Faculty & Staff

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.

BA, University of Virginia; MA, American Jewish University

Abby Fifer Mandell is the Executive Director of the Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab and teaches BAEP 471 and 571, courses in which interdisciplinary teams of students use design thinking to create products for underresourced communities in California. Prior to joining USC, Abby served as the Director of Admissions of the graduate school of education at American Jewish University in Los Angeles. As a consultant for Brailsford & Dunlavey, she designed educational programs and facilities at Duke University, The University of Vermont, and Dartmouth University, among others. Abby is a Wexner Heritage Fellow and serves on the board of Question Box.

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.

PhD, University of Picardie; DEA, EHESS

Paul S. Adler is Professor of Management and Organization, of Sociology, and of Environmental Studies at the University of Southern California. He holds the Marshall Business School's Harold Quinton Chair in Business Policy. He began his education in Australia and moved to France in 1974, where he received his doctorate in Economics and Management while working as a Research Economist for the French government. He came to the USA in 1981, and before arriving at USC in 1991, he was affiliated with the Brookings Institution, Columbia University, Harvard Business School, and Stanford's School of Engineering.

PhD, MBA, University of California, Irvine

Greg Autry researches the influence of government in the emergence of new industries. His context is the New Space business: startups commercializing spaceflight. Dr. Autry served on the NASA Agency Review Team and as White House Liaison at NASA. He serves on the editorial board of the New Space Journal. His insights on entrepreneurship and space frequently appear in major international news outlets. Dr. Autry been a serial entrepreneur in video games, computer services, Internet content, enterprise applications, health care IT and material upcycling. Prior to joining the Greif Center, Dr. Autry taught entrepreneurship, strategy and economics at UC Irvine. 

PhD, UCLA; MBA, Indiana University; BS, Purdue University

Duke Bristow is an expert on corporate finance and corporate governance, particularly in the areas of private equity and director education. He has published papers in economics, engineering, and law journals, and has advised Corporate Board Member magazine and other publications on matters involving corporate governance and director education since 1998. His research and teaching has received support from the National Institutes of Health, the NASDAQ, the four largest international audit firms, and a dozen national law firms. Professor Bristow is a director of Landec Corporation (Nasdaq: LNDC) and is the Faculty Director of the USC Corporate Governance Summit.

PhD, University of Southern California; MBA, BBA, American University of Beirut

Christine El-Haddad specializes in business, corporate and global strategy and has taught courses in strategy in Marshall’s undergraduate, MBA, and MS in Social Entrepreneurship programs. She has received the Golden Apple Award for excellence in teaching twice alongside multiple other teaching awards and media mentions. Dr. El-Haddad has substantial experience in designing educational programs and conferences. She has developed executive education programs for the USC Office of Continuing Education. She has also organized and delivered two highly successful day-long Marshall conferences featuring nationally renowned speakers. As a management consultant and strategist, she has advised businesses in various industries and leading nonprofits including Habitat for Humanity.

PhD, Stanford University; MBA, American University in Cairo; BS, Cairo University

Omar El Sawy's expertise is in digital business strategy in dynamic environments and business models for digital platforms. He served as Director of Research for Marshall's Institute for Communications Technology Management from 2001-2007. He is the author of over 100 papers and a seven-time winner of the Society for Information Management's Annual Academic Paper Award - most recently in 2015. He is currently Senior Editor of MIS Quarterly and on several editorial boards. He teaches in the MBA program and received the Marshall School's Evan C. Thompson Award for Teaching and Learning Innovation in 2012. He served as advisor to the United Nations Development Programme in Egypt, and as a Fulbright scholar in Finland. In 2008, he was inducted as the 45th Fellow of the Association of Information Systems for his research contributions.

MBA, Stanford University; BA, Bucknell University

An entrepreneur and investor, Jessica’s work has focused on financial inclusion, the sharing economy, and social justice. She is best known as a cofounder of Kiva, the world's first p2p microlending website. Kiva lets internet users lend as little as $25 to individual entrepreneurs, providing affordable capital to start or expand a small business. Since its founding in October 2005 Kiva has facilitated over $1B in loans worldwide. Jessica teaches Social Entrepreneurship at the Marshall School of Business. She’s also an independent consultant on social impact initiatives, and an investor and advisor with the Collaborative Fund and SparkLabs Global Ventures.

MBA, BS, University of Southern California

Zivia Sweeney is an expert in strategic planning and budgeting, mergers and acquisitions, and accounting and finance operations for manufacturing, healthcare, service, and nonprofit organizations. She has served in senior management roles in public corporate and nonprofit arenas, and has held the of Chief Financial Officer, Vice President of Finance, and Corporate Controller. Professor Sweeney is a PriceWaterhouseCoopers alumnus. She has served for a number of years as a member of the USC Leventhal School’s Accounting Advisory Board.

MBA, University of Southern California; BA, University of St. Thomas

Therese Wilbur has 20 years of business experience from her positions at Andersen, Prudential and Mattel. She has extensive marketing experience from Mattel, where she was Senior Marketing Director of International Marketing for Girls/Barbie. Her global marketing expertise includes both B:C and B:B marketing, brand management, marketing strategy and execution, advertising, distribution, packaging and product development. She has directed and completed the entire new product development process, from opportunity identification to concept generation and selection to product development and launch.