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.

JD, University of Chicago Law School; BA, University of Michigan

During her career in the entertainment industry, Laura was responsible for overseeing business and legal affairs for the DreamWorks SKG movie division, and was the VP of Legal Affairs for Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures. Since leaving DreamWorks, she has served on many nonprofit boards and as a guest lecturer at UCLA. She is currently the Board Chair of P.S. Arts and a member of the Board of City Year Los Angeles. She received a B.A. in Political Science and Psychology from the University of Michigan, and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School

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.

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.

MBA, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania; BA, Princeton University

Scott Lenet runs the LA office of Touchdown Ventures. He began his venture capital career in 1992 as the first associate at Geocapital Partners, a late stage venture capital firm focused on technology investments. In 2002, Scott co-founded DFJ Frontier, an early stage fund making west coast investments for the DFJ Network. Following his initial experience as a venture capitalist, he worked in product marketing for Trilogy Software in Austin, Texas, and was the co-founder & CEO of SmartFrog.com, the first cash-back rewards program for online shopping, which he sold to Cybergold. Scott co-founded Touchdown in 2014 with David Horowitz and Rich Grant, and has diverse investment interests, including media, information services, consumer products, and healthcare. He has been teaching entrepreneurship at the graduate level for 18 years, eight of those at Marshall USC.

PhD in Business History, University of Goettingen, Germany; MA in History and Business Administration, University of Goettingen, Germany

Christina Lubinski is a professor at USC’s Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and leads its entrepreneurial-history activities. A historian by training, she uses historical reasoning to study early-stage startups, entrepreneurial imagination and action over time. Christina has published in leading journals in both management (Strategic Management Journal, Organization Studies) and history (Business History Review, Business History) and is currently writing a monograph on entrepreneurship and nationalism in India. She has won the Henrietta Larson and Oxford Journals Article Prizes as well as several teaching awards.

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 and Master of Medical Management programs and is a two-time winner of the Marshall Golden Apple teaching award. Outside of USC, he has advised over 500 early stage companies through his ten-year relationship with the Small Business Administration. Steve’s clients have reported over $620 million in economic impact to the SBA, and he has been awarded the SBA’s State Star for outstanding performance.

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. Paul also teaches Growth Hacking at USC. Before USC he co-founded AcceleratorHK (Hong Kong's first startup accelerator) and was Program Director for the Laudato Si startup accelerator (run in partnership with the Vatican). He also co-founded a communication technology startup and was a hackathon winner at TechCrunch Disrupt. He wrote the book Growth Units (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GJVV8Rj) about the way businesses grow.

Information on the Incubator: https://www.marshall.usc.edu/departments/lloyd-greif-center-entrepreneurial-studies/programs/usc-marshall-greif-incubator

JD, Pennsylvania State University School of Law; BA, Georgetown University

Michael serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Association for Corporate Growth – Los Angeles, an organization representing private equity firms, investment and merchant banks, law and accounting firms, consultancies, and other related service providers across Southern California.For over a decade, Michael served as Co-founder & President of 6th Street Ventures, an early-stage investment firm based in Santa Monica. 6th Street Ventures makes equity investments across various technology sectors. Michael also founded 6th Street Investments, a debt and equity fund focused on commercial real estate.

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, New York University; MBA, University of Southern California<br>

Selina Troesch spent her early career at Barclays in New York. Her career at Barclays spanned risk management, securitized products valuation, commercial real estate valuation, and capital management. A Silicon Valley native, she left Wall Street to invest in the innovators with whom she grew up. Selina graduated Summa Cum Laude from New York University with a degree in math and economics and top of her MBA class from the University of Southern California. She earned the CFA designation in 2012. She joined Touchdown Ventures in 2014 and is now a Principal, helping corporations operate their VC programs.

BA, UCLA; JD, Harvard Law School

Ben Van de Bunt is an entrepreneur and co-owner of Cypress Creek Renewables, Paramount Equity, LoanPal, FHR, Nestidd and Rosewood Homes.  Previously, Ben worked at Guthy-Renker, serving as CEO and President for over 15 years.  Since leaving Guthy-Renker, Ben has made many venture capital and social entrepreneurial investments in start-ups and serves and served on many various boards of directors, including Houlihan Lokey, Solar City, St. Johns Hospital and the Watts Learning Center.  Ben has been married for 28 years, has two daughters and is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School.

BA, Yale University; PhD, University of Pennsylvania

A business historian by training, Dan Wadhwani’s research and teaching examines how entrepreneurial processes drive industrial and institutional change. At USC he is developing and teaching a course in entrepreneurial history. He has published in leading journals in management (Academic of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies) and business history (Business History Review, Business History), and is co-editor of Organizations in Time: History, Theory, Methods (Oxford University Press, 2014). Dan’s primary appointment is as Fletcher Jones Professor of Entrepreneurship at University of the Pacific. He holds visiting appointments at Copenhagen Business School and Kyoto University. He is also a Venture Partner at Impact Venture Capital.

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.

BS, University Southern California; EMBA, Pepperdine University

Mike West has been involved in the branded consumer product space for nearly 30 years. He founded 686 technical apparel in 1992 from a business plan as a student while enrolled in the USC Entrepreneur Program. Since then, he’s co-founded several other lifestyle business’s in the Fashion, Digital and Logistics industries including Matix, Westwell, MAEKAN and NRI Distribution which is the largest North American 3PL provider in the Action and Outdoor Market. Mike sits on the executive board of Snow Sports Industries America and is an avid Surfer, Snowboarder, Runner, Yogi and Explorer.

PhD, Stanford; MSc, London School of Economics; BA, BS, Indiana University

Pai-Ling Yin is Associate Professor of Clinical Entrepreneurship and Director of the Technology Commercialization Initiative. She co-founded the Mobile Innovation Group (research on the app ecosystem) and FitLAB Pilates. Pai-Ling was a professor of strategy at Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan and a research scholar at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Her cases and research cover technology strategy, platform competition, and innovation. Her most recent research examines gender and entrepreneurship through a data grant from LinkedIn. She currently teaches tech feasibility and commercialization and co-created a required course in the MBA program on critical thinking.

PhD, MS, Helsinki University of Technology

Helena Yli-Renko's research focuses on the growth and performance of young, technology-based firms; internationalization; new product development; and knowledge acquisition and social capital in interfirm relationships. She has published in Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Marketing, and Journal of Business Venturing, among others, and has won awards from the Academy of Management, the American Marketing Association, the Babson-Kauffman Entrepreneurship Research Conference, and the International Council for Small Business. She serves on the editorial review boards of Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management Studies, and Journal of Business Venturing. Prior to joining USC, Professor Yli-Renko worked in consulting at McKinsey and Company and as Research Fellow at London Business School. She was Co-Founder of technology start-up Perception Robotics, which was acquired by OnRobot A/S. Yli-Renko currently serves on the boards of OnRobot and Gamma Alloys.

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.

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.