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.Donovan Guilty in Forgery SchemeSalem News"Ex-MIT business professor convicted of trying to steal millions from late son's estate", Boston Globe
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.Yale PhD He subsequently was a Ford Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),Virtual Machine Communication for the Implementation of Decision Support SystemIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. SE-3, No. 5, September 1977John J. Donovan David A. Schultz Award Certificate In 1977, he became a tenured professor at MIT.John J. Donovan Tenure Letter In 2007, a MIT spokesperson said that Donovan "is completely and definitely not an employee of MIT. That is completely inaccurate."Still Nutty, The Boston Globe 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."Disgraced MIT Professor Who Staged Fake Murder-For-Hire Plot Convicted Of Trying To Steal MILLIONS From Dead Son's Estate 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.""Former MIT Prof and Convicted Fraudster is Poster Model for Privilege and Predation"
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.Systems programmingLibrary of Congress Online CatalogueOperating SystemsLibrary of Congress Online Catalogue He also wrote business textbooks such as Business Re-engineering with Information Technology (1994) and Business & Technology: A Paradigm Shift (1993).Library of Congress On-line CatalogueDonovan Executive Seminar - About the Speaker Donovan and his son, John Jr co-authored a book titled The Second Industrial Revolution (1997).Second Industrial Revolution,Library of Congress Online CatalogueSecond Industrial Revolution Cover and Acknowledgments.
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.The Oracle e-business Executive Seminar Series Brochure, www.oracle.com 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."https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2022/06/29/john-donovan/ The Last Days of Professor Donovan 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.Investors deal disgraced former MIT prof his latest courtroom losses, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, July 9, 2020Brining v. Donovan, Casetext, January 26, 2022 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".Disgraced MIT Professor Convicted Of Trying To Steal MILLIONS
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.Listening is important, but leading is the main job The Boston Globe, January 11, 2004.Sound Bytes: Three Careers and Counting New York Times, August 21, 1994.
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.Professor Donovan's Magnificent Entanglements, Boston Magazine, July 2006 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".Ex-MIT professor indicted in fraud
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".
Civil and criminal litigation In August 2007, Donovan was found guilty of staging his own shooting.Salem News November 6, 2010 article by Julie Manganis Middlesex Superior Court Judge Kenneth Fishman was quoted as saying "Mr. Donovan's behavior . . . can be described as nothing short of bizarre and premeditated". Donovan "carefully composed the crime scene - in which a car window was shattered by a bullet and spent .22-caliber cartridges were scattered in the parking lot - to make it appear that he had been targeted for murder by his family."DA Says Former Professor Staged Attack On Himself, The Tech, May 5, 2006 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.
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.MIT professor staged his own shooting, The Guardian, August 17, 2007
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 of his children, their spouses and children (Donovan's grandchildren), and his daughter-in-law and her children (Donovan's grandchildren).Brown et al v Donovan, Sr et al. Docket Number: SUCV2003-04247
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 on to say "Have him come over and rake their leaves".IT Guru John Donovan Sentenced To Clean Up Horse Trails, Information Week, December 5, 2007
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. 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.