he advised students considering their career paths. “Your lives will benefit very significantly from early understanding of what kind of endeavors are most attractive to you, and what you excel at.”