Faculty

PhD, MBA, UCLA; MS, London School of Economics; BA, Harvard University

Elissa's research concerns social networks in new venturing – encompassing network development for startup resource acquisition and crowdfunding. Her work has been published in journals including Journal of Management and Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. Before joining USC, Elissa was on the faculties of Loyola Marymount University and Baruch College. Elissa has received national and university awards for excellence in research and teaching. Early in her career, Dr. Grossman worked in brand and marketing management for companies including Procter & Gamble, Sun Microsystems, and LiveCapital (a start-up acquired by Dun & Bradstreet).

PhD, NYU

Violina Rindova teaches and studies strategic innovation -- how firms create value, intangible assets, and new market opportunities through unconventional strategies across a variety of industry contexts. Her work has been published in the premier management journals and has been covered frequently in the business media, including the Economist, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. She is the recipient of multiple grants and awards, including the “Thought Leadership” award from the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management (2009), and the award for outstanding scholarly contribution from Strategic Organization (2012). She served as an Associate Editor of the Academy of Management Review and is currently part of the leadership team of the Behavioral Strategy Interest Group of the Strategic Management Society.

PhD, University of Southern California; MA, UCLA; MBA, BA, CSU

Kathleen Allen, PhD is Professor Emeritus of Entrepreneurship at the USC Marshall School of Business where she founded and led the USC Marshall Center for Technology Commercialization. She is the author of multiple books and journal articles in the fields of entrepreneurship and technology. In 2014, she was selected as Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year by the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Her personal entrepreneurial endeavors include co-founding five companies and serving as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at a major aerospace firm. She is on the board of directors of an S&P 500 company as well as several private companies.

Doctorate, MA, MS and BS all from the University of Southern California. <br>

Dr. Anthony Borquez is an expert at building and scaling creative tech businesses. He is the founder of Grab, a leader in augmented and virtual reality. He also founded Blue Label Games, an early leader in mobile game development, later acquired by Konami. Prior to Blue Label, Anthony co-founded Spacient Technologies, a location-based mobile startup acquired by Trimble.

Anthony has been teaching at USC for 20+ years. He currently teaches BAEP 465 Digital Playbook for Entrepreneurs: Creating a Tech Startup.

Anthony holds a Doctorate, MA, MS and BS all from the University of Southern California.

BS, Business Administration, University of Southern California ; JD, Pepperdine University School of Law

Garrett is a fourth-generation Trojan who began his career as a lawyer representing entrepreneurs. His first sales role was at Fastpoint Games, where he eventually ran all Sales & Business Development efforts until the company was acquired. He then helped launch & scale Bitium, an enterprise software company, where he served as Chief Revenue Officer until they were acquired by Google. Garrett joined Google & learned countless lessons about the inner workings of one of the most recognizable companies on the planet. He’s now an active startup investor & advisor, & a founder of Agency18, a firm that helps companies, build, scale, & inspire sales teams.

Colin is well known for his repeatable approach to scaling revenue, sales IQ, learner EQ and technology evangelism. He’s held senior leadership roles at emerging technology companies including SVP of Sales at Bitium (acquired by Google), Mobile Roadie (acquired by Intellectsoft), Phunware (NASDAQ: PHUNWARE), and Results.com. After Bitium was acquired by Google, Colin became the CRO at Chanje Energy, in addition to championing their DEI board. Colin also serves as a sales advisor and EIR at Techstars LA. He’s also dedicated to helping mission-centric companies transition to revenue-forward cultures while staying true to their purpose, as a founding partner of Agency18.

BA, MBA, Harvard University

Jeremy Dann has served as an innovation consultant from 2000 to the present, working with such companies as Daimler-Benz, Levi Strauss, Spalding, Lockheed Martin, Guidant and General Electric. Jeremy has collaborated closely with Harvard Business School professor and innovation authority Clayton Christensen—author of The Innovator’s Dilemma—on many research, case development and consulting projects.

PhD, University of Southern California; BA, University of California, Santa Cruz<br>

Dr. Glenn Fox is a faculty member at the University of Southern California's Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, in the Marshall School of Business. His current projects focus on neural systems for emotion regulation, high stakes training, and developing entrepreneurial mindset skills in founders and business leaders.

Glenn received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from USC, where he focused on the neural correlates of gratitude, empathy, and neuroplasticity. Currently, Glenn is the Director and Founder of the USC Found Well Initiative which aims to understand and promote entrepreneurial mindset in founders and business leaders.

PhD, University of Virginia, MBA, Harvard Business School; BA, Harvard University<br>

Susan is a business ethicist whose research focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) and the intersection of entrepreneurship and ethics. An expert on the case method, she founded the International Case Method Institute LLC and has served as a Facilitator for Harvard Business Publishing. Recently, she formed Equitas Advisory Group LLC whose mission is to advance DE&I in a broad range of organizations. Susan is the author of dozens of Harvard Business School case studies and her research has appeared in top journals such as Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, The Journal of Business Venturing, Business Ethics Quarterly and The Journal of Business Ethics.

BBA, Loyola Marymount University; MBA University of Southern California; MSBA University of Southern California

Christopher J. Harrer is a successful entrepreneur and educator with over 30 years experience in the finance, real estate, and service industries. He is an Adjunct Professor at the USC Marshall School of Business and has been teaching at the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies since 2002 and has won the student-voted Golden Apple Teaching Award. An accomplished entrepreneur in the hospitality and information management industries, Harrer was the founder of United Document Storage LLC and Pacifico’s LLC prior to successfully selling both companies.

MBA, University of Southern California; BS, CSU-Northridge

Patrick Henry's expertise is in applying theories of social networking into career and business development efforts for professionals. He received Marshall's Golden Apple Award in 2006 and 2012. He also received the Ivan C. Thompson Award for Mentoring of Students. Professor Henry was member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Corporate Growth, Los Angeles Chapter, and the President's Circle in the Town Hall of Los Angeles. He currently heads the Referral Engine Company which teaches social networking as a business development tool to professionals in organizations like Bank of America, Deloitte & Touche, White & Case, Comerica Bank and Smith Barney/Citibank.

Shane’s work in tech, media, and investing has been featured by TenOneTen’s LA Venture Podcast, Google Developers, and Forbes. Shane founded Cinematica Labs to develop mission-oriented entrepreneurial ecosystems in partnership with Pharrell Williams’ Black Ambition and others. He has led investments for Wolverine Angels and CrowdSmart’s Titan Fund to invest in startups including Neurable, Air, and Syntiant. He is an Investment Committee member for Cap Table Coalition and Investor in Residence for HBCUvc. Previously, he served as EIR for Techstars Los Angeles. Shane helped capitalize a slate 20 motion pictures generating over $250 million at the box office.​​​​

Jill was formerly at NYU’s Stern School of Business as Director of Social Entrepreneurship and the Chair for the 30-course MBA specialization in social Innovation and Impact. She is the Founding Director of the Annual Conference on Social Entrepreneurship, the largest academic conference in the field. She has published more than 100 articles in leading entrepreneurship and management journals and her bestselling book, Understanding Social Entrepreneurship has been adopted in over 80 universities. Jill is the Editor of the Social Entrepreneurship Journal and her work on entrepreneurship education has been nationally recognized by Fortune as a Top 10 Innovative Program.

MBA, BS, University of Southern California

Knapp is the Academic Director of the Master's of Science in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and an Associate Professor of Clinical Entrepreneurship in the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. His teachings encompass all facets of entrepreneurial studies including Venture Management, Feasibility Analysis, Business Planning and Launching. Knapp developed the “E”-Challenge and a new course for students involved in a family firm: Entrepreneurial Family Business. A three-time Golden Apple Award winner for outstanding teaching as voted on by the student body. Knapp is founder of Club Sportswear and Honolua Surf Co, an Action Sports Industry leader, and partner in Blue Jay Bay Ventures a real-estate investment firm.

BA, University of Virginia; MA, American Jewish University

As senior lecturer in entrepreneurship and founding executive director of the Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab, Abby has guided hundreds of start-up teams to apply user-centered design to challenges faced by individuals and families worldwide. Community foci include older adults, farmworkers in California’s Central Valley, and adults diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. Abby trains mission-based organizations on fundamentals of user-centered design and in 2018, won the Academy of Management Innovation in Entrepreneurship Pedagogy Award.

Geraldine spent 5 years at McKinsey&Company in Paris, New York and Los Angeles offices. She holds a B.S. in engineering from Ecole Polytechnique, France, and an M.B.A from Harvard Business School.

Geraldine Martin-Coppola is an experienced executive in the direct-to-consumer space. As the former COO of Tastemade, President of GOOP, and General Manager of Fabletics, she scaled some of today’s leading digitally native brands. She also has significant board and advisory experience across various consumer sectors (Spanx, Hello Sunshine), and currently sits on the board of Hum Vitamins, Arcaea, and Kodiak Cakes.

JD, MPA, University of Southern California; BA, UCLA

Steven Mednick is an expert in entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship, strategic alliances, and angel funding. He is the past Associate Director of Marshall’s Center for Global Innovation and is an author and frequent speaker in the field. Professor Mednick currently teaches in the Marshall MBA, EMBA, OMBA and MSEI programs and is a two-time winner of the Marshall Golden Apple teaching award. Outside of USC, he has advised over 600 early-stage companies through his fourteen-year relationship with the Small Business Administration. Steve’s clients have reported over $845 million in economic impact to the SBA, and he has been awarded the SBA’s State Star for outstanding performance.

JD, New York University; MBA, Harvard University; BS, New York University

Gene Miller has consulted for a variety of organizations, including the Sound Advance Systems, Rockwell Science Center, Munger, Towles and Olsen, and Akin, Gump. He has served as a Member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of the Cancer Foundation of Santa Barbara.

BA, University of Maryland; Omnicom Advanced Management Program, Babson College

Michael Napoliello is a lifelong entrepreneur who loves teaching.  The company he co-founded in his college dorm (U.S. Marketing & Promotions, www.themarketingarm.com, now part of Omnicom) is currently the leading promotional marketing agency in the country.  Napoliello is currently a movie and television producer and a founding board member at Radar Pictures, known for hit films such as “The Last Samurai,” “Spring Breakers,” “Riddick” and "Jumanji."  He is passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed.

Kinko's founder Paul Orfalea grew a single copy shop into the industry leader with 1200 branches worldwide and over 23,000 co-workers. Much of Kinko's success is grounded in Orfalea’s passion for retailing, his insistence on taking care of his co-workers and customers, and a sharp eye for opportunity. Orfalea retired in 2000 and is no longer involved with Kinko's. Orfalea has always invested in real estate, stocks and opportunities ranging from small business ventures to entire chains. Orfalea is in demand for public speaking and lectures at colleges nationwide. His family's philanthropic foundation supports early care and education in California.

MBA, Columbia University; BA, Cornell University

As Director of the USC Marshall/Greif Incubator, Paul works with businesses founded by USC students, alumni and faculty and teach Growth Hacking and Venture Initiation at USC. He has also co-founded and led startup accelerators and incubators based in Hong Kong, Rome and online.

Paul previously co-founded a communication technology startup and was a hackathon winner at TechCrunch Disrupt. He wrote a book on unit economics called Growth Units.

His other focus areas include understanding the way timing (the "Why Now" question) impacts startup success.

Carmen has an MBA from Berkeley-Haas, an MA in sports management from USF, and a BA in economics from USC.

Carmen Palafox is the Founding Partner at 2045 ventures, a pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm based in Los Angeles. Carmen is also a Partner at MiLA Capital, an early stage venture capital firm specializing in hardware. Prior to venture capital, she was Vice President at Dimensional Fund Advisors, where she scaled investment operations going from $75 Billion AUM to $300 Billion AUM.

Adjunct Professor, Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies

Rob is adept at helping entrepreneurs develop a winning strategy and craft a compelling story to attract investment, partners, employees and market share. His most recent full-time gig was as Chief Strategy Officer at Carbon, a disruptive 3D printing startup, where he orchestrated the company’s emergence from stealth at TED2015. Rob also spent 6 years as a VP at Apple, where he directed worldwide product marketing. Before Apple, Rob spent 8 years with Microsoft, most recently as GM of the TV services division. Before that, he was an executive at Ogilvy & Mather. Rob holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Duke University.

BA, Marquette University; Post Graduate Certification, Stanford University Publishing Course

Marianne Szymanski is the founder and creator of the TOY TIPS brand and publisher of toytips.com. She has talked toys on Good Morning America, Dr. Oz, and Oprah. She is the co-author of Toy Tips: A Parent's Essential Guide to Smart Toy Choices and creator of Toy Tips and Parenting Hints Magazine. Szymanski, who started her company at 23 with just a great idea, will share her knowledge of bootstrapping a business with Greif's graduate and undergraduate entrepreneurship students.

PhD, UCLA; MBA, UCLA Anderson; BA, UCLA

Hovig studies how the social conversation around new technologies impacts processes of market emergence. His research focuses on nascent and specialty contexts, where the socio-cultural meaning of markets is especially prominent.

In particular, Hovig studies the strategic categorization efforts of auto manufacturers launching into the problematic Electric Vehicle (EV) category. He also has a few ongoing studies on the impact of digital technologies on exchange in upscale handicrafts such as specialty coffee and craft whisky.

Hovig has also developed computational methods for studying large-scale emergence, including a well-cited paper with co-authors on using topic modeling to render theory.

BA, Yale University; PhD, University of Pennsylvania<br>

Dan's research and teaching examines how entrepreneurial processes drive socio-economic change. He has published in leading journals in management (AMJ, SMJ, SEJ, JMS) and business history (BHR, BH, E&S), and is co-editor of Organizations in Time: History, Theory, Methods (Oxford University Press, 2014). Dan is former chair of the AoM Management History Division and currently president-elect of the Business History Conference, the leading business history association in North America. He has received research and teaching awards, most recently the Williamson Prize which is awarded every 2-3 years to a mid-career scholar "who has made significant contributions to business history."

MBA, University of Pennsylvania; BA, SUNY at Stony Brook

Adlai Wertman is the David C. Bohnett Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at the USC Marshall School. He is the founding Director of the Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab, as well as the Academic Director of the Master of Science in Social Entrepreneurship and the Warren Bennis Scholars programs. Before USC, Adlai spent seven years as CEO of Chrysalis — an LA social enterprise devoted to helping homeless through employment. Prior to Chrysalis, Adlai spent 18 years as an investment banker. He earned his BA in economics from SUNY Stony Brook and his MBA in finance from The Wharton School.