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Donald Loewel, MBA
Strategic Planning, Lean Launchpad, Pitch Deck, Sales & Marketing, Healthcare
Don Loewel is the Director of the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Pasadena City College where he leads a team of experienced business consultants and entrepreneurs who advise business owners in areas such as: Raising Capital, Strategic Planning, legal, Sales & Marketing and Financial Analysis. Don has 20+ years of sales, marketing and management experience in the medical device and software industries, and has consulted with small and mid-market companies to build long-term growth. As a trained Lean Launchpad educator, Don has helped countless founders test the feasibility of their startup ideas so they can launch sustainable and scalable companies, and he truly has a passion for helping entrepreneurs achieve their maximum potential.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donloewel/
Annie C. Wong, Client & Program Manager
Client and Program Coordinator at the Pasadena City College SBDC
Languages: Cantonese
Annie has worked for Pasadena City College for 8+ years in varying roles across campus supporting student success and small business development. She is currently the Client and Program Coordinator for the SBDC, overseeing a broad range of responsibilities including client management, workshop development and delivery, and digital marketing. Annie is also a small business owner of two e-commerce jewelry boutiques, April & June and CeCe & Co. Her experience and struggles as an entrepreneur add to her passion for helping clients who wish to start businesses of their own as well as to support the growth of their endeavors.
Isaac Silva-Rodriguez
Client Coordinator
Language: Spanish
Isaac is a staunch advocate for economic justice, he channels his creative ingenuity into pioneering solutions and crafting captivating narratives. Isaac is usually the first person clients speak to as he handles client intake, and then assigns them to an advisor. Isaac supports 100+ clients each month, and is truly our client air traffic controller! Isaac has been working with small businesses for several years, shepherding them through their entrepreneurial journey, and connecting them with the resources that most clients have never heard of. He speaks Spanish and expands our level of service to many underserved markets.
Advisors
Craig Cappai, MBA
Food Industry Expert, Business Planning, Finance, Accounting, Budget, and QuickBooks.
Craig has over 15 years of experience in multi-location franchise restaurant ownership. He currently is a consultant professional specializing in restaurant and food service industries. He is passionate about identifying operational inefficiencies and leveraging analytical thinking to integrate new strategies, process and procedures that impact revenues and profitability. Craig has over 12 years of experience within corporate finance at Union Bank sourcing and executing commercial loans, mezzanine financing and direct private equity investments within general corporate, oil and gas, communications, media, and real estate companies. Craig holds an MBA from USC Marshall School of Business.
Adam Chapnick
Entrepreneurship, Operations, Crowd Funding, Team Building, Startups
As a founding mentor at Bixel Exchange, the LA Chamber of Commerce's no-equity accelerator, Adam served at the forefront of democratizing opportunities, ensuring that talent from underserved communities got the platform and resources they needed to succeed. Adam was one of the first employees at Indigogo and helped them scale and raise their Series B funding. He is committed to helping all companies craft compelling stories whether they are a startup, or developing product strategies, and he can help startups develop pitch decks that get companies funded.
Deborah Deras
Social Media Marketing, Content Creation, SEO, Branding, Web Design
Language: Spanish
Deborah Deras has a Master's degree in Education and Bachelor's degree in Marketing. Deborah is a business owner since 2002, providing Fortune 100 companies with peak performance corporate training, and is also an international speaker and author. She has served as a marketing consultant to various Small Business Development Centers with expertise in digital marketing with a specialty in content creation, social media strategy, YouTube, SEO, Facebook, livestreaming, podcasting, Instagram sales, and how to speak with confidence on camera. She speaks English and Spanish and has been a sought after professional speaker for over 20 years.
Sebastian De Vivo, PhD
Startups, Access to Capital
Language: Spanish
Sebastian De Vivo, PhD is the co-founder of List Ventures and Sophist Capital, both focused on inclusive access to capital for women and minority entrepreneurs. In this role, he has facilitated over $35M in debt and venture capital investments to portfolio companies. He is an advisor with the SBDC hosted by Pasadena City College and Economic Development Collaborative, where he serves historically underserved small businesses, helping them access capital. In addition, he has worked on several initiatives focused on building inclusive ecosystems nationwide. Sebastian currently serves as Board Treasurer/Secretary for the Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs of Southern California.
Richard Duarte
Access to Capital expert: Loans, LOCs, SBA Programs
Richard Duarte began his lending career over 25 years ago at Bank of America, NA where he learned the fundamentals of commercial credit for both business and real estate lending as a loan officer and relationship manager in the Los Angeles area. With over 25 years of developing lending strategies for businesses and real estate investors, he can customize the most creative and thorough finance solution for a business’s capital needs by providing the lenders with the proper Loan Structures, including Lender Matching based on the lender’s “credit box”, Loan Packaging / Applications, Pre-qualification / LOI's Underwriting Guidelines, Commitment Letters, Personal Guarantee's, Equity Solutions.”
Jeremy Evans, Esq.
Legal: Intellectual Property, Agreements & Contracts
Areas of Practice: Entertainment · Media · Sports · Advertising · Agreements · Brand Partnerships · Business · Contracts · Copyrights · Corporations · Counselor · Deal-making · Distribution · Endorsements · Film · Formation · General Counsel · Influencer · Intellectual Property · Leagues · Marketing · Music · Negotiations · Newsmaking · Producer · Production · Relationships · Sponsorships · Talent · Teams · Television · Trademarks
DeAndra Giselle
Beauty Industry Expert
DeAndra Giselle is a Beauty Pro Business Coach, Podcast Host of Life After Beauty School, Motivational Speaker, and Founder of the Glampreneur Network. She coaches hairstylist on gaining clarity in their business, increasing revenue, and creating brand awareness. She is a hairstylist by trade and brings over a decade of industry experience to her coaching sessions and courses. You can find her on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube as @deandragiselle.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deandra-giselle-1681866a
Cynthia Gomez
Strategic Planning & Operations, Healthcare, Technology, Startups
Language: Spanish
Cynthia Gomez is the CEO of Client Success Innovations, a consulting firm focused on early and mid-stage organizations. As VP of Client Management at multiple SaaS and professional services organizations, she has built customer-focused programs and strategies to drive engagement and retention. Cynthia has extensive healthcare experience where she provided operational consulting in preparation for scaling and fundraising. She has experience in B2B, B2C and Marketplace organizations which combine both.
Aleya Harris, CPCE
Marketing, Strategic Planning and Storytelling, Startups
As the founder and CEO of The Evolution Collective Inc., and a seasoned former marketing executive and Google Vendor-Partner, Aleya brings a wealth of experience to her role as a Strategic Storytelling Consultant. Aleya excels in guiding entrepreneurs, executives, and teams to create radically authentic stories, fostering memorable connections that resonate deeply within and beyond their organizations. Her unique approach leads to significant shifts, differentiating brands in the market, repairing workplace cultures, and fulfilling a higher purpose through meaningful connections.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleyaharris/
Mike Huntley, MBA
Startups, Operations, Sales & Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain Management
Mike Huntley serves as a Business Advisor to startups throughout southern California
helping them in a variety of areas including strategic planning, sales & marketing,
product development, lean enterprise & operational efficiencies. He helps businesses
move through the business life cycle from Startup to Growth to Established Business
to Expansion, and finally to Exit. Mike also has expertise in development funding
and financing, financial analysis and management, acquisition & divestiture, organizational
design and implementation, management coaching, and leadership training. He works
with both for-profit and non-profit, businesses that are typically competing in the
following sectors:
- Renewable Energy
- Aerospace
- High-Quality Components
- Automotive
- Social Services
- Urban Planning
- Manufacturing
Lawrence Johnson
Organizational Effectiveness, Strategic Planning, Accessing Capital, Food and CPG expert.
Larry is a food industry veteran and CPG expert who can help any business grow. He sees his role as a provider of human capital leadership to align the organization’s strategic priorities with the necessary people's capabilities to deliver on the organization's mission, business objectives, and desired culture. As a trusted advisor and coach to Executive leadership teams and leaders at all levels, he takes on the responsibility for optimizing all people-centered activities and will often lead significant change initiatives that impact organizational growth, strategy implementation, and cultural transformation.
Karen Li, MBA
Startups, Business Planning, GTM Strategy, Digital Marketing, Advertising, Sales &
Marketing, SEO, Social Media
Languages: Mandarin, Taiwanese
Karen Li is the CEO of Askme Social, an Asian woman-owned boutique digital marketing agency in San Marino, CA. With a successful track record of marketing for Visa, Walmart, Green Dot Corporation, and various fintech/healthcare startups, Karen brings over ten years of sales and marketing experience and an MBA from Temple University. She is passionate about helping small business owners develop sustainable business models, marketing plans, and workflows. Karen excels at listening to business pain points, understanding end users, and staying up-to-date with trends and cultural insights.
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/karenjenniferli
Lizzy Okoro
Sales & Marketing, Digital Media expert
Lizzy Okoro is an experienced founder turned consultant and speaker with a decade of experience building teams, designing strategy, events and digital marketing. As a founder, she evolved a fledgling print magazine into a media company that housed a digital platform and creative agency. As a consultant, Lizzy has worked with multinational brands and small businesses alike to execute data-driven content creation, digital marketing, brand partnerships, organizational operations and business strategy.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizzyokoro/
Xiomara Palma, PHRca
HR, HR Regulations, Employer Compliance, Leadership Coaching, Organizational Development,
Employee Management, Strategic HR Planning.
Language: Spanish
Xiomara Palma is the Founder & CEO of Solvit HR, a Human Resources Consulting firm, focused on advising/coaching entrepreneurs and their management teams, on all things employee management and organizational development. Her keen passion for helping companies thrive stems from the success stories and impact she has made in driving and achieving organizational goals throughout her 15+ years of experience. She provides small businesses with expert guidance to help them solve complex employee matters and avoid litigations. Her depth and breadth of experience spans from in-house roles to consulting engagements across multiple industries, states, and employer sizes.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xiomara-palma-0a233115
Eric Quick, MBA, MS
Entrepreneurship, Operations, Team Formation, Public Benefit Corporations
Eric is a seasoned executive who has had leadership roles with renowned companies like McDonald’s, Disney, Revolution Foods, and SOURCE Global, PBC. His commitment to fostering high-caliber teams has driven success in hyper-growth business opportunities across the food service, retail, and food technology sectors.
With experience advising over twenty start-ups, Eric's expertise spans roles as a founder, advisor, operator, and investor. His focus on Public Benefit Corporations reflects a passion for addressing societal inequalities, and tackling issues like social justice, food supply chain reinvention, and clean water accessibility.
Elianne Rodriguez
Startups, Technology, Program Development.
Language: Spanish
Elianne Rodriguez is a serial entrepreneur with 15yrs of experience in small businesses, education and tech. Elianne fosters community and designs culturally competent programming to connect diverse talent to opportunities that reflect the intersectionality of Los Angeles across racial, socioeconomic, gender, education, sexuality, and immigration status. She works with business owners to leverage technology, break glass ceilings, compete globally, and disrupt a wide range of industries including: education, healthcare, digital media, artificial intelligence, sustainability, transportation, manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, logistics, green technology, procurement, big data, software, hardware, e-commerce, internet of things, blockchain, social impact, finance and entertainment.
Molly Schmid, PhD
Life Science Startups, Fundraising, SBIR/STTR Expert
Molly B. Schmid, Ph.D. has over 30 years of experience at the interface of technology and commercialization. Her career has included significant time in both academia and biotechnology companies. Prior to joining the Pasadena SBDC, Dr. Schmid was a Senior Consultant for the Orange County-Inland Empire Small Business Technology Development Center and for UCI Beall Applied Innovation, both based at UC Irvine, where she advised companies in forming their funding strategies. She has helped nearly 400 companies in the past seven years, the majority of which were based on life science technologies. Over the past few years, she has given workshops in SBIR/STTR funding, "FDA-101", and Pitching Biotech to Investors. Dr. Schmid is a member of the Tech Coast Angels, Inland Empire network. Dr. Schmid earned her PhD in biology from the University of Utah and a degree in biology from SUNY Albany.
Colin Smith
Website Development, SEO, Analytics, Digital Marketing
Colin Smith is the CEO and founder of Terminus Agency, a veteran-owned and operated web development and SEO agency based in Pasadena, CA. With over a decade of experience in content production, design, and web development, Colin enjoys every aspect of building a professional online presence and driving profits for businesses through digital marketing. Colin has helped brands such as Google, Dell Technologies, General Mills, Rose Bowl Stadium, and NCAA college football build strategies to grow profits on the web. Colin is also a former US Navy Search and Rescue Swimmer and Operations Specialist.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinmsmith/
Alex Vasquez
Website development and SEO, WordPress expert, Digital Marketing, e-commerce, email Marketing
Alex Vasquez is a co-founder and principal at DigiSavvy where he oversees all aspects of the digital marketing and WordPress development including marketing, agency operations, and business development. With over 15 years of industry experience, Alex leads his clients through the ever-evolving landscape of digital media with a no-nonsense approach utilizing best practices and unique solutions and eschewing "shiny" and useless tools and fruitless strategies.
Lori Williams
Finance, Accounting, Budget, Forecasting,Tax, Cash Flow Management, Quickbooks and Lending expert
Lori Williams is a business consultant, speaker and writer. For over 30 years she has provided business consulting services to small and mid-size companies. Over her extensive career she has functioned in many roles including CEO, CFO, Commercial Banker and Board Member. Lori is a well-known expert on business finance. She believes entrepreneurs should have a basic understanding of their company’s finances. She is the featured writer for Start-Up Nation and other high-profile sites. Her eBooks are distributed through Amazon and ITunes. Lori holds an MBA from Pepperdine University, Enrolled Agent (Federally Authorized Tax Practitioner), BS Business and Management, an AA in Medical Science and a Practitioner’s license in NeuroLinguistic Programming.
Craig Wilson
Startups, Software, Hardware, Growth Strategies, Venture Capital
Craig Wilson is a former software engineer and product manager who has built software and hardware for startups and publicly listed companies (Microsoft). He supports founders in improving products and operations, including how to build the team for scale. Craig advises startups in preparing the C-Corp for bylaws and term sheets. He is certified in private equity and venture capital and has experience in pre- and post-acquisition, having gone through two startup exits. He attended UCLA Anderson School of Management. Craig is active in the academic community with startups at USC Min Family Challenge and MEPC, including UCLA Anderson Accelerator and the LA Founders Boost Pre-Accelerator. Craig is the COO of an IoT startup building software and hardware for mobility in Los Angeles.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilson0219/
Julie Zwissler, MSSE
Startups, Social Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Entertainment Industry expert
Julie Zwissler has over 20 years of entertainment marketing experience. During that time, she’s shared world-class stories while marketing and launching brands for CBS, Time Warner, and CJ E&M. Julie believes that all good stories are fundamentally stories of change. This is why she is now CMO of Fabric, a company that imagines a world without strangers by nurturing community and in-person interaction. Julie has her master’s degree from Pepperdine in Social Entrepreneurship and Change. Her entrepreneurial spirit, strong leadership skills, enthusiasm, and positive positive attitude drive her work every day.