MAY 12 • 2022 | 47
A
s Babson College
(Wellesley,
Massachusetts)
baseball barrels toward the
NEWMAC Conference and
NCAA Division III playoffs,
senior first baseman Josh
Yellen of Bloomfield Hills, a
former standout at Cranbrook
School, has started all 32
games and leads the team in
batting average (.346), hits
(44), runs batted in (27),
multi-hit games (11) and
multi-RBI games (8).
He also is among the team
leaders in on-base percentage
(.445) and slugging (.433) and
batted .500 (7-for-14) with
a double and two RBI while
extending his hitting streak to
nine games as the Beavers won
two of three games against
league rival MIT to maintain
their spot atop the NEWMAC
at 11-2.
A transfer student from the
College of Charleston, Josh
was attracted to Babson for
its 25-year run as the No. 1
school for entrepreneurship
as ranked by U.S. News and
World Reports and the baseball
program earning its first trip
to the Division III College
World Series in 2019. With
one year of college eligibility
remaining, he will graduate
this May with a major in
finance and is still undecided
on whether he will pursue an
MBA at Babson and continue
to play baseball. Josh is the son
of Mike and Becky Yellen.
Founded in 1919 by Roger
Babson, Babson College boasts
an undergraduate enrollment
of 2,350 students and nearly
1,000 graduate students
representing more than 80
countries. Ranked No. 1 for
Entrepreneurship by U.S. News
& World Report for nearly
three decades, Babson has
emerged as the global leader in
entrepreneurship education.
Josh Yellen of Bloomfield Hills is leading
the charge toward the playoffs.
RICK LOWENSTEIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Powering
Babson
College
Baseball
Josh
Yellen
didn’t know anyone. “I didn’t
want anyone I know to buy
them and do a mercy order,
” she
recalls. Luckily, the shop made
the purchase and became one of
Schlesinger-Wagner’s top cus-
tomers to this day.
“She really helped me build
my business,
” Schlesinger-
Wagner says of that buyer.
As Schlesinger-Wagner
continued to brainstorm late
at night, taking notes when
most people would be sleeping,
she solidified her vision for
the brand that would go on to
become a top-selling women’s
clothing line, now found at
Macy’s, QVC and more.
In 2009, skinnytees officially
launched. She bought the skin-
nytees website domain for a
mere 99 cents, thanks to a bit of
luck and encouragement from
her son, David Schlesinger, who
helps with marketing and brand
development.
Yet Schlesinger-Wagner didn’t
stop with simply selling skin-
nytees products. She enrolled
herself in film school to learn
how to present her brand on TV
,
found contractors worldwide to
partner with, and took various
business programs to become a
savvier and more well-rounded
entrepreneur.
A FAMILY BUSINESS
Now, skinnytees is a family
business. David Schlesinger
serves as head of digital brand
development, while Schlesinger-
Wagner’s daughter, Annie
Schlesinger, is head of market-
ing, creative content and project
management.
“It’s a team effort,
” Schlesinger-
Wagner says. Together, the fami-
ly continues to expand the brand
and bring it to new frontiers.
Their goal is to sell skinnytees
products in Dubai.
Yet despite her success,
Schlesinger-Wagner would never
forget the challenges she over-
came as a single woman navi-
gating a divorce. skinnytees reg-
ularly holds fundraising events
that raise money for women
with breast cancer, among other
crucial needs.
“I would always remember
others and do lots of small things
for big people,
” Schlesinger-
Wagner says. “That’s what we do,
and we do it all the time.
”
Schlesinger-Wagner also hap-
pily remarried and now resides
with her husband, Paul Wagner.
Together, they have 10 grand-
children and five great-grand-
children. While the older
grandchildren haven’t expressed
interest in the family business
just yet, Schlesinger-Wagner is
confident in its future and looks
forward to continuing the brand.
“There’s a lot of business out
there,
” she says, “and a whole
world out there.
”
Annie Schlesinger, David Schlesinger and Linda Schlesinger-Wagner
continued from page 45