Diversity Fuels Innovation Showcase
April 30 2019 @ The Skirball Cultural Center
SoCal First Look Showcase 2019
June 19 2019 @ The Pasadena Conference Center
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Past Events
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Building Billion Dollar Startups: The First Annual Unicorn Quest
November 15, 2018 – CBRE Global Headquarters, Downtown LA
What does it take to grow a startup into a company worth $1B? Who are the next SoCal unicorns? The Unicorn Quest celebrates the ambition and massive successes of SoCal’s innovation ecosystem as told by the founders and investors themselves.
SoCal Innovation Showcase
May 24, 2018 – The Computer History Museum,
Mountain View, CA
Featuring a blend of world-class keynote speakers, startup success stories, early-stage research teams, and moderated panel discussions.
SoCal First Look Showcase
June 20, 2018 – The Luskin Conference Center at UCLA,
Los Angeles, CA
A showcase of the 30 best early-stage teams selected from the region’s top research institutions.
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Anthony is a software engineer at Google. Raised in Compton as a foster kid after suffering physical and sexual abuse, he taught himself how to program computers at age 8 and started his career as an INROADS intern.
Originally from the Netherlands, Arjen is a business leader, people geek, and strengths-based coach, with 12+ years of experience in leading HR strategy and people functions. As the first SVP of People for FabFitFun, a fast-growing lifestyle company based in LA, Arjen oversees the end-to-end employee experience and people operations. As a member of their senior executive team, his mission is to further develop a unique employee experience that engages people to be their best fab self as the company scales, while retaining the foundational elements that have made the company so successful. In 2018 FabFitFun earned a Timmy Award for excellence in diversity. Prior to FabFitFun, Arjen was the People and Operations Director for BCG Digital Ventures, a corporate investment and incubation firm in Manhattan Beach, overseeing the people operations for their North America region. At BCG DV Arjen helped to build their diversity initiatives, inspired by their core company value to “Seek Difference”. Previous experience includes HR roles at LG Electronics and strategic advisory roles at the Boston Consulting Group. Arjen is driven by his passion for inclusion (his number one Clifton Strength is “Includer”) and empowering everyone to contribute to the best of their abilities.
Eva is a General Partner at Fika Ventures, an early stage technology fund investing in companies that leverage the power of data as a core component of their business model. Prior to Fika, Eva was a founding GP at Susa Ventures. She is a serial entrepreneur and founder, with a company experience portfolio including Applied Semantics (AdSense), Factual, Google, Youtube and Navigating Cancer. She also serves on the board of California Community Foundation and is a founding member of All Raise, an organization committed to diversity in venture funders and founders. She was recently the Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the city of Los Angeles working with Mayor Eric Garcetti and his team. Eva holds an MBA from Cornell and a BA from Harvard.
Eva
Adam Miller is the founder and CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand (NASDAQ: CSOD). He started the company in 1999 from his one bedroom apartment to help people around the world to realize their potential. Today Cornerstone is one of the world’s largest cloud computing companies, with over 37 million users across 192 countries. Mr. Miller is also an active social entrepreneur. He is the chairman of Team Rubicon and the Cornerstone OnDemand Foundation, serves on FARE’s executive board and is a current director of IKAR in Los Angeles. He is a frequent speaker and writer on entrepreneurship, philanthropy, technology and talent management. Mr. Miller holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, a BS from its Wharton School of Business, a JD from the UCLA School of Law, an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Business, and has both CPA and Series 7 certifications.
Jamie Montgomery is a Founder and Managing Director of March Capital Partners. Prior he was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Montgomery & Co, a well-known Los Angeles-based investment bank where he advised and financed hundreds of leading technology companies over a 25 year period. He is the founder of The Montgomery Summit, an annual conference that attracts over 1,000 global entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate executives to Santa Monica. Jamie currently serves on the Board of Directors of Descartes Labs and Foghorn and is a Board Observer at Crowdstrike, Forter and Earnin. Jamie has also had two successful exits at March Capital – the IPO of RUBI and the sale of Telesign to BICS. Jamie focuses on identifying disruptive technology companies and providing capital at a critical inflection point.
Founder and Managing Partner of Strategic Law Partners, LLP and of SLP Ventures
Principal, Upfront Ventures
MIT-trained engineer, tech entrepreneur and adventurer, Krisztina “Z” Holly is the host of The Art of Manufacturing podcast and Founder & Chief Instigator of MAKE IT IN LA, a non-profit launched out of LA Mayor Garcetti’s office. Z is known for curating and hosting the first ever TEDx (TEDxUSC) in 2009 and founding two innovation centers at MIT and USC. She has an instinct for finding and amplifying undiscovered talent and ideas, whether it’s helping dozens of faculty spin out new venture-backed startups, or curating nearly a hundred different speakers whose talks have garnered 14 million views online; ten have appeared on TED.com.
Eric Hoek is an internationally recognized expert in water treatment, UCLA environmental engineering professor, founder of 6 successful water technology startups, and considered a thought leader in the water industry. He has worked on various aspects of water treatment including drinking water treatment, wastewater treatment, desalination, oil & gas produced water treatment, municipal and industrial water reuse and oil spill remediation. He has served as a consultant to municipal water authorities, water technology startups, hedge funds, venture capital funds, law firms, private research foundations, non-profit foundations, US federal, state and local agencies and foreign national research agencies. He has over 130 scientific publications, over 70 patents filed in the U.S. and internationally, and serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Nature Publishing Group journal npj Clean Water. He is a graduate of Penn State (B.S.), UCLA (M.S.), Yale University (Ph.D.) and the Executive Management program at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
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 Executive Director, he serves on the City Council for the City of Pasadena 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.
Nirav R. Shah, MD, MPH, is Senior Scholar at Stanford’s Clinical Excellence Research Center. He is a leader in patient safety and quality, innovation and digital health, and the strategies required to transition to lower-cost, patient-centered care. Board-certified in Internal Medicine, Dr. Shah is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale School of Medicine, and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Klawe became Harvey Mudd College’s fifth president in 2006. A renowned computer scientist and scholar, she is the first woman to lead the college. Klawe is a North American expert on diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics; gender and gaming; utilizing lessons from her own career in STEM industry and education. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, she was ranked 17th on Fortune’s 2014 list of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. Klawe is on the boards of the Alliance for Southern California Innovation and the nonprofits Math for America and EdReports.org. She was previously dean of engineering and professor of computer science at Princeton University and dean of science, vice president of student and academic services, and head of the computer science department at the University of British Columbia. Klawe spent eight years with IBM Research in California and two years at the University of Toronto. She received a PhD and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Alberta.
Michel Sika, Founder & Ceo, Lucid Circuit, Inc
Professor at Caltech
Chief Digital Officer and EVP, Strategy and Business Development at Warner Bros. Entertainment Group of Companies
Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Metacrine Inc.
SVP of Immersive Media, Head of Technicolor Experience Center
Head of Creative Development at Riot Games
Founder and CEO of Rocket Lab