Alex F. DeNoble is a Professor of Management and Executive Director of the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center in the College of Business at San Diego State University. He currently also serves as the Chair of the College of Business Steering Committee. Prior to his role in the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center, he served for 3 years as the Chair of the Management Department in the College of Business.

His primary areas of expertise include entrepreneurship and corporate innovation, technology commercialization and strategic management. He has conducted research in these areas and has taught related classes in the University's undergraduate, graduate and executive MBA programs. He has published articles in such journals as IEEE Transactions on Management, the Journal of Business Venturing, the Journal of High Technology Management Research, the Journal of Technology Transfer, International Marketing Review, and Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice.

His other professional activities encompass both executive training and strategic consulting. Recent assignments have included business plan development consulting for new and existing entrepreneurial firms, market research and analysis for technology-based companies and entrepreneurship training for Taiwanese, German, Russian, Japanese, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Finnish, Danish and U.S. executives. Over the past several years, he has conducted training programs or consulted with such companies as Qualcomm Inc., Siemens Corporation, Delta Electronics (Taiwan), the U.S. Russia Center for Entrepreneurship, Banco Nacional de Commercio Exterior (the National Export Bank of Mexico), NEC Electronics USA, Shell Technology Ventures, and Orincon Technologies (now a part of Lockheed Martin).

Dr. DeNoble is the recipient of several awards including the 2008 Monty Award from SDSU for Outstanding Faculty Contributions, 2004 Educator of the Year award from San Diego's T-Sector Magazine; the 2001 Gloria and Edwin Appel Award from the Price-Babson Fellows program for excellence in entrepreneurship education, and the 2000 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (in the supporter category).

He received a B.S. in Accounting from Monmouth University in 1975, a M.S. in Accounting from Virginia Tech in 1977 and a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from Virginia Tech in 1983.

Bernhard Schroeder is Director, Lavin Entrepreneurship Center Programs and oversees all of the undergraduate and graduate programs. He also has responsibility for the Center's marketing on both the SDSU campus and in the San Diego community. He is a part-time Clinical Faculty, Entrepreneurship within the College of Business Administration at San Diego State University. He teaches entrepreneurship and creativity and innovation courses.

Bernhard brings over 20 years of marketing and entrepreneurial experience both as a Senior Partner in a leading global marketing agency and as a former Chief Marketing Officer on the client side. His first book, Fail Fast or Win Big was published in 2015; his second book, Simply Brilliant will be published in September, 2016.

Since moving to San Diego in 1997, he has specialized in working with senior executives and venture capitalists in either growth or turnaround opportunities with several companies including Nicholas-Applegate, Digitaria/Mirum and Stellcom. In addition, he has received his master's degree from San Diego State University.

Prior to moving to San Diego, Bernhard was a Senior Partner in the worlds' largest integrated marketing communications agency, CKS Partners, which in 1998 had offices in over 30 countries, more than 10,000 employees and over $1 billion in revenue. Bernhard joined CKS in 1991 when the firm had only 35 employees and just $5.5 million in revenue. He opened the first out of state agency office for CKS in 1993 in Portland Oregon and, working with the other four partners, grew the firm to almost $40 million in revenue by 1995 and led CKS to a successful IPO that same year.

He has experience working with Fortune 100 firms like Apple, Nike, General Motors, American Express, Mercedes Benz, Kellogg's and others as well as start-up companies. He was involved in the initial branding and marketing launches for companies like Yahoo!, Amazon, Corbis, ESPN and Travelocity. Prior to CKS Partners, Bernhard worked with direct mail and database marketing agencies helping them grow significantly.

Beryl Pratts is currently working as the Finance and Programs Analyst for the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center. She is responsible for financial forecasting, budgeting, and program evaluation, as well as streamlining and managing financials for the Center's programs.

Prior to working at the Center, Beryl worked a variety of accounting positions with Sempra Energy, San Diego Gas and Electric and Southern California Gas Companies. Beryl has worked in financial analysis with experience in financial systems. She graduated with a degree in Business Administration, Accounting major from Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

 

Aishwarya is a graduate student at San Diego State University (SDSU) pursuing her Master’s in Computer Science. She has a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering from India. Before coming to SDSU, she worked couple of years with Persistent Systems in India as a Software Engineer.

At the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center, Aishwarya is responsible for developing and updating the Center's website, managing Salesforce account, creating Web-To-Leads web forms, migrating data to Salesforce from Excel and csv files using Apex Data Loader and enhancing website's current design and technologies. She also supports additional websites created and managed by the Center.