The Alliance Team

Jody Foldesy is a Managing Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Los Angeles. He is the global lead for BCG’s Corporate Finance practice area and has assisted BCG clients on topics related to corporate, portfolio and growth strategy for the past 14 years. He has helped many clients understand long-term disruptive scenarios as a result of technological, regulatory and societal changes.

Jody holds B.A. in Journalism from American University and an M.B.A. with High Honors from the University of Chicago (Booth) Graduate School of Business. Previous to BCG, Jody worked as a journalist at The Washington Times. He won several awards and broke a variety of major stories while covering the city’s #1 sports beat, the Washington Redskins.

Renée LaBran is a board director, business advisor, and investor with 25+ years of executive management experience in both start-ups and major corporations, across a range of industries including technology, consumer products, and financial services.

She is also a Qualified Financial Expert with audit committee experience. Ms. LaBran currently serves on the boards of B. Riley Financial (NASDAQ: RILY), where she is a member of the audit and governance committees, Iconic Sports Acquisition Corporation (NYSE: ICNC-UN), and Idealab (the longest running technology incubator).

She is an active investor and advisor to early-stage companies (tech and consumer products), navigating new opportunities from the perspectives of both the disruptors and the disrupted. She is also an Adjunct Professor at UCLA Anderson Business School’s entrepreneurship program, and serves on the Advisory Board of Principia Growth, a late-stage growth fund.

In 2015, Ms. LaBran was appointed by Governor Brown to the California State Bar Board of Trustees (responsible for regulation of CA attorneys) and was confirmed to two terms by the State Senate as a non-attorney public member. Ms. LaBran played a key role in the restructuring and turn-around of both the board and the organization and completed her tenure in December 2020.

Ms. LaBran has been involved in the venture capital industry since 2000, initially as a founding partner of Rustic Canyon Partners (RCP), a technology focused VC fund. RCP also served as the launching pad for RC/Fontis, a growth stage fund focused on consumer products and business services.

Prior to venture capital, Ms. LaBran held a variety of executive management positions at the Los Angeles Times and was a management consultant with Monitor Company US and Europe, working on corporate strategy projects for Fortune 500 companies.

Ms. LaBran is an honors graduate of Harvard Business School and received her BA in Economics from UC Berkeley where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Errol Arkilic is Chief Innovation Officer and Executive Director of University of California, Irvine Beall Applied Innovation. At UCI, he leads campus-wide commercialization activity, helping researchers turn knowledge into products and services that impact society.

Prior to his role at UCI, he was founder and CEO of M34 Capital. M34 is a private investment company that focuses on seed and early-stage projects being spun out of academic research labs.

He currently sits on three boards: Growcentia, Inc. NeuroTrainer, Inc. and Ellis Day Skin Science, Inc.

Previously, Errol was the founding and lead program director for the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps program (I-Corps). He led the I-Corps effort from its inception until July 2013. Prior to this, he was the lead software and services Program Director for the NSF SBIR program.

Errol was also founder and CEO of StrataGent Lifesciences (Acquired by Corium International: CORI) and Manager of Product Engineering at Redwood Microsystems.

He has a Ph.D. in Aero/Astro Engineering from MIT.

Nima’s journey into the world of startups began during his time at engineering school. Since then, he has been at the forefront of developing breakthrough technologies in robotics (at Miso Robotics), autonomous mobility (Zoox), 3D printing (MakerBot), and virtual reality (Survios), gaining deep expertise in cutting-edge innovation and the complexities of scaling venture-backed companies. As a Senior Associate at the Alliance for SoCal Innovation, Nima is spearheading the organization’s focus on deep tech, as well as sourcing and evaluating high-potential startups for investment through the Catalyst Venture Fund. Co-organizing Southern California’s inaugural Deep Tech Week – a milestone event for the region’s startup ecosystem – showcased his commitment to advancing innovation. Nima earned his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from The Cooper Union in New York City, combining technical excellence with a passion for entrepreneurship.

Jeremy Mueller is a Venture Outreach Associate at the Alliance for Southern California Innovation, connecting venture-ready founders with the Alliance’s expansive venture network. His work supports entrepreneurs in securing funding and resources, fostering growth in Southern California’s startup ecosystem. Originally from Italy, Jeremy holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a master’s in organic chemistry combining his scientific expertise with a passion for innovation. During his studies, he competed as a Division 1 tennis player and later coached collegiate teams, combining athletic discipline with academic and professional pursuits.

Dan is an experienced church planter and social entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of working in churches, social enterprises and civic engagement in the area of homelessness.

Dan served for 10 years as the Senior Pastor of Rose City Church in Pasadena, CA; a historic Free Methodist Church he reopened in 2011. Out of his church he founded a non-profit and continues to serve as the Executive Director of Coffee with a Cause (CWAC) which is a barista training program for homeless and transitional-aged youth.

In 2017, Dan led a team to open Rosebud Coffee as a local cafe in the city of Pasadena to hire the youth trained by CWAC. As a social enterprise cafe, Rosebud seeks to help the emancipated youth of our city flourish while also providing space to incubate small businesses including Car Chocolate and Wild Parrot Brewing.

Dan enjoys collaborating with local businesses, civic departments, faith communities and non-profits who share the same goal of economic development, ending homelessness and improving the lives of local neighbors. Dan believes that with such partnerships, communities stay healthy and thrive.

Dan received his Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School in 2007. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry at United Theological Seminary with a focus on church economics and property redevelopment. He resides in Arcadia, CA with his wife and three children.

Eric is a seasoned economic development professional with experience spanning the private sector, federal and municipal government, and academia. He currently serves as the Managing Director at the Alliance for Southern California Innovation where he leads the Alliance’s Capital Access programs with VCs and founders as well as innovation community building efforts with startup communities, local government, and community partners.

Before joining the Alliance, Eric grew the Government Relations team at startup electric scooter rental company Bird and expanded operations domestically and internationally. Previously, Eric served as Director of International Trade for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. In this role, Eric worked to increase international business activity, facilitate the import and export of goods, and attract investment to Los Angeles. Eric also served in the U.S. federal government as an Advisor for Strategic Partnerships at the U.S. Department of State, where he collaborated with U.S.-based entrepreneurs, firms, and universities with interests in South and Central Asia. In a prior role, Eric represented the U.S. Small Business Administration with the startup community and improved the overall performance of a $2.6 billion federal program that funds early stage technology companies.

Eric holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan, where his research focused on innovation ecosystems, industrial policy, and globalization.

Katie caught the start-up bug in 1998 when she and three attorneys founded an Intellectual Property law firm. After the little-law-firm-that-could was sold to the second largest firm in Indianapolis, she went on to help launch Gazelle TechVentures, the first tech-focused venture capital firm in Indiana. Katie not only supported the VC firm itself but took on whatever role was necessary to stoke its portfolio companies as well. The latter task led her to Burbank to fill a variety of roles for UNX, an online brokerage later acquired by Mantara. From there, she moved on to Momentum Venture Management (MVM), a venture fund/accelerator for early stage companies in Southern California, where she became an expert on both the pitfalls and the keys to success for start-ups. After MVM, Katie went on to help launch Rexter, a relationship management software and, most recently, served as interim COO (and later Head of HR and Admin) for Virtualitics, a VR data visualization and analysis platform.

Katie majored in Developmental Psychology at Purdue University/IUPUI with a minor in Business Management.

Steve Gilison has over 20 years of hands on experience building, growing and managing tech and media businesses. Steve has held leadership positions in several startups as well as large corporations, most recently at Internet Brands, Inc. where he was the General Manager for a portfolio of web-based Health and Careers businesses targeting the SMB sector. Steve began his career in online advertising and then transitioned to market research and consulting for Jupiter Research (acquired by Forrester Research) and then at Deloitte’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications practice. Steve holds a B.A. from the University of Maryland and received his MBA with a concentration in entrepreneurship and technology management from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Sue often describes her career as having a front row seat to the information revolution. Her work has spanned from the early days of information storage & retrieval systems and paid search to cybersecurity and marketing automation. She has enjoyed product leadership roles at many leading Internet companies including Infoseek, Walt Disney Internet Group, Overture, Yahoo!, EarthLink and J2 Global (now Consensus). She spearheaded several market development initiatives for early-stage start-up companies such as Quiver, Guru.com, FastSoft and Rexter. She also revitalized the sales enablement and training programs for Guidance Software’s EnCase product lines. Since then, Sue has held several independent consulting engagements to help companies improve their data operations, brand positioning and customer on-boarding processes.

At the Alliance, Sue focuses on building the Superconnector database to help the team keep track of the vast number of relationships and introductions we are spearheading to make the SoCal region a vibrant innovation community. Good data allows the Alliance Team to become an effective listening post for for business opportunities in the region.

Sue earned her Executive MBA from the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. She also holds a B.A. in History from the University of Connecticut and a Master of Library Studies from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Based in sunny Santa Monica, CA, Ozzie is our beloved labradoodle who leads with boundless energy and charm. When he’s not enthusiastically greeting driveway visitors from his window seat (tail wagging in full force), you’ll find him enjoying a run with his human dad or serenading the household with his soulful piano sing-alongs. His prized collection of stuffed frog toys is a testament to his playful spirit, and he never misses a chance to share his joy with everyone around him. As Interim Chief Inspiration Officer, Ozzie embodies attentiveness, positivity, and a visionary outlook that uplifts the entire team.