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Ideas Empowered Program

Ideas Empowered Program includes volunteer mentors that are considered seasoned members of the corporate, financial, and entrepreneurial community. Membership to the mentoring team is limited by invitation only. Mentors are selected based on their ability to contribute to the mission of the program through their experience in coaching academic innovators, creating new high-impact ventures, and for their enthusiasm for the Ideas Empowered Program.

Mentors are central to achieving the Ideas Empowered Program’s mission; they participate in the proposal review and interview process and when matched with a team, maintain regular contact with their mentees, spending at least four hours a month in one-on-one contact. This includes in-person contact, phone calls, e-mail, and project activities.


2011 MENTORS & COLLABORATORS

Kathleen Allen - Director, Marshall Center for Technology Commercialization
University of Southern California

Vacit Arat
- President and CEO of Microfabrica
Rick Barry - Co-founder Sycamor Networks
Gordon Binder - Founder and Managing Director, Coastview Capital
James Blair - General Partner, Domain Associates (Charter Member)
Paul Bricault - Venture Partner Greycroft
Roberta Diaz Brinton Ph.D. - Director at the Center for Scientific Translation for Los Angeles Basin Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSI)
Thomas Buchanan - M.D., USC Keck School of Medicine
Stephen Bumb - Director of X-Ray and Vascular Labs Business at Toshiba Medical
David Carter - Entrepreneur and investor
Marisa Co
- Independent Biotechnology Consultant
Shahin Farshchi, Ph.D. - Senior Associate at Lux Capital
Barbara Seymour Giordano
- Executive Communication Coach
Nathalie Gosset, M.S., MBA - Head of Business Development at Alfred E. Mann Institute of Biomedical Engineering at USC
Dan Gould - Founder of Namesake
Paul Grand - Managing Director RCT BioVentures
Mike Gresser - Chief Scientific Officer Myelin Repair Foundation
Partyka Janice - Mobile Industry Consultant (Writer GPS World Magazine)
Wendie Johnston - Pasadena Bioscience Collaborative
Ken Klein - President Wind River (Charter member)
David Lane - General Partner at ONSET (Charter member)
Douglas C. Lane - President of Experigen Management Company
Jonathan G. Lasch, Ph.D. - Executive Director at Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering, USC
Russ Lebovitz - DFJ Mercury Ventures / Marval Biosciences
Scott Lenet - Managing Director, DFJ Frontier
Alexander Maleki - New Ventures IdeaLab
Christine Matheson - Co-Director, Coulter Translational Partnership
University of Southern California
Isabel Maxwell MA (Oxon) - President of Blue World Alliance
Roberto Medrano - Executive Vice President at SOA Software
Steven Mednick - Graduate Coordinator, Assistant Professor of Clinical Entrepreneurship, University of Southern California – USC Marshall School of Business
Brian Mesic - General Partner at Anthem Venture Partners
KT Moortgat - Partner Mohr Davidow
Ananth Natarajan - Founder Infinite Biomedical Technologies
Neela Patel, Ph.D. - Director, Global External Research at Abbott Laboratories
Janice Partyka - Contributing Editor, GPS World
Lars Perkins - Entrepreneur, Co-founder of Picasa
Joe Platnick - Venture Partner at iGlobe Treasury Management Ltd.
Linda Pullan, Ph.D. - Business Development Consultant at Pullan Consulting
Andy Rappaport - Partner at August Capital (Charter member)
Michael Reilly - CEO-Co-Founder of Western States Biopharmaceuticals
Frances Richmond - Professor and Director, Regulatory Science Program
Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Economics & Policy at the University of Southern California
Jessica Rousset - Director of the Office of Technology Transfer at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Javier San Martin - Bone Metabolism Research and Drug Development Consultant
Kevin Scanlon - Founder International BioScience
James Schaeffer, Ph.D. - Executive Director of Merck Research Laboratories
Avi D. Spier, Ph.D. - Director of Business Development at The Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF)
Mark Stevens - General partner at Sequoia Capital (Charter member)
Ahmed Tezel - Vice President, Product Development Allergan Inc.
Tom Tsao, Ph.D. - President of Umachines
Jim Twerdahl - Managing Director - James S. Twerdahl & Associates
Brian Varnum - Chief Scientific Officer of Tarrot

Questions

For more information,
please email:
IdeasEmpoweredProgram
@stevens.usc.edu

Or, contact:

Juan Felipe Vallejo
jvallejo@usc.edu

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