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.

Chairman Emeritus

Gene Sykes serves as the co-chairman of Global Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) and co-chairman of the Global Technology, Media and Telecom Group at Goldman Sachs & Co. He joined Goldman in 1984 and became a partner in 1992.

Sykes took a leave from the investment firm in 2015 to join the L.A. bid committee as CEO and oversee a lengthy and successful bid campaign that ended in 2017 with the International Olympic Committee awarding the 2028 Games to Los Angeles. He stepped down from the CEO role in December of 2018.

In addition to a board position at LA28, Sykes serves on the board of the Pacific Council on International Policy and Common Sense Media. He previously chaired the California board of trustees of The Nature Conservancy and the National Parks Conservation Association. He also has served on the board of the California Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

Sykes is a member of the Stanford University Board of Trustees and a member of the Advisory Council of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He earned an MBA from Stanford University in 1984 and bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard University in 1980.

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.

Paul Roben, Ph.D., was named Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Commercialization at UC San Diego in June 2015. Working with the Vice Chancellor for Research, Dr. Roben is transforming the functions provided by the Technology Transfer Office, Industry Research Alliances, and Industry Contracting into an integrated organization to include patenting, strategic corporate research partnering and industry contracts. He oversees the Office of Innovation and Commercialization, which will establish a campus-wide innovation platform to build a systemic and sustainable innovation culture, create a vibrant regional ecosystem, and accelerate the commercialization of UC San Diego inventions.

Previously he was Senior Director of Office Technology Development at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, working with multiple academic institutes to develop strategic processes to drive innovation alliances, and help translate their research programs into products for patients and society. He guided the formation of multiple new start-up companies and was responsible for the negotiation of a broad spectrum of technology licenses to industry.

As a key member of Ireland’s Innovation Taskforce (2009 to present), he co-authored a national economic-development plan for Ireland, among other achievements.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biotechnology, as well as his Ph.D., at Dublin City University in Ireland, and studied as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. Greg Silverman at UC San Diego.

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.

Steve Poizner has launched, grown, and sold three tech companies in Silicon Valley; managed a portfolio of a dozen start-ups as an SVP for Qualcomm; worked at the highest levels in state and federal government; and volunteered for a year as a public high school teacher.

A few of his key accomplishments include transforming the mobile phone market by inventing a way to integrate GPS into handsets thereby saving tens of thousands of lives and enabling a new multi-billion-dollar location-based services sector. While working as a White House Fellow, he helped develop a post-9/11 Homeland Security plan for the National Security Council. As the elected CA Insurance Commissioner, he modernized California’s Department of Insurance, resulting in multi-billion dollars in cost savings for consumers. Mr. Poizner was inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame in 2014.

Andy is a leader in the Southern Californian innovation ecosystem and has started, led or invested in more than two dozen tech start-ups. In addition to leading the Alliance as its Executive Director, he served on the City Council for the City of Pasadena for almost 8 years (2 years as vice mayor) and he is a founder of Innovate Pasadena (www.innovatepasadena.org), which is dedicated to advancing the Eastside of Los Angeles as a vibrant innovation center for deep tech.

Previously, as founder of Momentum Ventures, an early stage tech accelerator and venture fund, he personally led more than a half dozen SoCal tech start-ups and invested in almost a dozen others. He previously held senior executive roles (President, SVP Product, CIO, COO) at Overture Services/Yahoo!, RiverOne, Bowne & Co and RR Donnelley & Sons. He has extensive board experience in not-for-profit and community organizations such as Pacific Oaks College, Pasadena Heritage, STEAMCODERS, and currently serves on the Hollywood-Burbank Airport Authority. He has a deep track record of community service including the Pasadena Design Commission, the Pasadena Planning Commission, Pasadena Operating Company and the Burbank Airport.

He is a regular speaker at entrepreneurs’ events and business schools and was named one of the 50 Most Innovative Men in the San Gabriel Valley. Andy holds an engineering degree with honors from Dartmouth College and received his MBA with a concentration in operations and technology management from Harvard Business School.

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.

Jay is an experienced innovator with over ten years working in a variety of industries and emerging technology spaces, from medicine and aerospace to AI and blockchain. Previously, as Head of Marketing at Kinestry, an innovation studio based in Los Angeles, he led marketing strategy for innovation projects and strategic partnerships that attracted brands like Renault, Vans, Crocs, Philips, and Nike, to name a few. He’s an active contributor to the SoCal innovation community through his consulting and volunteer work with AI LA and BioscienceLA. Jay has also co-authored and contributed to six published research papers with the International Aeronautical Congress!

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.

Since being rescued by the Wilson family many moons ago, Gandalf has been dedicated to marking his territory in the SoCal innovation ecosystem. His first assignment as the Manager of Food Inspection at Rexter earned him an immediate promotion to Director of Food Consumption. Just a few years later, he pursued a career in politics as a volunteer canvasser, and once successfully winning the contentious campaign, was asked to serve as the Head of Security for Pasadena’s renowned councilman for District 7.

Currently, Gandalf is the Chief Inspiration Officer for the Alliance for SoCal Innovation where he devotes his time to keeping the Executive Director healthy with daily walks. But his most fetching contribution to the Alliance team was the obedience seminar he held only once. The entire staff has been fully trained to provide snacks before entering the office.