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

