Mary Furlong, Ed.D, MFA’s president and CEO, is a leading authority on the longevity marketplace. She has guided the business development and marketing strategies of leading corporations, emerging companies, and nonprofit organizations for more than 30 years.

Her list of clients and sponsors includes AARP, Ageless Innovation, Amba Health, CareYaya, Claris Healthcare, Frendii, GetSetUp, HumanGood, Joe & Bella, Posit Science, Vital eCare, VoiceLove, and Ziegler Link•age. Mary founded MFA in 2003 to help socially and consumer-conscious companies understand the real needs of this growing market. Mary has secured over $300 million in venture financing and corporate sponsorships for companies with products and services to serve the needs of the boomer/senior marketplace.

At the helm of Mary Furlong and Associates, she launched the What’s Next brand of events, which includes the What’s Next Longevity Business Summit (formerly the Boomer Business Summit), the What’s Next Longevity Venture Summit, the What’s Next Longevity Innovation Summit, the What’s Next Academy, and two podcasts, What’s Next Living Longer, Better, Smarter and What’s Next Longevity Deal Talk, with veteran reporter Fred Fishkin.

In 2001, Fortune Small Business named Mary one of its “Top 25 Women Entrepreneurs,” and Time Magazine honored her in 1999 as one of its “Digital 50.” She also served as a White House Commissioner on Libraries and Information Science during the Clinton administration, and she has conducted hearings on aging and technology for the U.S. Senate. Next Avenue named Mary one of its “2016 Influencers in Aging,” She is also a past winner of the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s “Top 100 Women of Influence” award, and has been a recipient of the American Society on Aging Leadership Award. Most recently she was named the first recipient of the Aging2.0 Lifetime Achievement Award, which is part of the annual OPTIMIZE Awards program. Mary is the author of Turning Silver into Gold: How to Profit in the New Boomer Marketplace.

Before launching MFA, Mary founded the nonprofit organizations SeniorNet in 1986 and ThirdAge Media in 1996. Throughout the course of her work for both organizations, she raised $130 million in venture capital funds, corporate sponsorships, and foundation grants.

During Mary’s tenure, SeniorNet served more than 500,000 adults age 50 and older. Much of her time was spent in the field at the organization’s learning centers, observing the applications that worked and the issues related to the technology. ThirdAge Media reached more than 2 million members, most age 45 and older, when Mary served as its CEO and visionary leader of the editorial team.

Mary has appeared on CBS, PBS, NPR, and NBC’s Today show to discuss trends in aging and technology, and her expertise has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, Business Week, Fortune, People, Newsweek, and Fast Company, among other publications.

Mary is an advisory member of the Ziegler Link•age Longevity Fund, L.P., the Thrive Center and the Centre for Aging & Brain Health Innovation, and she serves on the Thrive board.

In addition, Mary is the Dean’s Executive Professor of Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business.