Alliance Programs Overview

Rita has a diverse range of work experience in event production and marketing. Rita holds an Honors Bachelor of Commerce degree in Marketing from the University of Windsor.

Lindsay Bourgeois is Director for BioLabs at the Lundquist Institute. Lindsay expertise is in the areas of research and development, bench laboratory operations management, and biotech market share development.

Bill Carpou is the current chief executive officer of OCTANe and a partner in Visionary Ventures. Prior to joining OCTANe as CEO, Mr. Carpou was the Managing Partner for TheGreyGroup which he founded and focused on revenue growth and operational improvement for early-stage companies.

Stephen Cheung is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) and its subsidiary, the World Trade Center Los Angeles (WTCLA). Stephen brings LAEDC together to promote equitable economic growth across the Los Angeles region. Stephen is a graduate of UCLA holds a BS and MSW.

Stacy Cumberbatch, Founder and Managing Director of Blended Impact, leads strategy and partnerships with cities, nonprofits, and project sponsors to reduce barriers to economic development in middle and lower-income communities with a focus on emerging innovation ecosystems. Stacy has an BA from University of Georgia and a Masters of Science from USC Marshall School of Business.

Stephan Erkelens founded RevHubOC in 2019 and serves as the full-time president and CEO. RevHub, the first social enterprise incubator in Orange County, has been selected to assist in developing and operating CABI, OC’s first climate action business incubator. Stephan is focused on utilizing organizations like CABI to shape the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Orange County, setting the precedent for California.

Dan Gober leads Biocom California’s partnering, programming and benefits efforts and helps raise awareness of the region’s resources, innovations and accomplishments. Dan holds a B.A. in economics from California State University Long Beach.  

Nick Griffin, Executive Director at Downtown Center Business Improvement District (DCBID), spearheads DCBID’s marketing, economic development and strategic initiatives, to attract companies, retailers, investors and residents to Downtown Los Angeles. Nick is a graduate of UCLA and has an MBA from Ohio State University.

Carlos is Chief Strategy Officer at Larta Institute, a Los Angeles-based mission-oriented nonprofit that advises & mentors emerging technology-based founders, startups, and institutions (public and private) developing solutions that Feed, Fuel, and Heal the world. Carlos received his bachelor’s degree from Cal State University, Northridge, and has an M.B.A. from the USC Marshall School of Business.

Jenny Cornuelle Krusoe is Executive Vice President and COO of AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles, California. She is a graduate of Harvard University and completed a fellowship in nonprofit management at the Stanford University School of Business

Miji McConnell is Executive Director and Co-founder at DTi. Miji received her BS at the US Air Force Academy and her Masters at Central Michigan University.

Mark Percy serves as CEO and President and is on the Board of Directors of CEO Leadership Alliance Orange County. Mark received his BA from Stanford University, MBA from Yale University.

John Rossant founded the NewCities Foundation. He believes it is imperative that different stakeholders work together to improve the quality of life and work in 21st century global cities. John holds advanced degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the American University in Cairo.

Calvin Selth leads AnnenbergTech, an initiative of the Annenberg Foundation that focuses on increasing access and opportunity for underrepresented Angelenos in LA’s tech and innovation sectors. We provide funding and operating support for PledgeLA, a collective of 215+ companies and VC firms committed to measurably advancing diversity, equity, and community engagement.

Vivian Shimoyama, Chairperson at Long Beach Accelerator, leads the board in its mission to accelerate early-stage startups with seed funding, mentorship and exit strategy. Vivian is a recognized expert on growing small businesses and leads two ventures — Growth Small Business and Scale Smarter Partners, LLC, these firms accelerate business growth through guided tools that allow companies to thrive.

As Director of the TTO, Tommy Martindale is responsible for the protection and commercialization of technologies developed at SDSU. Tommy supports the TTO by evaluating the patentability and market potential for faculty inventions, managing the protection of faculty-developed intellectual property, and commercializing SDSU technologies through licensing. Tommy is a member of the State Bar of California and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He also contributes to the teaching team of the NSF-funded CSU Biological Sciences I-Corps site, training researchers how to move their research-based innovations out of the lab and into the marketplace. Further, Tommy is the immediate past president of the San Diego Innovation Council.

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.

Sherylle Mills Englander, Director of UCSB’ Office of Technology & Industry Alliances (TIA), works closely with UCSB’s industry partners, as well as its startup companies and the local startup ecosystem. She is the founding director of TIA. Englander holds a JD from UC Berkeley’s School of Law, and a B.M. from the University of Rochester.

Fred Farina is Caltech’s Chief Innovation and Corporate Partnerships Officer. His responsibilities include commercializing inventions made at Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL/NASA) through the creation of new startup ventures and partnerships with established companies.

Rosibel Ochoa is Associate Vice Chancellor for Technology Partnerships at UCR. She has helped secure more than $21 Million to support and grow entrepreneurial and innovation programs in Inland Southern California. She was named Female Entrepreneurial Leader of the Year by the ACEEU in 2023.

Paul Roben, Ph.D., was named Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Commercialization at UC San Diego in June 2015. 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.

Mark Wisniewski is the Senior Director of Biopharmaceuticals.  He is responsible for the life science and biopharma intellectual property developed at UCLA, including managing licensing and marketing staff, financial management of the portfolio and outreach to inventors and industry. 

Richard Sudek and his team built UCI Beall Applied Innovation as a central hub for the UCI campus and Orange County community to connect. During his semi-retirement, Sudek plans to dedicate a sizeable portion of his time to helping under-resourced and underrepresented entrepreneurs be successful as well as coach entrepreneurs one-on-one.

Chell A. Roberts, PhD, is the founding dean of the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering at the University of San Diego. Before joining USD, Dr. Roberts served as the executive dean of the College of Technology and Innovation at Arizona State University, where he was responsible for designing innovative curricular programs.

Julie brings a creative and compassionate approach to early-stage technology investing. She is the voice of “what if?” in the Entrada board room and can see the opportunity side of everything. Julie has been a part of the leadership team of several successful technology companies, and she has been very impactful in product roles at eToys, Rent.com, and IAC, where she was head of product for Evite. Prior to Entrada, Julie was head of product for the Demand Media division that drove the company’s successful IPO. Julie earned her business degree from Cal Poly and continues to give back to her alma mater.

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.

Iván is currently an investor, advisor and board member with a focus on Business to Business, Data and AI-driven SaaS businesses in Climate, Marketing, and Education technology spaces.

He was previously a Strategic Advisor at Yahoo, following four years as Chief Business Officer where he led the businesses representing most of its global revenue and importantly, turned it around and successfully exited it to Apollo Global for $5 billion.

Immediately before Yahoo, Iván was a special advisor to the CEO & Board of Directors of comscore, where he led a significant turnaround rekindling innovation, operational scale and growth. Previously, Iván was GM of Neustar’s Marketing Services business, after its $450M acquisition of MarketShare where he was COO and early management team member. At MarketShare he grew the business and built the technology globally, increasing its valuation 15x leading to two exits. Prior to that, Iván held various senior strategic and operational roles in his first run at Yahoo after joining it via its acquisition of Overture. He started his career in Argentina working in various talent, sales & marketing roles at Procter & Gamble.

He serves on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for SoCal Innovation, a non-profit organization that supports the growth and development of Southern California’s innovation ecosystem, as well as the Board of the Center for Impact at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Krisztina Holly (AKA ‘Z’) is an MIT-trained engineer and serial tech entrepreneur who has been scouting, connecting and investing in early stage deep tech innovators for nearly two decades. She is an Operating Partner for Good Growth Capital and Founder and CEO of At Large and Dangerous LLC. She’s best known as curator of the first-ever TEDx and the founder of pioneering centers at MIT and USC, which invested more than $5M in early stage ideas and launched 39 venture-backed startups from university research. Z has deep technical roots and extensive operating experience (Stylus Innovation, Direct Hit, Jeeves Solutions) and has been advisor and board member to two dozen organizations globally, including the Obama Administration and World Economic Forum. When she’s not scouting undiscovered innovators, you’ll find her writing, exploring the southland by small airplane, skiing the eastern sierra backcountry, and building temporary airports in the desert. She lives and adventures from her home base of Los Angeles.

David’s practice specializes in developing and enforcing IP portfolios on behalf of cutting edge technology companies and leading research universities including Caltech, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Stanford, and UCLA.

David advises clients on a range of patent, copyright, trademark, and Internet related issues with an emphasis on: automatic speech recognition, computational imaging, computer architecture design, digital communication, digital signal processing, distributed computing and “big data” analysis, image and video processing, information theory, machine learning data sets, machine vision, natural language processing, perceptual computing, robotics, software engineering.

David has extensive experience in guiding KPPB’s clients through diligence processes associated with fundraising, acquisition and successful IPO. Among David’s current “portfolio” of clients are companies in the portfolios of Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, the Facebook Fund, Globespan Capital Partners, Google Ventures, Granite Venture Partners, InnoCal Venture Capital, Intel Capital, InterWest Partners, In-Q-Tel, Oak Investment Partners, Momentum Venture Management, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Red Rock Ventures, Rincon Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Silicon Valley Bank.

David’s practice also involves deep engagement with the copyright system, and he has a specific expertise in the enforcement and registration of software, machine learning data sets and databases, and in negotiating industry standards-based licenses. David also represents the Los Angeles Philharmonic on a pro bono basis with respect to intellectual property matters.

PRACTICE AREAS

Copyright
IP Due Diligence
Licensing & Terms Of Use
Litigation
Patent Protection
Trademark Protection
Trade Secrets
University Tech Transfer
VC Counseling

EDUCATION

The University of Melbourne, Bachelor of Electrical (Computer) Engineering (Honors)
The University of Melbourne, Bachelor of Laws (Honors)

BAR ADMISSIONS

California State Bar
New York State Bar
United States Patent and Trademark Office

Kris is an audit partner with over 30 years of experience in public accounting and consulting. He has extensive industry experience throughout the technology sector—
software, interactive gaming, semiconductor, telecommunications, and biotech—as well as manufacturing, distribution, and venture capital and private equity. Kris has served a wide range of companies, from privately held emerging growth companies (EGCs) to publicly traded multinationals with revenues exceeding $1 billion. He has guided these companies through various matters, including raising private equity capital, executing IPOs and carve-out transactions, structuring mergers and acquisitions, ensuring FCPA compliance, and conducting financial audits and SEC compliance.

Before joining HCVT, Kris was a Partner at BDO and previously at Deloitte. At Deloitte, he led Los Angeles office initiatives focused on technology industry clients, including EGCs. Kris also chaired the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Awards program and led CFO forums and IPO seminars for several years. As an accomplished public speaker, he has addressed audiences at IPO seminars and business conferences, including the CSQ 2016 LA Visionaries Summit. Kris was also a member of Deloitte’s Middle Market Group, focusing on small-to-medium-sized businesses with significant growth potential. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Southern California.

Pat’s journey in the world of tech startups began during the explosive dot com boom, where her founding team saw an incredible 2,900-times return on their exit. Over the last two decades, she has managed a family office portfolio of real estate, private equity, private credits, alternative investments and venture funds. Pat has invested in many startup companies, her investment thesis is sector agnostic focusing on companies that are able to innovate to solve the pain points of the world. Pat is also a partner of Heedfirst Ventures, a partnership that invests in early-stage companies.

Pat builds from a mechanical engineering background and, in her early career, she managed several space and satellite programs. Joining Tech Coast Angels in 2016, she’s been integral in the startup scene, as a connector, advisor, competition judge, panelist, and executive committee member. She is the incoming president of Tech Coast Angels Orange County in 2024 and on the venture committee of Alliance for SoCal Innovation.

Beyond her professional pursuits, Pat is deeply committed to giving back to her community. She’s involved in multiple charities and serves on the foundation board of two Providence hospitals, channeling her energy into making a positive impact.

Pat finds joy in traveling and playing poker, having explored 43 countries and counting. Through her hobbies, she cultivates her relationships with business peers including founders and board members of the various companies she invests in.

A long-time southern California resident, Pat earned her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Southern California.

Jeff Bocan is a Partner at Okapi Venture Capital, an early stage VC fund based in Newport Beach, CA. Jeff is an 20+ year veteran venture capitalist and executive in the technology industry. Jeff serves on the board for 11 of Okapi’s investments including: Trellis Research, Chargezoom, Occuspace, TrackStreet, Daasity, WeGive, Network Perception, WhiteFox Defense and Nimble for Good, amongst others.

Prior to joining Okapi, Jeff served on the executive team for 3+ years of one of his portfolio companies as the Senior Vice President of Mophie, helping drive revenues to $250+M and a successful exit to ZAGG (NASDAQ: ZAGG). Prior to joining Mophie, Jeff was a venture capitalist for 13+ years, last serving as a Managing Director at Beringea where he sourced, led, or managed the investments for 35 of Beringea’s portfolio companies and served on 22 boards including: Mophie, eSpotting, MergerMarket, Steak Digital, Sakti3, amongst others. Jeff has also been an active angel investor with several successful exits, with the most notable as one of two angels in Duo Security (acquired by Cisco for $2.4 Billion).

Jeff earned undergraduate and MBA degrees from University of Notre Dame and the University of Virginia, respectively. He & his wife have four kids.

JC Ruffalo is a Venture Fund Partner at The Cove Fund, a dynamic Seed Stage Venture Fund that is instrumental in fostering the growth of promising new ventures across Southern California. With a robust background in Venture Capital, JC has actively championed community engagement, serving as a mentor and advisor to numerous aspiring entrepreneurs and startups in the region. His efforts have been instrumental in nurturing a culture of innovation and collaboration within the local startup and business community. Known for his meticulous due diligence process concerning emerging Tech and MedTech innovations, JC adeptly translates their business value into compelling investor presentations and lucrative funding opportunities.

Drawing on his previous role as the Director of the LaunchPad accelerator program at Octane OC, JC’s strategic, well-organized, and aggressively entrepreneurial approach has led to remarkable results. Under his guidance, numerous Southern California companies secured over $2 billion in funding and facilitated M&A deals worth $2.6 billion, resulting in the creation of over ten thousand high-paying technology jobs. Notable success stories under his leadership include renowned companies such as Hyperice, Bonti, EV Connect, AtaCor Medical, and Enevate.

Embraced as a vibrant, young entrepreneur with a fervor for innovation, JC co-founded three startups before joining Octane. He firmly believes in the transformative power of fostering enduring relationships between entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors, which forms the cornerstone of successful venture partnerships.

JC graduated from Chapman University Argyros School of Business in 2011, where he earned a degree in Business Administration with a specialization in Entrepreneurship and Finance, along with a Minor in Economics.

Josh is a seasoned entrepreneur and experienced investor who enjoys backing talented teams and innovative ideas with the capital and support to realize their full potential. Currently, Josh is Co-Founder & General Partner at OpenSky Ventures, an LA based early-stage VC with a mission to fund the most disruptive new startups in the future of commerce. He also manages a personal portfolio of 50+ companies in Consumer, Food & Bev and Commerce Tools through his family office, Pure Imagination Brands.

Previously, Josh was a two-time successful founder. In 2012, he launched Sugarfina, a luxury confections brand that was named to Fast Company’s “World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies” and “World’s 10 Most Innovative Retailers”. In 1998, he co-founded iconic video game developer, Pandemic Studios, which sold to Electronic Arts for $860m.

Josh has been named to Fast company’s “100 Most Creative People”, Goldman Sachs’ “100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs”, and dot.LA’s Top LA Angels. He is a panel judge for Wharton’s Venture Lab, a Venture Advisor with the Alliance for Southern California Innovation and serves as an advisor to more than a dozen start-ups.

Josh earned a BA with Honors in International Relations at Pomona College, and an MBA at the Wharton School of Finance.

Yash Chopra is a partner at Plassa Capital, an LA-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments across the global crypto ecosystem. Previously, he held investing roles at early stage and growth stage firms such as Morpheus Ventures, Cobalt Capital, and Evolution Media. He started his career at Creative Artists Agency.

He holds a Masters in Business Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from the Olin Business School at Washington University of St. Louis.

Mike Panesis is the Steven Dorfman Professor of Practice and Executive Director of the Steven Dorfman Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Cal Lutheran. He teaches innovation and entrepreneurship in Cal Lutheran’s undergraduate, MBA and Executive MBA in Europe programs. He also organizes Cal Lutheran’s New Venture Competition.

Mike is a startup community leader in the Conejo Valley and Ventura County, to the north of Los Angeles. He leads the operation of Hub101, Cal Lutheran’s community coworking space, and is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship and early-stage investing.

Mike advises startups on funding, operations, and business model strategies. An experienced angel investor, Mike is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Governors of Tech Coast Angels (TCA) and was a founding member of the Santa Barbara Angel Alliance. He sits on the Boards of Elite Robotics, Sensor Industries and the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company.

Mike has an MBA Marketing from Rutgers University and a BS in Computer Science for Business from the DeVry Institute of Technology. He lives in Camarillo.

A serial cofounder and startup adviser with two decades of experience working in the trenches with early-stage founders. His fractal career spans a diverse set of industries, including health-tech, clean-tech, and transit-tech, and many market-facing and operational roles. He’s “the COO who’s mistaken for the CMO.” — Scott is an active mentor and educator in the startup community. His focus is helping founders to think strategically about their markets and to recognize and prevent common startup failure modes. — He has an MBA in ‘market strategy’ from UCLA Anderson, a BS in Computer & Biomedical Engineering from UW-Madison, and a background in the arts. He’s an avid sailor and bicyclist and has too many books.