In 1994, at the end of her first year at Tuck, Deb Kemper was considering running for student council president, but it felt like a risk. She vividly recalls a classmate sitting her down and saying, So what? So what if you lose?

“There was a sense at Tuck that it was OK to take some risks, and that was formative,” says Kemper. “I had to be willing to take a risk to run for that role, and when I got it, it gave me a chance to start thinking about how I wanted to be as a leader—how to actually manage different groups and opinions—and it gave me practice.”

At Tuck, Kemper developed a collaborative leadership style that propelled her into roles as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, founding organizer for TEDxShanghaiWomen, and more than a dozen board positions. Now, Kemper supports others in taking risks as the managing director of the Boston Forum of Golden Seeds, a national network of angel investors that funds early-stage companies with women as leaders.

“I live by this motto: be the change you want to see in the world,” says Kemper, who says that Golden Seeds’ mission to support women-led businesses was a natural fit. “For me the successes are the ways I’ve helped entrepreneurs grow their businesses, like making introductions that lead to a new contract or revenue, and part of that is my Tuck network.” Kemper still makes a point of keeping in touch with classmates.

“To me, Tuck was never viewed as a place where you were competitive with your peers. There’s something unique about Tuck that way. I still have a lot of classmates and folks from a couple years around me who I feel like I can call up to get advice. It felt like a collaborative place—and it still feels that way now.”