John F. Kennedy received an honorary degree during the 2016 UMass Lowell Commencement ceremonies. Image by Tory Germann

John F. Kennedy received an honorary degree at the 2016 UMass Lowell Commencement ceremonies.

  • UMass Lowell, BS, 1970
  • UMass Amherst, MBA, 1976
  • Nova Ventures Corp. – President and Chief Financial Officer (retired)
  • January 2010, Nova Analytics owned nine operating companies with over 750 employees in eight different countries worldwide, focus on: electrochemistry, optical measurement, temperature measurement, respirometry, and viscometry.
  • On February 17, 2010 ITT Corporation announced the purchase of Nova Analytics
  • Director, Datacom Systems, Inc.
  • Director, Harvard Biocience, Inc.
  • Donor for Scholarships to both UMass Lowell and Amherst
  • UMass Lowell Kennedy College of Sciences named after John and his brother William.

John F. Kennedy is the retired President and Chief Financial Officer of Nova Ventures Corporation, the management company for Nova Analytics Corporation, a manufacturer and marketer of analytical instruments, and Nova Technologies Corporation, a manufacturer and marketer of equipment and services to water collection networks. These are companies he was a co-founder of in 2003 and 2005, respectively, with revenues in excess of $170 million for 2007. He has over 30 years of financial and technology management experience. He was formerly Sr. Vice President Operations and Chief Financial Officer of RSA Security Inc, a NASDAQ security software company. He served as the Chief Financial Officer and Vice President, Finance of déCalog NV, an international investment management software company and as Chief Financial Officer of Natural MicroSystems Corporation, a NASDAQ telecommunications hardware and software company.

Mr. Kennedy serves on the board of directors and audit committee chairman of Harvard Bioscience, Inc., a NASDAQ supplier of tools to accelerate drug discovery and was formerly on the board of directors and audit committee chairman of Net Perceptions, Inc. an internet software company where he was the audit chair.

He is a member of the advisory boards for the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst, the College of Sciences and the Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing, both at UMass Lowell.

He is a certified public accountant having worked with the Boston office of KPMG.