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.

Kathleen Allen - Director, Marshall Center for Technology Commercialization, University of Southern California
Zareh Baghdasarian - Entrepreneur in Residence with USC Stevens, California Technology Ventures
Richard A. Barry - Co-founder, Sycamore Networks, Inc.
Jim Blair (Chater Member) - General Partner, Domain Associates
Thomas Buchanan, M.D. - Professor of Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Physiology and Biophysics; Vice Dean of Research Keck School of Medicine, USC
Stephen Bumb - Director, XRay Vascular Business Unit, Toshiba America Medical Systems
David Carter - Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, Amplify.LA
Marisa Co - President, National Research Institute
Jerry Cohen - Principal/Cofounder, Opteris
Rajendra Deshpande - Senior Director, Emerging Technologies, Corporate Office of Science and Technology, Johnson & Johnson
Shahin Farshchi, Ph.D. - Principal, Lux Capital
Marshall Fordyce - Director of Clinical Research, Gilead Sciences, Inc.
Barbara Seymour Giordano - Executive Communication Coach
Douglass Given - Investment Partner, Bay City Capital
Ellen Goldberg - Entrepreneur in Residence at USC Stevens, Founder and President, CHORD Consulting
Paul Grand - Managing Director, Research Corporation Technologies
Richard Hull - Founder and CEO, The Metaphase Group, Inc
Nagraj Kashyap - Vice President & Head, Qualcomm Ventures
Ken Klein (Charter Member) - President, Wind River
Douglas C. Lane - Founder, Experigen Management Company
David Lane (Charter Member) - General Partner/Information Technology, ONSET
Scott Lenet - Managing Director, DFJ Frontier
Christopher A. Marlett - Co-Founder – Chairman and CEO, MDB Capital Group
Neel Master - Former Vice President of Strategy, Petra Solar
Christine Matheson - Co-Director, USC Coulter Translational Partnership, SC CTSI
Isabel Maxwell MA (Oxon) - President, Maxwell-Communications Network
Steven Mednick - Graduate Coordinator, Assistant Professor of Clinical Entrepreneurship, USC Marshall School of Business
Roberto Medrano - Executive Vice President, SOA Software
KT Moortgat - Past Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures
Mike Partsch - Entrepreneur in Residence at USC Stevens, Founder, AcceleMed Management, Inc.
Janice Partyka - Contributing Editor, GPS World
Neela Patel, Ph.D. - Director, Global External Research, Abbott Laboratories
Armando Pauker - General Partner, Apex Venture Partners
Lars Perkins - Entrepreneur
Joe Platnick - General Partner, Pan-Pacific Capital Ltd.
Linda Pullan, Ph.D. - Business Development Consultant, Pullan Consulting
Andy Rappaport (Charter Member) - Partner, August Capital
Babak Razi - Managing General Partner, Third Wave Ventures
Michael Reilly - CEO, Co-Founder, 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 , Technology Transfer, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Jeff Solomon - Co-Founder & Executive Director, Amplify.LA
Avi D. Spier - Ph.D., Director of Business Development, The Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF)
Risa Stack - Investment Partner , Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Mark Stevens (Charter Member) - Managing Partner, S:Cubed Capital, Special Limited Partner, Sequoia Capital
Amy Wang - Managing Director, Investment Banking, MDB Capital Group 
Dan Landry - Managing Director for MDB Capital Group
Jesse Albert - Producer & consultant in film, television and digital media
Brian Varnum - Vice President of Product Development at C3 Jian
Judy Rosenbloom - President of JR Associates
Patrick Vlaskovits - Author of "The Lean Entrepreneur" and "The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development"
Brant Cooper - Author of "The Lean Entrepreneur" and "The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development"